Two questions on adoption?

Not a problem. Dogs adjust to new names almost immediately. If they didn't it would never be possible to re-home a dog.

As to the change in language, dogs mostly rely on body language for communication. They use it for communication among themselves and are expert in reading it in humans. The dog will adjust to a new verbal language just fine.

Well, as far as the name goes, it should be an easy change. I would suggest doing the following. Let's say that her previous owners called her Susie and you want to call her Bella. Call her Bella Susie for a few weeks. Then she'll associate Bella with her name. Eventually you can drop the Susie and she'll come to Bella. (This worked well for us - i adopted a puppy named Betty but changed her name to Eleanor just by calling her Eleanor Betty for a day. By the end of day one she knew that i was talking to her!!)

As for the commands, this may be a little more difficult but it should still be pretty easy to do - It's just a matter of associating the behavior with the command. When you notice her sitting down, tell her "good sit!" and give her a bunch of praise. Just notice her doing the behavior you want her to repeat and then associate a command with it. She'll get it eventually. Dogs are very smart.

Another thing to try, is hand signals. If you always hold your hand the same way when you teach a dog to sit, eventually the verbal cue is not necessary. For instance - when i train "sit" i hold the treat between my thum and index & middle finger with my fingertips pointing upwards. My dog has learned that this is how i hold the treat when i want her to sit. So, if i just put my thumb, index & middle finger together, she'll sit without me saying it. Also, down, i point to the ground - doens't require a verbal cue. Stay - i hold up my hand and tuck my thumb in (holding the treat against my palm with my thumb). This might get you through the language barrier too.

I do volunteer work with where I foster, safe housee and rescue dogs who are adopted out.

Your dog is only a year old andchangingn the name shouldn't be that hard, it will just take a little bit of time, as it does with theenvironmentt. When a animal or anyindividuall moves, they have to get use to the new area, new rules, new way doing doing jobs, just as if you were to change jobs.

Changing his/her name should be fine, many of ouradopteee families do it, some of them elect to keep the names the same...but it's all good either way!

HA HA HA...sorry I am amused.

Okay as far as the name goes:

Our 1st chow mix was about 1.5 when we got her. Her name was Cleo. We didn't like it so we named her Nikki.

Our 2nd chow mix was about the same age and her name was Raven. We renamed her Georgia.

Then the last dog we took in was a stray that is estimated at about 2. We didn't know her name if she had one so we renamed her Sassy (odd story) and she does fine with that.

So name changes are fine.

Yes you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Dogs relearn words very fast. I changed one of my dog's names and she learned the new one within days. Same thing with training words. Just use the new word and reward when the dog does the right thing. If the dog is already trained, they will pick up the change quickly.

Dogs understand tone of voice & body language - not so much the word used. I could use a light happy voice and call my dog anything and she will come to it.

It will be like training a dog that knows nothing. You show her what you want and say the english word for it. She is young and will catch on quickly. My wheaten terrier knows spanish, english, and hand signals. It's just a matter of having the patience.