Happy Birthday Bailey!

I have two dogs.  They are both West Highland White Terriers (Westies).  Beanie, my first and older dog was born on 21st November 2005 in Adelaide, Australia.  She's since semi-travelled the world, having lived in Australia for a short stint in puppyhood, Singapore, and is now living out the rest of her days as an English dog in the UK.  According to my neighbour, she still doesn't understand English too well, but does alright with Australian.

Today, Bailey, my second female Westie is born.  The first time I set my eyes on little Bailey was when she was 3 weeks old, a faceful of rice pudding in Buckinghamshire.  The runt of the litter and the quiet, small one of her pack of 3 girls and 3 boys, she was the last puppy left to be sold by her breeder.

You know how they say choose a name when you meet a dog so that it'll have a name when you bring it back home?  One couldn't very well call her "Pudding" though that was tempting.  Or "Polar" since she looked like a little polar bear.  So she was "it" and "the new puppy" and nameless for quite a long time.

It finally dawned on me to enlist the help of current dog Beanie who had a well chosen, aptly picked name.  Scribbled all suggestions from friends and family, including Facebook entries in a "name my dog" competition I'd called, and out of the tiny scraps of paper mouth-picked by Beanie was a well chewed scrap that had "Bailey" etched on it.  It was actually the most voted suggestion from colleagues and Facebook friends, in line with the tagline "let your taste decide"... was quite apt of the little one and her rice pudding adventures.

I don't want to end a post without a lesson learnt though, since this is all about everything I've trawled the internet in the past 4 years to find about doggy training and ended up learning differently anyway through trial and error.

One thing I found frequently on pet advice sites when searching for dog names was the advice not to name your puppy similarly to the name of the one you have now.  Now this advice I can't say I've heeded too well, since Beanie and Bailey sound like a pair, not surprisingly because alliteration and rhyme in the English language are pleasant to our ears.  Pleasant enough, I suppose to doggy ears too, but confusing also.  Typically when I give a command now, instead of one dog obeying what I've asked, I now get two.  When calling a name (any name) two pairs of eyes look in my direction, instead of one.  It cracks me up, and is absolutely hilarious, but not all that clear if you're going for clarity, distinction and ease of learning.

In hindsight, I should have named Bailey "Odie" as I'd intended, or "Inu" or "Pudding" or "Trouble".  Alas, Bailey's name stuck, so Bailey it is.