A little while ago we did a post on our Facebook talking about why we change the names of the dogs who come into the rescue and have had some questions since so thought we'd discuss this policy and why we do it in more detail here!
Working with rescue dogs means we often work with dogs from all different backgrounds and with all different pasts which sometimes means we get to work with dogs who have been in difficult situations. Those who know us, know we work quite closely with the behavioral team at Holistic Hounds and often end up offering placements for dogs who have been working with the training team and for whatever reason, things just aren't working out. Choosing to rehome your dog can be a really difficult decision but can often be the best one for both the family and dog involved and it is not a failure to have to rehome your dog if circumstances change.
We launched Hopeful Hounds in order to offer rehoming more specifically to dogs that needed further training and may have behavioral issues needing professional help in order to overcome. So as we've said, due to the fact that we have the expertise, time and experience needed to successfully help these kinds of dogs where other facilities may not be able to, we often get requests from Holistic Hounds or other trainers who need a facility who can provide that one to one care and attention in order to successfully find long term placements for more challenging dogs.
So as such, we do often work with dogs who have been working with professional trainers in the past and, as we work closely with the team at Holistic Hounds, it is sometimes inevitable that other clients recognise the dogs we work with. Which brings us onto the biggest reason we decided to make it as standard that we change dogs names when they come to us fr rehoming.
1. To protect the identity of the dog and their previous owner
Although this is an inevitable part of rehoming and we can't stop people from recognising the dogs we work with, in order to try and protect the identity of both the dogs and the owners who we work with, we decided changing dog's names was a good first step. Choosing to rehome your dog, especially after working really hard with training and things not working out as planned, can be a difficult decision and a lot of the owners we work with have really tried incredibly hard to make things work and really do want the best for these dogs. So as a way to attempt to protect the identity of the former owners and reduce the likelihood of them being recognised by others who may have known them previously.
2. It signifies their new start
One of the other big reason's why we change their names is as a way to signify their new start! Getting a new name as they start their rehoming journey gives them a new start and means they can start their journey as a new pooch! Giving the dogs a new name when they first come into the facility is a great way to signify their new start and give them a fresh start to their training journey and we love the process of getting to know them and picking them a new name that we think signifies their new start with us.
3. It allows you as followers to be involved in their journey
We decided when we started to rename dogs that a nice way to get our followers physically involved with the journey of our dogs by allowing you to be a part of picking their new name! So we decided instead of just picking a new name, we'd pick 2-3 names we liked for them and have followers pick which one they liked best for the dog. It means our followers get to be a part of their journey from the beginning and we've found our followers really enjoy being involved in picking their new name at the start of their journey! It also gives our followers a sense of knowing the dogs we work with really well as they got to be a part of the naming process right at the begining!
The aim of renaming the dogs is not to disrespect the previous owners, hide anything or because we just don't like their names! It's a policy we decided on mainly out of respect for the dogs previous owners and as a way to protect the dogs and owners we work with so even though it may not be common practice at a lot of other rescues, we hope you can understand why we chose to do it!
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