Neil Smith has nothing but praise for his dog Ginger, a four-year-old hearing dog who picked up a set of Gaelic commands after just three weeks.

Smith has been taking the English Cocker Spaniel along to his weekly Gaelic group at Strone Church of Scotland. 

Ginger quickly started responding to the words for sit (suidh), stay (fuirich), come here (trobhad) and good dog (cu math).

Read more: How many of these Irish words do you know?

"He has given me a lot of confidence because I used to be a very shy person and often felt quite isolated in company, even with family and friends,” the 67-year-old Smith told the BBC.

"Going to the Gaelic class gets me out and about to meet people, and I have always wanted to learn the language because my great-grandmother spoke it, but it was not passed down through the family, so Ginger is helping to lead a family revival.

"Ginger has picked it up really quickly, it only took him about three weeks.

"It is great because I can show off that he is a bi-lingual dog – people think it is amazing that he can do that and it is a wee bit of added interest to the class."



Read more: The best ways to learn the Irish language for free