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Animals 'Naming Themselves'

My Border Terrorist Evangeline can even spell words now. I once said to my son, " Could you take the D O G for a W A L K " and she knew exactly what I`d said and immediately ran into the hall to fetch her L E A D and B R A ......

Yup, we had 'walk', 'The W Word', 'Wubsies' and so on, all of which the mutts learned. They also knew I was planning to take them out in the summer when I put on socks or even approached my sock drawer, and also when I walked near where I kept my long shoe horn to put on my old dogwalking trainers.
 
Our staffy checks out what shoes I've put on when I come downstairs. He knows which ones I wear for walkies (elicits excitement), for shopping(elicits a sulk), for curling up with him on the sofa (elicits tail wags).

We have a black cat which we called Poppet. I thought it was such an original name! Ha. There's loads of cats called Poppet.
 
In her later years, my mother had two cats -- Felix and Bimbo. Felix always responded to his name but Bimbo never answered to his, although he would respond to Kitty or KitKat. When my mother died, Felix moved in with my sister and Bimbo came to live with me. I thought the name Bimbo was undignified so I gave him one with more gravitas -- Chester. He learned his new name very quickly and always answered to it. Perhaps he never liked the name Bimbo and just chose to ignore it. Chester was seven years old when he arrived in my home, so his age was obviously no impediment to learning a new name.
 
Teal knows the walk pattern is different when I wear my work uniform to when I wear civilian clothes.

But she surprised me yesterday. I was thinking of taking her for her afternoon walk at 2 (I had to be at work for 3). Found my rota had changed so no need to walk her until her usual walk time of 3.30. Yet at 2, she was pinging up and down ready to go out, even though it was a bit early. There's only the pair of us in the house and I hadn't said out loud what I was planning.

This is now verging on the 'psychic animals' territory. Back to 'animal names', please.
 
Nobody else has posted it so far ...

Farside.jpg
 
Court case reported in York Herald, July 20th, 1861. Plaintiff, a farmer called William Nattress, was my great uncle x 4, is how I found this story. Dog stolen by soldier - judge tries to settle the matter by bringing dog into court and calling both names, to see which it responded to. Glad to see my relative won - even though the dog didn't care what it was called:

"NATTRESS v. PIE

This action was brought for the recovery of a dog, which it was alleged had been illegally detained by the defendant, who is a mess-master at the Barracks. The plaintiff resides at Kelfield, and is a farmer, and he, along with several other witnesses, described a dog which he had lost named “Charley”. The defendant contended his dog was named “Sam”; that he had bought him off a man named Burton, who is the Leeds guard, for 15s., and that he was doubtful about the identification by those opposed to him. The dog was let loose in Court, when evidently “Sam” and “Charley” were synonymous to him, as he answered to each call. Verdict for plaintiff."
 
One of the cats was outside, sitting on the wall in the snow. I opened the door, shouted 'oy, tosspot, get inside in the warm!' Cat ran round house and slunk in through window.

Cat's name is Corvo. Not Tosspot. Although I may now change it.
 
A mate had a cat called Boo, he was out in the back st shouting for it
when a drunk looked round the corner and shouted "And Boo to you to"

We had a horse called Boo. I was out in the field calling for him when someone came up behind me and said 'that's the least effective surprise I've ever seen'. Which, oddly, made me jump!

And, more in keeping with the thread, I could never ever think of that horse as 'Boo'. In my head he was always 'Mister'. Boo just didn't suit him!
 
I wish there was a "this made me laugh really hard" button. If I didn't use the "Like" button, many of my responses would resemble this:

Nobody else has posted it so far ...

View attachment 14597
I'm on a forum with those buttons (and a few more) and if I really find a post annoying, instead of hitting (Disagree), I hit (Educational). It seems more insulting, somehow.

