Canine Companion

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A dog who travels with a character wherever he or she goes. This may be anything from a Mister Muffykins to a Non-Human Sidekick.

Often called upon for Urine Trouble jokes.

A Sub-Trope of Precious Puppies, Heroes Love Dogs.

See also A Boy and His X.

Examples of Canine Companion include:

Anime and Manga

• Naruto:
  • Kiba and Akamaru.
  • The entire Inuzuka clan. The name means "dog soldiers".
  • Kakashi and his eight Ninken.
  • The Nine Tails is a canine and follows Naruto wherever he goes and so. The twist is that the fox lives inside Naruto. Later in the series(after chapter 578 to be more exact), it becomes a full-fledged Non-Human Sidekick when it comes down to either help Naruto or be forced to become part of the Ten Tails.
• Wolf's Rain: Quent Yaiden and Blue.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: Fate and Arf in the first season. Not so much in later seasons, which has Arf both spending less time in her wolf form and spending less time together with Fate.
• Neo-Human Casshern: Casshern travels with his dog partner Friender. Friender was originally the family dog—brave and fierce, who got killed, but was revived as a trusted companion. Friender can become a tank, car, jet, or a submarine, and can breathe fire. He is the inspiration of Rush.
• Axis Powers Hetalia: Germany has three dogs: Blackie (German Shepherd), Berlitz (Dobermann), and Aster (Golden Retriever).
  • Japan has one too, and his name is Pochi. He's likely to be either a Japanese Spitz, or maybe a really small Shiba Inu.
  • Don't forget Sweden and Finland's Hanatamago! We don't know her exact breed, but she's speculated to be a Samoyed since she's white and fluffy.
• Helen ESP has Victor, Helen's seeing-eye dog with whom she has a psychic connection.

Comic Books

• Tintin: Tintin has Snowy.
• Asterix: Obelix has Dogmatix.
• The Phantom: The Phantom has Devil. Who is a wolf.
• Mickey Mouse has Pluto.
• Donald Duck has got Bolivar, a Saint Bernard.
• The Sandman: Delirium has Barnabas, who she picked up from her brother Destruction.

Delirium: I can't look after a doggie. Barnabas: You misheard him. I get to look after you.

• Groo the Wanderer: Groo has Rufferto. Writer Mark Evanier once pointed out that Groo couldn't have a human sidekick unless that sidekick was stupider than Groo, but a dog that would always see him as smart and heroic would be ideal.
  • Also, the Sage has Mulch.

Film

• In The Journey of Natty Gann, Natty has Wolf.
• I Am Legend The protagonist has a pet dog. Since a viral outbreak nearly eradicated humanity, this dog is the protagonist's only company, and pretty much the only thing keeping the crushing desolation from driving him insane.
• Dog in Mad Max 2.

Live-Action TV

• Heroes: Sandra Bennet has Mr. Muggles.
• The Twilight Zone TOS episode "The Hunt". Hyder Simpson is accompanied everywhere by his dog Rip...even in the afterlife.
• Inspector Rex, or Kommissar Rex in its native language. The tale of a crime-solving police dog and its owner.
• Ned of Pushing Daisies has Digby, though Digby seems to like Chuck and Olive just as much.
• Corporal Rusty had private Rin Tin Tin.
• The Muppet Show: Miss Piggy has Foo-Foo (the wonder poodle.)
• Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor had K-9, a robot dog.
• Top Gear Dog, a female Labradoodle who accompanied Richard Hammond on his adventures for Season 8 and part of Season 9.
• Due South: Diefenbaker, Fraser's deaf wolf.
• Star Trek: Enterprise: Captain Archer had his beagle, Porthos.
• Pit Boss: Shorty Rossi has his big friendly service pit bulls Hercules and Geisha.
• Jake Cutter has Jack, the one-eyed Jack Russell terrier.
• In the pilot of 7th Heaven Simon Camden wishes for and gets a dog that he names Happy.
• Wishbone is a dog that belongs to Joe Talbot.

