It used to be that a kennel had the right and responsibility to assign the name to every puppy that was born to their breeding dogs. When I was very young my grandparents had a Springer Spaniel that I knew as 'Prince.' I was surprised to find out that his name was something entirely different. While I don't remember Prince's registered name I'll probably never forget that part of his name was Bojangles. I thought that was very funny at the time. I was never given a good answer as to why we knew him as Prince and that name was in no way related to his 'real' name.
What we call a dog is known as the dog's 'call name.' (Makes sense.) And the dog's call name need not have any resemblance to their registered name. In our kennel all our dog's call names have some resemblance to their registered names. The registered name most usually includes the name of the kennel where the puppy came from somewhere in the name . . . begining or end or wherever the kennel chooses to ask for it to be. So our dog Parah came from Royalair kennel in Iowa. Dogs that were born at our kennel have 'Rosehall' in the front such as Rosehall Esther's Poolos . . . who we call 'Polly.' You can tell from her name that she is a Rosehall bred dog and in this case that her mother is our Esther who we call 'Essie.' Essie is really Royalair's Esther Haddasah . . . yep, another breeding girl that we purchased as a puppy from Royalair Kennel.
A few years ago the A.K.C. changed the rules on naming dogs and clearly and specifically gives the naming right for a puppy to the puppy's new family. As part of our sales agreement we ask that the buyer include the Rosehall name at the front of the registered name but that agreement is between us and the buyer . . . we can in no way prevent the buyer from using whatever name they choose when registering with AKC. And now AKC has a procedure by which a current owner can request a change of registered name for their dog. By using several names in the registration name a family can claim the puppy's kennel heritage, their own family name and the call name if desired. One of our very popular stud dogs is named Royalair's Duke of Rosehall. . . yep, another breeding dog that we purchased as a puppy from Royalair but this one also shows our kennel's name in this stud's full name. His call name is 'Duke.' He came from Royalair but Rosehall's name will show on the pedigree of all his progeny.
So there usually is some method in what appears to be the madness of assigning a dog such long and complicated names. My girl Mia's full name is L'MiaMelas Rosehall von Benedict. In this case the kennel asked that her name begin with 'L.' Tradition in many kennels is that all pups from a litter have names starting with the same letter and each litter uses a successive letter in the alphabet. The 1st litter would be all 'A's' the second all 'B's' etc. So Mia was from the kennel's 12th litter (or 38th litter if they'd already been through the alphabet once.) We put the Rosehall name in because we hope she will prove to be a breeding girl for us and our name would then appear in the pedigrees of all her progeny. The kennel that she came from doesn't use their kennel name in thier naming scheme but instead uses 'von Benedict', indicating the name of a famous sire in her direct line.
So when we are out playing in the fields and I call 'Huey' . . . he comes. He knows that name and has no earthly idea that he is really 'Rosehall Parah's Eschatos Huios.' Maybe someday I'll write the story of some of our dog's 'weird' names . . . for example Parah Karat comes from words that mean 'Fruitful Covenant.' Each one has a special meaning to us, often a character trait we observed in the young pup or a quality or hope that we want to bless that pup with.
until next time . . . Eliot.
find us at www.rosehallkennel.com follow Mia's kennel stories on Twitter @MiaRosehall.
No comments:
Post a Comment