r/BeAmazed • u/Separate_Finance_183 • 16h ago
Miscellaneous / Others Dog-sitter in Luxembourg tests which language the dog understands
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u/--ofsalt 15h ago
My ex was Norwegian, I went there as an ignorant Brit and for some reason the whole "language barrier with dogs" thing broke me
On the plus side, i know at least as much Norwegian as a dog does!
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u/EatAnyGoodBooks1701 14h ago
My ex is Welsh and deaf. Her dog knows words and commands in English, Welsh and British Sign Language. It’s honestly quite incredible.
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u/Less_Parking2670 12h ago
Our dog "speaks" English, Czech and Finnish + understands many gestures. Outside commands, I speak her mostly English (you know, when just talking something random) and if I instead use Finnish, she looks at me like I suddenly went crazy. So I think she understands much more than she lets us know.
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u/NeoGnesiolutheraner 11h ago
Czechia mentioned!
If I might ask, since this is a quite interesting combination, how come your dog speaks Czech and Suomi?
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u/Ahand_Apart 6h ago edited 6h ago
I think your dog understands cadence and body language.
Do a count-in for each of those languages and notice how you have the same cadence despite being in a different language.
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u/DrEpileptic 3h ago
My gf still thinks my mother’s dog only speaks French. I haven’t had the heart to tell her the dog knows English and just doesn’t like her that much.
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u/pwntahontas 3h ago
Dogs are body language experts. Once you learn their cues you can start to communicate with them on purpose. Simple stuff like the "play bow" that dogs do with each other, you can do the same with your dog.
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u/klicknack 15h ago
Tell me I'm a good boy in Norwegian
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u/Zealousideal-Elk2714 15h ago
Flink bisk!
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u/MoochieButtons 13h ago
(I'd say this is more like 'good mutt', depends on what kind of "boy" u wanna be xD)
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u/MagnusRottcodd 11h ago
Good boy! in Swedish : "Duktig pojke!"
"You are such a good boy!" = "Du är en så duktig pojke!"
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u/Rolifant 10h ago
In Belgium we have something called "vinkenzetting". You sit down on a little chair and listen to how many times a caged finch whistles during the time of the contest.
Here's the kicker ... the Flemish and Wallonian flinches have a separate whistle.
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u/dynamiterolll 13h ago
My cat is from Kuwait so I tried speaking to her in Arabic when I first adopted her and it turns out she doesnt listen to me regardless of language because she's a cat.
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u/GuthukYoutube 10h ago
My cat perks up when I call her name
She won't do anything I want, but she will ackowledge that she's ignoring me
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u/gothgf161 11h ago
My cat understands dinner, kisses and outside in my language. Maybe your cat was just more fancy Kuwaiti and understood only "chauffeur", "hotel", "Michael Kors bag"
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u/bruhbruhbruhbruh1 16h ago
haha found a french dog
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u/ThrownAwayGuineaPig 15h ago
We adopted 2 labradors. Could not understand why saying "walkies"/"walks" etc never worked. The we found out the original owners spoke Afrikaans. Said walkies in Afrikaans (kinda cute actually, "stappies") hey presto!
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u/SquidVices 15h ago
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u/BalmdeBono 15h ago
I know it's a cartoon. I know I shouldn't. I can't explain why but as a french I hate this gif with passion.
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u/SquidVices 15h ago edited 14h ago
Lmfao, I hated watching it as a kid, but now I bring it up for jokes…
(This specific episode not the show)
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u/LongjumpingSkill9305 16h ago
That dog has more culture than I do. Probably owns a beret and can wear it unironically too.
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u/LuckyReception6701 15h ago
It also probably has a cigarette case with an integrated lighter and has a fine taste in wines.
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u/Own_Jacket8720 12h ago
i dont get the joke (please explain im dumb)
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u/Luckiest_Creature 12h ago
The dog is French
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u/Own_Jacket8720 11h ago
sure, but im responding to a different comment talking about culture. how does being french = having culture, is that just how it works? the french have culture?
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u/Luckiest_Creature 11h ago
I don’t know if you’re messing with me here, but I’ll answer earnestly anyway. A stereotype exists about French people being very cultured. In this instance, “cultured” means sophisticated and educated in matters of art, music, fine food and wine, etc.
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u/dassketch 15h ago
Doggo understood all the languages, just wanted to make sure the stand in human knew their place 🤣
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u/pierogi_waystation 10h ago
My schnauzer is bilingual. He is immersed in English and that’s his basic commands/praise language. However, as a fail-safe to ensure that a rando doesn’t command him to do something forbidden, his advanced commands are strictly in German.
