Canine Transition – Names Anyone?
May 07 2010
We chose 5 acres because of the view and the ability to have an abundance of land to run around and, well, just do things on. I’ve built a tire swing for the kids and a climbing wall is up next (still deciding on Craftsmen tools vs. Home Depot’s brand though, and watching “This Old House” – I started with “Home Improvement” but realized I knew all of those tricks).
Another area the kids were excited about is that we could now have animals. Our German neighbors had dogs, cats, rabbits, and goats. One neighbor told us that we should have a rabbit. When I replied that the idea wouldn’t work because we couldn’t move it, she promptly replied that we could have it for dinner (she might have used the German word for “duh” at that point). This explained why we kept seeing changes in her rabbit stock.
As we’ve moved though, we always told the kids that we couldn’t have a pet; it would be too hard to PCS overseas and back. Now that we’ve settled, we’re getting requests for dogs, cats, chickens, goats, horses, and alpacas. We finally jumped into the fray and got not one, but two puppies at the pound – they were so cute. We adopted a 6-month old black Weimarner Lab mix and a 4-month old German Shepherd mix.
Now comes another transition – pets, and training them. Any suggestions? Mary Claire and I hadn’t quite prepared for this transition.
As a final note, the dogs came with the names of Thunder and Bimmer. We’re trying to think of new names. We’ve covered Jack, Snoopy, Marcus, Fuji (we’re trying to think of a name that relates to Japan or Germany) – but we’d like to ask our readers (reader?) for ideas. Any good names that fit these cute guys (they are both guys)?
Tom & MC
Nothing could be more German than the names of my ancestors – Burger or Beierschmitt. It would be nice to keep it in the family.
Hello to all and love the new additions.
Kris
Dogs are the best. The way to train them is to hug them to death although occasionally you will want to grab them around the neck and shake.
I have two rescues. They were both older ( about 2 and 3 yrs) when I got them; one was perfect from the get go and the other had/has issues. I say this because she continues to become a better behaved part of my family even though she’s already been here two years. There were a couple of times I thought she had defeated me but my fear of guilt kept me from giving her up. I’m happy to say that I now like her in addition to loving her.
I wanted a musical name when I got my red poodle so we named her Cello. When the little white rescue came along, she became Viola.
The suggestions have begun, we hope to see more. Kris, I like the German names, though the second one is rather long. And I’m afraid the last syllable might come out sounding like a word we don’t want our kids to say.
–How about Icibana! See you Tuesday, I’ll call so we can set up a time and I can get your address.
Tom,
Wow, your new additions are adorable! We’ll continue to skirt the big “D” issue w/ the kids until we, too, settle down. They’re not happy w/ it, but gives us time to figure out if we indeed really want to go there . Wish we had some training advice for you…aren’t they just like kids?
As far as names go, I personally would go w/ Guiness and Caffrey. Yes, they’re both Irish beers. What can I say, I stick to my roots.
However, if you’re looking to go the German/Japanese route, you could go w/ your favorite beer from those 2 places? Kirin? Asahi? Pils? Dunkel? (that would be the dark dog) Schofferhofer? I’m thinking endless possibilities here. Of course Bann might work too….
Good luck! Keep us posted!
@Tish – thanks for the ideas. I’ll have to look at the labels of the beers we shipped back from Germany for ideas.
Glad you understand the dog issue. We held out long enough and now we have 5 acres for the dogs to run on – you’ll be there soon enough.
Congrats on the First Communion!
Tom,
Was there any part of your travels where a unique name was revealed. We had a very stern German woman wait on us in a department store right before we adopted a rottweiler….her name was Helga and thus our dog was named Helga. It was perfect.
Brad Harwick
Round Rock, Texas
@Brad: that is hilarious, I hadn’t thought of that perspective for naming the dogs. We did kind of use that route. We named one Rocky, for our time at Rocky Mountain National Park, and the other Marcus, because we liked the name and have a good friend in Germany with that name.
Hey you guys,
After meeting up with you guys in Yellowstone we didn’t stay in touch like we wanted. Our trip was
quite a diversion. Then coming back home to Ventura–into “reality” was quite a transition, as I’m sure you can attest to.
But a question keeps gnawing at me: Where did you guys choose to live? I mean live in a “house.” You saw the entire country and remember that you were open to going anywhere. So where on earth (rather, “where in the USA”) did you choose?
With Fond Memories,
Gayle David
Wahls -
Catching up after several months. Having 4 dogs, 4 cats, and a bird, I have two pieces of advice:
1. Don’t overdo it. LOL The more pets you have, the harder (and more expensive) it is to take off at a moment’s notice or to go on vacation. Two is plenty! Besides, the more animals that you have in the house, the less likely it is that you will be able to find the culprit who had an accident or who chewed something up (see point 2).
2. If you don’t train the dogs, you are still training them anyway: you are training them that it is OK to misbehave or it is OK to have accidents in the house. Just like kids, you need to be firm and consistent. The dogs will appreciate it as much as you do.
You will love and enjoy them for years! I’m in Bulgaria now on the second year of a one year unaccompanied TCS; and I do miss the animals … but not as much as I miss my wife.
God bless.
Pat