If there was a program that collected the barks, woofs, and whines of dogs along with a human description of what it means, could you process that data to create a sort of translator for dog speak that tells you the general idea of what they want? (e.g. hungry, glad to see you)
It would probably need an indicator for dog breeds since they will sound different. And obviously dogs don’t speak the same sort of language we do, but could general emotions be translated?
Think a little bit like those apps that (human) bird watchers catalogue bird sounds that are assigned to specific bird species. Many people have a good idea of what a dog wants/needs when they hear the noises it makes, so I can imagine something similar for dog owners. They record sounds of their dogs and what they believe it means, just as bird watchers do for mating calls.
Would this work at all? Or are the sounds of dogs too varying, even accounting for dog breeds? And how does its effectiveness change for cats and other noisy pets?
Difficult of this to work because animals don’t use sounds as words. They do communicate with sounds, but the only thing you will be able to extract is what you (hopefully) already are capable of understanding: basic emotions, pleading, pain, etc.
Some animals, on an individual level, have specific calls for specific things. But because it’s a single occurrence you won’t be able to gather enough hypothetical data for your project. And honestly if this is your pet, you are probably smart enough to figure out this type of calls.