It shouldn’t matter because I’m his handler and (theoretically) I’m the only one he should obey for any advanced commands, but it seemed reckless to bet bystanders’ safety on that.
Btw, for some reason, about half of everyone who finds out he’s trained in bitework immediately turns on the spot, picks out a person, and commands him to attack that person. I don’t understand why they do this. They seem delighted, like they’re going to see something amazing they’ve never seen before and like, yeah, I assume you’ve never seen every bone in someone’s arm turned into gravel by 110 lbs of snarling black nightmare.
Luckily he has no idea what the words “attack”, “bite” or “restrain” mean. Thankfully, I’ve never had occasion to use the advanced commands anywhere other than the training grounds and in competition.
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u/Lightofmine 10h ago
Couldn’t they just know the German word for bite?
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u/pierogi_waystation 9h ago
They absolutely could, but there’s a specific German nonsense command phrase that I trained him to associate with the advanced commands. I’ve never seen him posture up without that phrase, even in training when I say the German commands. He becomes a very different animal when he’s in work-mode.
But all of that is really supposed to be fail-safes, and most people who have bite-trained dogs don’t bother with alternate commands. My schnauzer is an excellent dog, but he’s eager to please. Very eager. He loves to show new people how good of a boy he is. I couldn’t be confident that he wouldn’t immediately obey a violent command just to show off how smart he is. That was never an issue in training, but I just couldn’t shake the anxiety that it might be different in the real world.
He has never had a problem, knock on wood. But he does perk up if someone is speaking German, like he’s listening more intently.
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u/Sea-Consequence7156 10h ago
Yeah but at that point it goes beyond playing around to willful intent if not in wurope
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u/NosamEht 8h ago
How, exactly, do you say, “sick balls chopper” in German?
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u/Electrical-Review180 8h ago
Kranke Bälle Hubschrauber
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u/NosamEht 7h ago
Thank you!
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u/Electrical-Review180 1h ago
I feel bad now. It's a literal 1:1 translation
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u/Electrical-Review180 8h ago
That's so cool. What do you do with your dog? Because you're mentioned that you're his handler
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u/rollerblowster 8h ago
You write like a teenage edgelord and I’m fucking here for it! Please write a book it’s so entertaining! I have a colleague who taught her dog in French for exactly this reason.
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u/bringbackfireflypls 6h ago
"This."
Reading OPs comment felt like going back in the reddit time machine to when everybody spoke like massive neckbeards haha
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u/Overall-Bullfrog5433 15h ago
Reminds me of the scene in “Family Guy” when Quagmire mentions a wok and his girlfriend’s dogs explode out of the house and are all over him, misunderstanding his word.
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u/Careful-Highway-6896 11h ago
I remember it blew a neighbor's mind when I talked to my cat in Spanish and the cat understood. He never realized animals could understand other languages.
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u/PerpetuallyDistracte 11h ago
My mom volunteers with the dogs at her local shelter (in the US). She says it's always fun figuring out if they respond to English or Spanish for commands and tricks.
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u/JBeeWX 7h ago
I was visiting France. We had just crossed a road, a gentleman with his dog was crossing shortly behind us. He told the dog “ Vite, Vite” which is “hurry, hurry”, as the light was beginning to change.
I said to my French friend, “omg his dog speaks French!!”
She just stared at me.
Ohhhh, because…
I felt like the biggest dumbass. lol
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u/smellylizardfart 7h ago
Vite means quickly, depeche toi is how you would say hurry up to a dog (at least that's how I remember it from my time in France, je suis rouillée)
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u/CheGueyMaje 3h ago
You don’t really use spazieren gehen in German for walking a dog, normally „gassi gehen“
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u/PrinceofCanino 9h ago
I have two rescue cats and I taught the first one French. He was rescued from a hoarding situation and basically never got individual attention or his own food. So I call him over for some extra treats and love during the day in French and my other cat doesn’t react at all.
It’s cheesy, but I love that he and I have a bond in French.
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u/cuerdala 3h ago
My dog’s first language was Spanish. Whenever kids called him “perrito”, he’d come over wagging his tail. Then we moved to France, and it took him a couple of years to react the same way to “petit chien”.
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u/Chimpar 15h ago
Poor doggo was forced to speak fr🤢nch. Animal cruelty must be tackled!
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u/PaulblankPF 8h ago
It must be said but this was hilarious and you didn’t get enough updoots to properly express that. I always think of how in Futurama they have French people and acknowledge some famous French heads but the professor has a machine that can translate anything but it comes out in a “dead nonsense language” and it’s just French
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u/KadM72 13h ago
Nobody forced them to. Pretty much all Luxembourgers are bilingual or trilingual. French is widely spoken there and is just as much a part of their linguistic landscape as Luxembourgish and German. FYI, Luxembourg shares borders with France, Belgium, and Germany.
