Apparently ten-year-old children understand dogs better than people of any other age. Researchers in Budapest discovered that children were able to understand the meaning of a dog's bark from an early age -- but the accuracy of their interpretations peaked at ten-years-old.

The results came after researchers played recordings of different "bark modes" and asked children aged six, eight and ten, and adults, to pair the noises with a corresponding facial impression. All found it easiest to tell when a dog was angry, but the ten-year-olds were best at interpreting the more subtle noises.

Study authors Peter Pongracz and Csaba Molnar, concluded, "This shows that the ability of understanding basic inner states of dogs on the basis of acoustic signals is present in humans from a very young age. These results are in sharp contrast with other reports in the literature which showed that young children tend to misinterpret canine visual signals."