Question of gender and pets

[Emily Saunders]

Hello!

I'm about to introduce noun gender and pet vocabulary to my Beginning Russian students and I'm preparing for the inevitable question that will follow -- "If my dog is a boy and собака is feminine, do I say вот она, or её зовут, or..."  

And I've never been able to get an entirely satisfactory answer to the question of what you do when the default vocabulary word for a pet is feminine, but the actual pet is a male.  So hypothetically someone is asking about the name of your boy-собака:  Как её зовут? How do you respond?  Is there any etiquette to correct the gender assumption.  Do you treat your male-собака as grammatically feminine?  

I'd love a smattering of advice in how this is handled?  In English if someone asked about my male cat:  What's her name?  I'd respond simply, "His name is Jack."  Does the same hold true in Russian?  

Thanks in advance!

Emily Saunders
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