I’ve done several international sits - South Korea and a bunch in the UK, but the SK sit was for a family of English language speakers so the dog and cats understood English.
But as I’m applying for a sit in Quebec City (posted in French and English) and have been accepted for a sit in Germany, I just realized - what if the dogs (in both of my situations so far) don’t understand English?
Anyone with some experiences with that? Petermac, Amparo?
Thanks
tom
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I leave a note with the meaning of french words in english, but I insist upon english speaking sitters (or any other language) to be able to use french words : my dogs are not bilingual… Google is no help to give orders to pets !!
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Thanks, I figure I’d make a list of the key words and learn them, but I do find myself having conversations with the critters, too.
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Hi Tom! I have had to learn the key words, commands in the language known to them. Fortunately my folks have also been multi-lingual with one primary for the dogs but interestingly they have also associated hand and body language that the dogs have come to understand.
and of course the common language of love and food 
which everyone responds to so talk away. They as you know, are pretty smart.
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Hello.
French speaker from Québec province here.
If I can help with the basic french commands, I’ll be glad to help. But just to say, I sometimes “talk” in French to my daughter’s three English speaking dogs from Nashville USA, and it seems that my non verbal, gestures and voice tone are most of the time understood by them…
Let’s start with this anyway.
As-tu faim ? Are you hungry ?
As-tu envie de pipi ? Do you need to go pee ?
Veux-tu aller dehors ? Do you want to go outside ?
Donne-moi un câlin ! Give me a nice hug.
Non, non. tu ne jappes pas. Non. no barking.
Well this is the first lesson 
Night night everyone.
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We always ask for a list of commands or key words the dog knows, and that applies in any language.