Literature

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Dorothy has Toto.
• The chaps of Three Men in a Boat have the canine delinquent Montmorency.
• I Am Legend: The Dog in the original short story is a subversion. The survivor tries to tame a feral dog into his companion. he appears to succeed in getting the dog to take food from him, and then you find out the dog died two weeks later due to illnesses.
• The Dresden Files: Harry's dog Mouse goes all sorts of places dogs don't usually go.
• Old Kingdom: Lirael has the Disreputable Dog. Kinda.
• Haplo, Anti-Hero of the Death Gate Cycle, has a dog that goes everywhere with him, even when this defies all logic or common sense. It turns out that the dog, unknown to everyone, is actually a magical manifestation of Haplo's soul.
• In The Silmarillion story of Beren and Luthien, the title characters are accompanied on their adventures by the wolfhound Huan.
• Oleg Divov's The Dog Master features an entire paramilitary organization where specially-equipped soldiers hunt zombie-like creatures with their dogs. They are led by the titular Dog Master. Neither the dogs nor their masters survive the final battle with the zombies.
• In John C. Wright's The Golden Transcedence, Phaethon populates the bridge with mannequins of famous explorers. Including the dog of one such explorer, because it was just not right to have that man without his dog.
• A Song of Ice and Fire has the Stark kids and their direwolves

Newspaper Comics

• Peanuts: Charlie Brown and Snoopy (dog).
• Sergeant Snorkel's dog Otto on Beetle Bailey.
• Dennis the Menace US has Rufus.
  • The other Dennis the Menace UK has Gnasher.
• Little Orphan Annie has her faithful Sandy.
• Ziggy and Fuzz.
• The Perishers: Wellington and his dog Boot.

Tabletop Games

• Arkham Horror has an Ally card for a dog named Duke. He's good for your sanity.

Theater

• In Gypsy, Rose has Chowsie.

Video Games

• Rule of Rose: Jennifer (girl) and Brown (dog).
• Haunting Ground: Fiona (girl) and Hewie (dog).
• Fallout: Dogmeat, a dog which the player can have join their party, makes a cameo (and acted as a non-canon bonus character) in 2 and appears (in 3D for the first time) in 3 . He's found next to a dead body named Max, a homage to Mad Max 2 and his dog, Dog. Fallout: New Vegas also gives you Rex, a partially cybernetic dog companion.
  • Many players have been known to Save Scum should their dog companions die in Fallout. Human companions, meanwhile, are generally considered expendable.
• In Fable II, the protagonist gets a dog to help fight off enemies and find buried treasure. You get a dog on Fable III as well.
• Mega Man and Rush.
• Samurai Shodown: Galford is accompanied in battle by his dog Poppy, who also assists him with some attacks.
• Final Fantasy
  • Final Fantasy VI: The ninja Shadow has Interceptor, who helps him in battle.
  • Final Fantasy VIII: Most of Rinoa's Limit Break attacks involve her dog, Angelo.
  • Final Fantasy X: The Aeon Yojimbo has a dog named Daigoro that helps him in battle.
• Secret of Evermore's hero has a dog that helps him in battle.
• Tales of Vesperia has Repede, a damned big dog loyal to Yuri, the main protagonist. Oh, and he's a playable party member as well.
• The Shinobi sequel Shadow Dancer had Yamato, who you could sick on enemies to prevent them from attacking.
• In Dragon Age, you have an opportunity to get a Mabari hound into your party, unless you're a Human Noble, then you've had one for years. Ferelden loves dogs.
  • In Dragon Age II, the Black Emporium DLC provides a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for the original Mabari. This time, the dog is treated much like a ranger's summoned animals were in the original, so he no longer takes up a party member slot and can be with you at all times.
• Conquest of the Crystal Palace: Farron and his dog Zap are the only ones brave enough to rise against the conquest.
• Deadly Premonition has Forrest Kaysen's dalmatian Willie, who is exceptionally good at tracking down missing people. According to Word of God, it also relays orders to Kaysen from the Red World.
• Mother 3 has Boney.
• The Dead to Rights games has Shadow, an insanely vicious husky capable of killing Mooks as well as his Cowboy Cop partner Jack Slate as well as being able to solve puzzles or get various objects needed for Jack to progress.
• Minecraft recently introduced wolves, the first mob that can be tamed. They'll follow you around and help you fight, whether that means defending you from hostile mobs or hunting down passive mobs that you have targeted.
• The orange dog from But That Was Yesterday.
• Missile from Ghost Trick. Possibly the greatest example ever.
• Dog from Half-Life 2, although his (it's?) body moves more like a gorilla, but the way he acts and his function in the game are both clearly dog-like.
• Dog/Worthless Mutt from Arcanum. He can join your party without taking up a companion slot and train himself to be a melee master.
• NetHack has a hell hound accompanying the Wizard of Yendor in his tower.
  • In NetHack variants, EvilHack has Kathryn the Ice Queen's unique German Shepherd dogs, Koa and Ozzy. Neither they nor their master can be permanently tamed, genocided or even permanently killed - defeating them only renders them peaceful. Fittingly, they are based on the creator's actual daughter and their dogs.

