I think they track all sorts of things, even things that don't really impact the story. The pet the dog came across as more of a side note than anything. Just something cute. I didn't take the stats they listed as bragging or anything, just more of an interesting sort of thing. Especially with their comments about "everyone seems to want to kill Gale."
They just want us to see early on that our testing is providing results, some being interesting and amusing, others being actually vital.
