In the beginning of the game when Codsworth meets the Primary Character, does he offer a credible explanation of dogs easily trained to fetch tools, weapons and ammo?

Like "Watch for genetically enhanced dogs. They have evolved a lot in 200 years. They have the intelligence of 8 to 12 year old children, some even teens.

They will look at you with calm confidence, as opposed to assessing like a wild dog, whether you are threat or meal.

They can't talk but they learn fast and many strike out on their own when mature if they don't feel appreciated by their masters.

They are stronger, faster, have higher endurance, sharper senses, and seem to mate very selectively to improve their offspring; the geneticists gave them a lot to work with.

But it's probably fresh in your mind what people were looking for in health, longevity and capability in a super dog for their money."

(I admit I am inspired by the genetically enhanced Death Claws of vault 13 in FO 2.)

It would be nice if you could select your breed of dog from other work/ police/ military or guard dog breeds like Boxer, Mastiff, Rottweiler, Pit Bull, Labrador Retriever that look like they can credibly kick mutant ass, sneak, use cover, dodge bullets, still be dogs, and have enhanced senses, reflexes and abilities.

Not sure if you looking way to much into giving the dog some gameplay features, or you making a bit of a joke about it. Really any prewar dog enhancements lead to cyberdogs, and as we can see he's a regular dog. If you need a reason he's smart it's likely that like every other fallout your his second owner so the dog was already trained.

Yeah.. I mean the dog clearly wasn't just wild forever. It's had to have had previous owners that trained it, and kept the thing from going feral, and rabid in the wastes.

I think this a situation where Occam's Razor should apply. No need to make up a bunch of wild reasons for the dog knowing how to fetch, when the simplest, most realistic, and most likely reason is that the dog probably already had an owner before the player, just like every other fallout game.

Edit: And as for the dog being stronger than the average dog, I chalk that up to game mechanics, and not anything story wise. The dog would be a terrible companion and a liability if he died after a few shots/ couldn't kill fast. They had to make him worth keeping around.

'super dogs' could be our old friend FEV , natural selection ( the survivors been aggressive (feral) or smart probably from vaults or military bases ( companions) or even just plain 'only the smart make it' (the waste is a nasty place and brains win over brawn )

That you compare a human and a dog is absurd.

Having said that dogs cooperate better with us than any other animal. They can learn many more words than a monkey for example.

A standard dog can learn to understand hundreds of words. Fetching and fighting for a human is easy for a dog to learn

A skilled dog trained to lead blind people understands so so so many things.

Traffic rules, elevators, automatic doors, commands etc

I do not know you could train the average dog to go and find weapons and ammo like Dogmeat in FO 3, or tools like combination wrenches in drawers like the dog in, I believe it was the FO 4 game play compilation.

Over the past 30 or so years I have repeatedly heard the estimate that a dog's intelligence and comprehension was about equivalent to a 4 or 5 year old child. I've also come across 0professional dog trainers and ACOs who estimate their intelligence at considerably less.

I do propose the dogs strike out on their own if they do not feel appreciated by their masters, by this I mean their masters treat them like a lot of thugs treat a dog, especially when they have to act tough or mean to impress people.

When I say these dogs are very selective who they mate with I know female dogs generally tend to be at least somewhat selective in who they mate with, but I've seen a lot of dogs who are about as selective as most people I know, especially the guys.

I guess it just feels credible to me that a dog sent off alone to find me weapons, ammo and evade or fight of mutant animals etc. needs to be more than an average dog and not a fortunate product of 200 years natural evolution in a radioactive toxic waste land.

How many such dogs have evolved in the entire world thus far, much less the third world waste lands, most superior to Post Apocalypse wastelands?

I think it's possible ~but not likely to include training to distinguish the real thing from a prop; or usable items from ruined. I've known people with well trained dogs. I know someone who had a German Sheppard who they could give paper money, and tell him to go buy a six pack of beer, and the dog would run down to the corner store with the money ~and accept the bag of beer from the owner, then run home with it and the change in the bag.

This same fellow had a different dog as a kid, and whenever their ball fell into the storm drain, the dog would run in after it, and push it two city blocks through the pipe, to come out in the nearby canol, where they could retrieve the dog and ball both.
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*But there would be no, "Hand me the 1.3mm wrench, Sprocket!"

I love dogs.

I'm looking forward to the Pit Bull conversion mods for Dogmeat. He'll be the friendliest little wasteland pooch there ever was.

Nah. I don't think we need a drawn out explanation.

1) Dog had an owner.
2) Owner died.
3) I found it
4) Profit.

I don't expect them to start explaining out how to do an oil change on a vertibird, or the aerodynamics of it, just because it doesn't exist irl.

