How My Dog Named Himself
How My Dog Named Himself
The story about how 'Oli got his name, and the pet tag we trust to speak for him when we can't.
You can’t get a dog tag until your dog has a name… or can you?
The story of how ‘Oli essentially named himself is coming and you are free to scroll through this portion of today’s post if you just can’t wait, however we are excited to first share with you the safe, sustainable, and advanced dog tag we have trusted since before ‘Oli was even ‘Oli.
Selecting a name can be a tumulutous process with much deliberation but deciding on which dog tag to buy to house that name doesn’t have to be.
The purpose behind a dog tag, when it comes down to it, is one thing and one thing only: safety. It is not something you want to put off while you finalize a name, instead invest in a tag where you can update the name as many times as you want!
Naming your pup may take time, but you can protect them from day one with a ByteTag.1
Pet tags speak for your pup when you cannot.
When choosing a tag it is important to consider if this tag will give your dog the best chance of making their way back to you in the event they ever stray away. But inorder to do that the tag needs to house some of your personal information and these days who wants there contact information out on display in public just in case of an emergency?
Personally, I am not a fan of the idea that my phone number and address could be available to anyone who gets close enough to ‘Oli when we are out and about.
Luckily, ByteTag has created a solution to this by adding a lost mode where you can toggle when your information is available via the QR code. Not only that but if the ByteTag is ever scanned you will received a text notification with the date and time when the scan occurs. And regardless of if you are in lost mode or not, the scanner has the option to send you their current GPS location! Which means even if you don’t have a chance to activate lost mode in the event that your pet gets loose, the scanner still has the means to share valuable information with you without ever seeing your phone number.
To put it simply, there are 4 key reasons ByteTag is safer and more advanced that your standard dog tag:
ByteTag’s Key Safey Features We Love
Personal info can be updated in seconds which is very important if you ever move, get a new number, or need a last minute pet sitter, etc.
No limit to the amount of information you can include in the tag: things you would have to leave off of a regular pet tag like health information (critical medications or allergies) can be easily included.
Privacy! Your personal information is not on display for the general public and can be virtually hidden until lost mode is enabled
GPS location sharing capabilities. The exact location of the tag can be shared by anyone that scans the tag at the time of the scan.
Not only are ByteTags the safest option when it comes to dog tags, they are also a very sustainable option since you won’t have to buy a new tag anytime the info on the tag needs to be edited.
Using your free ByteTag account, any and all information can be updated in real time. This is a huge benefit for those us who need time to settled on a name. And once you finally have the perfect name, you can update the tag in seconds!
Like much of my puppy nursery items, I bought ‘Oli’s first tag before he was even born. At the time he sort of had a name but… it wasn’t ‘Oli, and thats because he sort of named himself.
Here’s the story:
Once I had finally selected a puppy the next thing to do was to finalize a name. I took his name very seriously and it wasn’t until he was a real puppy right in front of me where naming began to feel daunting.
I started to realize how many names existed in the world and that any one of them could be his. But it wasn’t just about finding a name I liked, it was also about what name captured his spirit.
The name I had picked for ‘Oli before I even had a litter decided on, started as a joke.
‘Oli’s poppaw’s name is Abraham and back when we had no plans to get a dog and only watched dogs through Rover, we would chat about a future in which we had our own dog and began referring to this hypothetical pup as Lincoln.
We would sit around in our living room or on a drive around the island starting sentences with, “Our dog Lincoln…”
When I began looking for the right pup to join our family we continued to refer to this little guy as Lincoln, that is until we met him.
‘Oli just didn’t feel like a Lincoln to us. He was a goofball, full of personality and joy.
I was at a loss.
For months I was sure his name would be Lincoln. I hadn’t even though twice about the name, and now I had no idea what to name him.
Lincoln was of course already typed into the ByteTag prior to meeting ‘Oli but luckily it would be easy to edit so this was one less concern I would have in changing his name.
Being the extra dog mom I am, I not only had had Lincoln picked out and on the tag but I had a middle name too!
His name was going to be Lincoln Kolu.
Kolu because it is the hawaiian version of the name Thor and Uncle Thor was who influenced us to want a cattle dog in the first place. Additionally, E’kolu in hawaiian is “three” and our little guy was going to be the third member of our family, it seemed like a fitting name.
So why isn’t ‘Oli’s name Kolu then?
Well if you read our post: Pick of the Litter, then you know there was a brief period of time in which we were deciding between two puppies and during this time none of the puppies had names.
We had been referring to the three puppies that met our criteria as double patch, single patch and joy boy (aka goofster, goofy boy, the one with the white spot, etc.)
Once we had meet the puppies in person and double patch had been ruled out, we still had to make a final decision between the two puppies. Both with a single patch over their left eye, and it was getting quite confusing to not have names for them while discussing which to select.
So, we named them. Single patch became Kolu and Joy boy became ‘Oli.
‘Oli means joy in hawaiian.
When we began referring to the boys this way the initial plan was whichever pup we picked would keep that name as their middle name and their first name could still be Lincoln.
When we went to visit the puppies one more time before we made our final decision we mentioned we had named the two boys. The breeders began calling our boy ‘Oli and we continued to call him ‘Oli. While we looked at other first names, still unsettled on Lincoln and the only thing that would come to mind was how much joy my little boy contained.
Friends and family started to ask me about him and I began telling them we were calling him ‘Oli for now and they all beamed, “‘Oli is such a cute name!” I made him an Instagram and put his name as ‘Oli. He came home and we still were calling him ‘Oli.
By the time we would give him a first name he was already just ‘Oli.
In a sense he came with his name. As Joy had defined him from the start.
The joy he radiated in every photo and video, the joy I was missing in my life, the joy he holds in his heart. The perfect name to capture his spirit was already his name.
He is joy. He is ‘Oli.
P.S. a fun little anecdote on Lincoln:
The name Lincoln wasn’t for nothing. It was another glitch in the matrix that led ‘Oli to me.
Back when I was looking for any and all signs about which litter to pick I had looked up the birthday’s of both litters, and this is what had come up when I searched ‘Oli’s birthday:
While I know next to nothing about the meaning behind birthday’s nor do I really follow things like this, there are thousands of people who could have been listed as the first famous person with the same birthday number however whatever site I was looking on listed Abraham Lincoln for ‘Oli’s litter.
I don’t even know what a birthday number is but the sign here was clear as day to me. The litter born on June 3rd had my puppy in it.
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