: My opinion after several dogs, cats, fish, birds, turtles, horses,
: yada-yada-yada, is: Let the animal name itself. Keep the dog around the
: house for a couple of weeks and eventually you will all start calling the
: dog by a "name". It could be "Poochie" or
: "Nickles" or whatever, but eventually it WILL happen. What's
: nice about this method is that you don't need to strain any grey matter
: trying to find a name. The name finds the dog.

: The dog also doesn't lose anything by waiting. It will start responding to
: the new name just as well 2 weeks from now than if you name the dog now.

: I have a dog named Chip, one named Badger, and one named Taz (easy to guess
: why). All of them chose their names although Badger took 3 weeks to find
: his.

Waiting to see how the dog reacts to the world around herself is exactly what I told my son when he mentioned the dilemma of naming the dog. I explained that our first dog was named "Scooter" because she appeared to scoot around where ever she went. Th ename scooter came to me very quickly. I think Ben also needs help choosing a name in case there are no spontaneously obvious ideas. That is why I asked you all to offer up ideas; then Ben can read your offerings and pick the best one.

Incidently, I already suggested he call teh dog "Guinness" then he could call for Guinness over and over again. Hmmm, maybe that might not be such a good idea. It sounds like I'm suggesting my son be trained for his first visit to the local Pub. So much for the Guinness idea. Moving right along!