Once I stayed in a house with a dog that only understood Flemish (and it never occured to me try other languages).
Another time, I trained two Golden Retriever dogs (aged 3 and 12) to understand commands in German in a couple of days - after which they seemed to only respond to commands in German. They had not been well trained in English, so when my brother tried to demonstrate that they could infact respond to English they simply ignored him. When I said the same commands in German, they obeyed.
However, German is probably the ideal language for training dogs. I can't imagine what it would be like in French:
"Je t'en prie mon cher chien, de bien vouloir agréer de t'assesoir dans ton pannier et de croire à l'expression de mes sentiments respecteux"
A man walked into a bar with a Beagle under his arm and loudly announced “This is a talking dog and the first person to give me five bucks for him can have him!”
“What a load of baloney,” said the bartender. “Ain’t no such thing as a talking dog.”
Just then the Beagle looked up sadly and said “Please buy me sir. This man has been very cruel to me. He always buys the cheapest dog food, he makes me sleep in the basement and he never takes me for a walk. When I bring him a toy to play with me he yells at me and tells me I’m a bad dog. He has no idea what a special dog I am. I could make him a lot of money but he just says I’m worthless. When he goes away on vacation he won’t take me with him. He makes me go to this kennel that’s like a jail with cages and bars.” The dog then lowered his head and rested his chin on the bar.”
“Wow!” exclaimed the bartender, “you’re absolutely right! That Beagle can talk!” Then he paused with a concerned look on his face. “So why are you selling him so cheap? He’s right, you could make a lot of money with him”.
The owner replied, “Because I’m just sick of his lies.”
Bassets are known to be a vocal breed. They don't just bark, they howl. They also whine to get attention, or when they want something, which sounds like they are "talking." There was a cat just leaving the vet's office the other day while we were waiting for our appointment and the way one of our dog's was carrying on, the cat owner thought it as hilarious. I am used to it I guess but if you have never heard this from a Basset, it is pretty funny. Only one of our dogs is a big talker, one howls more, the other moans.
Our dogs were born in Japan and initially only understand Japanese. So in the beginning with each dog we had to use commands in both languages until they understood English. They have also learned basic commands in German.
They understand human body language quite well and they are particularly good at sensing fear, especially when they are hungry. They are currently learning some new hand signals and touch commands which they seem to respond to better than words in any language. Emergency sirens and some aircraft engines usually trigger howling.
Mine does! Or at least understands. When he starts digging for mice I say "Are you a fine bred dog with a pedgree or are you a strasseköter?" Then he stops digging