If it happens in random back story quest that explains the dogs origins; sure.

But to have Codsworth talk about it because "much immursion!" Heck no!

It's because the dog is an android (or whatever you'd call the canine equivalent), programmed to befriend (infiltrate) people coming from vault 111.

Just you wait.

Maybe we find the previous owner in the red rocket garage, along with a holotape talking about his best friend but he got shot by raiders and won't last long so hopes someone will find him and take care of him, someone like you .

How in the heck would Codsworth know why your dog is so smart? From what I can tell, he never even left your house for the 200(+/-) years you were gone. He still just thinks you're late for dinner. If the dogs are in general more intelligent, you would probably need to question a biologist about that. Your dog is probably more intelligent because he/she has been trained and you are (as everyone else above stated) his second owner.
You have a used dog.

...No...Not...anywhere...in any footage does this occur...and you are seriously overthinking a character that has been represented in near almost every Fallout game...

Codsworth giving his owner a heads up on how things have changed in two hundred years, and who he might trust and look out for, would be like the Dr. at the start of New Vegas telling to PC where to go to find locals who will treat him fairly and can help him start out, or the Sheriff of Megaton giving the vault dweller a headsup on who's who in Megaton.

"much immursion"?

Have you ever lived with or raised a dog? Have you developed any protective reflexes that would affect how you as Primary Chartacter feel about your 'new' dog going up against what ever strange creatures you've never seen before and know nothing about, but might run into out in the wastelands? How cautious would you be, how would you choose to handle this situation? (But then too, we know this companion is somehow virtually immortal.)

Things that don't make a lot of sense given your life experiences can be funny, or distracting, even 'immersion busting", etc,

Codsworth is a butler robot... he isn't out exploring the wastes and documenting the wildlife he sees.... at least, not until we show up. Sometimes a dog is just a dog.... no super maniacal reasoning, not a super pooch, just well trained and well behaved... even my dog, who is a moron, knows simple commands....

True the footage released so far doesn't show anything like this. but are we shown everything between the PC reaching his house and the PC leaving his neighborhood? In FO 3 and FO NV the first characters you converse with give you heads up on what's happening and which locals can help you or be a problem. "Intelligent acting dogs are usually not just good, but more useful than you might know. "

Think new players who do not know about Dog meat. How many might see him like a small friendly child who can't talk, but if they take might have been better off not being taken on a journey into unknown danger?

Nobody is expected to use my explainations, but to have Codsworth just spout useless small talk seems a waste of time.

How does the stranger know he isn't stealing someone's very valuable pet, somebody who might track them down and try to kill them to get their dog back?

Again. Over. Thinking.

Dude. Maybe Codsworth does give you a quick rundown on the immediate area, but I doubt that he's a learned canine biologist. If Radiation/FEV/Genetically Modifying did occur in dogs, I doubt Codsworth is the one who would alert you to this. He might say something like, "I saw a man with a dog heading south toward the Red Rocket gas station." but I doubt he's going to say, " Be careful around dogs. The average dog can live between 7 and 12 years and has the intelligence of a 2-3 year old human. Due to the outbreak of airborn and waterborn strains of the FEV virus combined with radiation storms being carried by crosswinds from the East, dogs have become vastly more intelligent of late and incur a longer lifespan."
Just let it go.

No, he doesn't.

Simple commands like fetch me a weapon, find me ammo, fetch me a combination wrench? Kill armed attackers and mutant wild life?

Shouldn't this require an exceptional animal? Would an explaination be due?

I know this is just a game, but in real life can highly trained police and military dogs with full time professional handlers do comparable tasks?

Is this like equiping a PC with real life experience with such firearms an M-4, or a 9mm sidearm or a AK-47 in a game, and expecting him/her to knock down ground attack jets and take down armored fighting vehicles? Wouldn't it be better to equip them with weapons up to the job?

How does failure to do this reflect on the game, and those gamers who recommend it as great to people who's opinion of them is important?

No, an explanation is not needed for a fictional animal, set in an alternate universe than our own. Frankly, I'm at the point where I'm wondering if you're an elaborate troll or if you seriously need to take a little time to bring yourself back to reality... You're debating the need to justify a canine companions ability in a videogame, and trying to use real world principles to do so.... that isn't inherently bad... but trying to say that a robot is going to, or should be able to explain why a dog is capable of doing such things.... I don't even know how to have a serious discussion about such a thing. We've gone from scraping the bottom of the barrel, to digging up the dirt under the barrel.

It's just like in the movie A Boy and His Dog.. The doggy is a hyper intelligent being that speaks to you through telepathy and helps you find food and people to fornicate with. Dogmeat is the ultimate wing man.