Got a pup last week and my wife and I were pretty set on the name “Nova”. We both like it and I primarily hunt with my Benelli Supernova, hence the name fit. Then it occurred to me... it could be a big issue to name her that because it’s not very distinguishable from correcting behavior with “No”.

That being said, what’s your vote?

1) change the name while the pup is still young (about 9 weeks) and don’t look back?

2) leave the name since she is already starting to pick up on it and use another word for discipline like “stop”

Or 3) don’t worry about it and make sure voice inflection gets the discipline across when it presents itself.

Feel free to offer other suggestions and I appreciate the help.

#3 hell my dog has lots of names including “damn it” and “did you do that “.

#1

Say "Stop it" in place of "No". "Leave it" can often be used in place of no as well" I prefer those over "No" and my dog's name does not sound like "no". If you have other dogs that are already trained to "No". you might want to go with #1.

#1

Another question while I am at it. If this pup is going to be trained with the word "whoa" as she points, there isn't much difference between that and no either? It sounds like the same predicament to me. Am I over thinking this?

"Whup" will work for whoa. Along with a few colorful words.

1-“no” is the first thing all of mine have learned. Followed by “no damnit”.

X3

Friend named his dog Bo. He always got distracted when some would command whoa.

I would change it just to make sure there are clear lines in the commands. I always take this into consideration when forming a name. However if you like the name enough I think you could make it work.

#1

It just depends on your habits.
If you use the word No a lot, I would change the dogs name.
My daughter took in a dog named Noel. Every time they called the dog, their other dog thought he was in trouble.
Noel is now Lexi.

I seldom use No with my dogs, so it wouldn't be a problem.

I'd agree with many here, and recommend changing the name. Anything to empower success and prevent confusion. It will just be too easy to default to no, even if you build the good habit, others might not. Same reason I'll never name another dog Max, their Maxs' would ignore them and my Max would be cowering at our feet wondering why he was getting yelled at by them.

I also use "hold" instead of "whoa" to avoid the confusion with "no" because I don't want "hold"/whoa to have any punitive connotation for the dog. but that's just me.

In any case, enjoy that pup!

I use "Wait" instead of Whoa. Eventually a verbal pointing command was mostly removed for hunting. As a pup the command "wait" was taught to stop before walking through any doorway with me. Only when I say "ok" or tap him on the head would he be released to proceed through the door. My dog 8 years later still stops at doorways and gates unless I have called him through, tapped him on the head, or say "ok". The only confusion I ever encounter with saying wait is with other hunters when I calmly say wait ( indicating to my dog to stop and stay behind for example) and the fellow hunter walking with me also stops thinking I told him to wait. I never used "whoa" other than a few times early on I blurted it out by mistake out of old habit from previous dogs so he probably would associate it with "wait" if in a calm tone. Though I don't use "no" it will also come out by mistake if I am angry, but I could say any word in a firm or angry tone and he knows he is doing something wrong.

I used hold for retriever training. "hold" and "give". Again as a pup, I played the hold/give game with dog toys or any object my pup brought me. That dog to this day will sit and play the hold/give game for as long as anyone will pass an object back and forth with him. It made for an easy natural hold and release to hand when it came to real training/hunting.

Change the name. You are spot on about "Nova" and "NO!" being too close!

Go with "Nellie!"

I’m sure my dog thinks her name is “What did I say”. 😜😜