Changing a dog's name?

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Is it possible?

We might be adopting a year old working cocker spaniel who has a name already, is it possible to teach him a new name or should we stick to the name he has now?

[Floralnomad]

no problems with changing a name .

[tabulahrasa]

Change it if you want, just do it exactly like you would with a puppy.

[LimeJellyHead]

All my dogs have been rescue and I always change their name. Go for it. The dog will soon cotton on and won't care

[ender]

My rescue had 3 different names before I got him at 8 months, all crossed out on vac certificate. I gave him a new name and he responded to it straight away.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

We were advised to change our rescue dog's name, by the Dogs' Trust (where we got her) - they said, basically, new start, new name.

Dh took the dog and a pile of gravy bones, and every time she looked at him, he said her new name, and gave her some gravy bone. After a while, he waited until she looked away, said the new name, and when she looked round, gave her more gravy bone. He carried on doing this until she responded to her new name every time.

It was a very quick and easy process, and doesn't seem to have caused her any issues at all.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Thank you for all the replies, we've only ever had dogs as young puppies before so weren't sure and even though our last puppy was a rescue and had a name the fosterer never used it, she simply called her 'Puppy' so giving her a name was simple. The 'new start, new name' makes good sense, we used that same method to teach our pup her name so we will use it again to teach this boy his name if we are successful.