Stop naming your dogs human names
My first name is Brody, a pretty cool surfer name. You could almost picture a sun-soaked beach bro with six-pack abs and wavy hair, right? Well, think again, because whenever I tell people my name they always give me the same response: “Oh, Brody, that’s my dog’s name.” I doubt these people are naming their dogs human names to be condescending towards people. However, if I despised a person, I would consider naming my dog after them. I have found that in a conversation, it is by far one of the most demeaning things in the world to be compared to a mutt that uses the ‘great outdoors’ as its restroom.
It is also a dehumanizing experience when you’re in the same room as a dog with the same name as yourself. For instance, I’ve already had two encounters with dogs named Brody, and both times the dogs were misbehaving. Last summer, I was on a hiking trail with my friends in Lake Tahoe and this medium-sized Australian shepherd came towards us. It started sniffing my friend playfully, and the owners started yelling at the dog in a stern voice “BRODY! Leave those people alone!” As if that alone wasn’t uncomfortable enough for me, when the dog obediently came back to its owners, they praised the pup by saying, “Good boy, Brody!” As we walked by these people, my friends couldn’t help but shout out of their big mouths to the hikers, “We have a Brody too!” As they proceeded to point at me, everyone was laughing; however, it took all the courage I had just to muster the slightest of a chuckle.
This is an open letter but also a plea to the community to come together and stop naming your dogs human names. This is also a letter of solidarity to all those people who share names with dogs, especially the Maxes and Bellas of the world.
