a few simply ideas to streamline the dog.

[L3M182]

with the release of the new ducks and now colour variation of dog, would be nice to see a bit of work done on the dog and make it more user friendly.

1) make the dog able to return into the blind with a duck or make it so i can harvest it when he drops it just outside.
2) increase the stamina of the dog by quite a bit or increase the rate of recovery when in game. my dog was down to 125% tired after 13 duck retrieves at lvl 22. not great if your planning an extended hunt.
3) once the dog is tired it becomes something of a liability and an annoyance crying,barking, doing its own thing and basically ignoring me. the option to send him back to the lodge or tent without having to walk back myself would be very convenient.
4)when im running for whatever reason the dog will spring in circles around me, often stopping and blocking my path or just making a horrendous noise that's very annoying. Any way we can have it just keeping pace along side the owner or just behind would be more realistic and allot less annoying.

obviously id love to see animations for jumping in and out of the blind, and other non essential stuff. but i do think some urgent work in the mechanics of the dog are needed becasue as of right now i think the general consensus is that they are nothing but a luxury item that is more of a hindrance than a help. and at 1000em$ that shouldn't really be the case. if i had a choice id be handing mine back.

[Tanngnjostr]

Good ideas, L3! And yes, some more work should be put into the dogs. I feel that it's sadly a characteristic example of how some features are implemented into the game with a big hype, but then seem to be forgotten soon after by the dev team. (I realize that right now a new color has been introduced, but that's not what I was thinking of). In my opinion the command system never exactly worked the way it should.

My biggest problem with the dog is that sometimes she simply starts ignoring each command I give her - especially when I want her to stay, she lies down for a second, but instantly gets up and walks around again. Quite unnerving when the potential monster boar is just around the corner... That's probably what you're mentioning in your third sentence. But I don't think it is connected to the dog's stamina, because I've had it happen at all times. Sometimes it happens 30 minutes into the hunt with 200% stamina - the problem will then persist and I will have to restart or put the dog back to the lodge - sometimes everything works fine for two hours even though she's down to 100%. So I assume it's a kind of a bug.

[Cartoon Head]

I do like my dog but I agree with your points, number 4 gets better the higher level your dog is, still dumb as rocks when he is tired though.

I'd like to add a designated drop off point, it would be nice if your dog could just leave your birds in a nice pile off to one side of the blind, I like to have all my geese laying around the blind before I harvest them to see how much of a goose pile I can create, after a while you or the dog can't walk around the blind., this would be awesome for trophy shots.

I've also noticed the last week or so the geese are super spooked by the dog, I have him laying down in the field with a camo vest and they still spot him, he has to be in the blind or I have no chance.

[NovaStorm]

#! to all the above. My buddy Strider needs some work. Please!