Dogmeat (Fallout 3)

Dogmeat is the dog companion of the Vault 101 Dweller. His name is a homage to the Dogmeat from the first Fallout and according to the developers, he's the descendant of Vault Dweller's original canine companion that died in a horrible accident involving a force field.

Dogmeat is said to possess lifelike AI and has many uses in wasteland survival. His main combat use, apart from minor damage, is distracting the character's adversary giving him/her an opportunity to establish an advantage. It has been stated several times by Bethesda that Dogmeat can also be used to fetch supplies that are very necessary in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Another important note is that although Dogmeat can follow you to all ends of the Earth, he is mortal and can be killed in battle or even when acquiring materials in a dangerous territory. If he dies he will stay dead, obviously imitating reality.

Before the release of Fallout 3, the process of how to recruit Dogmeat had only been shown as a small clip as the Player holds something out to the wounded dog. The item is not revealed. Dogmeat was said to be found in a random encounter, which will appear in different places depending on where the player ventures to, but is meant to appear early on to help develop your bond with the dog.

In the released game, Dogmeat can instead be found in the Scrapyard, south of Minefield. He is found attacking and killing several raiders, but approaches the Player peacefully and will join him if asked.

Appearances
Dogmeat, while named just like the one from Fallout (which was said to die in a military accident), is a new character that appears only in Fallout 3.

Abilities
You can send dogmeat to search your current area for either ammo, chems, food or weapons; have him stay in his current location; heal him with stimpacks; or send him to vault 101's entrance for safety. He can die permanently and never come back so keep an eye on his health. Dogmeat can trip traps and attacks enemies even if they are strong melee fighters.

It appears the only way to check Dogmeat's health status is to target him in VATS. This will tell you his health (I hope), though it does not seem to provide any information about severely injured limbs. Also, if you engage an enemy that Dogmeat is also attacking, it appears that Dogmeat can be wounded by your missed VATS shots (as well as missed regular shots). Save often to avoid permanent loss of pet until more is learned about how resilient Dogmeat is and how easy it is to accidently wound him when attacking another target.