Is it Redundant to Have a Pet Name for a Dog?

Allison and I are, I hate to say it, German Shepherd Dog (GSD) fanciers. Actually, I guess this isn't really true since we eschew breeding related activates, opting instead for rescue. "Breeding related activities." Sounds like a euphemism.

We've noticed that people tend to label GSD's with vainglorious and/or Germanic names like King, Kaiser, Fritzie, Zeus, Wolfgang and Heidi.

I've yet to meet an Adolph or Fuhrer. I've known a few Rommels but I guess that’s ok since he was a General (the Desert Fox Terrier?)

Speaking of WWII tank commanders, a little known fact that 15% of all bull terriers are named Patton (General George's favorite breed.) After WW1 he brought home his first Bull Terrier and named it "Tank." His sidekick while he kicked Nazi butt was a dog, named William the Conqueror (pet name Willie who had his own set of dog tags.) A Bull Terrier won the on 2006 Westminster dog show, no doubt leading to a huge increase in their popularity. NOTE - Bull Terriers are NOT Pit Bulls.

Back to GSDs - it turns out that breeders have an even more Teutonic edge. Look at this list of GSD breeders (I'm not making any of this up.) Rotterbarental , Gebirgshaus , Vom Paukenschlag, Kiesthaus (specializing in giant & oversized dogs), Kiesthaus (specializing in “Huge/Awesome” dogs) Vom Haus Dettmer, Vom Brandon Haus , vom Himmelhoch , Holtgrew's, Haus Juris, von der Graf GSD's, Alpenhof, and von Trapp Family Breeders.

Ok, I made the last one up.

After WW1 GSDs were renamed (as a breed) Alsatians in England to avoid the negative connotation with trench warfare and global misery.

Anyway, I waste a lot of time thinking of funny names for GSD. We named our latest adoptee (shown above and a rescue from New Orleans who had an interim name of Neville) Rebel. His full name? Rebel Yellen.

Here are some other names under consideration:

Schmutzy (sounds German, right?)
Shedsy (we may rename Rebel)
Schmaltzy
Lord (Why yes, Lord IS my shepherd)
Dongle
Dufus

If I had 2 GSDs, one pure black and one pure white, how could I not name them Ebony and Ivory, and hope that they lived in perfect....

I've always thought that the dog show world (parodied effectivly in Christopher Guest's movie "Best of Show") is not only weird but vaguely racist. Dog shows are largely about "confirmation" which means how closely they conform to the breed ideal. A little too eugenic for me. However, in an interesting bit of reverse discrimination - pure white GSDs are generally bannedfrom shows. A dog can be pure black, or any sort of mixed color, but not pure white. There are even white shepherd organizations to promote the pure race - er breed. Ironically (?) Hitler had a white GSD named Blondi. I've got to stop now. I'm getting dizzy.