A week or so ago, my dad sent me a link to a USA Today article about giving dogs nicknames. The author of the article believes that a dog can learn to understand his name and the various nicknames given to him by his owner.

Each of my pets, I confess with … well, maybe some mortification, has an assortment of nicknames. Jasper the mutt who looks to be mostly Australian shepherd (but he is not, and in fact is so many generations removed from pure blood even geneticists can find only hints of whence he came) has five nicknames.

The little neighbor kids couldn’t say “Jasper” when they met him years ago, so their version, “Dass-Paw,” spawned three variations that stuck: Dasspoo, Dasspy and Dass. Then, at some point, I also began calling him “Buddy” sometimes, and Buddy became, in ways I can’t recall and probably shouldn’t, “ButterButt.” He responds cheerfully and unfailingly to each and every one of them. Really.

My other dog, a wise old 80-pound malamute/German shepherd mix named Rufus, has the predictable “Rufe” nickname. Rufe morphed into “Boof” which, over time, enlarged to “Diggity-Boof,” which got abbreviated to “D-B.” Yeah. Well. These things happen. They make sense to Rufie-Doof, and he responds to all of them.

Briscoe has a couple of nicknames of his own. His full name is Briscoe Hopper (because when he runs fast he looks like a rabbit), so we sometimes just call him “Hopper.” He’s also “Briscoe Bear,” “Mr. Bear” and “Briscoe Boy.” And once I thought I heard J call him “Brisket,” but he swears he didn’t.

Does your dog have a nickname? If so, does he or she respond when called by it?

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