Michelle Ost stopped by the San Diego Humane Society’s clear-the-shelter event in October 2025 and didn’t think she’d leave with a dog. But then she noticed Honey, and the connection was real.
“Honey was in one of the very last rows of dogs, and I went to her immediately. She got up—she was lying down—and walked over and licked my fingers through the little railing,” she said on TikTok. “When I got up to leave and go to the next dog, I felt sad, and I hadn’t felt sad with any of the other dogs. So I was like, clearly there’s a heart connection there if I’m feeling sad.”
Honey and Ost have a breakthrough moment while on a walk
Ost adopted Honey, and the two quickly became companions, but they grew even closer one day after going on a walk.
“But I was out walking her one day, and we walked by a group of people who were speaking Spanish, and she lit up. She got so excited. She was like, ‘Oh my gosh, my people, mi gente.’ She recognized the language right away and tried to go to them,” Ost said. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier to try to do Spanish commands with her because she’s from Mexico, so duh.”
Honey had been found as a stray on the streets of Mexico and brought across the border to the San Diego Humane Society. So, of course, she understood Spanish.
When the pair got home, Ost began giving Honey commands in Spanish, including “siéntate” (sit) and “ven acá” (come here), and Honey knew exactly how to respond.
“When I got home, I tried a couple of commands, which the video is a result of,” she told Newsweek. “That was my very first time trying the commands in Spanish, and she immediately listened!”
A video of Honey and Ost breaking through the language barrier went viral on TikTok, earning more than 2.3 million views. It also inspired a number of commenters to react as if they were Honey:
“Dog: ‘She learned how to speak!’”
“Dog : ‘Your dialect is bad, but good enough’”
“‘Finally!! I thought they were stupid!’ – Your dog”
Can dogs tell the difference between human languages?
Given that most dogs have a pretty limited vocabulary of human words, it’s surprising to learn that they can tell the difference between languages.
A 2022 study by Eötvös Loránd University found that dogs’ brains exhibit different activity patterns when they hear familiar versus unfamiliar languages. “This study showed for the first time that a non-human brain can distinguish between two languages,” Raúl Hernández-Pérez, a co-author of the study, said in a statement.
In the end, it’s wonderful that Ost and Honey have found each other and can communicate in a common language.
“She has just been the sweetest, most loving dog I have ever known,” Ost said in a TikTok video. “I’ve had dogs my whole life. I’ve interacted with dogs my whole life, and I’ve never met a dog like her. She has the biggest heart. She’s just my big baby. She’s my big baby.”
