(no subject)

[podling]

It bugs me somewhat that puppies don't have names for the first several weeks of their lives...

Comments

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I didn't have a name til I was 6 weeks old. I attribute my general fucked-up-ness to this.

[astrophysicat.livejournal.com]

Exactly, and why should we put all dogs through this trauma? Sure they have their "real" names, but dogs live to love humans, they live to be petted and adored. Having no name from us for so long probably fucks some of them up, while making others even more dependent on us for reassurance and love having gone unnamed for so long.

[podling]

Well, I mean, I guess I can sort of understand why. I mean, people like to rename things, it gives them a sense of ownership. Take Zippy, for instance. So I mean, you want the owner to name the dog, and given that the owner rarely knows the puppy at birth, they can't really name it right away. But it still exists even when it isn't named. And there is a sense of identity even still. Though really, we called our dog "pooch" until we could come up with a better name for her that we all agreed with. Of course, it never happened, and it is Pete's dog, so Pooch she stayed. She was pathetic when we got her though, and not just because she was nameless...

[lonesomenumber1]

I tend to doubt that going without a name for a while harms a dog. I don't think if you name your dog Spot, he thinks "I am Spot." He thinks, "Now the One Who Feeds Me is making the noise that means he wants my attention."