It's all in the name, or is it?

Each time I am planning on a new dog, I spend a great amount of time thinking about names.  Much of the fun of getting a new dog is the name game.  They can have two names: the official registered name, and the call name.  Plus all the cute nick names (e.g., Montage Mad about Madeline, Maddie, Mads, Madmad, Sweetie pie, etc).

Take my little boy Tazz.  His name is "Hillstone's Razzmatazz."  I call him Tazz.  He absolutely has the spark of razzmatazz, but from the moment he came to live with us, everyone thinks he was named for the Tazmainian Devil.  Many of my friends call him Tazzmania. One friend nicknamed him T-Bone - and that has stuck. Tazzie is a sweet loving dog.  Ok, let me clarify.  He has figured out that all resources come from me and he wants to be as close to the person giving out resources as possible.  I choose to believe that he actually loves me.  On the other hand, he is a big jerk to other dogs.  I've been in tears multiple times over his behavior and once got bit, saving Tazzies life after HE got into it with a Doberman.  Tazz is really not that much fun to take places because it is a great amount of work.  I've learned to be a better, more patient person from Tazzie.  And despite the devil in him, I adore the little squirt.

There have been other names that seem to fit my dogs.  Rocky started out as O'Rielly.  The first name just didn't fit so we changed his name to Rocky (aka: Rockoroo, Rocktastic, Rock Rock, Big boy).  He is a solid fixture in our home and his name suits him.

My darling Chester who was taken from me too young was full of mischief.  He was an obedience king and earned a 200 for me at our second competition (the highest you can get).  He also spent more nights at the emergency vets than I care to recall having outsmarted me and eaten something he should not have.

Sophie, so full of life had a name that for me was elegant, distinguish, yet had a spark of flirty fun and that was my girl.  She lived to be 15.5 years old.  She taught Rocky and Maddie so much (how to chase the pool sweep, to bark at the garbage men, and chase squirrels). 

Since I've been doing agility, I hang around people who name their dogs Tantrum, Riot, Mace, Mayhem, Trouble, Rocket, Speedie, or Cyclone.  My latest (who can you believe is 3 years old) was Named "HiMarks Holy Mackerel!" Fin for short.  I was looking for a cute short name and Fin is my little fishfry, definitely slippery and oh so swimmingly beautiful.

I'm always in the market for a good name (although no new dogs are on my horizon, I still like to think).  Today, after Rocky chased the gardener, Fin threw up her breakfast on my clean bathmat, Maddie got lost in the closet, and Tazz jumped on the table and ate my sandwich, I'm thinking my next dogs name will be "Easy".