Games with canine companions?

[shopkins]

I've noticed a lot of these lately and I kind of like it, if it's a trend. Having a "familiar" can really ad to the gameplay and of course dogs easily pull on your emotions. I know I got sad when Dogmeat ate hot plasma in the original Fallout. Which games do you think did it best?

These are the ones that I know of:

Fallout (Dogmeat is pretty much everyone's favorite party member. At least he never shoots you in the back with a machine gun, like some people I can name, Ian. The enemies get so serious by the end of the game that the only way I was ever able to save my other party members from a grim death was to dismiss them before the last two dungeons, but Dogmeat is too loyal, and unless you take some very special precautions he will eventually come to a bad end at the hands of some super mutant, which was sad)
Shadow Dancer (Mushahi's dog, at least in the Genesis version, is mostly used for a special attack move, but he's very useful for getting enemies off guard and I would have a hard time getting through the game without him)
Rule of the Rose (I'm playing this now and I'm really growing attached to Brown. He might just be a way of finding items for the most part but with all the weirdness it's good to have a friendly, not to mention cute, face around)
Dead to Rights Series (Jack's dog is good for killing and he can also get you weapons. I really enjoyed using him in this one, especially since his attack moves look kind vicious)
Rush from Mega Man (honestly, though, in most of them he's more like a special item or ability. It's great when you do use him but I think it would be neat if he actually followed Mega Man around in some levels)
Haunting Ground (haven't played)
Fable 2 (haven't played but I hear it's a very complex implementation in terms of AI)
Fallout 3 (got RROD before I got to that part)

Any others?

[SpaceHarrier]

Rush, from Megaman 3 and up

also, inb4 Nintendogs

[Steve W]

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel has a dog you can acquire.

[Family Computer]

Samurai Showdown

Metal Gear Solid

[Damaramu]

Secret of Evermore

[j_factor]

Dead to Rights

[bcks007]

Dead to Rights 2

[The Shawn]

A Bard's Tale

[Scissors]

Rocko's Modern Life on SNES.

[dao2]

red alert

and they were awesome :P

[shopkins]

I can't believe I forgot Dead to Rights. I've played both of them and I loved using the dog in that. He worked like a 3D update of the dog in Shadow Dancer.

Thanks for all the additions, but please also tell me which ones you think did it best and why or at least which ones had an interesting implementation. I'm not that familiar with some of the games people have added and how the dog worked in them.

[Berserker]

Nethack, definitely.

They can be trained to steal items for you from shops, sniff out traps for you if you have them on a leash, help you determine if items are cursed or not, and of course help you kill stuff. And if you have a spell/scroll/wand of polymorph, you can transform them into potentially more fearsome beasts.

[bcks007]

Forgot Final Fantasy 6/3 on snes

[shopkins]

Forgot Final Fantasy 6/3 on snes

There's a dog in that? What does it do?

[heybtbm]

Fallout (Dogmeat is pretty much everyone's favorite party member.)

It's funny this topic just came up. I finished up Fallout 3 on Friday (~60 hours total play time), and never bothered to find Dogmeat. A friend told me where he's located, but I just stuck with the human/mutant companions.

[heybtbm]

There's a dog in that? What does it do?

It's name is Interceptor. It's Shadow's dog and appears time to time to help out during battles.

[Scissors]

Koromaru from Persona 3 and Ace from Deep Labyrinth.

If you're counting wolves, there's also Blanca from Shadow Hearts Covenant and Shiro from Suikoden II.

[Rogmeister]

Isn't every character in A Dog's Life a dog?

[josekortez]

Don't forget the Harvest Moon series.

[theChad]

Yoshi's Island - Poochie