Woman thinks her new dog is ignoring her, but he only understands Spanish

(Picture Credit to Edgar Olvera/Getty Images)

A dog mom believed her foster puppy was not paying attention to her but it turned out he could only understand Spanish. The Mirror reports.

Ariana Giampietro was taking care American Pit Bull mix Monty and couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t sit when she told him to. She spoke to his foster family. They told her that he’d previously lived on a farm with a Spanish family. They told her that he could only understand what they spoke.

Making Monty Bilingual

The 26-year-old used the Spanish words for ‘down’ and ‘let’s go’. Monty immediately knew what to do. The puppy was smarter than she imagined. His Spanish-speaking dog mom has been teaching him commands in English. The bilingual dog Soon, I will be moving into an English-speaking forever residence.

“I had had Monty for eight days and was really confused why he wasn’t responding to commands,” explained Ariana, an adoption case manager for children in care. “I could tell he wanted to – he was listening to me, but it was like he didn’t know how.

“Once I found out about his background, and realized it was because he only knew Spanish, I was amazed. I was thrilled to discover the origin of the dissonance.

“After I started speaking to him in Spanish, it was like he settled right in. He started getting ‘zoomies’, and his overall confidence skyrocketed because all of a sudden we weren’t alien to him.

“Nothing prepares you for the shock of being able to bridge that cultural divide. I was shocked but so excited when it all made sense.”

Learn Spanish

Ariana started fostering Pit Bulls after Jack, her Pit Bull, was tragically lost to cancer at seven years old.

Monty was her first foster. Andrew, her partner, is fluently bilingual in Spanish and was able help her train him. And now, Monty’s confidence has increased to the point where he’s even playing with Lucy, their other dog.

“It’s weird,” said Ariana. “I had been telling my boyfriend for so long that I wanted to learn Spanish, and I downloaded Duolingo but never used it.

“Andrew now laughs about it because having a Spanish-speaking boyfriend never made me commit to Duolingo – but having a Spanish-speaking dog has.”

The post Woman Thinks Her New Dog Is Ignoring Her, but He Only Understands Spanish This article was first published on DogTime.