I'm terrible with language learning because I didn't read the DSM before birth, so I'm way below average at memorizing random information. I'm also terrible with people for reasons I don't need to explain here. I've found learning spanish to be a rare and happy exception to what I've experienced most other times in my life. I don't know nearly enough spanish to carry on a normal conversation, but I can say and understand what I need to on a construction site, where I mostly learned, and in most other situations I can usually manage basic communication. Other people may have had different experiences. Here's mine.
The hispanic people I've known tend to have a stereotype that most americans are arrogant as*holes who don't seem to be capable of respecting them as equals. You've probably noticed that most americans have never bothered to learn any spanish at all. This creates a great opportunity. If you're trying to speak spanish, you've immediately set yourself apart from the vast majority of the americans they've known. It doesn't seem to matter to them how badly you're doing, the fact that you're showing them the respect to make the effort is what matters. They know that everybody in the world does not speak fluent spanish.
They also understand that learning a foreign language is not easy for everybody. A rough tough mexican construction worker was telling me about his early years in the US, trying to get by when he spoke no english. "I almost cried," he said.
In your situation with the dogs, I might have tried something like this. Most of the spanish here is probably incorrect and ungrammatical, but it would probably get the point across.
Me: (Seeing a hispanic guy who might have seen the dogs) Senor, permissu. (Excuse me sir - You wouldn't say this to somebody you considered inferior.)
Me: Me espanol no es buen (My spanish isn't good. I'm not making fun of you by speaking your language badly. The communication problem is my shortcoming, not yours)
Me: Poco ayuda es necessito por favor (A little help is necessary please. That's the reason I'm talking to you.)
Me: Que es in espanol, Woof Woof? (What's the spanish word for dogs? He then tells you, I think it's something like berros)
Me: Comprende, me tres berros, dos grandes e uno bebito. (I understand, implies I'm trying to learn better spanish, my three dogs, two big ones and a human baby, he will understand you mean puppy) No say donde. (I don't know where).
He will probably help you if you can. I would say just jump right in and try speaking spanish any chance you get. I always had a great time with it, even though I never got very good.
There's an old book, "Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish" That's based on words in spanish that are very similar to their english equivalents, although often pronounced differently. "Terrible" in spanish is "terrible" I used that one a lot.
_________________
They murdered boys in Mississippi. They shot Medgar in the back.
Did you say that wasn't proper? Did you march out on the track?
You were quiet, just like mice. And now you say that we're not nice.
Well thank you buddy for your advice...
-Malvina