How Our Puppies Get Their Names
Wondering how our puppies are named? Each litter of guide dog puppies born at Guide Dogs for the Blind is given a litter letter. That letter is based on the size of the litter and how many available names there are for that letter. Larger litters of puppies might be assigned a letter such as C, M, and T while smaller litters are often assigned letters such as Q, Y and Z. All the puppies in the litter will be given a name that starts with this letter; for example: Buddy, Bruno, and Bob
For more information, read this article from Guide Dogs for the Blind's Spring 2001 Puppy Tales Newsletter below:
Brett Torkelson, Puppy Raising Department
Rather than picking names out of a hat, throwing darts at a giant naming board or any other random method of selecting names, puppy naming is an organized and precise procedure. Mick Aguilera at Guide Dogs for the Blind supervises the naming of the puppies, and with the help from puppy naming volunteers, Jim and Marilyn Monsoor, all puppies are named between three and four weeks of age.
The Breeding Department assigns a letter of the alphabet to each litter whelped, and every puppy's name in that litter will begin with that particular letter. There are guidelines that are followed in choosing a name for a puppy. Names with potentially offensive or poor connotations cannot be used. Names should be easy to pronounce and spell, and should not sound similar to the commands that the Training Department uses: "forward", "halt", "right", "left", "heel", "sit", "down", "come", "steady", "stand", "wait", "that's enough", "no", and "ready, let's go", just to name a few. Names that sound the same but are spelled differently are avoided. Our puppy naming volunteers also try to associate the name with specific characteristics of the dog, such as color and breed. "Sunshine" would be an appropriate name for a yellow lab or golden retriever, while "Midnight" or "Charcoal" would be given to a black Lab or Shepherd.
The Breeding Department notifies the raisers of the sire and dam of a particular littler and offers them the chance to submit names for that litter. The breeder keepers are given the opportunity of naming the puppies in each subsequent litter. Other sources used to gather names are baby-naming books, the Internet, and lists submitted by puppy raisers. Mick, Jim and Marilyn then review the names submitted and assign them to our puppies.
Dog names are considered available to reuse only after the dog they were most recently assigned to has been career changed or is a retired guide. This means that there are currently over 3,000 names assigned to our puppies, dogs in training, breeders, and active guides!