Taming a dog

[Moyocoya]

Hello,
Even after reading a few articles on the subject, I still have questions about dog domestication.
There's one hanging around not far from my base. A great dane, I think.
I've watched him, that's done, and I've built a little bed and a trough inside the fortified enclosure but outside my house (under shelter though).
If I've understood correctly, I need to hunt an animal, dry the meat, and with that I'll be able to tame it. I'm not sure how, but I'll figure it out.
I have three questions:
- How do I get it inside the fortified enclosure (plus there are traps at every entrance)?
- Will it come out again (there's always the problem of traps)?
- Will it live long enough for me to do all this?

[Moyocoya]

Every entrance to my fortified enclosure is protected by traps AND closed by gates.
What you mean is that if I manage to lead the dog inside my enclosure and if there is gates at all entrances, the dog will not leave ?

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Moyocoya:

Every entrance to my fortified enclosure is protected by traps AND closed by gates.
What you mean is that if I manage to lead the dog inside my enclosure and if there is gates at all entrances, the dog will not leave ?

Yes, that is what tiamats4esgares means. You can lead the dog into your enclosure once it is tamed; the mechanic is: select your survivor, right-click on the dog you've just tamed and select "lead," then left-click where you want him to go -- his new bed probably. If the wild dog keeps coming into your enclosure before he is tamed, then he will likely die from trap wounds.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Moyocoya:

... I still have questions about dog domestication. There's one hanging around not far from my base. A great dane, I think. I've watched him, that's done, and I've built a little bed and a trough inside the fortified enclosure but outside my house (under shelter though). If I've understood correctly, I need to hunt an animal, dry the meat, and with that I'll be able to tame it. I'm not sure how, but I'll figure it out.

Once you have dried meat, you can send one of your survivors with a farming skill of at least 3 (4?) to tame the dog; to do this you select your survivor, then right-click on the dog & select "tame" rather than "hunt." Taming is successful about 90% of the time; if not successful you need to wait a couple of hours and try again.

Dried meat: You have to put raw red meat in your drying rack. You can build the drying rack from the "Ranching" menu -- choose the large one -- and place it in a convenient place near your food storage. Build a shelter over it -- as you do with all your stockpiles and storage shelves -- to give the stored items the "under roof" buff. As soon as you are notified that you have a new resource -- dried meat -- available, then go to each of your survivors and forbid them from eating dried meat until you've tamed your dog.

Your tamed dog: Give it a unique name, such as "Moyocoya's Dog," or some such; that way the name will show up like your survivors' names, making the dog easy to find. Otherwise the dog gets lost in the chaos of the camp.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by tiamats4esgares:

... I don't know if it will trigger traps but I think not. It can be hurt by flamethrowers if they're activated by something else, but I don't think they trigger them.

The wild dog will trigger and get hurt by your traps and by your flame throwers, just the same as any other wild animal.

Originally posted by tiamats4esgares:

If you have 2 dogs (a male and a female) they can even breed.

Back when they first introduced the taming update, I thought it would be cool to raise a pack of tame dogs. I had several breeding pairs -- boxers, great danes, etc. -- and the puppies just kept coming! I finally had as many as 26 dogs and they were eating me out of house & home. I butchered every single insect and had one full-time crafter making slop, and even then they started starving and going berserk. I finally had to slaughter them all except for two same-sex puppies.

Originally posted by tiamats4esgares:

After you've tamed the dog, you can feed it other stuff besides dried meat, like raw meat and even slop (made on the crafting bench). Unfortunately, carnivores are harder to keep than herbivores because meat is just harder to get. And they won't even eat insect meat.

Well, you left-click on the dog's feed trough, select "Carnivore food," and then select the foods you want the dog to eat. You can choose insect meat, raw red meat, dried meat, slop, and "Carnivore Food". This carnivore food is a breakthrough provided by devs to solve my previous problem; it is made on the campfire (or any cook stove) and is made from any type of meat plus grain. Takes very few ingredients and only a few seconds to make a batch of 100 carnivore foods, and it lasts a long time. There is also a similar "Herbivore Food" that your cook can make.

[Moyocoya]

Thank you everybody, I'll do my best

[Moyocoya]

Uh... By the way, any idea how much a dog eats a day ?

[Moyocoya]

Originally posted by wcbarney:

You have to put raw red meat in your drying rack. You can build the drying rack from the "Ranching" menu -- choose the large one -- and place it in a convenient place near your food storage. Build a shelter over it -- as you do with all your stockpiles and storage shelves -- to give the stored items the "under roof" buff.

The large drying rack has akready a roof. Really need a shelter ? I see no building with ceilings high enough. No way to move the meat once it's dried somewhere else ?

[amanda_manx]

I've had around 8 dogs at one time, make sure you have someone prioritising ranching because they'll eat a lot and even growing sausage trees on saltu it can be hard to keep up with meat demands. Also if you train them to level 5 you can take control by drafting them for combat, I recommend trying to keep one type of dog if you want to do this it's easier when selecting them as a group.

[amanda_manx]

Also click on your food trough and make sure you have the right foods selected, There are categories for herbivore or carnivore and you can select to just have bug meat used for their food or whatever type of meat you have most of.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Moyocoya:

Originally posted by wcbarney:

You have to put raw red meat in your drying rack. You can build the drying rack from the "Ranching" menu -- choose the large one -- and place it in a convenient place near your food storage. Build a shelter over it -- as you do with all your stockpiles and storage shelves -- to give the stored items the "under roof" buff.

The large drying rack has akready a roof. Really need a shelter ? I see no building with ceilings high enough. No way to move the meat once it's dried somewhere else ?

Once the meat is dried and the hides are cured, then your survivors will move the dried meat to your freezer and the leather to your storage shelves. I dunno about the large drying rack being good enough to keep things "under roof," so I always build a stick shelter over it

[Moyocoya]

OK, thx !

[Moyocoya]

It seems that it's possible to feed the dog with insect meat. Is it good for animals ? Won't my dog be ill as humans do ?

[Flin Fredstone]

Originally posted by Moyocoya:

It seems that it's possible to feed the dog with insect meat. Is it good for animals ? Won't my dog be ill as humans do ?

Sorry buddy, i think you forgot.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1324130/discussions/0/5514142829701110986/#c5514142829701388010

[Moyocoya]

Sorry Flin, thank you !

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by tiamats4esgares:

Originally posted by wcbarney:

Once the meat is dried and the hides are cured, then your survivors will move the dried meat to your freezer and the leather to your storage shelves. I dunno about the large drying rack being good enough to keep things "under roof," so I always build a stick shelter over it

Same. I think the large drying racks are ugly too so I never put it in my house. :O Also the statues are all ugly for the most part, maybe the shrieker and dog are OK but meh. And most take up too much space and some can't even be in houses with the roof. >.<

Yeah, there is no need to keep the drying racks in the house. I agree that the drying racks and statues are ugly; never make statues any more. They used to give a happiness buff, but it seems they don't any more. The shroom torches work though, and are small.

Originally posted by Moyocoya:

It seems that it's possible to feed the dog with insect meat. Is it good for animals ? Won't my dog be ill as humans do ?

Originally posted by tiamats4esgares:

Well IRL dogs can handle raw meat better than humans can. For the game, I don't see why raw insect meat would be any different than raw red meat. But I never knew they could eat insect meat. Perhaps that's new. It makes things easier. Though.........it does go bad fast....

The dogs have been able to eat insect meat from the get-go when the taming update was introduced: they could eat raw red meat, insect meat, dried meat, and slop. Now they can eat the new "Carnivore Food," which can be made quickly and easily by your cook, and which lasts a long time.