The three scenes with the dogs—the dogs that nearly attack Odysseus in Book 14; the dogs that fawn on their beloved master, Telemachus, in Book 16; and the wrenching telepathy between Argos and Odysseus in Book 17—are, in fact, designed to frame the recognition scene between Odysseus and his son in Book 16: to raise questions about how we recognize who someone is, and what true recognition means.
