When Craig Burton, founder and managing director at The Works Recruitment.com, relocated his trusted canine companion to the UK, he discovered that in terms of obeying commands, it was all French to black Labrador Henri.

Burton told Recruiter that Henri, born in South-West France near Pau, lived in his native France until eight months ago and is just flummoxed by English.

“English is too confusing for him, but ’assez’ and ’sit’ sound the same to him so he responds to that. It confuses him, because when he goes back to France I leave him with French people who don’t speak English. People think he’s stupid and he’s not - he just doesn’t understand you.

“Henri comes into work everyday. He’s part of the business and a calming influence for everybody. In the office, everyone knows commands in French. People think you’re being pretentious speaking to your dog in French but we don’t really have a choice.”