The Lone Wanderer Perk's current description at rank 1 is -

"Who needs friends, anyway? When adventuring without a companion, you take 15% less damage and carry weight increases by 50."

With the companion Dogmeat in your party you will still get the Lone Wanderer bonus. I know Dogmeat is a companion but is this a glitch or an intended game mechanic aka do they have plans of potentially patching it?

I would like to see some kind of official confirmation because everyone right now is speculating that it's a bug. Personally I think it was intended because "Lone Wanderer" is always pictured with his Dog in trailers and pictures in the original Fallout 3 and it's the same in Fallout 4's "Wanderer" trailer.

EDIT: Asked support. I'll post their answer if they get back to me soon.

is a bug i think

I think Dogmeat is the exception, seeing as you can't really be a Lone Wanderer without him. But that is just my guess.

I believe it's working as intended. Dogmeat doesn't have a loyalty meter or a bonus perk, so the benefit of choosing him is you get to take the Lone Wanderer perk while still having a companion.

It is an intended game mechanic

Yea, Dogmeat is the exception. I'm guessing they wanted you to be able to Boy and His Dog even if you wanted to go Lone Wanderer.

This^

Dogmeat is the exception.

If it's intended I wish they would reword the perk description. Is there a reason why game makers tend not to reword skill/perk descriptions in RPGs even if they work differently than described or intended?

It is most likely a bug because one of the loading screens says that if don't have a companion or dog you get the benefits.

You can't talk to your dog. Only a loner travels with no one but a dog. He is also considerably weaker than the other companions and cannot equip a weapon, so I think it's intended.

does the companion perk tree work for dogmeat? I don't want to waste that many points on charisma until I'm completely maxxing out my character.

Probably not because of the Attack Dog perk line specifically for Dogmeat.

Edit: I'll check it out tonight, although I'll have to get 2 levels. I'll put two ranks into Inspirational and then shoot Dogmeat. If he doesn't take damage then I guess it works for him too.

Edit 2: I just had a friend try to shoot Dogmeat and without the Inspiration perk he takes no damage anyway, so I guess Dogmeat doesn't benefit from this perk. I think they may have had a console command running because I accidentally shot Dogmeat lastnight while he was fighting a ghoul and he went down.

If that is true then well crap. Personally I think it's a fair buff. They should change the loading screen text and the perk description and keep it's mechanics in my opinion. Dog Meat doesn't have guns or weapons boosting his power so it's fair.