Each will have a registered name and a regular name, chosen by their new families. Their registered names will begin with "Brandywine" and then generally be or contain their regular names. Nothing too fancy. They won't be trotting circles for the approval of some schlub in a monkey suit, so there's no need for chest-thumping when naming them. Just something unique that will make it possible to identify them in pedigrees. There are just eighteen possible registered names that their new humans cannot choose from, so it's pretty wide open. And they can call the dog whatever they wish. That's his real name, the one to which he answers. One does well to consider this task weighty, but not solemn.
Every burrower, each flier
Came for the name he had to give:
Gay, first work, ever to be prior,
Not yet sunk to primitive.
Came for the name he had to give:
Gay, first work, ever to be prior,
Not yet sunk to primitive.
Meanwhile, they need baby names, Earthsean use names, as they learn to become individuals.
So, some introductions.
Gilda is a petite thing who will look like her Mom, except for her coloring -- dainty limbs and ultra-feminine head and face. She is the blackest, glossiest black. She loves to snuggle.
Jane, Bill, Laraine, Garrett, Gilda and Chevy, very nice to meet you one by one. I am trying very hard to make arrangements to come out and meet all of you. Plus the farm you live on and all the other creatures, great and small, that share the earth with you. Looking forward to the next update!
ReplyDeleteAwww! I'm drawn to Bill.
ReplyDeletewell aren't they adorable! I think my ideal ES looks a lot like Gilda.
ReplyDelete$5 says Chevy ain't leaving Brandywine Farm or losing his username.
ReplyDeleteDorene
Oh dear,
ReplyDeleteHas the English Shepherd Registry adopted the Dog Fancy dopeyness that dog names cannot be used more than once? Say it isn't so.
Donald McCaig
I swear to Dog, if I find one more Wilson's Shep or Penny or Dixie or whatever in a pedigree who is not an already-known dog of that name ...
ReplyDeleteIf your last name is Wilson, choose a different damned registered name. Wilson's Good Shep is quite acceptable. Wilson's Lucky Penny. I do not care.
Or another pedigree for "Mann's Texas Ranger" who may or may not be the one, or two, or who knows how many, "Mann's Texas Rangers."
It is one thing if you have had a registry tagging numbers onto each animal since the start of record-keeping, and actually publishing a studbook. Though why it is more respectful for a dog to be anonymous until you recite the 6439 after his name eludes me.
Don't even get me started on the name changes. Every time a dog changed hands, they'd change his damned *registered* name. Leading to our ex post facto "Are you the Daddy?" mysteries. Oh, and dual- and triple-registered dogs with two or three different registered names.
The #1 job of a registry is to keep an accurate accounting of the genetic history (and present state) of a breed. The commercial registries utterly failed to do so.