An English-speaking woman was shocked to find out that her newly adopted rescue dog only understands commands in Spanish.
Originally, Kalee McGee figured her new chihuahua Max had never gone through basic training, but after spending more time with the pup, she knew that couldn’t be the case since he walked well on his leash and knew where his crate was. It was only then that she found out what the problem was.
McGee shared her discovery on TikTok saying, “We adopted a dog two, three weeks ago, a great little chihuahua four years old from the shelter, no information on him, absolutely adorable, super great.
“He sits when you have a treat in your hand not when you say sit, he knows what a crate is and he walks really well on a leash, so it seems he has some training, but he won’t listen to us so.
“We’re trying to get him to sit, trying to get him to do this stuff for weeks and we can’t figure out why he won’t listen to us. We figured it out, he only speaks Spanish.”
The dog, originally from a rescue in Minnesota before it was relocated to Houston, Texas, came running as soon as his owner figured out he could only understand Spanish. “He was down the hall from the living room. I said ‘ven a qui’ in a regular speaking voice and boom he was at my feet.
“I was elated! But now I need to learn the slang Spanish for ‘outside’, ‘go potty’, ‘sit’, ‘stay’.”
On a mission to teach her dog English, her two-year-old pup has now been picking up a second language. “I say the Spanish word and then the English word. I think he’s still got lots of tricks up his sleeve,” she said.
Since being posted, the viral video has racked up more than 1.3 million likes and over 19,000 comments.
Several users shared some tips on how they train their pups in English, while others made jokes regarding the situation. One user said: “This is adorable. You’ll have to sign him up for a Duolingo account so he can learn English.”
McGee has since been using Google Translate to communicate with Max because she doesn’t actually speak the language. But at least the two now understand each other.