Abandoned dog Archie only responds to French accents

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world

Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

A charity is struggling to communicate with a rescued dog because it only responds to commands delivered in a French accent.

Staff at Dogs Trust Harefield in London must mimic the accent to interact with Archie, a Jack Russell Terrier who was brought to the centre earlier this year after being abandoned by his owner.

Archie's penchant for the French accent began after primary school teacher and volunteer Marie-Helene Leoni, who is originally from Savoie in the French Alps but now lives in London, began taking him home at weekends.

Ms Leoni, 57, said she would sing French songs to Archie and call him French pet names.

"I'd... call him French pet names such as Toutou - which is what children in France call dogs. I call him Poupounette too, which translates as 'lovely doggie' and mon petit chou, meaning 'my little darling', and after that he started trusting me more and more. And because Archie was responding so well to what I was saying, staff at the centre started to speak to him in a French accent.”

Lizzie Smith, a canine carer at the trust, said Ms Leoni’s “patience, love and devotion” had helped restore Archie’s confidence after he was abandoned.

“[Ms Leoni] does have a lovely French accent, and it’s astonishing to see the way Archie will only react when he hears it – which means during the week when he’s back with us, the staff try to replicate Marie-Helene’s accent, with varying degrees of success," added Ms Smith.

Staff at the trust say Archie, who is four years old, is now ready to be rehomed. They add “it would be a bonus if [the family] can speak in a French accent”.