Web Original

• Played straight with Wolfie in Far Lands or Bust, but subverted in Mindcrack Ultra Hardcore, where Kurt's wolves have been responsible for his deaths in both seasons 5 and 6.

Web Comics

• Bob and George: Mega Man assumes he has this
• Raven and Swan in Aurora Danse Macabre.

Western Animation

• In G.I. Joe, there was Mutt and his companion, Junkyard. Also Law with his dog Order. Snake-Eyes was often accompanied by Timber.
• Mickey Mouse and Pluto. Donald also has a dog in some comic strips, but wherther or not its canon depends on the writer.
• Wallace and Gromit.
• ReBoot: Enzo and Frisket.
• Team Galaxy: The team has a robot dog.
• The Little Mermaid: Eric and Max.
• Jack and Zero from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Jimmy Neutron has his (mechanical) dog Goddard.
• Scooby-Doo: Scooby is this to Shaggy.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Mr. Krabs has Mr. Doodles, his pet worm (which is the underwater equivalent to a dog in the show).
  • Also, Plankton has Spot, a pet amoeba who looks (sort of) and acts like a dog.
• Blue Falcon has Dynomutt Dog Wonder.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes: Jimmy and Cerbee.
• Doug and Porkchop.
• Jake the Dog from Adventure Time is this to Finn the Token Human, overlapping with Non-Human Sidekick.
• The Legend of Korra has Korra and her Canis Major Polar Bear-Dog, Naga.
• C.O.P.S. Has Officer Bowser and his Robot Dog Blitz (who's actually a cyborg, having the brain of Bowser's previous dog who took a bullet for his master).
• In the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "wej Duj" (which is, ironically, a Lower Deck Episode) Captain Dorg is cruel even by Klingon standards; while giving Ensign Ma’ah (the protagonist of this part of the episode) demeaning tasks that include cleaning up after Dorg’s pet targ (a Klingon battle hound) don’t seem too excessive, he abuses his subordinates - including the targ - and murders his second in command while using the Pakleds as pawns to attack the Federation. When Ma’ah assumes command of the ship (via Klingon Promotion, naturally) it is obvious that the targ likes him much better than it did Dorg.

Real Life

• John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, an account of his 1960 road trip around the U.S. with his French poodle Charley.
• Paris Hilton and Tinkerbell.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt and his various dogs, particularly his Scottish Terrier Fala.
• Various celebrities, mostly females, at one point or another carried a small Chihuahua or similar with them in their handbag as a fashion accessory. The self-proclaimed "Fashion Czar" Rudolf Mooshammer from Munich, Germany also had one called Daisy that he carried everywhere he went.
• Queen Elizabeth II was rarely seen out of the company of at least one of her large brood of corgis.