Once a month Dog Behaviour Consultant and Trainer, Kathy Kopellis McLeod, joins me during my morning radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM to talk about dog behaviour and answer questions from listeners.
We had a great time today. We took a slight detour from our regular chats and talked about the extra names we give our dogs. We weren’t talking about their real names, we were talking about the nick names that our dogs seem to gather.
After a while we widened the scope and started throwing in a few cat nick names.
Dylan rang up to tell us that his dog, Nev, gets called everything from Bubby to Poop and lots more in between.
We had several other people call in and talk to us about the names their four legged friends have acquired. The segment was a lot of fun with some very amusing ‘pet names’ for dogs and cats of all shapes and sizes.
I even told a few stories about how I’d named a couple of my pets. One was named after a fictional character created by comedian Grahame Bond, and another was named after one of the guys from the band GangGajang. Have a listen to the audio to hear the details.
What are some of the pet names that you’ve used for your pets? Are there any that you find to embarrassing to use when others are around? How did you come up with your pet’s real names and nick names?
If you want to have a few laughs, just click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.
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I drive a train, and see the same cats in the same places over and over. So, I have named them mostly for the cross streets near the tracks:
Coto,
Wagner
Eli (near Yale)
Cindy (in a cinder block yard)
Wes (West street)
Larry (St. Lawrence)
Nicce (Also near St. Lawrence, but since Larry is taken, Nicce is named for the Nicene Creed, written by St. Lawrence)
Henry
Perry
Cam (Campbell)
Woody
We used to call one of the black dog (don’t know what bred but local Malaysia dog) “Blackie”. Our elderly grandma who did not know much about English called the dog “Becky” and when my brother took home his Australian bride home, she told wow, a Chinese family dog named “Becky”
:):).
Have a blessed weekend.
Jamy
Choo Choo, I love those names. There are a few cats that I see regularly on my cycle commute. I think I need to start finding names for them.
Great story, Jamy. I wonder how many pets have been renamed due to someone mishearing their real name.
Our dog’s real name was ‘kelli rhiannon jane boardman’. Usually she was only called Kelli, but it often depended on what she was doing (or not doing!) At the time
our family is known for it’s strange Pet names: a budgie named blinky bill, a canary named flaps the platypus, a fish named edward and a few cats: pantaloons, fat cat, lucky. Lucky doesn’t like me, so he gets called yucky 
often mum runs through all the Pet’s names before getting to ours, so i’ve been called Kelli more than once!
Paula, I think you’ve opened up a brand new topic. “What parents call their children.”
I wonder how many of us have been called our pets’ names or the names of our brothers or sisters before our parents have finally remembered ‘which one we are’.
Or they resort to the fail-safe of ‘you over there’
!