My dog’s name is Bailey. We’ve always said, if we ever get her a companion, it’ll have to be named Barnum.
Bailey’s other names are Bail-bail, Boo-boo, Boo, Bozo, Bozo-Bailey, Boze, Fatdog, and Ol’BailFatdogBaby. If she finds this horribly confusing, she’s never let on as she answers to any of them. Probably because we’ve constantly used them in conjunction with each other.
This thread is a riot, and especially this post. Why? We recently got a lab and my suggestion for a name (overruled by the wife and kid) was Aquaman. Picture the possibilities:
“Aquaman, stop drinking from the toilet!”
“Aquaman, quit humping Uncle Dave’s leg!”
“Aquaman chewed up my slippers.”
Man, that would have been great. Just picture your neighbors’ faces as you yelled out the back door, “Aquaman! Aquaman! Get in here right now! Good boy, Aquaman!” I don’t think I ever would have gotten tired of it.
Ardred’s old dog Sydney was a RottenLab (Rottweiler/Black Lab) and had big floppy ears. He would hold her ears out like wings and say “BAT DOG NANANANANANANA BAT DOG” and she’d bark crazily.
Batdog isn’t so bad.
As for discipline, just don’t use “bad” use another word like NO or something silly like MILK because they can’t understand a word you’re saying. As long as your tone and the word stays consistent you won’t have a problem. Though, saying “MILK, batdog!” will make you look crazy to the neighbors.
Optihut, I’m not offended, and I do see your point - it would be confusing, though I was under the impression that a lot of animals react to tone rather than syllables, but perhaps dogs are more perceptive.
However, I wasn’t recommending this as a course of action - merely remarking on the human propensity to give nicknames to individuals. E.g. when my cousin was born, she was given the name Rita because, as my uncle said at the time, “you can’t make a nickname out of it”. Within a year they were calling her ‘Ritaroo’.
You think yelling for a dog named Batman would be embarrassing? I had to yell it across the video store to my kid the other day. I didn’t think it would get to me, but I must admit I was a tad red-faced.
Lucky for you, I hyperventilate at the very mention of physical activity. I would challenge you to a battle of wits if I weren’t so formidably outclassed.
You win this time CandidGamera… but we shall meet again!
[Inset Evil Laughter Here]
Glad you decided on Batman. Excellent Dog Name!! And don’t worry about the neighbors when you call the dog - I’ve been yelling “Eightball” when I want Dog2U to come in - I yell Eightball because that’s her name - and they’ve pretty much stopped staring.
supervenusfreak tried to name our relatively new cat “Frankenpussy”, after a Margaret Cho routine. To say that I balked, and balked hard, is an understatement. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was NOT going to be wandering the neighborhood yelling “Frankenpussy!” if she ever got out of the house.
So he named her “Princess Chocolate Pudd’n” instead. I hate that one, too, btw. It’s so…12-year-old girl…
We’re not letting supervenusfreak name any more pets.
Really now jjimm I have to feed this little guy Every-Single-Day! For Years!!! Do you fully understand what you’ve done to me? Day after day, year after year, Decades! (I hope) I now have to sing Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Batman!
That’s sort of what my dad did when one of my sisters wanted to name our adopted (female) Husky mix “Starsky”. Dad wouldn’t hear of it and we ended up with a “Star”.