Have you ever wondered if your dog is paying attention to the way you talk? According to this adorable Italian Husky, your dog could be paying more attention than you thought. Aaron made headlines after going viral for "talking back" to his owners in a clear Italian accent, shocking online users and quickly gaining a tremendous fanbase.
Aaron was caught on camera attempting to speak like his owners, showing that he was always listening to their accents. Following the viral clip, his owner explained that it was actually a form of Neapolitan slang instead of traditional Italian.
The dog seems to be trying to have a conversation with his owner after he is asked about what he wants. And while there is no way of knowing what Aaron responded in the clip, he seemed to be insisting on a specific topic.
Can dogs really understand what we say?
“There are studies that show that after some training, some dogs can differentiate similar-sounding words,” Dr. Lilla Magyari, a researcher from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary revealed to the American Kennel Club.
“If some owners are thinking that it doesn’t matter what I say to my dog because the dog is watching the gestures I do or finding out from context what he or she should do, it’s not entirely true. They do listen to human speech,” Magyari added. “So it doesn’t mean even that they don’t hear these differences. It is just that they probably don’t think that those differences are important.”
The study found that "dogs aren’t listening to or learning words in quite the same way as humans—or at least, not in the same way as adult humans," the publication reported, explaining that this is comparable to how babies process speech up to the age of about 14 months, and explains why most dogs can only learn a small handful of words.
