20 Best Dog Games: Great Titles With the Goodest Boys

Dog games hit different for anyone who has ever shared a couch with a good boy. In video games a dog is rarely just set dressing: sometimes it carries the whole story, sometimes it watches your back in a firefight, and sometimes it's the only warm thing left in a cold world. We rounded up games where the dog is a real character rather than background noise — ones you steer directly, ones that trot beside you as a loyal partner, and ones that just let you care for a pup. Expect big blockbusters with standout canines, quiet indie dramas, and cozy pet sims. One honest note up front: wolves and foxes didn't make the cut, so you won't find Okami and its wolf goddess here — only actual dogs. And yes, we answer the big question too: can you pet the dog? Scroll on and find your next favorite, whether you're on PC, console, or feeling nostalgic for the old dog games of your childhood.

The most literal answer to "games where you play as a dog" — titles where the pup is the star. You don't pet someone else's pet from the sidelines here; you run, bark, follow scents, pull a sled and live out a whole story on four paws. The genres range from tender indie to co-op puzzle and survival, but you always see the world through a dog's eyes.

The world of Chicory is drawn in ink, and one day all of its color vanishes — along with Chicory, the celebrated artist who wields the magic Brush. Picking up that Brush falls to an ordinary dog: a janitor and the missing star's number-one fan, now tasked with painting the forests, villages and caves back to life. You literally draw over a black-and-white world, flooding screens with color, solving puzzles with brushstrokes and uncovering secrets where there used to be blank paper. Under the cozy coloring-book surface hides a surprisingly grown-up conversation about burnout, other people's expectations and impostor syndrome, with a canine hero who doubts himself in ways that feel painfully familiar. Warm art, a soundtrack by Lena Raine and endless optional touches like costume changes made it an indie darling. If you actually want to play as a dog rather than just pet one, start right here.

The title isn't a joke: Russian Subway Dogs draws on the real stray dogs of the Moscow metro that learned to ride trains and beg for food. You play exactly such a pup — staking out the platform, barking at passengers to make them drop their kebabs and beer, and snatching the loot mid-air while rivals and flying sticks of dynamite try to ruin your day. It's an arcade high-score chase: short runs, escalating chaos and dozens of unlockable animals to swap in for the main hero. A great pick when you want fast, funny action on four legs.

PHOGS! lets you play not just as a dog but as two at once — or rather, one stretchy pup with a head on each end. Red and Blue are joined by an elastic sausage of a body, and the whole co-op puzzle-platformer is about tugging, stretching and twisting that pair: biting onto things, swinging off obstacles, rolling objects and untangling cute puzzles across bright worlds of food, sleep and play. You can tackle it with a friend or solo, steering both heads yourself. A charming, gentle game for anyone craving a dose of canine absurdity with no pressure.

The Red Lantern is about a woman musher and her team of five sled dogs fighting their way home through the Alaskan wild. It's a slow-burn survival tale with roguelite elements: every run comes together anew, and you have to feed and heal the dogs, fend off wolves and bears, scavenge supplies and decide which route to take through the blizzard. The real bond here is with the team itself — each dog has a personality, you grow attached, and losing one genuinely hurts. An atmospheric adventure for anyone who wants the warmth of a dog pack in the middle of a brutal north.

More often than not, a dog joins us as a companion — and frequently turns out to be the best thing in the party. These good boys walk beside you through big adventures: sniffing out enemies, fetching loot, fighting, finding hidden stashes, and above all bonding with you like the real thing. We gathered the most memorable battle-buddies and loyal hounds from blockbusters and RPG hits — many of them right there in our top of the best animal partners in games.

In a sprawling RPG full of dragons, mind flayers and intrigue, plenty of players name an ordinary dog as their favorite companion. You find Scratch in the woods beside his fallen owner: show patience and don't spook him, and he'll warm up and trot into your camp. From there he isn't a combat unit but a genuine friend — greeting you at the fire, bringing you random trinkets in his mouth, agreeing to "talk," and making grim rest stops between fights a little warmer. Baldur's Gate 3 never forces you to recruit Scratch, which makes it all the sweeter that thousands of players still run for the dog first. Freedom is everywhere here: you can carve through half the map, or you can sit down, whistle for your pup and ruffle his fur — and the game honors that moment. The fan love for Scratch became its own meme, and the best illustration of why a dog belongs in a game about saving the world.

