Woman thought dog was unruly – but later discovered he only understood Spanish

A woman, who tried everything to train her ignorant pup, later discovered that he only understood Spanish.

Ariana Giampietro, 26, had been looking after Monty for a week and couldn't understand why he was so disobedient, despite countless attempts to ask him to "sit".

Monty's disobedience prompted Ariana to contact the shelter, which revealed he had previously lived on a farm with a Spanish family.

When Ariana looked up the Spanish translations for "down" and "let's go", Monty immediately listened and obeyed.

Ariana, an adoption case manager for children in care from Gainesville, Florida, US, said: "I had had Monty for eight days and was really confused why he wasn't responding to commands.

"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 realised it was because he only knew Spanish, I was amazed.

"I was so happy to understand where the dissonance came from.

"After I started speaking to him in Spanish, it was like he settled right in."

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Ariana decided to start fostering pitbulls after losing her own pitbull, Jack, at the age of seven to cancer in November 2022.

Heartbroken, Ariana decided to make it her mission to help the breed however she could - as she realised they are "stigmatised".

She said: "Before having Jack, I never realised how compassionate p

itbulls are, they're so loving and loyal.

"I wanted to make it my life mission to raise awareness of that because there is the stigma that they're all violent and can't be trained - which is not true."

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Speaking about Monty, Ariana said: "Now he is on the fast track to becoming bilingual, we think."

"It's weird - 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 stigma says pitbulls are violent and can't be trained, which is obviously not true at all.

"They are so responsible and loyal, and we need more loving people to take in these magnificent dogs."

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