What Is A Male Dog Called?

In English there are many animals that have gender specific words.  Male elk are called bulls, females are cows and male guinea pigs are called boars while a female is called a sow.

I think we are all familiar with at least one name for a female dog.  But what about male dogs?  What is a male dog called?  The quick and easy answer is ’dog’. 

Unless you are referring to a specific trait that not all male dogs have, a male dog is called a dog. 

What Is A Sire Dog?

Colloquially, dogs aren’t often called sires, however in some cases it is appropriate.  When you are referring to a dog who is a dad and want to specifically bring this fact up, you could call him sire. 

Sire is used more often by breeders to discuss a dog’s lineage. 

Sire is also used as a verb in the dog breeding world.  When a dog is the sire of puppies, it is said that he sired them.

What Is A Neutered Male Dog Called?

Though often used to refer to just males, neutering is actually done to both male and females. 

To reference a male neutered dog’s gender, you would call it castrated.  In everyday conversation you likely won’t hear this though, the catch all terms neutered and fixed are more popular.

What Is A Stud Dog?

A stud dog is a male dog that has not been castrated and is kept for breeding.  Like with the word neutered, when used in casual conversation, a stud dog generally means the male dog that is being bred with a female dog.

Often, the owner of the female dog will pay the owner of the stud dog to impregnate her.  And it is usually the owner of the female dog chooses which dogs to breed.

A male dog who is both successful at impregnating female dogs and produces high quality puppies for show or sale will command a higher price.

Etymology Of The Word Dog

In Old English dogs were commonly called hunds and in Middle English, hounds.  Hounds these days is used in reference to specific breeds dogs used for hunting.  These came into English through its Germanic ancestor. 

Though used much more sparingly during these times, there were also the words dogga, docga, and dogge.  These eventually morphed into our modern word dog.

Unlike hound, linguists have yet to figure out where the earlier versions of the word dog came from, nor how they came into the English language.

Summary: What Are Male Dogs Called?

What are male dogs called? Dog, is what male dogs are called.

As we’ve seen, if you want to reference a specific type of male dog, there are plenty of words. These words revolve around breeding male dogs or their lack of ability.

But when it comes to male dogs in general, aside from the goodest boys, dog is it.  If you’re not worried about whether the dog or dogs you are referring to are male or female, there are tons of other words to call them.