Thanks to Twitter channel Can You Pet The Dog? which launched earlier this year, we now have a means of tracking exactly which videogames feature dogs you can pat – a very worthwhile and valid question, I’m sure you’ll agree. However, some games feature dogs that, however much you might want to because they’re all good boys, you can’t pet. One modder has decided to rectify this in Fallout 4 – so now you can pet any dog in the game.
The Pet Any Dog mod by creator Sagittarius22 is a “light plugin” that “allows you to pet any friendly/neutral dog in the game” as long as you’ve got the Animal Friend perk up to at least rank one – a very minor effort when you consider how many of the Commonwealth’s canines you’ll now get to coo over.
There are a few restrictions to be aware of, though. You won’t be able to pet the dog if you have your fists or a weapon at the ready. You won’t be able to pet the dog if you’ve entered combat with it. And you definitely won’t be able to pet the dog if you approach it wearing power armour. All sounds pretty reasonable to me.
The mod’s page is filled with images of Fallout 4 doggos getting some much-deserved pats on the head and shows how the interaction works. It simply pops up when you approach a dog as long as you haven’t hit any of the criteria mentioned above, offering two options: ‘talk’ or ‘pet.’
If you’re keen to go make some pups your pals in Fallout 4 (which you should be) head over to Nexus Mods and grab the Pet Any Dog mod. Just try not to make poor Dogmeat too jealous. You can also check out our guide to the best Fallout 4 mods if you’re keen to add some other new features to your game.