How Dogs Learn (Lesson 3): Social Learning – Dogs Are Always Watching

What your dog sees, they become...

If you’ve ever had your dog pick up a behaviour you didn’t intentionally teach, like spinning when you grab the leash, or barking when you say hello to a friend, you’ve witnessed social learning in action. Dogs are observers. Quiet, consistent, pattern-focused observers. And they learn far more from what they see than what we say.

Just like children, they learn from the environment, the people around them, and especially from other dogs. Training doesn’t start when you grab the treats; it starts when your dog watches you walk into the room.

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Watching Piper Watch Me

When Piper first joined our family, she didn’t know much about our routines. She didn’t fully understand sit, stay, down, or even what a loose leash walk was supposed to look like. But what she did do was watch—constantly.

She watched me put on her leash, watched how I moved around the house, how I prepared food, and even how I interacted with other people. She watched my kids, too, especially when they played or moved quickly. In the early days, she mirrored that energy. If someone got excited, Piper got overstimulated. If someone rushed toward the door, she’d charge ahead.

But over time, something began to shift.

When I started taking deliberate pauses, like stopping to take a breath before we walked out the front door, Piper would wait. When I approached her crate calmly and with structure, she would come out calmly. She was watching me for cues on how to exist in the space we shared.

That was the beginning of a lightbulb moment: I didn’t need to instruct Piper constantly. I needed to be the example. And she would follow.