I currently have a 5 yr old lab I adopted at 8 months old, so he came "pre-named".

We're getting another lab pup in June, and my wife and 3 daughters all have various ideas on dog names, most originating from Disney movies of some sort. Ugh.

I'm trying to think up good hunting dog names, as I'm the one who will be training and working with the dog, and I'll be actually saying the dog's name the most, lol. The dog won't be hunting waterfowl, as I'm just not a duck hunter, but will be doing some upland hunting.

If it wasn't used so often, I'd be all about Jaeger, but it seems like there are a lot of hunting dogs named Jaeger, Remington, Winchester, Ruger, etc.

So...looking for unique/interesting hunting dog name ideas. It'll be a male yellow lab, from a dark yellow mother and fox red male. It will be either the typical yellow lab color or darker, possibly fully fox red (think Irish Setter color, if you've never seen one). Just sorta depends on how the genes played out.

Thanks!

Names are always fun.

We named our Cocker "Brindamour", but we call her Brindie.


The spastic Fox/JRT rescue hyena/dingo was called Maddox, but now he just gets called "Mad dog"

I was always in favor of 2 syllable names, with a hard seperation in the middle, because I found dogs with those types of names always responded better to their name at a distance (we did a lot of coon hunting when I was younger)

That said, I always wanted one named "Boo Yah"

Rigby

A couple of my favs are: Scout and Ranger for a bird dog.

In naming a hunting dog, the important thing is choosing a name that is easy to scream and does not sound like some other command. 5 letters max, 3 is better and end in a hard consonant k, t, g, etc. Zak, Jet, Jack are all good. Sue will work in a pinch. Snookems or Puddles doesn't work.

I like German words for names!

Good Point.

I hunted grouse one day up here with a guy who had a runoff English Setter named "Lovely Lady" (his wife named her)

She bolted as soon as the leash was slipped and we spent the next two hours "lost dog hunting" instead of grouse hunting.

I will never forget that morning going through the woods with that guy plaintively wailing "Lovely Lady" , etc , etc endlessly.

I would get the puppy and let it name itself. It just takes a bit of time, but the right name will appear that matches his personality.

You also need to think of what kind of personality you most desire in him because you will subconsciously mold him into that where possible. A name should represent both who the dog is, and what you want him to be.

For example, no one expects the same behavior out of a dog named "President" compared to one named "Joker." Your training will mold him into one or the other. You will subconsciously reward/punish him into his name. So it is best if his name matches his inborn strengths that you enjoy.

My current dog is named "Sprite." She isn't named "Steady." If she were, I would not enjoy her antics as much. As it is, her name fits her personality, it's a good name for calling her, and I'm always happy when she's acting out her inborn personality.

Buck, Yardly, Sam, Max, Bo, Mack, Ruger, Kimber, Chester, Browning, Tracker, Smokey, Hike, Magnum, Killer, SOB, Shreader, Jake, Gunner, Ranger, Dakota, Moe, Jack, Rambo, Goose, Echo, Tango, Bravo, Sierra, Vic, Zeus, Appolo, Nightrider, Kitt, Kipp, Karl, Marx, Stalin, Sam, River, Elam, Nicholas, Miguel, Kane, Corky, Biscuits, Elvis

magnum
champ
duke
captain

I prefer 1 syllable names for my hunting dogs.
I'm quicker with them and they seems to respond quicker, too.

Nitro, Purdey, Westley, buckshot, gunner, Sig, trigger... or maybe name him after your favorite drink or beer.

Guinness, Foster, Pabst, Busch, Dragon, Hacker, Moose.

Tequila, Gimlet, Joker, Mojito, Blinker.

Or maybe after your favorite ammo: Olin, Jamison, Cor-bon, Norma, Lapua, Nosler, Ramshot, Varget.

Maybe after your favorite cartridge: Lott, Ackley, Swift, Ribgy.

How about your favorite author: Boddington, Massad, Cooper, Elmer, Skeeter, O'conner, Capstick.

Or maybe a favorite movie character. We used to breed and raise border collies. If the the client spoke for a pup before we had to send the registration papers in, we would let them name the dog. If not, they all received names from characters in John Wayne movies: Duke, Chance, Maggie, Quirt, Jake.

