a question for people familiar with dog shows and dog names?

Question

i was surfing the net and came across some pictures from a recent dog show. i was wondering why do the dogs have an outragously long name they are registered under, then a short name they are actually called by? what is the significance of the long name?

thanks for the answers guys, ive always wonderd this. my brother has wanted to know too, he has a dog and he gave it a long fancy name just because he could (i cant even remember it half the time, we call him Bark, which is funny because he is the quietist dog EVER) so ill let him know why show dogs have long names, and ill vote on best answer as soon as it lets me.

Answer 1

Not all dog registered names are "outrageously" long, but that is the full name of the dog and has to be unique to that dog and each dog with in a breed has to have a unique name. The first part of the dog's name is often the name of the kennel that the dog came from (sort of like our last name) or if they are not from a reputable breeder with a recognized and respected kennel name then something about where they come from such as "Mountainside's" and then the rest is like the dogs first and middle name and may make a reference to something about one of the parents name.
I have a friend who's dog is named Calico Raspberry Bacardi Calico is the name of the kennel that she comes from and just about anyone in the breed would recognize that kennel name Raspberry Bacardi is one of the owner's favorite liquors and the parents were both named after an alcoholic drink. The dogs "call" name is Bacardi or Bea. Just lake a girls who's first name was Patricia Margarite Johnson might be called either Patricia or Pat. Both of my pure breed dogs registered names are just one word after the Kennel Name. The kennel name for the one breed is very well known by the top breeders and competitors in the breed and the other dog is from a new breed to the AKC so at this time it is not so hard to come up with unique names. In both cases I use that one word after their Kennel name as their call name. Some people like the call name to be part of the registered name other prefer that there is a connection such as a friend who's part of her dog's name is "Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence" and the call name is SETI. For other people there is no obvious connection but is purely a Nickname such as my brother being called Pumpkin when he was young.