After 4+ days of game time on a character, I finally got around to pursuing the main story line further. I freed Valentine (Unlikely Valentine quest), only to be stopped dead without the next quest being offered. (Getting a Clue quest) Turns out that Dogmeat plays a necessary part in order to get this quest and he's been missing from my game for quite some time. I haven't seen him since I picked up Codsworth and sent Dogmeat to Sanctuary. Note that I was actually IN Sanctuary at the time.

I've scoured the Internet to find a lot people with this same problem, however almost all of them have been able to resolve it through one of the following means:

1. Find Dogmeat stuck somewhere on terrain or relaxing in a forgotten dog house


2. Console Commands to move player to Dogmeat or vice versa
   
   1. prid 0001d162 / moveto player
   
   
   2. player.moveto 0001d162
   
   


3. Console Commands to advance or bypass the quest
   
   1. setstage 000229e6 XX
   
   
   2. resetquest 000229e6
   
   
   3. Combination of those two to advance midway through the next quest
   
   


4. Console command to Resurrect Dogmeat
   
   1. 0001d162.resurrect
   
   
   2. player.placeatme 0001d162 1
   
   

None of these worked for me. The closest I got was that after using the moveto player command, whenever I would later use the player.moveto 0001d162 command it would return me to the spot where I previously issued the other command. So it was like those were working, but I just couldn't see Dogmeat.

Using help "Dogmeat" 0 I see two items of interest:

SPEL: "Dogmeat's Invisibility"

MPEG: "Dogmeat Invisible"

(I'm going by memory, so I may be slightly off on either of those details)

So my current theory is that the game has an intentional mode where Dogmeat is not visible, somehow this got set prematurely in my game, and this setting has put a stop to 4+ days of game play (I've been playing this same game since release and only discovered the problem on Jan. 3rd)

My only hope seems to be if a patch will come out one day to correct this.

I could finish the Quest you described (Dog Meat showed up right at the begining of the Quest automatically) but I can't seem to find him whenever I 'm in Sanctuary Hills. I always sent him to Sanctuary Hills but when I return he's nowhere to be found. I just don't know where he hides.

Have you built a dog house for him?

I have build a Dog house from him at the Rocket station, and he's remain the most time in there.

There are at least two doghouses in Sanctuary Hills that I've seen him hanging out in in my game but: where exactly are you? I wouldn't think Dogmeat would be needed to begin the quest Getting a Clue. His part doesn't begin until after you've gone through Kellog's stuff at his old house, and he showed up automatically at that point in my game apparently due to his amazing telepathic powers.

@ross42899, have you checked back at Fort Hagen?