I understand that Dogmeat is supposed to scamper off and find stuff - weapons and ammo etc.

And I select him and tell him to do it; he then runs away and I follow after him. He then waits, then moves on. And we just run around in circles.

Is this supposed to happen; is he taking me to stuff? Or am I supposed to let him go away and he'll come back?

Bit confused...

If he finds something, he'll come back to you with it and it will be added to your inventory. You're probably in an area where there's nothing for him to find. Talk to him and tell him to stop searching.

Ahh, I see. I'll give that a go. Does he actually have to find something that exists in the game world - which I could pick up myself if I found it - or does the act of sending him off spawn something new for him to find?

I believe he finds things that are already there. I wouldn't use dogmeat for finding items. He tends to get lost that way, sometimes permanently, I hear. He's much more useful as a distraction when fighting against tough enemies.

He'll only find items that exist in the game world - sending him out to find stuff won't cause it to spawn. One thing he can do, though, is bypass locks on containers. So if your lockpick skill isn't high enough to get at a weapon or some ammo in a locked cabinet or box, Dogmeat can still get the item for you.

Be careful using him in open areas - as noted above, he can wander far away from you looking for items and take a long time to catch back up to you (unless you're playing on the PC and can use console commands to move him to you).

Now that is interesting, thanks. Think my lockpick skill is slightly behind where it needs to be, so that'll be useful.

Dogmeat is also very helpful with the Firelance Random encounter, sometimes the Alien Powercells or the Firelance fall in an area you can't see well.

When sending Dogmeat off to search for items, it's helpful to use the Wait button to wait for two-three hours after telling him to search. When your screen goes back to normal, he'll likely be standing there with a gift for you.

yea , dogmeat could die remember that mines dead becuase i got to many robbots shooting at me and he went off bitting them and their he died , you gotta take care of dogmeat when you wanna be steathy he'll just run up to them