Dog and God

Dog is a psychologically disturbed nightkin who helps Father Elijah by capturing "assistants" for him and fitting them with explosive collars in 2281. His alternate identity, God (referred to by the former as simply "the voice"), is trying to break Dog free of Elijah's grasp.

The "Dog" identity can be triggered by the sound of Father Elijah's voice, and the "God" identity is triggered by the sound of his own voice (via holotape or radio). When one is dominant, the other is said to be in "the cage" or "the basement." The two are never given a collective name, only referred to as their two names collectively.

Dog is the subservient identity who follows Elijah to give him orders like the Master did in his previous life, and God is the independent and intelligent identity that seeks to move on and be free from Elijah's exploitation of Dog's obedience.

Background
What little is known about the person who would become Dog/God is that he was a member of the Master's elite nightkin. Like the rest of the mutant army, he was psychically linked to the Master and conditioned to slavishly serve him until death. With the destruction of the Mariposa Military Base, then the Cathedral, and the subsequent loss of connection to the commanders, his grip on reality broke as the two identities emerged.

The first identity the player meets is Dog, a slavish, childlike character of pure instinct, built from the conditioning the Master bred its army with. The other, God, is the subconscious voice of reason. As the years went by, Dog would constantly get into trouble, wandering, eating, and listening to those he should not. His ravenous hunger can only be described as gluttonous. Once he starts to feed, anyone and anything that Dog hunts will be crushed, mangled and twisted until he is satiated in an act of uncontrolled greed. He knows what he does is wrong, but simply can't help himself. Eventually the voice of reason couldn't stand the constant self imperilment, nor the cannibalism, and began to emerge to counter Dog. Dog, in response, began self mutilation, eventually going so far as to carve the name Elijah gave him on his chest to remind himself who he is, the pain serving to stifle the "other voice." However, as time passed, the other voice became stronger and stronger, and consequently it took more and more pain to stifle the God identity.

Dog's hunger would always drive him to the surface, but when the hunger was satiated and/or fatigue set in, God would emerge. Dog is unaware that the God identity is actually a part of him. He refers to the other identity as climbing into his head and constantly being mean to him in a misinterpretation of God's attempt at protecting them both from harm by locking Dog away. Despite this, God continues to try to protect Dog, seeing him as his younger sibling. Both would grow to resent the suppression of the other being in control, each referring to the other putting them in the cage, or the basement. While in the cage, each identity would only perceive glimpses of the other's actions. This has had the effect of allowing them to keep secrets from each other. This, however, is both a "gift" and a curse, for while it helps keep strategic ignorance, it only exacerbates the animosity between the two.

Although God likes to think he was the original, he is completely unsure. While he is in control, he refers to the body as a "shell" and states that it is hard to fight in. This may be a consequence of God being the culmination of the self preservation and reasoning instincts. Calm, articulate, and controlling, God seeks to eliminate Elijah to free himself from the need for a master and to eliminate his greedy ravenous hunger. In contrast, Dog seeks to eliminate the God personality so that he may become pure instinct, and gorge to his contentment on his master's affection and food. As a result, God has developed a hatred for greed, although neither could hide its bloodlust, whether Elijah's, Dean Domino's, or the Courier's.

Quests

 * Find Collar 8: "Dog": The Courier has to travel to the Villa police station and recruit Dog or God.
 * Fires in the Sky: The Courier has to escort Dog or God to Salida del Sol South to Trigger the Gala Event and hunt down some ghost people for Dog or God to eat.
 * Put the Beast Down: The Courier must confront Dog or God in the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort.

Other interactions
After recruiting Dog and watching him kill and consume one of the ghost people, the Courier can talk to Dog and, after going through a few speech options, receive the Ghost Hunter perk from him. However, if they have the Cannibal perk, it is possible to get the Ghost Hunter perk from him without fighting.

Effects of player action

 * If the Courier has the Wild Wasteland trait, Dog will say "OM NOM NOM" the first time he eats a ghost person.
 * Should Dog/God be killed in the Cantina Madrid and if the area is revisited, his corpse will be shown to have exploded into bloody chunks, due to the fact he ate his collar.

Companion interactions

 * God will engage Dean Domino in conversation while they are both dismissed to the Villa fountain by the Courier. He is apparently familiar with Dean and expresses contempt for the ghoul for not leaving the Sierra Madre when he had the opportunity.
 * Similarly, if Dog is a companion, he will engage Dean Domino in a short conversation if they meet at the Villa fountain. Dog will refer to Dean as if he was some kind of food, Dean's reply being "you stay in your corner while I stay in mine". Then, Dean will talk quietly with the Courier, asking them to "keep him away from this thing".

Inventory
Much like Lily Bowen, Dog and God are limited in the weapons they can use. These weapons are:

Since Dog/God cannot equip any weapons unique to Dead Money and outside weapons cannot be brought into the Sierra Madre, Dog/God are effectively restricted to Unarmed fighting, frag grenades, and the sledgehammer.

Appearances
Dog and God appear only in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money.

Behind the scenes
Within the game files exists an unused character named Dog Script Test Dude. It is a generic super mutant used to test some scripts related to Dog/God.

Bugs

 * The dialogue options "Who's this old man that brought us here?", "So you're the one that knows how I got to the villa", "You Brought Me Here to the villa", and "I want to know more about the man who brought us here" remain highlighted even if you have selected them.
 * Sometimes, when clearing out Salida del Sol North with Dog/God, he will fall through the floor and be suspended underneath it.
 * Sometimes Dog/God may be unable to heal when idle or given stimpaks.
 * Sometimes when he is ordered to wait, Dog/God will attack the first ghost person he can find before waiting.
 * There is an exploitable bug where you can obtain God's perk without him following you. By having God as a companion, use Elijah's voice to summon Dog's persona. This is only temporary, however; as soon as you dismiss him at his post for Fires in the Sky, this perk will be lost.
 * Dog/God is prone to getting stuck in walls around the villa and may be unable to follow the player in the same cell.
 * Sometimes Dog will bug and repeat the phrase "Let Dog out. Hungry, hate being in here" after you have brought him to the fountain. This is because the game still thinks Dog is in the cage at the police station due to the result of buggy dialogue options when you are convincing him to leave the cage.
 * FIX: If updating the game or returning to a previous save is not an option, the console is the only solution. Go to Dog and open the console, then click him. Remember the first two digits of the number at the top then type set . Replace XX with the two digits from before.