The Ultimate 2025 Dog Name Guide

Whenever you're teaching your dog something new, it's important to start in a quiet and calm environment. This will ensure your dog is focused on you and not by other, more exciting things. Also, ensure both you and your dog are feeling relaxed, as this will create a calming environment where you and your dog can both concentrate on the task at hand.

Since your dog doesn't know their name yet, calling it out randomly at them won't do much, or it will devalue the importance of their name if you say it too much. 

Instead, try waiting until your dog looks at you and reward that behaviour with a training or high-value treat. Continue this, and your dog will soon learn that focusing on you or "checking in" will be rewarded. 

If your dog or puppy isn't that interested in you, try making a sound they don't know (nothing loud or scary; keep this experience positive for them) and rewarding them when they look at you. Repeat this and continue to reward your dog for their attention on you. 

Once your dog is reliably checking in with or looking at you, you can introduce their name. 

Try calling your dog's name and, if they respond, gently throw or roll a treat for them to retrieve. As soon as they finish the treat, call their name again and, if they look at you, reward them again in the same way. 

Repeat this reward technique a few times, changing where and when you throw the treat. This will ensure your dog's attention is on you when you call their name as they'll be despereate to know where the treat is going next. Doing this makes training into a game which can help keep your dog concentrating on the task at hand. 

Once your dog is reliably answering to their name, it's time to up the ante by bringing in distractions. You can do this by training your dog outside in the garden, during walks, or by adding distractions (such as new smells, sounds or visuals) into the space such as turning on the TV. 

Try calling your dog's name and rewarding them immediately for their attention. You may need to use a high-value treat for this to make sure your dog knows it's in their best interest to focus on you, and not other distractions. 

It may take some time for your dog to focus on you and not the new and exciting distractions available to them. Just repeat the earlier steps and reward their good behaviour until they're responding to their name consistently. 

Even the most intelligent dogs need time to learn new things, so be patient and do not punish your dog or raise your voice if it does not respond to you. You may be moving too fast for them, so go back a step or two and try again. 

If your dog is struggling, don't keep saying its name. Its name needs to be a unique cue for it to focus on you, and over-repeating it can confuse it or devalue the cue. If your dog is getting confused or ignoring you, try being more animated or excited, but not so much that it confuses or worries your dog. 

Be patient and always reward your dog when it looks at you (even if it's just with some fuss). They'll soon learn that focusing on you is a good thing! 

Absolutely! As we’ve mentioned, dogs don’t understand English, but they do recognise sounds, especially those they hear often and associate with good experiences.

If you have a nickname in mind, you can teach them to recognise it in the same way you teach them their name, which we've outlined above. Or your dog might pick up responding to a new nickname if they hear it enough and associate it with focusing on you.   

As for choosing a nickname, the possibilities are endless. You may just want to shorten your dog’s name (Archibald ⇒ Archie), or the nicknames might evolve over time. For example, below is Barbara, one of our team's dogs. Over time, Barbara has gained a number of nicknames she will respond to, including Babs, Baba Ganoush, and even Babushka, so the only limit really is your imaginiation.

Yes! Many rescue dogs come with names already assigned, either from another owner or the rescue itself if they didn't already have one. However, if you already have a name in mind for your new dog, or you don’t like the one they already have, you can take steps to change it. 

Our best advice for this is to choose a name that sounds similar to the existing name so your dog picks it up quicker (for example, changing a dog named Lucky to Loki). 

Or, if you want a specific name, you can work with "transition names" or nicknames that sound like their existing name. This way, you can still get your dog to look at you, even if the name you're using isn't their exact name. Then, once they respond to the nickname or transitional name, you can alter the name again until they respond to the name you want.

This may mean having multiple "transitional" names. For example, Oreo can become Romero, which can then become Romeo. The key is matching the sounds more than the actual word, so get creative! 

Make sure you're rewarding your dog for responding to their new names, and they'll pick it up in no time!