In a recent study published in the journal Science, researchers from Hungary explored how dogs understand speech. The findings imply that dogs have acquired some language processing skills, previously thought to be unique to humans.
This study focused on how dogs decipher continuous streams of speech. It concluded that, much like human infants, dogs rely on consonants to detect the boundaries between words.
An example from the study is Pocak, a six-year-old Labrador. During tests on speech processing, Pocak demonstrated attentiveness by listening for these consonant sounds to segment speech into distinct words.
While humans possess advanced language capabilities, the research highlighted that dogs might have adapted to understanding elements of human speech.