Warhorse renders medieval Bohemia with obsessive detail, right down to how a dog behaves at its master's side. At the start of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Henry is separated from his dog, and one of the first stories is tracking him down: the trail winds across half the map to a wolf den, where the frightened pup still has to be rescued. From then on Mutt becomes a full-fledged partner — you sic him on enemies with a command, he sniffs out trails and hidden items during quests, and he raises the alarm when strangers are near. But you have to treat him for real too: feed him, pet him, don't throw him under a volley of arrows, or his loyalty drops and he stops listening. One of the most talked-about companions of 2025 precisely because he acts like a living dog, not a walking ability in a menu. Other medieval picks live in our top of games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Each of the three leads in Grand Theft Auto 5 has an outlet, and Franklin's is Chop — a hulking Rottweiler with a temper. The dog features in several missions: picking up scents, chasing targets around the neighborhood and generally acting like a street gangster's loyal muscle. A neat quirk of its time was the iFruit mobile app, which let you train Chop and raise his obedience in the main game. Against the madness of Los Santos with its heists and chases, the dog gives Franklin a dose of humanity — and the player a reason to swing by home more often. A crowd-pleasing Rockstar blockbuster that still sits near the top of any open-world games top, with a dog more likeable than half the humans in the plot.

Skyrim is crawling with followers, but grabbing a dog is a special joy. Meeko, an abandoned husky, wanders the roads and will attach himself to you on his own; you can buy a guard dog in Markarth; and a Daedric quest introduces Barbas, a talking dog with a sardonic streak who tags along for a whole chain of tasks. Don't expect real combat power from them, but with dragons and undead everywhere a loyal pup makes the endless trek across the snowy wilds feel a little less lonely. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has lived on through mods and re-releases for well over a decade, and the dog companion is one of those small things people love it for. For more of the same, browse our games like Skyrim.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain turns picking your buddy into a science, and the best scout here is a dog nicknamed D-Dog. You find him as a puppy on a ruined outpost, raise him, and over time he grows into a lean wolfhound with his signature eyepatch. On missions D-Dog is priceless: he sniffs out patrols, prisoners and animals ahead of time, marks enemies for Snake and lets you run stealth almost blind. Between sorties you can hang out with him back on Mother Base. Kojima made the dog a companion you bond with rather than a gadget — and in a spy thriller about war and revenge, that lands surprisingly hard.

In Ferelden the mabari war hounds are a point of national pride, and Dragon Age: Origins lets you adopt one right at the start. The dog becomes one of your earliest party members: it tears into enemies alongside your warriors and mages, howls to weaken foes, and stays doggedly loyal to the end. The mabari even has personality and little scripted moments, and you name him yourself. A classic BioWare RPG where the faithful hound isn't decoration but a battle unit you'll happily keep in your main group for the whole campaign.

Koromaru is that rare case where a dog is an official member of the combat team, right alongside the teenage heroes. This white Shiba lost his priest owner but keeps guarding the shrine out of habit, then joins the Shadow-hunting squad and fights beside them at night, wielding a blade. In Persona 3 Reload — the remake of the legendary jRPG — Koromaru is more expressive than ever: his own bond with the team, his own scenes, a touching story of devotion. A dog who battles monsters out of sheer duty is one of the most beloved characters in the whole series.

Fable 2 made its dog a symbol of the game long before it was trendy. The nameless pup follows your hero from childhood to the finale: sniffing out buried treasure and chests, snapping at enemies in fights and changing along with you — turn evil and even his coat grows sinister. The developers lean fully into that bond, right up to a gut-punch moral choice at the ending that fans still argue about. Many call this dog the gold standard of game companions, simply for how alive he feels at your side.

Dogmeat is a living legend of the Fallout series, and in Fallout 4 the German Shepherd greets you almost on the doorstep. The dog joins you across the irradiated Commonwealth: he finds junk and ammo, bites into enemies to pin them down, and he's effectively immortal — he drops under fire but never dies for good. He's the one companion you can bring along without losing your lone-wanderer perks, which made Dogmeat the people's choice for anyone who'd rather not roam the ruins alone. A Bethesda post-apocalypse icon that Fallout is hard to picture without.

Hope County has fallen to a fanatical cult, and one of the first souls you rescue is Boomer, a dog whose owners the cultists murdered. In gratitude he becomes a partner: tagging enemies across the map, fetching dropped weapons and lunging into a fight on command. Out of all the guns-for-hire in Far Cry 5, from a bear to a cougar, Boomer is everyone's favorite because he blends battlefield usefulness with plain old canine loyalty. Ubisoft's open world is noticeably more fun with a faithful tail trotting beside you.

When Call of Duty: Ghosts was revealed, half the internet was talking not about the guns or the plot but a military dog named Riley. The German Shepherd from the Ghosts squad is no set piece: in several missions you control him directly, sending him to silently take down sentries, scout ahead and grab enemies by the throat on your mark. Riley's movements were motion-captured from a real dog, which is why he feels so alive — he snarls, whines, drops on command and greets his handler like the genuine article. He became the face of the whole game and arguably the most memorable thing left of it — proof that a war dog can carry an entire marketing campaign.

