A university professor in Arizona is working on a system that can translate animal noises in to English.
The extraordinary technology, which has been designed by Professor Con Slobodchikoff at Northern Arizona University, is currently being developed with the vocal calls of prairie dogs in mind but could later be adapted to work with just about any animal, including domestic cats and dogs.
Slobodchikoff has spent the better part of 30 years studying the unique and complex sounds prairie dogs use to communicate danger to one another whenever a predator is sighted nearby.
The translation device, once perfected, should be able to turn those sounds in to human speech.
According to Amazon researcher William Higham, pet translation devices could be available for the average consumer to purchase within ten years.
Technologies like this will also make pet training and the diagnosis of medical problems much easier.
That said however, if it really was possible for your dog to speak to you, what would it say ?