I adopted an adult Akita (7 yrs old) who was named Bandit, but that name just didn't do justice to the beautiful, proud dog... so I changed it to Beowulf! From the get-go I called him Beowful when petting him, feeding him, playing with him, etc... he understood his new name in less than a week. Old dogs really can learn new tricks!
But I do think that Sugar is a very sweet name!