What competitive sport will you be doing? Ours is Snowie - after Tin Tin's Snowie, my husband is a fan. He's white, although I think my husband would've called him Snowie even if he had been black! I discovered that the kids in our local park responded very well to the name - it psychologically fooled them into thinking this Lab was a small fluffy dog and they weren't afraid of him. It was very helpful!
Hi and welcome from me and 4 year old red girl, Harley. What type of competing are you going to follow? We do agility and love it.
I have a gorgeous black girl, Nelly. I loved the name before I got her and I like names beginning with 'N' and she is such a 'nelly', very cheeky and mischievous. We call her 'nelly belly' all the time- don't know why lol!!
Yep, definitely to consider! I also like two syllables so it doesn't get confused with one syllable commands. Also good for expressing tone: for example, with Brogan it was "Brogue" when I was pleased, "Brogan" when I was neutral and "BRO....GAN" when I was miffed. And maybe this only applies to people like @snowbunny and me and others who are anglophones in a non-anglophone country, but now I realise how important the "international stick test" is. I never realised until I moved to Europe with Brogan how much "Brogan" sounds like "Broken" to non-native speakers of English. If people didn't speak any English it was no problem, but if they spoke any English at all,I'd usually get a mild chewing out about how mean I was to name my dog "Broken". Yet another reason we needed to visit Ireland at least once a year - no one batted an eye at the name.
I'm good with Luna (obviously, as it's a Spanish word), but when I'm asked for Willow and Shadow's names, I call them "Wheel-oh" and "Shad-oh" (where "oh" is the short "o" sound from "cough"). The Spanish always seem to know about the film Willow (even though it's a million years old) but I get blank looks with Shadow. I do wish I had the guts to call a dog "taxi". I think that's hysterical
Boy howdy do I know that look. "Brogan" also often landed like a lead balloon and got blank/confused looks. I always knew his true fans as they could actually remember his name on the 2nd/3rd/4th meeting. Even if it did come out sounding more like "Bo-ga". He didn't care, he'd answer to anything if it came with a friendly face. In fact, he got called "Che bello caniglione" ("what a handsome big dog") so many times in Italy, that I think he was convinced it was his name.
Wow so many replies! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you all, this site is not very easy to use. I think we're going to go with the name Willow. I want to compete in obedience with her.
I met a girl at training classes with my 1st lab BJ when our dogs were pups. Her boy was called Owan - pronounced Owen. It was because the breeder called him the one without a name before they chose him. They had given names to all the others.
We live in Wales and our neighbours have a dog with the Welsh name Hwyel (after the ancient King Hwyel the Good). I think that's the best name ever because of course it is pronounced "howl". Perfect.
When I was yo-yoing about whether to have a puppy from my friends bitch who is just lovely and called Tia Maria, my son asked me what I'd call her if I got one, and I just came out with "Cassie", and that was it, the puppy was coming! I'd been helping with a Cassis testing session that day, and it just seemed to fit. She has one sister called Sherry and another called Bailey! @Raych&gang , very exciting times for you, I look forward to following your progress.
Murphy. He was just simply a Murphy! He is a chocolate lab with beautiful auburn tints when in sunlight. I know, he looks black in the pic, what can I say, not much of a photographer!
I went to see little Willow last night. She is a rolley polley sausage. There were five pups to choose from, this was my third visit and each time i was drawn to her. Well once i'd finished eliminating it was between her and her sister. Then my heart took over. She'll be joining us on the 22nd.
