How Bailey got his not-so-Scotish name...

I like to think of myself as an intelligent person...but sometimes I have my DOH! moments when I really embarrass myself.

In January of 2009, my husband and I went on a couples weekend away to Key West with some of our best friends. As we walked down Duval Street, we passed a pet store with puppies in the window. Now, normally, I would never even look at the puppies in a petshop window because I'm convinced that they all come from puppy mills. But I saw something that caught my eye and I ran back to take a look...

It was a small dog that totally looked like a Collie. But it was tiny! I mean, it was the size of a cat. I've seen Collie pups before and there was something different about this dog. I spoke to the shop keeper (they weren't puppy mill pups, after all - they were puppies from the very few breeders on the island) and she told me it was a Shetland Sheepdog puppy.

I was in love. I had no intention of buying the puppy, as I had two very demanding Alaskan Malamutes and two cats already at home...but I couldn't stop thinking about that puppy!

For weeks, I gazed longingly at pictures of Sheltie pups online and begged my husband for a new dog. I did extensive research on the breed, first to determine if their breed characteristics would mesh well with our family (all signs pointed to yes) and to find tidbits of information that would help me convince my husband that the puppy would make a great addition to our family.

After 5 weeks, he finally agreed, and our new pup flew into Miami International Airport on Valentine's Day, 2009.

Now, this is where I get embarrassed.

The puppy's name was Linden, which I immediately knew that I hated. There was no way I was bringing home a puppy named LINDEN.

Please.

So, I kept trying to come up with something that was cute and would represent where he came from - the Shetland Islands of Ireland.

(Bear with me here)

So, after a few days, I came up with the brilliant idea to name him Bailey - you know, like Bailey's Irish Creme. I named him Little Bailey's Irish Dream - he's AKC registered so I gave him a fancy, long name. My other dogs were named Foxy Cleopatra and Nanook Light of My Life...notice a theme? I like the long names!

So...I named him Little Bailey's Irish Dream, and all was fine and dandy. Then one day, I was on Twitter, talking to my friend in Scotland and he mentioned something about the Shetland Islands...

And I suddenly realized that OH. MY. GOD. I had Ireland and Scotland confused. The Shetland Islands are in SCOTLAND - not IRELAND.

So my sweet little Bailey dog is named after a drink associated with a completely different country.

Hey, I never said geography was my best subject...

Bailey, regardless of the confusion surrounding his name, is very much a "Bailey!"

He's super sweet, cuddly and adorable in every way, shape and form. He's my little darling and I love him much, much more than I love the drink he was named after!

I loved Bailey so much that when he was almost two years old, I wanted another Sheltie. After begging my husband for about two weeks, he somehow caved and agreed that I could bring another dog into the family. At this point, one of our Malamutes had run away and we were down to only two dogs and two cats, so there was definitely room for another puppy...

And that is how Toby joined our family! Toby is the name that the breeders actually gave to him - when we received him, we thought that the name fit his personality so well that we left it as is.

A dog's name can show so much about it's owner. DogFencediy, the invisible fence alternative, knows whether their name be goofy or sweet your dog deserves the best.