Okay, so my character is a Thief who primarily uses bow to sneak attack, but recently, I started upping my one handed and light armor and can hold quite well in open combat with the aid of a follower. Now, I kind of want a dog companion because I'm RPing my character as the bastard son of Emperor Titus Mede II, and I want him to sorta be like Jon Snow (from Game of Thrones...you GoT fans should now this) who has a direwolf companion that aids him in fights.

So the question is, would I still be able to sneak attack enemies well with a dog companion? or would that mean that I would be charging into combat more since I heard that dogs will just run up and attack enemies anywhere, and might possibly give away your position?

I only have experience with Barbas, but if all dogs are like him, they like to bump into you... a lot... especially when you are trying to aim with your bow.

With one handed weapons I'm guessing it would be even more annoying.

I would say no for that reason alone.

I would also say no as they bark. A LOT. Like all the time. I reloaded after buying a dog for RP purposes as within 5 minutes the constant barking drove me insane.

If you're on PC check out my Wolf Follower mod. It's inspiration was the direwolves from those books. I would recommend waiting until v1.0, unless you fancy beta testing

- Hypno

I can't take all that damn barking, regardless. The Death Hounds from Dawnguard DLC are the better dogs as they don't bark. The thing is... it's not about the barking. That is as far as being detected is concerned. The issue is that if the enemy becomes aggroed, the dog will lunge after them.

I'm not sure about the dog being detected. I haven't looked at them in the CK, to see if they possess any type of stealth ability. They could give you away, thus triggering aggro and engaging the enemy anyway.

Too bad they don't have a wait option in the dialog. It would be great to just say... "stay!", at times.

The only dog I would take for a stealth character would be a death hound since they blend well in the darkness and they don't bark all the time as someone said. Honestly though for maximum efficiency as a stealth character its better to go solo imo.

Oh yes I'm very aware of your mod. That was on my to-download list when I saw the release thread on here. Good job on it btw, looks amazing, but I will wait for an official release And it looks like I'll just be sticking with human followers (which I made) in the meantime... seems dogs are just too troublesome. However, that will probably change when I download your mod and find my own little wolf pup lol

They do, at least the dog i based my dialogues off for my mod did and it works great on my wolf

- Hypno

Really?

The vanilla dogs?

EDIT : I say "vanilla" but I mean to include Official Mods. Thus, the Huskies and Death Hounds would be considered as well..

A dog companion would make more sense for a warrior or hunter, rather then a stealthy character. Followers in general are bad for stealthy characters, with the possible exception of the DBI or Cicero. You'd need to get them to wait in an out the way area while you clear a dungeon etc.. but they can be handy for those random encounters on the road.

Its only Barbus that does that HORRIFYINGLY annoying bumping!

I did find several other dogs, and what i thought was a dog vendor at Markarth, but i got 1 or 2 dogs from hinm, and cant find anymore... Anyone know where to get dogs from? I already did Barbus, the Dog who was with his dead master in a cabin in the woods somewhere in the center of skyrim i think, and purchased 1 or 2 from the stables outside Markarth..I loved having Me as the Paladin/Tank, a mage follower, and a dog.. My mage follower with Sanguin rose... Helluva team we made.. But alas, the companion guild lost me my Illia, and now im stuck with the terrible J'Zargo (who incidentally, keeps vanishing for days at a time..NEVER happened with Illia)

I made myself stealthy followers on CK, and downloaded a mod that makes it so that i have the option of telling my followers to attack only when I'm actually being attacked, meaning that I can sneak and stealth kill perfectly WITH a follower without alerting enemies

Stealth-my advice is DIY and leave the baggage at home.

I hate having followers on a sneaking toon. It ruins my style. I'd say no to a dog (or any follower) for your char.