Skyrim:Stray Dog

Stray Dog
Location	Random Encounters
Species	Dog	Soul	Leveled
Level	PC×1 (range=10-25)	Type	Animals
		BaseID	00109487
Attacks
8-12 pts, Melee
Other Information
Health	10+(PC-1)×10	Magicka	0
Stamina	20+(PC-1)×5
Primary Skills	Block, Sneak, Archery, One-handed
Faction(s)	PlayerPotentialAnimalFaction
Drops
Dog Meat (1 × 100%); Small Treasure (1 × 10%)

A stray dog

Stray Dogs can be found in random encounters in the wilderness, and will appear fighting two wolves or two skeevers. If it survives, it will approach you. If you talk to it, it can be made a follower, so long as you don't have an animal follower already. When it is told to "go home" it will return to where it was fighting the creatures and walk between two spots there.

Bugs

• When a stray dog dies, you may be unable to recruit another dog afterwards because it will say you still have a canine follower.
  • This bug is fixed by version 2.0.1 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
• When changing cells, or if you tell the stray dog to go home before they have a home, the dog may vanish completely. The dog will still be alive however, and you will be unable to recruit another dog.
  • This bug is fixed by version 2.0.1 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
  • To retrieve the dog in this situation, you will need the dog's RefID, which is different in every instance of the game. Follow the steps detailed here to resolve this issue.
  • Getting Meeko as follower will solve this problem because, for some reason, he will always replace your current pet.
• If your dog dies while following you, its dead corpse may drag along the ground after you wherever you go, come briefly to life to attack someone who's attacking you, then collapse and slide along after you again. It can be dismissed like any other follower.
• When you encounter a stray dog, you may be unable to talk to it and therefore will be unable to recruit it, even if you do not already have an animal companion.
• Sometimes, when you encounter a stray dog, it will automatically become your follower without needing to be interacted with. It can then be dismissed as usual.