Dogs and names

[Amber]

So this has kind of been bouncing around in my head tonight. Forgive me if these are stupid questions; who knows, maybe I'll wake up in the morning and be like "Duh!" But anyway, I was wondering how hard it would be for a dog to adjust to a new name after years of its old name. I know lots of previously-owned rescue dogs do it all the time, but if I were to start calling Junior a new name tomorrow, would that blow his mind?

Which leads me to my other question..do dogs actually associate their names with themselves, or are their names just another word for "come"? I mean, the latter seems like a more realistic explanation to me, but I also realize that when I call Junior's name, sometimes he'll just turn to look at me, instead of coming to me (and he has a 110% perfect recall, so I know he's not blowing me off). That makes me think that he understands the word "Junior" is just to get his attention. But so is the word "HEY", or whatever, right?

But, to keep arguing with myself, I've heard people talk about how their dogs get excited when they hear certain people's names. Like, my cousin's dog would get so excited when he heard his best-doggie-friend's name. What would that be an example of? Is the dog just associating that word (the other dog's name) with the other dog? But wouldn't that be essentially what humans do with our concept of names? We just associate a certain word with a certain person?

Can anyone clear my thoughts? Do dogs 'get' names, or are they just commands?

 

[mrose_s]

I think the name is just an association. Quinn associates Quinn with her, she also knows every other animal and person in the house's name but its just her association of that word with that animal.
Naming is a human concept.

 

[AliciaD]

I think the name is just an association. Quinn associates Quinn with her, she also knows every other animal and person in the house's name but its just her association of that word with that animal.
Naming is a human concept.

I agree. I also think it's like if your dog gets excited every time you say "walk". I ask Cameron, "wanna go for walk?" and she gets all excited. It's not a command in that sense because she's not being asked or trained to perform something on this cue, but she's learned that when certain words are said, certain things happen.

Other common associations are...
Dinner
Vet (this one is a interesting, I have heard of dogs that know the word and freak!)
Park
I should be able to think of more, maybe I'm too tired...

 

[Saeleofu]

I think the name is just an association. Quinn associates Quinn with her, she also knows every other animal and person in the house's name but its just her association of that word with that animal.
Naming is a human concept.

I think that's a pretty good explanation. My dogs definitely know their names, and don't get confused with each other's names - when I feed them in the same area (when they're not crated) I put one bowl down and say "Logan" and even if Gavroche is standing next to me, he'll leave it alone and Logan will come eat. If I put down a bowl of food and say "Gavroche" than Gavroche will eat and Logan will leave it alone.

Dogs can associate names with toys. I figure their association with their own name would be similar to that - just another word to tell things apart.

I went from calling Gavroche "Ralph" to calling him "Gavroche" and he was 100% fine. He was called Ralph for about 3 or 4 weeks before I renamed him. Who knows what, if anything, his name was before then.

 

[mrose_s]

I think with names particularily, tone comes into a lot. "Quinn!" can mean come here, stop doing that, be a release word or look at me.

Quinn amazes me how well she pics up on words, she even knows the horses names individually and if you call to them she'll run to somewhere where she can see them to watch.

 

[Teal]

I agree that dogs associate words with certain things, and the names of themselves, other dogs, people, etc. are just relative associations.

I've never had a problem with changing the name of a dog... I've contemplated doing it every year, just for a change of pace... but I haven't put it into action yet lol

 

[milos_mommy]

Dogs do just associate names with themselves, and with other animals/people...but really, that's all a name is. I guess people make other associations with names (a name they like, an "old" name, a "hippy" name, celebrity names, whatever) or think about their concept of self in association with their name, but essentially it's the same as a dog understands it...that word means YOU and it should draw your attention.

I think it would only take a dog a few days to learn a new name, even in the same home with the same people. It might make them a little unsettled to not hear their current name for a while, but once they caught on they'd get over it.

 

[Aleron]

IME dogs learn new names very quickly and easily

 

[sassafras]

I think the name is just an association. Quinn associates Quinn with her, she also knows every other animal and person in the house's name but its just her association of that word with that animal.
Naming is a human concept.

But even to people there's not much more to a name than that, really, they're all just words. If everyone started calling me "beanbag" tomorrow instead of ever using my name again, I'd probably eventually start responding to beanbag.

 

[CharlieDog]

LOL Sass. Ahem. I mean beanbag.

It was already said on this thread, but yeah, dogs just learn their names by association. Enzo came to me named Taylor Kina. And she was named that for the first 9 months of her life. Now when you call her that you don't even get a look. It doesn't mean anything to her anymore.

If I say "where's Ozzy?" She starts getting excited, because of my tone of voice usually. I don't think she'd really respond if I said it in a normal tone with no inflections.


I don't think they associate it with their sense of self. I don't think we ever learn their true names anyway

 

[SaraB]

I know these arn't dogs but it still seemed relevant to me:

Cornell Chronicle: Parrots give 'names' to their nestlings

 

[AliciaD]

But even to people there's not much more to a name than that, really, they're all just words. If everyone started calling me "beanbag" tomorrow instead of ever using my name again, I'd probably eventually start responding to beanbag.

Oh jeez. Whenever my brother says "Hey, Dummy!" I answer, >_>