Changing Your Shelter or Rescue Dog’s Name

Have you just adopted a shelter or rescue dog? Change the dog’s name right away. The former name can have lots of undesirable baggage associated with it. Condition your dog to the new name by pairing it with tasty treats, using the 5-step process shown here:

1. Say the dog’s name in a pleasant voice, give a tasty treat.
2. Repeat.
3. Repeat.
4. Repeat.
5. Repeat.

Then say “All done!” and go do something else for a while. If you can do this five or six times a day for the first couple of weeks, you will have a start towards your dog having a good feeling about his or her new name.

Thank you for adopting!