Teaching your pup a new language - Crazy...I know

Hi All

I know this might be a silly and uninteresting question. I was talking to my friend the other day about her new dog a little terrier. We got to talking about commands etc as he is only 4 months old. She has been communicating in English and in FRENCH to him! :shock: and he responds to both.
As she studied the language at University and has spent time in a job using it and living in the country she always wanted to teach a new dog both languages or commands as you would say.

I mentioned it to her I had been trying this with my Cav pup Rio, I too speak French, for the first few days he just kept tilting his head sideways as I used the different intonnation in my voice with the language.

Now he responds to commands very well in English and a little in French. I know this could be confusing for him and my parents don't have a clue what I'm saying to him. I just say things like "Where my good little boy/pup" in French and he comes tail wagging etc. Its funny.

Do you guys think its a good idea to continue ? as it seems to work and the lady who runs his puppy class was amazed that he responds to it so quickly all the other dogs just stared at him when he came running back to me on a command in French.

All this at 16 weeks old

Next he will be walking around in a french beret and black n white striped tee shirt LOL ! :lol: :shock:

C'est ce bonne!! Do you use a hand signal too? Sounds like your little one is brilliant. :badgrin:

Yes, ours is bilingual too. I am French, teach French and so we thought it best to teach him everything in both languages. (If he does not want to respond to one language, then we tell him in the other.)

This taught my husband new words...of course he hasn't learned much more than the dog! :x (language learning can be hard for some humans, maybe some day he'll have time to learn my language )

I have a friend who says he's been teaching his puppy commands in all three of his languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese. Dogs learn fast

Dogs don't understand a language in sentences as we do. When you have that long conversation with them, they pick up your feelings; not exactly what you are saying. When they obey commands or requests they are usualy only responding to single words or phrases.

'Would you like a bowl of steak with onions gravy carrots and peas for your dinner ?' meass one thing to the ddog. Te key word 'dinner' tells him he's going to be fed.

The language used doesn't matter provided the dog is taught that word. In obedience work 'stay' means 'stay until I tell you to move' and 'wait' means 'stay there but you will be asked to do something else'. However, both commands will make a trained dog remain in place. If taught in the same manner, one could just as well use the words ' bingo' or ' smile' to mean don't move.

Barbara Nixon said:

If taught in the same manner, one could just as well use the words ' bingo' or ' smile' to mean don't move.

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I taught my dog Bowser to Sit using "Stand" and Lay using "up." It was mighty funny to watch.

Fine unless you get mixed up. :lol:

I use french with my youngest charlie ( who spent the first 11 months there) & English with the others :?

Actually I'm not sure I pronounce it correctly or exactly what i'm telling him ,but he does as he's told ... most of the time :roll:

That's all that matters, Angela.

I speak German, Indonesian, English to Cherrise too.. ( i know weird combo .. :roll: ) Conclusion : Our Cavaliers are just super brilliant dogs ..

My dog knows American Sign Language You should see him signing with his little paws, it's so cute

:shock:

Joanne M said:

My dog knows American Sign Language You should see him signing with his little paws, it's so cute

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That's funny. I taught my old dog French and English. I do BSL (British Sign Language), I could try that out on him!