Maybe your favorite movie character. Josey, Cisco, Hopalong, Quigly, Hannibal.

Or maybe your favorite city: Nash(ville), Vegas, Berlin, Dublin, Cork, Reno.

With a little imagination you could name your dog with an "original" that most people wont have already used.

Good luck !

I prefer one syllable and absolutely no more than 2. That whole yelling/screaming the name discussion above. We ended up with Hank.

Never could understand the yelling/screaming at bird dogs. seems to be popular though.....

I am used to working with various breeds of herding dogs, I don't know if the work they are bred for makes the difference or not ( they are basically meant to "hunt" pretty close and in conjunction with your efforts and not 'freelance') but I've worked with some big, 'hard' dogs, and they didn't require me to raise my voice.

Also FWIW, studies indicate the thing in a given word or command that a dog pays the most attention to, is the first syllable. Kinda like the old Gary Larson Cartoon. I could call my dog Rommel by saying " Herr Field Marshall Erwin Rommel" and all he would basically hear is "Rom"...

The old "blah blah blah GINGER, blah blah blah blah, GINGER cartoon?

Interesting you had the dog take on that one.

I had a girlfriend named Ginger. That's why I remember it.

Thats the cartoon!


Was Ginger like that too?

guage

The e-collar ends the screaming.

finnly or finn

Have to agree with that.

My 5 yr old lab is e-collar trained. If he doesn't come when I call the first two times, he will be hoofin' it by the third time I call.

And honestly, I haven't had to issue a "correction" to him since I can't remember when. Warnings are enough 99% of the time.

A mechanic buddy had a black lab named "Diesel", it fit him well. He was a super dog.

Somebody already said my suggestion- wait until you get the dog and let a name pop up. I've done that with all but two of the pups I've bought and they all seem to have worked out well. Just remember, the call name and the registered name do not have to be the same so if you are under any time constraints regarding registering the pup, you can send in one name for the papers and another one for in the field.

One can also do this with an older dog if you don't like its call name. Switch to the new name as if a puppy and he will quickly catch on. I've done that on many older dogs when their name did not fit their personality. Or when the call name was not appropriate for public use.

The best lab, in my opinion, that I have ever had in my kennel was named "Dane" Beautiful chocolate lab that had everything that a true hunting lab is supposed to have.

Interesting; I read somewhere (some sporting dog magazine) that all dog names should be short, monosyllablic, and end in an "a" or "o" as to not be confused with commands.
I don't know if it's true or not, but I've followed that axiom for the past 30 years or so.

I named my first dog (American Water spaniel) "Nitro", short for "Swan Lakes Remington Nitro magnum".......However, he (and all my other dogs since) seem to think that their first name is "Dammit".
You didn't state whether your next dog was male or female...

Hows about: Turbo, Dymo, or Nitro?

My current Labrador (female) is named "Ziva" (yes, we got it from the NCIS TV show....wife liked it, so it stuck). Got to admit that I've never heard of anyone else with a dog by that name.....regardless of breed!

My old lab identified the word "now" as his name...

In my opinion your field commands should never involve the dog's name, so "here" should not be turned into "Spot, here" or "here Spot". For that reason, I don't think a short name is absolutely necessary. I have noticed some dogs seem to like hearing "S" sounds, like Susie, Sissy, Sweetie etc.

It's a hard habit to break growing up with a dad and grandfather both of which always kepts beagles around. They'd find rabbits much better than they listend!

I use my dog's name to get his attention only. There are times that he'll hunt hard enough or be burried up and not hear a command so a quick shout of his name gets his mind on what I'm telling him. He hunts as hard as any dog I've seen, but he's still a pup at only a year and a half. The training collar has pretty well transferred to the attention getter at this point.

As to the naming convention, my son wanted to name him Truck. I couldn't really go with that, so we chose Duke. Short name with an attention getting hard consonant. When it came to his "paper name", Duke-N-Truck is in there. He's a dark yellow lab, and the name seems fitting.

Beagles.

My Uncle had to train his Black & tan to fetch his beagles.

Bird hunted with a 'dude' a couple years back that let his wife name his GSP 'Waldo'. That dog was the farthest ranging dog I ever hunted around, preferring to roam in the next county.

