During their lifetime, animals (including dogs) gather information from their experience with objects, individuals, events, and social interactions and store this information in their memory (Ades 1993). This information is used when discriminating, categorising, and recognising different aspects of their physical and social environment.

There are also many studies that show dogs pay attention to third-party interactions and obtain information from humans through passive observations (Chijiwa et al.2015; Piotti et al. 2017).

This is one of the many reasons that careful socialisation is essential, and it is not just a checklist!

Try to ensure all their interactions are positive and fun, allowing dogs to observe from a distance.

References:

Ades C (1993) Por uma história natural da memória. Psicol USP 4:25–47

Chijiwa H, Kuroshima H, Hori Y, Anderson JR, Fujita K (2015) Dogs avoid people who behave negatively to their owner: third-party affective evaluation. Anim Behav 106:123–127

Piotti P, Spooner RM, Jim H, Kaminski J (2017) Who to ask for help? Do dogs form an opinion on humans based on skilfulness? Appl Anim Behav Sci 195:93–102