Cent the bilingual Border Collie who only responded to commands in Polish has said “cześc” - hello in Polish, to his new owners, the Mroz family from Chelmsford, after 16-year-old Dominic and his mum Jolanta spotted the canine linguist’s unusual story on the television.

Cent the Border Collie was brought to the RSPCA centre in Oldham, Greater Manchester in September when his Polish owners could no longer look after him.

Staff initially thought that he may be deaf but after testing his hearing, they realised there was language barrier.

Animal care assistant Luke Johnson said: “At first, we were baffled because Cent couldn’t understand what anyone was saying to him. It was only a few days later when it dawned on us that he must be used to hearing commands in Polish.

"As soon as we started using the Polish commands, Cent responded instantly which was great and he really has come on leaps and bounds."

 You can read about Cent the Polish Border Collie's story here.

The RSPCA team spent four months training Cent, who is now able to respond to many commands in English. However, his language skills won’t be wasted in his new home, where his new owners speak both English and Polish.

Jolanta said: “He understands Polish really well and he’ll immediately react to a lot of commands. He’s so clever though and he understands English as well now, so we speak to him in both languages.

“We had been looking for a dog already, but we spotted Cent on the television and because we are of Polish origin, his story really stuck with us.

“As we live down in Essex and Cent was up near Manchester, I didn’t think it would be possible for us to have him, but Dominic and his cousin told me to ring up and ask. The RSPCA were fantastic and someone from the local branch in Essex came to see us at our home before we went up to see Cent in Oldham.”

Mandy Tierney, manager of the RSPCA’s Bury, Oldham and District branch, said: “He had been with us for four months and we spent so much time with him, so it was very sad to see him go. He couldn’t have gone to a more perfect home though. The minute Jolanta started speaking to him in Polish he instantly responded and was doing whatever she said.”