Not every companion walks you through a horror. Blair Witch sends former cop Ellis into the cursed Black Hills forest to search for a missing boy — and his only anchor in those woods is a dog named Bullet. The dog is no decoration but half of the gameplay: Bullet picks up trails, finds clues, freezes and growls when he senses evil before you do, and often decides where you even go next. You can and should interact with him — praise, pet, scold or command him — and the forest responds differently depending on whether the dog trusts you. Where the darkness presses in and the trees seem to rearrange behind your back, a living, warm dog becomes both salvation and a vulnerability you'll genuinely fear for. One of Bloober Team's most nerve-wracking games and a standout in our best horror games top.

Sometimes you don't want adventure from a dog game so much as simple warmth — to feed, pet, raise a puppy and just mess around with no goal at all. Pet-care sims and "tamagotchi" games scratch exactly that itch. We deliberately left the mobile "modded" junk at the door and gathered projects that treat their animals with real affection.

For an entire generation, meeting a virtual dog started with Nintendogs — the pocket puppy sim on the Nintendo DS. You petted your pup with the stylus right on the screen, called it by name into the microphone, taught it tricks, walked it, washed it and took it to obedience and agility contests. There was no "winning" here, only the cozy routine of care that hooked millions and became a symbol of the console. The definitive pet sim that kicked off the craze for real digital dogs; the old dog games rarely go without a nod to this one.

The Cats & Dogs expansion finally added what fans had begged for over years — proper pets — to The Sims 4. You can build a dog from scratch in the editor, down to coat and ear shape, move it into a family and watch it live its own life: the animals have personality and a will of their own, and you don't control them directly. A separate track is the veterinarian career with your own clinic, treating other people's critters. A mass-market Maxis life sim where a dog becomes as much a family member as the Sims themselves — puddles on the carpet included.

When Nintendo never brought Nintendogs to the Switch, Little Friends: Dogs & Cats stepped into the gap. It's essentially a spiritual successor to that sim: you adopt puppies and kittens, pet them, feed them, walk them on a leash using Joy-Con motion and enter dog competitions. There isn't much depth, but it's just about the only way to recreate that cozy pet care on a modern console. You can dress your pup up, teach it tricks and take it to a park where other dogs and cats hang out. A simple, kind game for anyone who just wants to fuss over a dog.

Wobbledogs takes the pet-sim idea and gleefully warps it into the absurd. You breed goofy jelly-like dogs on floppy ragdoll physics: they waddle around, eat, pass gas, lay eggs and mutate generation after generation, sprouting extra legs and downright feral shapes. You have to look after the colony — feed them, clean the terrarium, cross-breed the best specimens — but the main attraction is what monstrous little thing the genetics will spit out this time. A charming, slightly unhinged hit about dogs, loved for its dark humor and endless experimentation.

Games where you fully control the dog include Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Russian Subway Dogs, PHOGS! and The Red Lantern. These are dog games you play from the first frame to the last, rather than petting someone else's pet.

Nearly every pick here is on PC: Baldur's Gate 3, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Fallout 4, Far Cry 5, Metal Gear Solid 5, Blair Witch, Chicory and Wobbledogs. Nintendogs and Little Friends stayed console-only.

The most beloved dog companions are Dogmeat from Fallout 4, D-Dog from Metal Gear Solid V, the mabari from Dragon Age: Origins, Scratch from Baldur's Gate 3 and Mutt from Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Yes. In Blair Witch the dog Bullet finds clues and senses evil before you do, staying your only anchor inside a cursed forest.

Top contenders are Dogmeat from Fallout and Riley from Call of Duty: Ghosts, who became the face of an entire game in his day.

There are. Skip the mobile junk and grab Nintendogs, Little Friends: Dogs & Cats, The Sims 4 with the Cats & Dogs expansion or the wild Wobbledogs — these actually care about the pet.

Almost always. You can pet, ruffle and praise the dog in Baldur's Gate 3, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Blair Witch, Metal Gear Solid 5 and every pet sim on this list.

So which game dog stole your heart? Drop your favorite four-legged companions in the comments — let's remember all the good boys and girls together.

If the itch to wear someone else's fur won't quit and you've run out of dogs on this list, there are great games about other animals too — from a runaway cat to a wolf goddess. Here are three worth bookmarking for anyone who loves playing as an animal.

Since we spent the whole list steering clear of cats, let's pay them back. Stray is an adventure as a ginger cat lost in a gloomy neon city of robots. You meow, sharpen your claws, squeeze through tight gaps and unravel the mysteries of a dying metropolis — perfect for anyone who wants to be an animal but is done with dogs for now.

The very wolf goddess we honestly kept out of a dog list is absolutely worth a look on her own. Okami is a fairy-tale adventure as Amaterasu in the form of a white wolf, where you paint the world back to life with a "celestial brush." One of the most beautiful games ever made about a four-legged hero, even if she technically isn't a dog.

And this one is a quiet heartbreaker. In Endling: Extinction is Forever you're the last mother fox on Earth, trying to keep your cubs alive in a world dying at human hands. Bleak, gorgeous and deeply animal: the same devotion to family you feel with dogs, only on the brink of extinction.