How morally right is it to change a dog's name after having them for 6 months?

[Shakou]

Originally Posted by ThoseWordsAtBest

Shambles was Clove until we officially declared him ours..

This is a very good way of looking at it.

[lizzybeth727]

I work with a lot of dogs from shelters. Most of the time we don't know their previous owners' names for them, but occasionally we do. When we adopt the dog we almost always change their names.

Sometimes after using their new names for a few months, we call them by their old names just to see what they do. We did this with one dog - he hadn't heard his old name in probably 3 or 4 months - and when we called him his old name he cowered and ran away.

So yeah, dogs don't care if you change their names, and sometimes it's better.

[Shakou]

Yeah, I think we're going to change it. Anyone have any creative name ideas?

[Shakou]

We've decided on a new name. Marlin's new name is Ma'ii (Ma-ee) which is Navajo (the local native american tribe here in northern AZ) for "coyote". I know a lot of people on here and in general consider Coyotes to be huge pests, especially those of you who are ranchers or live in rural areas. I've had my fair share of run ins with them myself, but the fact is, I've always greatly respected them, more so then any other wild animal. I chose the name for him because of this and his wild dog routes. I was warned by my husband that here in the south west the name has a sort of negative vibe to it and is associated with tricksters and masters of deception and manipulation. That's my dog in a nut shell!

So Ma'ii it is