Montreal bylaw requires dogs understand commands in both official languages

[jberryhill]

2. This came up before with a seeing-eye dog at a Francophone college campus

The thing is, well trained dogs don't respond to commands by strangers in the first place.

If you have to tell a dog, other than your own dog, to do something, tone matters a lot more than whatever word you say.

I was sleeping in a hammock on a porch in a small town in Brazil one time, and the owner's dog had wandered by, picked up one of my shoes, and was starting to walk off with it.

I awoke with a start when my wife saw the dog and shouted, "Hey!"

The dog stopped and looked at her with the shoe hanging comically from its mouth, and in a scolding tone she said, "Drop it!"

The dog looked suitably chastened, put down the shoe, and wandered off.

I guarantee you that dog had never heard a word of English in its life. They are much more about tone and posture than language.