Puppies!

 is a perk added to Fallout 3 with the Broken Steel add-on.

With this perk Dogmeat is reincarnated as a puppy every time he dies and can be added back to your group either by finding him resurrected at the location of his death or by waiting until he is moved to the Vault 101 entrance. Dogmeat's puppy is much tougher than the original Dogmeat.

Despite the name, this perk only allows you to get one Dogmeat's Puppy at a time. If it dies, it will be replaced by a new puppy.

This perk still works if Dogmeat died pre-Broken Steel.

Glitches/Bugs

 * Firing a follower such as Fawkes with one of the puppies in-tow may make it impossible to rehire them, as they will act as though you have another follower when you ask them to follow you again. This is a glitch and it appears to occur for some even if Dogmeat's puppy is dead or waiting outside Vault 101. This means that trips to The Pitt and Point Lookout should be avoided if you want to be able to rehire humanoid followers, since all followers automatically get fired when heading to these locations. (I found a solution for this. Tell the pup to wait outside Vault 101, and when he gets there go into VATS and shoot him in the head. When you leave VATS you should get a message notifying you that your followers have returned to their default locations.)
 * Mod fix for PC users now available: ]


 * With this perk, multiple followers can be attained, and retained if lost from having to leave them behind (such as when leaving for Point Lookout), in the following manner: Have Dogmeat (or pup) and a follower accompany you (i.e. Fawkes), as you would normally, to the intended inductee follower (i.e. Charon).  Asking the intended follower (i.e. Charon) to join will result in them turning your offer down, however, you can kill Dogmeat in this very room (avoiding a "loading screen"), and -then- ask the inductee, and they will be able to join you despite you already having a follower (i.e. Fawkes).  Thus you will now have both humanoid followers.  A message that another pup is at Vault 101 will eventually show up after a few real-time minutes, and this process can be repeated for even more followers.  While some believe it is possible to reverse pickpocket grenades into Dogmeat's inventory, this does not seem to work for the 360 version.  Killing him normally works fine, and it does not seem to negatively impact other NPC's in the area. Dogmeat will become hostile to every friendly NPC in the area after enough damage, and role players could claim rabies, but it should be noted that Dogmeat (perhaps only the pup) is temporarily invincible upon recieving damage which goes away in a matter of seconds.  Since it was known before Broken Steel that dogmeat's death allows for one extra follower, the "puppies" perk which essentially replenishes and creates extra slots, may be an intentional means of allowing this exploit to its curious customer's.


 * It is possible that after you pick the puppies perk when Dogmeat's first puppy spawns you get notices saying any followers that have died while with you have returned to their default locations. (for example) "Charon has returned to the Ninth Circle." This bug may only be in response to Dogmeat's puppy automatically taking up another follower slot. It has been confirmed that followers do not respawn because of this bug.
 * You may have to wait weeks at a time to get a new puppy, or sometimes a new puppy may never come. This is the case of the puppy dying in strange areas, or not loading in previous areas. (It does not seem to be based on in-game time, but on real-time.)


 * Because Dogmeat's puppy respawns at the location of his death, waits there for an indeterminate amount of time before being moved to the entrance to Vault 101 many people are finding it difficult to locate him, especially confusing because the message that indicates he is waiting at Vault 101 appears whether he is there or not.


 * After the puppy spawns at Vault 101, it may become stuck permanently in the ground (confirmed Xbox 360). It will act and move as if it is fine, but upon interacting with it, the puppy will behave like a corpse, allowing you to loot it, but it is carrying no items. This makes speaking with the puppy impossible. If this happens, attempt to reload your file from any previous save and retrieve the puppy again. This may not work, however, resulting in the puppy becoming useless. You could reverse pickpocket a grenade and kill it.(Unconfirmed) (cannot reverse pickpocket Dogmeat! for the last time)(Glitch does mention accessing Dogmeat's inventory which should also be impossible, so pickpocketing needs to be tested)
 * You could lure an enemy to the location, and agrro Dogmeat. Dogmeat will work his way out of the ground.


 * Alternatively, the puppy may spawn at Vault 101 and be "stuck in the ground" while remaining interactive via the usual talk prompts. However, upon telling the puppy to follow you, it will be unable to do so (this may occur without a "stuck in ground" appearance).  Tell Dogmeat's puppy to go wait at Vault 101, then "rehire" him a second time and he should be able to follow normally.


 * If you do not have a follower when you get the Puppies! perk, it may not be possible to re-hire any followers except Dogmeat, even if you don't have Dogmeat or Dogmeat's puppy in your party.


 * It might be possible to fix this by killing Dogmeat's puppy and hiring your desired follower.
 * Confirmed. This seems to have happened when taking the perk while off at point lookout.  Simply kill the puppy in the same room as the intended humanoid follower and then the slot for the follower will be empty for a time before the puppy respawns at vault 101.  Hire the intended follower.  This can be used to add as many followers as you want.


 * Another possible way to fix this glitch (Only tested with Fawkes) is to take Dogmeat's puppy to the place where the follower you wish to hire spawns, E.g Fawkes -&gt; Underworld. You must then attack your follower which will prompt the puppy to defend you and fight Fawkes (Please note: some companions may not be strong enough to fight the improved puppy from Broken steel), when the puppy is dead quickly talk to Fawkes you may need to use the action button a few times in quick succession and you will get the [karma] option click it, this will make Fawkes your follower but he will still be hostile. Now you need a stealth boy/Chinese Stealth Suit. You will need to hide from your follower until the sneak sign goes from [DANGER] to [CAUTION] and finally [HIDDEN] you may now talk to Fawkes and tell him : lets go. He will follow you as normal. [Confirmed to work on either Fawkes or Charon for Xbox 360]