I am new to this so sorry if I seem a little backwards with it all!!

My family have just become a very proud new owners (or are owned by!!) a 3 year old Newfoundland she has joined my family as just before christmas we very sadly had to have our retreiver put to sleep. She joins a family of 2 young children, Hubby, black lab and myself.

Now this may not seem to be a problem but for some reason I just cant seem to get to grips with her name Gina, probably because I know a Human Gina. I know when some dogs go into rescue they might have names given to them but My big girl has come to us from a loving home and I wondered if anyone has actually tried changing a dogs name without too much of a problem! (She does seem to be very selective with her hearing though!!!)  

Also if anyone can think of a nice girlie name that sounds like Gina then I would be very interested to hear them.

Please help!!!!

lots of people do it with rescues!!!!!
introduce with lots of positive reinforcement....ie lots of titbits
what about something like Genie? as i think they respond on the first syabal anyway

We have!!  Glazby was originally called Scratch and then his owners before us called him Bruce (for all of 10 days before they decided not to keep him) and then we changed it to Glazby which it has been ever since!!

I agree - lots of praise and titbits worked, we'd make such a fuss of him even if he just looked over in our direction when calling him by the new name.

He totally had the idea within about 2-3 weeks.

Good luck with your new girl.  :-)

well this sounds very picky but my Mum is called Jeanne and it is pronounced Genie so the choice gets smaller!!!

I am very interested in the tit-bits idea will definatly give that a go just got to come up with a name now!!! Thanks for the help and so quickly as well but still need ideas with a name with the G sound!!!!

I bought in a 2 year old bitch, her name was Sheena, I changed it to Ria, with no problems.

Charm

My dad changed his dogs name when he rescued her at 15 months, it was Brittney and he didnt fancy shouting that across the park, he changed it to Holly, it ended in y and he got her at xmas, she took to it no problem and is 3 yrs old now.

got one called Virgin LOL now called Genie

Our dog who is now called Tyler was Tyson of all names, he is a golden retriever.

Beano was called Peter for 2 years of his life. Now he is called Beano.And have had no problems Although then again, I think they both think they have two names. Gemma and Beano as when I call one. The other one comes as well!!! Or is it just they think they are missing out on something LMAO
Lea :)

Congrats on being owned by a newf, I have a 21 month old and be warned they can be addictive....I got a ex racer before xmas whos name was Denny and he had been called that all his life but I decided to change his name to Cleetus and to be honest with tit bits it only took him a couple of days to get the drift (he is very greedy though)........pick which ever name you want and use food a lot, if your newf is anything like mine she will do anything for a markie.

Nikki

thanks so much for everyones help, I am definatly going to change her name, she used to live in a house full of dogs so as has been said will probably answer to most things!!

What a fantastic site will definatly use it again for help and advice but please keep passing on the names, she is a BIG stubborn but very soppy and loving girl with a truly loving and beautiful face. Bless I just can not get to grips with her name!!

oh i have a fiend who has a dog called Serena, that rhymes with Gina, her other dog is called Venus !!!

Sure you mean "fiend" sarstaff thats my other name for my nutty younger dalmatian :)

All our dogs come when we call "dinner" :D

Margot

Our older dog was called Anakin Skywalker when we got him from Battersea :D He didn't object tooooo much at having a name change :D :D

Daisy

I had a worse situation with my Jozi.  Her previous owners had liked my daughters naem and chosen that for her.

Wehn she came back it was either change her name or my daughters.  My offspring was none too impressed with the latter option so a complete change of name was in order.

You can imagine I had to ignore her every time she responded when I talked or called to my daughter.  so I gave a completely different name.

A few months later we tried getting her attention by using her old naem and she totally blanked, so they soon pick up the association.

Always use the name when aqnything she likes is to happen.  with my lot meal times, walks etc.

i had an 8month old stafford called ,lucy and changed it to ella.....

how about changing jina to nina ?
just dont stand in middle of field shouting nina nina nina,,,,,some one might thinkpolice/firebrigade are on there way neenar neenar...sirens lol

jayne
www.geocities.com/jayneze/

I've changed many a dog name through rescue.  :)  Sometimes we knew their names, sometimes not.  What worked for me was using their old and new names together for a day.  Come here Fred Rover.  Good boy Fred Rover.  The next day I'd mix it up a bit either using both or just the new.  By the 4th or 5th day I was on the new only and they responded very well.  This was with completely different names.  With names that sounded similar I just started right off with the new name.  :)  Good luck and don't feel stuck to something similar...name her whatever you'd like!

We once had  rescue Terv who had been named Amadaus :rolleyes:
we changed it to Amber with no problems - trouble was everyone thought he was a girl :D - he didin't care what he was called as long as he got his fair share of biscuits and cuddles.

Yvonne

tina
nina
pina
lena
ginnie
gin

Thankyou to you all for your help and advice, we have renamed our Newfie Rosa-Marie or just Rosa for short (my hubby works in the herb industry!!!) think it suits her and I feel better about calling her it!!

Thanks once again
Lucy and my gang

Hi Lucy, I know you have already decided to change the name but just for more support :) lol....... we rescued (well kind of but that's a long story) our bitch and her name was Diva for 6 months, we did not like it and she is now called Thai, she has never experienced any probs and even if you say 'Diva' to her now she will not take a blind bit of notice.....don't think she like it either ;) Good luck with Rosa

Lucy lots of us have dogs who have more than one name.  Not so much by choice but by an evolutionary process - it's a thread we've done before if you search, along the lines of 'what else do you call your dog'!!  Mine have a range of names for every occasion!