It was kinda sad to see Jeff walking around yelling Waldo at the top of his lungs.

We didn't kill many birds that day.

Ha!! More than a thread of truth in that I'm guessing.

I didn't mention gender because it wasn't for certain at that point, but the pups were born overnight last night. 6 males, I'm 4th in line for a male, so it's for sure a male I'll be getting. (Would have been a female if there were not 4 males.)

Since my 5yr old lab is named Quincy (came to us with the name, and it was unique so we kept it), I told my wife we should get two male pups and name one John and one Adams. Lame, I know, but I laughed. She didn't. Odd.

Anyway, the pup is a male, dark yellow/light red color on both mom and dad, so likely a darker yellow lab. Hard to really know from seeing him at this point what exactly he'll look like when he's older.

I've been sifting through names, although I do like the idea of getting to know the pup and letting a name sort of develop around him and his personality. I just want to be careful not to take too long and wind up with a dumb name out of necessity.

For some reason "Rufus" is growing on me, though.... Kind of one of those "it's so weird, it's good" kind of things.

I always thought I'd name a dog Jaeger, but there are a lot of Jaegers around, and I want something a little more original.

Trooper....

Mine is Reggie. A #70 high roller black lab. I only use his name to send him on a marked retrieve. Never use it when giving a command.

Well, "Rufus" when you're happy and "Dufus" when you're disgusted. Should work.

Gretzky.

Jagr.

Gordie.

Sergei.

Pavel.

Had a yellow named Marsh along with a chocolate named Windy

Jargo.

I am firmly in the one/two syllable camp. And something that doesn't sound like any basic command. And letting the dog name itself through looks or acts.

RS

Our yellow lab name is Keg and our chocolate lab name is Bocephus but we call him Bo..

I always liked the old TV trusty side kick names

Festus
Barney
Jingles
Pete
Boo boo

Bill

I never had more than one hunting dog at a time. Always had labs. Every one of them was named Sam. If there's a rainbow bridge, there will be a squadron of black Sam's to meet me. And of course my other house dogs as well.

I bought my dog from a guy in Arizona. He sent me a pic of the pup, in the back of an old Bronco, a sibling on each side of him watching, while he gnawed on a coyote skull.

Seeing that pic, I figured to name him Bones, as I figured that was all that was gonna be left of a critter after he got a hold of it. I told the dude what I thought I might name him.

A few months later I flew out to pick him up. Turned out the guy I was getting him from knew a band called Bone Daddy, so he had started calling the pup Bone Daddy. Upon my arrival, when I found this out, I liked Bone Daddy even better than Bones, so he's been the Bone Daddy ever since.

He is an Airedale Terrier, and a damn fine dog!

The three Dobies I had before him, sequentially, were Duke, Max, and Blitz.

Festus...uggghh. To show how weird the freakin world is, when I was finishing up my second Bachelor's degree at the University of South Florida, I was informed that I was 'required' to take an African History course. This annoyed me, but the worst was yet to come.

The professor was Festus Ohaegbulam, the Chairman of the African and African American Studies Department. This clown was from Nigeria, and I guess his parents musta liked Gunsmoke or something, I dunno. But I do know this...with absolute certainty...he was the most racist professor I ever crossed paths with.

He was kinda like Obama..."everything is George W.'s fault". Ohaegbulam thought that everything wrong in Africa was the fault of Europeans and their colonialism, even the things that occurred after the Europeans left and the former colonies were ruled by indigenous black rulers, many of whom were corrupt and abused their own people.

At the end of the course, when the ratings forms were passed around, he was excoriated by the entire class, including me. I've never seen an entire class hammer a prof like that. Shortly thereafter, he ceased to be the chairman of that department.

Oh, and did I mention that he had a horrid accent that made it an ordeal to try to figure out what the hell he was saying? Yeah, he did.

Well, this may be decided.

