Dog

What dogs do when nobody's looking.

Man's best friend, a creature bred for friendship, hunter's aid, and police work. They have been by humankind's side for 16.000 to 32.000 years and are mankind's best invention only on par with porn, beer, and the internet. They are loyal and fierce, masking that with goofiness.

They've been bred into different forms over the countless millennia; from protection to fighting and even pulling carts. There are even dogs that can sniff out cancer.. An extensive list of dog breeds can be found here.

Origins

A long time ago when mankind was a bunch of hunter gatherers we left a trail of scraps that attracted predators and soon they started following us. One of these were wolves, eventually they became useful to humans, seeing the use of having animals that can be used for guarding and hunting. They kept the wolves, and over time somebody had the genius idea of breeding based on certain traits and soon this caused an artificial evolutionary tree. Through primitive genetic engineering selectively breeding things like fluffy coats for surviving colder weathers, thick skin for fighting other dogs, search and rescue and so on. Over 36.000 years they have been bred for millions of different tasks, but have also been one of the most wide spread companions. They have even been sent into the black reaches of space.

Dungeons & Dragons

The following doggos appeared in D&D:

• Batracine: Bulldogs with frog legs.

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• Blink Dog: Dogs that can teleport via the ethereal plane.

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• Caniquine: A large dog with the hindquarters of a horse. Can be tamed and ridden.

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• Cooshee: Magical dogs bred by elves.

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• Death Dog: Evil two-headed dogs. Their bite imparts a rotting curse similar to that of mummies.

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• Fenhound: Servants of the Dark Powers of Ravenloft. They hunt down people who do evil deeds in or near swampy terrain.

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• Hellhound: Fire-breathing dogs.

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Hound of Ill-Omen: Divine servants sent to punish major transgressors against a god. It howls at you and walks away and then the next 4d10 hits you receive do quadruple damage, and you can't be healed until they're all rolled.

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• Lupasus: Dire wolves with wings.

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• Moon Dog: Dogs with human hands and lips native to Elysium.

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• Phantom Hound: Ghost dogs.

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• Saluqi Greyhound: From Al-Qadim. Also a real life dog breed.

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• Shadow Mastiff (called Shadow Hound in 4e): Pack predators from the Shadowfell.

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• Skeletal Hound: Calcium Canines

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• Spectral Hound: Native to the Astral Plane. Their bite bears a curse that causes the victim to gradually become invisible and muffled, until no one can see or hear them. After a day and a half, the affected creature slips completely into the Astral Plane.

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• Silver Dog: Rare, beautiful dogs that magically compel anyone who sees one to try and capture it. Invisible to darkvision.

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• Temporal Dog: Time traveling dogs. Said to be an evolved form of blink dog.

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• Tyrg: A cross between a dog and a tiger.

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• Yeth Hound: Evil flying dogs with humanlike faces. Anyone who hears their bark must save vs fear.

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• Yowler: Exactly the same as yeth hounds.

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Warhammer Fantasy

The ruinous powers have Flesh hounds of Khorne, essentially very grouchy and bloodthirsty demon puppers that have taste for psykers and wizards. Chaos is apparently hoarding all the non-demon doggos too (they probably feel a lot less guilty about seeing Lassie sliced up by a sword than most others would), as the chaos warhounds are part of the warriors of chaos faction and in one edition could actually take marks of chaos as an upgrade.

The thought of a dog gaining enough infamy to ascend to a Daemon Prince would be hilarious.

Bretonnian being warhammer Frenchies loves truffles and specifically breed Truffle Hounds to find them. The said hounds has uncanny sense of smell that allows them to smell the truffles hiding underground. They are also notoriously ugly dogs with faces that look as though they have been dropped and put back together by a clumsy five-year-old. However, these hounds are also obsessed with truffles that they would immediately eat them the moment they've found it, which they would become paranoid from eating them.

Orion is always accompany by two of his hounds in battle. Both of them has frenzy and unbreakable special rules just like their master.

And of course there's Ulric, the white wolf god, the second most popular god in the Empire. Unlike Space Wolves however, the wolves his associated with are actual canine so he gets to talk about in this section.

Warhammer 40k

A dog being a good boy for the Emperor

Dogs, like humans, have been spread across the galaxy after 40 thousands years of space travel and colonization. Honestly it's odd why Games Workshop hasn't given the Imperial Guard attack dogs they'd be perfect for harassing light infantry and directing Melee away from your firing lines, hell have them swarm Failabbadon and watch as the other player bangs his head on the wall. As cool as that would be sadly tabletop wise we have yet to have dogs units besides Fenrisian Wolves and those aren't even real wolves technically.

The Adeptus Arbites have cyber mastiffs dogs who have been augmented so far that their essentially a dog's brain in a robotic body making them Robocop dog. The said cyber dog is also the royal companion of the Hired Gun in Necromunda: Hired Gun, which can be summoned in the midst of battle by squeaking its favorite squeaky toy.

The Adeptus Mechanicus also have cybernetic hounds which are used as cyber familiars and guard dogs, so that's a thing.

The Elucidian Starstriders rogue trader kill team has a dog. It's currently the only normal non-demon dog playable on the tabletop in 8th Edition.

In the lore some Imperial Guard regiments have dogs now. (They probably outrank you.) Still no models or rules though, on the note of outranking the average guardsmen actually rains true in real life as well, they out rank common soldiers and their handlers, to prevent soldiers from abusing the dogs on the grounds of assulting a superior.

Magic: the Gathering

Since Hound is a creature type, they are practically on every plane of existence in one form or another. Some planes have them walk upright.

Gallery

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  A very badass retriever.

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  Adeptus Corgis

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  2e

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  5e

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  Pathfinder