SAN DIEGO — January is National Train Your Dog Month and it's now available in English or Spanish.
In this Zevely Zone, I headed to the San Diego Humane Society for 'Dog Espanol'. That's where I found Freddy Zuniga, a bilingual animal trainer teaching Spanish to a three-year-old dog named Rocky.
"Sit, sientate," said Freddy. "Vamanos." Freddy explained some of the dog commands he was working on. "Sientate means sit and then you have '"ven" which means come, "echate" means lay down," said Freddy.
The Humane Society is world famous for training animals, yet the organization had to come to terms with a skill that some of their trainers were lacking. "We've had very few Spanish speakers and no fluent Spanish speakers, so when folks reached out to us looking for resources to ask for help with their dogs, we have had very limited ways to support them," said Juliette Nash.
The Community Animal Training Manager vows to never say the words 'No habla Espanol' again.
"We have already translated all of our training and behavioral articles into Spanish, we have filmed a couple of training videos on different methods in Spanish and we are in the process of translating our behavioral and training lectures into Spanish as well," said Juliette.
Juliette told us San Diego is filled with Mexican American families, some of whom want their dogs trained in Spanish.
"If you look up dog training in Spanish or Spanish-speaking dog trainers in San Diego you really don't find much," said Juliette.
This is why the shelter is proud to now offer animal training to dogs and their owners in Spanish. "Bringing Freddy on the team has been incredible and I think it will be life-changing for families here in San Diego," said Juliette.
"I would appreciate it if the Spanish community started coming out and seeing what kind of training we do have here at the San Diego Humane Society because it is something that I think the community will benefit from," said Freddy.
He loves dogs because the language they speak is universal. "When you are having a bad day, you come home and open your door right and they are right there greeting you. They are not mad at you, right? They are just happy," said Freddy.
For more information on dog training in English or Spanish at the San Diego Humane Society, click here.