I had been just reading down a list of dog names, and everyone in the house liked "Milo". I wasn't into it much, until I took my 5yr old lab hunting on a bird hunting preserve (short 6 chukar hunt to finish out the "season"). We were working a strip of cut sorghum, and I remembered that sorghum is also called milo. That and the pup is a yellow/red lab, so the sorghum stalk/seed colors will be similar to the dog. And since upland hunting is about over here anymore...if I want to shoot birds, I gotta pay to play on a preserve, which plants a lot of milo........the pup will be in milo fields a lot.

So...I think it may be Milo.

I don't want to absolutely say that's it till I get to meet the pup and see if something else leaps out at me, but I'm sort of leaning that way now.

My oldest daughter figured out that the pup was born on Thomas Jefferson's birthday. She thought Jefferson would be nice, but it's too long, and I don't like Jeff for short. I thought of Independence and Indy for short, but once I thought on it for a bit, I just was "meh" about all that.

If I file his papers to register him, though, I'm sure I'll have to come up with some sort of unique name for him, though. I never bothered with my other labs, as they were all neutered/spayed, and no breeding would be happening, so I didn't see the point.

Like the boys said, the pup's name will present itself, and it kinda sounds to me like that has already happened!

Milo is a most excellent name!

I've a wire hair named Catfish.

If she was a dog instead of a bitch, her name would've been Whoop.

Always named dogs after where I got them, until the last one. Kids had a part in it! I'd would like to have named Aspen "damn it", because that Chessie was brilliant to the point she'd do chit just for spite.

Aspen
Boca
Bay
Sailor

tddeangelo,

Gentlemen...please allow an old fart (mucho experience) to explain.
1st...all dogs do NOT understand our language, what they hear is vibration and tone associated with words we understand but they do not.
Naming a dog is crucial to a successful life, indoors and out.
Single syllable words (names) make teaching (training) much easier. Choose a name you can easily fluctuate the tone up and down as in happy tone and disgusted tone when using dogs name to praise for all good things and lower tone for all disappointing times...it will make much easier for everyone involved.

Hope this helps and best of luck with your new pup...life is always a happier with a well trained dog.

Dog Man

Rip, Tuck, Penny, Spring, Ellie, Deak, (Win)Chester, Remington, Chunky, Fred, Sunny.

My dog knows more than most people I know, and is a better person to boot. 'Nuff said.

My blood tracking dog in South Africa and my German shorthair in the USA both have the same name, I don't have to remember two names this way.

Both are named " Bushman" I chose this name because the bushman tribe are the most serious and functional hunters on earth.

Mika (mee-kah)

I named my dog Farts because that is all he does. Always get strange looks when out in the woods yelling Come Farts!

Wife and daughter call him Farty or Mr Farty Man

I had a big male yellow lab with some fox red highlights; he was a great dog. I really miss that dog; he was my bud through some tuff times. His name was Dusty.

My WPG pup is named Rosie after her disposition.



She LOVES her Uncle Rocky!

OK, pup comes home on or after June 8. Since that's a Wed., I'll probably see if I can do the pick-up on the following Saturday.

That said, I have a 5yr old neutered male lab, and getting a male pup (based on my trainer's suggestions, along with that of one of the breeder's I talked to). Trying to figure out how I want to do the intro's.....

Looking like Milo is likely, but we'll see when he comes home.

I'm going to see the litter on Sunday and pick the pup, so I'll post a few pics of him then.

I liked Abercrombie and Bitch.

Named out new Aussie "Terror Rex".

Out last Chesapeake Bay Retriever was "Judge" and set the law east of the Pecos (especially the driveway to the house).

Well, got to go see the litter today and meet the pups.

This little guy will be coming home with us in a couple of weeks....a name hasn't leaped out at me yet, although the kids are dead-set on Milo. I'm not opposed to it, but want to spend a bit more time with him before deciding on it.

Here he is....he got tired from playing and flopped. Which gave me the chance to snap a quick pic, lol. He didn't look like this the whole time, I assure you!

Little Ann -if you can read "Where the Red Fern Grows" without crying I probably don't even want to know you.

The family settled on Cooper, and it seemed to fit with the pup when I was working with him, so he is now named Cooper.

He's a little devil, and smart as heck. Affectionate little guy, but mischievous as the day is long, even for a lab. He's working on breaking me in already.

Nothing puts the fear into the heart of any quarry like the sound of a truck door closing and the command "hunt them up Sparky"