:rollingw::rollingw::rollingw::rollingw::rollingw::rollingw::rollingw::rollingw::rollingw:
 
My brother used to have a dog called Moses. When he was a puppy he slipped his lead so my mum ran after him. He went into so.e bushes at which point my mum started shouting Moses into the bushes. Unfortunately they were not on fire.
Did the bushes part eventually, letting the dog out?
 
When I first met my dog (as a newborn puppy), I waited for a name to suggest itself to me.

Two came through, 'Teal' and 'Rook'. Probably because, as one of her mother's owners suggested, she has a feather marking on her face.

Settled on Teal as it holds a reminder of her mum's name. Still like the name 'Rook' though. One day...
 
Teal knows the walk pattern is different when I wear my work uniform to when I wear civilian clothes.

But she surprised me yesterday. I was thinking of taking her for her afternoon walk at 2 (I had to be at work for 3). Found my rota had changed so no need to walk her until her usual walk time of 3.30. Yet at 2, she was pinging up and down ready to go out, even though it was a bit early. There's only the pair of us in the house and I hadn't said out loud what I was planning.

This is now verging on the 'psychic animals' territory. Back to 'animal names', please.

Pets're clever at sussing out routines. Our cays expect Techy to be up and feeding them at 06:30 prompt or they're outside his door kicking off.

My shift pattern varies so they don't bother harassing me.
 
Pets're clever at sussing out routines. Our cays expect Techy to be up and feeding them at 06:30 prompt or they're outside his door kicking off.

My shift pattern varies so they don't bother harassing me.
Last week, like every week with 3 grown sons in the house, we were playing parent taxi, and had to pick one son up from work, with about an hour or two's gap before we had to get another son from his work, which happens but not often. So we took the dog wiht us in the car and walked her before getting son 1, got son 1, then went shopping and came home to quickly unload before going back out to get son 2... We usually let dog back in the house if there's someone home to dog-sit and she's had her walk.

But just for once I said to husband "Why don't we unload shopping and just leave dog in the car, and she can ride shotgun with us back to pick up son 2?" I didn't even say dog's name (but then again I do call her 'dog' all the time so I think she thinks that's her second name)....

Whenever we get out of the car after dogwalking/son getting/shopping, she always jumps out of the car on her own, and runs into the back garden to wee (because why wee on a walk when you can wee in your own garden afterwards?) Then goes in the house.

But she sat calmly on the back seat, didn't even try to get out even though we left the doors open, and just waited til we came back to the car - only took us 5 mins, but we had a lot of shopping. She never does that. There were no conscious cues to her that we were letting her stay in the car, just me verbalising the idea...

She's not very intelligent either, so the thought she may understand more than we realise is a bit shocking.

When we finished unloading and got back in there she was, happy as anything. (She is never left alone - always with someone - rescue dog with 'issues' so doubly odd that she was happy to sit on her own and wait).
 
Last week, like every week with 3 grown sons in the house, we were playing parent taxi, and had to pick one son up from work, with about an hour or two's gap before we had to get another son from his work, which happens but not often. So we took the dog wiht us in the car and walked her before getting son 1, got son 1, then went shopping and came home to quickly unload before going back out to get son 2... We usually let dog back in the house if there's someone home to dog-sit and she's had her walk.

But just for once I said to husband "Why don't we unload shopping and just leave dog in the car, and she can ride shotgun with us back to pick up son 2?" I didn't even say dog's name (but then again I do call her 'dog' all the time so I think she thinks that's her second name)....

Whenever we get out of the car after dogwalking/son getting/shopping, she always jumps out of the car on her own, and runs into the back garden to wee (because why wee on a walk when you can wee in your own garden afterwards?) Then goes in the house.

But she sat calmly on the back seat, didn't even try to get out even though we left the doors open, and just waited til we came back to the car - only took us 5 mins, but we had a lot of shopping. She never does that. There were no conscious cues to her that we were letting her stay in the car, just me verbalising the idea...

