Confused About Name

[jcbobo]

Maybe we messed up here by naming our puppy "Bo"...it sounds an awful lot like "No". Of course we use a different tone of voice between the two words but I'm wondering if this is confusing our puppy. We are trying to use different words besides no.

Second issue: As soon as we got home with our new puppy, "Bo Bo" started coming out of our mouths. Will Bo get that he is both Bo and Bo Bo, and not have this confused with No?

Our 8 wk old poor puppy is probably completely confused...and I'm starting to feel a little bad about it.

 

[joannaryan]

If you feel as though there might be confusion between the two words, it's not to late to change his name if you choose to. By the time they go through the training process he will he will probably be called more names than the one you have chosen for him anyways....just kidding. It's really not to late though, Toby is 8 1/2 months old now and he has more nick names than my kids do. The more you use their name they will soon adapt to it. Good luck

 

[Gatorblu]

Congrats on the new furbaby! I had read an article awhile back about when you choose a name you should try not to choose one that sounded like "no". It said that it could confuse a puppy. I suppose there is some validity to it especially when they are little, but as they grow they will learn the difference. My dogs know "eat" means food and even tho' I use similar sounding words throughout the day (meet, meat, seat, heat), "eat" always gets their attention.

You could try changing his name or try a substitute for "no", such as eh-eh, or a sound like a wrong answer buzzer from a game show.

As for nicknames... the list goes on for almost all our pups! My boy Thor for example hardly ever is called that. Mostly it is Bub, Bubby, Bubbalicious, Bubala, Snuggle Bubby, and before he lost his extra weight TubbyBubby. He will answer to any and all. Arabella's list is equally as long. However she is mostly called Bella or Brat.

 

[jsbalsiger]

I would first ask is it you that thinks there is confusion or does the dog seem confused? We as the "Higher" species many times don't give our pups the credit they deserve. I think that if you really watch your pups reaction to commands you give, you will see that they can decipher the difference between "n" "g" and "b". The vowel sound at the end merely gives the proper volume control. That is why when choosing a name for an animal that you may need to recall from a distance there should be a vowel sound at the end.
Our last Boxer CoCo learned the difference very quickly between "Go" and "No" and would not respond to similar words such as "row" or "so". If you are really concerned change your commands to German. The plus for that is that other people can't tell your dog what to do. In all seriousness though I think that command words have a lot to do with the inflection you use.

 

[jfra]

I dont think its too late to change his name, We adopted Ty after a year old and changed his name. Cant remember what it was, but he wasnt affected at all. took very little time for him to get used to it.

 

[pbowles]

We named our Boxer Boaz and have always called him Bo or Bo Bo, he seems to know the difference between Bo and No. Maybe it is the tone of our voices or maybe he can understand the pronunciation difference. I don't know, but we have never had a problem with him mis-understanding the difference. Hope this helps

 

[jcbobo]

He is learning his name. He responds much better to BoBo but we still call him Bo as well and he's slowly getting it. I do think the tone of voice has a lot to do with it and we try not to say his name when he's doing something bad. We don't ever use Bo and No together. He's getting it.