Its whats for dinner.

Dogmeat is the Shadowmere of Fallout.

LOL awww I love Shadowmere! Coolest Horse around! And yea, good comparison!

Pariah dogs, more likely.

Yeh...unlikely to backwardly evolve. Dingos are one of several ancient breeds that are still around.

A Boy and His Dog is where the name comes from. According to Bethesda (You should hear the tone in my voice when I say that. Retconning, lore breaking...) each Dogmeat is a descendant of the original. So some time during Fallout 1 he sired a litter, then one of those puppirs drifted towards where Fallout 2 takes place, then the descendants drift east all the way to D.C., and then Boston. Todd Howard: "It just works!"

Dogs would be much healthier 30 years after the end of human civilization due to all the problems with purebreds.

A miserable little pile of chew toy!

But enough talk, have at you!

That really does not work at all given he was a completely different breed in 4 and 3 if not also in NV. What breed was he depicted as in NV?

I'm just looking forward to the day when Dogmeat is portrayed as Dachsund so people will really have something to [censored] about in terms of how hard it is to give him commands.

"Dogmeat! I said come HERE (*points at ground*). Dogmeat!? Are you listening to me!? Dogmeat COME _HERE_ now! (*points again*)"

"Ah to hell with it, here's a treat" (*offers iquana bit and dog comes right up wagging tail . . .(

Some purebreeds suffer from issues as a result of artificial selection having fixed certain locii. German shepherds are a reasonable example, in that they have a significantly higher incidence of hip issues as they age.

Across the several hundred "pure" breeds however, I doubt that "pure breeds" are any less healthy than mixed breeds. Not to say "hybrid vigor" is not a thing, it definitely is, but the negative effects of inbreeding even in the most extremely inbred populations of mammals are only probabilistic in most cases. Humans for example: the inbreeding that resulted from various aristocratic marriage practices in Europe created families with higher instances of certain congenital diseases (hemophilia for example) but also can apparently produce higher than average incidence of 'good' things like genius intelligence or prodigal abilities.

Just a perpetual nod to A Boy and His Dog.

I hate to repeat what I said earlier in the thread but In the film A Boy and His Dog the protagonist actually refers to his dog... once I think as Dogmeat... that's where the name came from...

Funny thing is along with the name Dogmeat, the entire premise of the vault comes from A Boy and His Dog as well.

Apart from the sperm farming...

A litter could be a large amount of puppies. They'll disperse and roam the land, finding new territories to not overcrowd their ancestral home. Any given mongrel we've killed could technically be Dogmeat's descendant. Roam the wastes every few generations, get picked up by wanderers and travel cross country for a bit, breed with [censored]es of different breeds...

Although, the game itself has a pretty clear answer who Dogmeat is. Start a new game, examine your dog bowl in the pre-war era: "We're never going to find that dog..."

200+ years later, and ol' Dogmeat pulled a Seymour on you.

Though, the sperm farming wasn't the intent of that vault. It just became a necessity due to lack of biodiversity.

That brings up a (side) point though. How can we take so much from A Boy and His Dog- yet for some, Androids are completely out of the question regarding lore?

As tough as he is, I'd say he's a mixed breed. Part German Shepherd, part Deathclaw.

https://youtu.be/yWHrl0vEHDg?t=38s

Dogmeat wasn't in FO:NV. There was instead a cyborg dog that you get from the kings named http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Rex_(Fallout:_New_Vegas).

Dogmeat is clearly a synth, and this is why we aren't allowed to kill him.

Oh yea I completely agree. Except for NV. No Dogmeat, should have at least had a cameo. Oh and by the way F3 Dogmeat is female.

http://www.pedigree.com/really-good-food/ingredients.aspx

Ah great game, but I knew there was a reason it never really struck a chord with me.

ROFLMAO! Ah damn, now that I read that I regret what I said. Those guys are great at writing stuff that is perfect for Fallout. That is absolutely perfect Fallout right there.

Damn, now I'm going to have to go back and replay FONV in full just so I can find Rex and have him as a companion and see all his quirks.

I bet he is a dog synth!

He hangs out with the Not-Elvis Impersonators.

They'd all end up looking like Fox Terriers, those dogs get around!