She's not very intelligent either, so the thought she may understand more than we realise is a bit shocking.

When we finished unloading and got back in there she was, happy as anything. (She is never left alone - always with someone - rescue dog with 'issues' so doubly odd that she was happy to sit on her own and wait).

Yup, they can read our minds for sure.

We had a cat years ago who'd sit outside all the time any of the kids was out waiting for them to come back. When I did that complicated going out/coming back/picking up/dropping off business she'd know whether everyone was back or not and wait patiently until we were all home.
 
Last week, like every week with 3 grown sons in the house, we were playing parent taxi, and had to pick one son up from work, with about an hour or two's gap before we had to get another son from his work, which happens but not often. So we took the dog wiht us in the car and walked her before getting son 1, got son 1, then went shopping and came home to quickly unload before going back out to get son 2... We usually let dog back in the house if there's someone home to dog-sit and she's had her walk.

But just for once I said to husband "Why don't we unload shopping and just leave dog in the car, and she can ride shotgun with us back to pick up son 2?" I didn't even say dog's name (but then again I do call her 'dog' all the time so I think she thinks that's her second name)....

Whenever we get out of the car after dogwalking/son getting/shopping, she always jumps out of the car on her own, and runs into the back garden to wee (because why wee on a walk when you can wee in your own garden afterwards?) Then goes in the house.

But she sat calmly on the back seat, didn't even try to get out even though we left the doors open, and just waited til we came back to the car - only took us 5 mins, but we had a lot of shopping. She never does that. There were no conscious cues to her that we were letting her stay in the car, just me verbalising the idea...

She's not very intelligent either, so the thought she may understand more than we realise is a bit shocking.

When we finished unloading and got back in there she was, happy as anything. (She is never left alone - always with someone - rescue dog with 'issues' so doubly odd that she was happy to sit on her own and wait).
Never underestimate the intelligence of your dog. My terrier is a breed (Patterdale) that is not noted for any intelligence or trainability whatsoever. In fact they are a breed that people who are inexperienced dog owners are often warned against (for the above reasons). Teal is a fairly standard example of the breed (three quarters insanity, one quarter entirely instinct driven) yet she occasionally shows flares of total comprehension of what I say or an ability to predict my behaviour. All whilst being a total idiot.
 
Never underestimate the intelligence of your dog. My terrier is a breed (Patterdale) that is not noted for any intelligence or trainability whatsoever. In fact they are a breed that people who are inexperienced dog owners are often warned against (for the above reasons). Teal is a fairly standard example of the breed (three quarters insanity, one quarter entirely instinct driven) yet she occasionally shows flares of total comprehension of what I say or an ability to predict my behaviour. All whilst being a total idiot.
Yes, our's is a 'double terrier' - staffy/jack russell cross. I've had staffies before but never a JRT. The JRT half is batshit.
 
We lost our border terrier/jack russell cross just before Christmas. She was actually very sensible for a terrier! I think that was the Border half...
 
Sure i saw some programme on tv years ago where an animal communicator said animals have their own names (seperately from what we name them) and could telepathically tell her what they were, and they were just jumbles of letters you couldn't pronounce!

I saw the same program I think! I remember there being a dog who wouldn't behave and was very depressed. The psychic spoke to the dog who said he was unhappy with his name and wouldn't respond to it. He said his name was actually <insert bizarre name that sounded like a demon>. It really stayed with me, because I remember the name being so odd and chilling! Anyway, they refused to call him that, but shortened it to something palatable and the dog's attitude changed completely.

We got a rescue cat about eighteen months ago, he was called Jaspreet when we brought him home, but it just wasn't right somehow so we renamed him Vincent (after Vincent Price, he's a real horror film cat!), which he does respond to, but more often than not we call him Tong. My boyfriend claims this is a descriptive verb for the action he makes when he touches things with his paws, but in reality it just became his name somehow. He's Tong. Definitely not a name we would have chosen!
 
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