Bilingual dog?

I want to teach Juno English and another language(English first) given that the 2nd language is the home spoken language...not because i want him to be talented! but he also needs to learn english since training classes will be taught in that. Is it possible for a dog to be bilingual? How do you go about teaching him tricks and commands in both languages...which one to start first? will it only confuse him? Has anyone tried? would love to hear stories and your POV

btw: ...new here. Will be getting my pup(Juno) towards the end of May he's currently 8wks & i've met him twice.super excited!!!can't wait to get my baby!...this will be my first dog & I have many questions but this was one that i haven't found an answer to through research.

THANK YOU MUCH IN ADVANCE! =]

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Permalink Reply by Kaitlyn & Chase on May 4, 2012 at 11:06am

I have been teaching Chase his commands in English first and then in Spanish. It makes it easier for him when I use hand gestures while giving the command, then he associates the hand gesture with the command. Sometimes I don't even have use a vocal command, just the gesture and he gets it.
Once Chase learns the command in English with the hand gesture, I begin teaching him the Spanish command using the hand gesture and he catches on pretty quickly!!! :)
I am a language person, I catch on quickly too. I am studying to major in Spanish, German, French and American Sign Language. I would like to teach these to Chase as I learn them :)
It is definately possible and it is really simple when you use the hand gestures!!
Hope this helps!!!

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Permalink Reply by Juno on May 4, 2012 at 11:26pm

def. will try the hand gestures/sign language.

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Permalink Reply by Kevan hudson on May 4, 2012 at 7:16pm

For a start, dogs don't speak English, they don't speak German Italian or any of our languages,if they did they would probably tell us what idiots we are,dogs will respond to a command that is given as they were taught,an action for a vocal command, if you want your dog to respond to different languages,Teach hand signals,A dog IMO is not gonna be bilingual(I live in a bilingual country),I cannot speak French that well and I doubt Ben can either,good luck though!

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Permalink Reply by Terry Irene Blain on May 5, 2012 at 1:13pm

Just a thought - I worked with a bilingual couple (English and French), and when their baby was little, they read up on how to make the child bilingual -- and the best was was for one parent to speak on English to the baby and the other parent to speack only French to the baby. This is to keep the languages from getting mixed together - so for your dog you'd need two trainers, but it's worth a try.

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Permalink Reply by Snickmom on May 5, 2012 at 1:28pm

If your main concern is obedience classes, the instructors teach you what to do, then you tell your dog. The instructor can show you how to teach 'sit' and you then turn to your dog and practice it. You can use your own language or any word of your choice.

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Permalink Reply by justine moeller on May 7, 2012 at 12:02am

Our two guys respond to vocal cues in both English and French. They were brought up us young dogs responding to French and then when they came to our house we taught them English. Dogs are pretty clever when it comes to learning to reply to any language when there is a yummy treat at the end! :)

Now, depending on where we are, they are spoken to in both French and English and get along just fine with it. But I would say for a puppy, stick with simple words, regardless of the language and then when they are older and a little more secure with their training you can add the new language (words) in. Puppy will pick it up quick!