Changing Your New Dog's Name

You just brought your new dog home! Yay!! You love him - his personality, looks - but not his name. But don't worry - this is a very common situation, especially when adopting older dogs.  A dog of any age can learn a completely different name within days.  If you want to change you new dog's name, follow these easy steps and before you know it, Fluffy will respond to Rover.

• Decide on a new name for your pet.  It can be totally dissimilar, anything will work. But, once you start training your dog with that name, there's no going back.  Changing a dog's name once is easy, but twice is another story.
• While you are spending time with your new pooch, carry a few training treats with you - Not those crazy unhealthy jumbo-peanut-chicken-pork-chunky-chewy-yummy-bones!  Use small ones, that can fit easily in your pocket.  Chances are, you'll be feeding your pup many of them in the next few days, and you don't want to have to give him one of those big beauties every time he does something good.
• Call out the new name to your dog, and then smile and give him lots of praise, along with a training treat. Do this even if he barely blinks at the new name.

Once you do this enough, he will begin to learn that hearing this word means a treat and praise, and will respond to it.  Soon, he will recognize the name as his own!