But sure, keep bashing the French. All you’re doing is proving how ignorant you are.
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u/junie94 13h ago
As a french speaker, they were just joking, not actual bashing.
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u/Real_Srossics 10h ago
Wait, people hating on the Fr*nch is just a joke? I was being serious this entire time. /s
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u/Blbe-Check-42069 12h ago
Ah man...
Obligatory f**nch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pY-0JfEdLY
You should really check out r/2westerneurope4u , maybe then you'll understand it's a fucking joke.
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u/Duke-Turner137 9h ago edited 7h ago
I have this problem on the border of Mexico and Texas. Cats in America say meow. Spanish speaking cats say miau.
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u/nighttimecharlie 10h ago
I'm a dog sitter for English, French and Spanish speaking dogs. I regularly get confused which language to command the dog. My next client is Serbian, so I'm gonna try and learn a few words to bond with the dog to avoid this situation!
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u/NNiekk 14h ago
Strange that Dutch wasn’t spoken in the vid
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u/Mynonas 14h ago
If this is a legit question, the flag that looks a lot like the Dutch flag is in fact in this case the Luxembourg flag, which has a lighter blue at the bottom. They don't speak Dutch, they speak Lëtzebuergesch (Luxembourgs)
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u/NNiekk 14h ago
I know that was Luxembourgs. It’s why I said I was surprised that it wasn’t also mentioned like all the other languages of the neighbouring countries. Since The Netherlands is also one of those neighbouring countries and languages
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u/Nozinger 14h ago
Because dutch is not an official language of luxembourg. The others are. Except for english but that one was probably included because the person recording knew engliish anyways.
So realistically those are the 4 languages you'd probably learn in luxembourg.
Edit: also the netherlands aren't actually a naeigbouring country of luxembourg.
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u/adoreroda 2h ago
And Luxembourg also has a huge Portuguese community too, so realistically Portuguese is in the mix for spoken languages in Luxembourg as well. Dutch isn't, though
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u/noodlz91a 14h ago
since when does NL share border with Lux?
there's belgium in the west / north / northwest, there's france in the south and germany east.
the video didn't mention dutch because that is so far off.
oh and, please share some of that weed you smoke.
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u/Asyx 9h ago
Not sure where you got the idea from that Dutch makes sense here.
Luxembourg is famously quadrolingual (is that even a word?). Luxembourgian, German, French and English through education.
It used to be the same in the Netherlands where they all were somewhat educated in French, German and English. That stopped when English kinda won as the default international language.
They don't speak those languages because they border those countries. They speak those languages because those are the languages that make sense to know because 100 million people to the west of you speak one of them and 100 million people to the east of you speak another and half the population of this planet speaks the third.
The Netherlands has, like, 20 million people? That all speak at least English?
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u/Eagle_go 11h ago
My grandfather had a German Shepherd that only spoke German. His name was "Shizer".
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u/Round-Claim5420 3h ago
My dumbass cats are from hungary, so obviously they don't listen to my german
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u/ScreenTea0 29m ago
So you want to tell me the women hasn't talked to the owners before talking to and sitting the dog?... Ok.
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u/Salteenz 9h ago
I think the dog is responding more to her tone than the actual words spoken. Say anything to your dog in an excited voice and they will respond.
Im not saying dogs dont understand words, but context, tone and visual cues are just as important
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u/Living-Breakfast-464 9h ago
Looks like the dog was responding to the tone of the voice, which she changed. Not the language. Not amazed.
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u/FanGroundbreaking200 14h ago
I didn't hear any Dutch.. I heard German twice though
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u/Bart_1980 14h ago
You probably heard Luxembourgish, the flags are similar between both countries. 🇱🇺🇳🇱
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u/FanGroundbreaking200 13h ago
I could be. It looked like the Dutch flag to me though
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u/hutchx86 1h ago edited 1h ago
It definitely is the Luxembourgish flag and language. Trust me. :P
The blue stripe in the Luxembourgish flag is a lighter blue than in the Dutch one.
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u/KadM72 13h ago
Luxembourgers speak Luxembourgish, obviously, but also French and German. So you heard English, Luxembourgish, German, and then French.
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u/Over_Ad8762 9h ago
I didn’t even know Luxembourgish was a language! The more you know ✨
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u/hutchx86 1h ago
There's not a lot of us, but we're increasing in numbers! 😁 My boyfriend is learning it for me 😄
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u/Over_Ad8762 14h ago
I also thought I heard German twice. But then I looked at the flags. The first one was not the German flag but don’t know what kind it is
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u/Smooth-Shine9354 16h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/UPOsAgqtBq0Ug