BELLA for dogs and Misty for cats - these are the most popular canine and feline names in Ipswich.

Pet Insurance Australia's top animal names for our region also show pooch lovers embraced Buddy, Charlie, Max and Missy for their dish-lickers while Tiger, Bandit, Bella and Leo were the city's favoured kitten monikers.　

The region's top 10 dog and cat names are short, sharp and simple, reflecting pet owners' innate ability to choose labels that pets will easily recognise and respond to.

Ipswich animal behaviour consultant Jen Higgins trains about 100 tail-waggers a year and said getting a pet to understand their name was one of the most important steps in training.

It was also vital to ensure the name did not sound like common commands such as no, sit, stay, come, down or fetch as animals sometimes struggled to tell the difference between similar sounding words.

"Essentially you need to keep the name short, so one or two syllables as this makes it easier for them to recognise and respond to it," the Doggy Dogma owner said.

"When we train a dog to recognise its name we prepare it with some food so it becomes a good thing."

You can use dog name training techniques to teach cats to respond when called.

IPSWICH'S TOP 10 PET NAMES

DOGS, CATS

Bella, Misty

Buddy, Tiger

Charlie, Bandit

Max, Bella

Missy, Leo

Roxy, Max

Bear, Apollo

Molly, Bluebell

Hugo, Coco

Shadow, Daisy

Source: Pet Insurance Australia.

- ARM NEWSDESK