Do dogs recognize friends from afar?

Shelby and Lucy say they do

My daughter, Kelly, lives about an hour and a half away. On a sunny day last week we met at a park to walk our dogs together. That’s Shelby on the left in the photo and Lucy, an australian shepherd on the right.

The parking lot was full when I arrived. There were a lot of people, but I could see a woman with a dog quite some distance away, too far to see her features. Shelby caught sight of them too, and although she’s normally wary of other dogs, she started wagging her tail in full on ‘oh happy day’ mode.

Once I got her out of the car, the other dog, still quite some distance away, looked in our direction and let out one sharp bark. Shelby revved up from ‘oh so happy’ to extreme wriggle mania as she yelped her ‘halloooo!’ in response. Okay, okay, I said, that is Kelly and Lucy; you’re right!

This begs the question: do dogs recognize their friends even if the encounter is out of context? Shelby obviously knew Lucy from afar.

But, one expert I know disagrees: she writes, “the dog’s brai…