History Main / CanineCompanion

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Older than dirt. Dogs were domesticated from wolves during the stone age and have been humanity's companion animal ever since.
* John Steinbeck's ''Travels With Charley'', an account of his 1960 road trip around the U.S. with his French poodle Charley.
* UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt and his various dogs, particularly his Scottish Terrier Fala.
* Various celebrities, mostly women, at one point or another carried a small Chihuahua or similar with them in their handbag as a fashion accessory. For example, Paris Hilton had one called Tinkerbell, although she was usually seen carrying Tinkerbell in her hand instead.
* The self-proclaimed "Fashion Czar" Rudolf Mooshammer from Munich, Germany also had one called Daisy that he carried everywhere he went.
* [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Queen Elizabeth II]] is rarely seen out of the company of at least one of her large brood of corgis. (Nowadays, this isn't as common, as she stopped breeding her corgis so she wouldn't have any pets who outlive her and would have to deal with the death of their owner. The last corgi of the lineage died in April 2018 at the age of 14, and as of 2021, Her Majesty has two corgis and her last living dorgi, Candy).
** She may have learned from the example of her great-grandfather Edward VII, whose wire fox terrier Caesar followed his coffin at his funeral and was the "author" of the best-seller "Where's Master? by Caesar the King's Dog".
* Dogs that work in fire investigation, bomb or drug sniffing, rescue, etc. practically live as a member of their handler's family in order to increase effectiveness via better rapport.
* The Texas A&M [[MilitaryAcademy Corps of Cadets]] has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reveille_(dog) Reveille]] [[LegacyCharacter IX]], the latest in a dynasty of purebred Rough Collies. Some facts about this dynasty:
** The original Reveille was a stray mutt that some cadets brought home after accidentally [[CrashIntoHello hitting her with their car]]. They brought her back to campus and smuggled her into the dorms, intending to quietly take her to the vet school in the morning. Instead, the dog revealed herself when she reacted about the same way everyone else does to the morning bugle call, Reveille, and howled in protest, thus leading to her name.
** Quite a bit of tradition surrounds Reveille. She is considered the highest ranking member of the Corps of Cadets, a Cadet General[[note]]designated by the US Army as thanks for the number of Texas A&M cadets who were commissioned as officers and served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII[[/note]], and all other cadets are expected to greet her accordingly, and address her as "Miss Reveille, Ma'am." She is to be attended by a cadet at all times, with this duty usually going to a specific cadet in Company E-2, known colloquially as "The Dog Corporal". She eats meals in the same dining hall as the cadets, Duncan Dining Hall[[note]]"because the food there is fit for a dog"[[/note]], and attends classes with the cadets. If she barks during class, it is said that class is dismissed per her authority[[note]]though this does not mean the professor will ''stop teaching''.[[/note]]. When a Reveille dies, she is buried in front of Kyle Field, [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball facing the scoreboard so she can see how the Aggies are doing]], with a [[SeriousBusiness full funeral]], [[DueToTheDead where thousands of students and cadets attend.]]
** Back in 1953 the University of Tennessee elected [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_(mascot) Smokey]] the Bluetick Coonhound to be their mascot. During the halftime of the 1953 game against Mississippi State several coon hounds were introduced to the student body for consideration. "Blue Smokey" was the last in line, and when his name was called he howled loudly. The stadium went nuts and he was basically elected on the spot. The current mascot is Smokey X.
* Music/MileyCyrus owns (or owned) a large assortment of pet dogs over the years, many of them adopted from animal shelters, and pictures of her and her dogs regularly appear on her Website/{{Twitter}} account. She dedicated her performance of "[[Music/BillyIdol Rebel Yell]]" at her 2012 VH-1 Divas concert on the air to Lila, a pet dog she tragically lost a month before (fans donated to a charity in Lila's honor).
* Russian President Vladmir Putin's dog Koni is ''extremely'' faithful to her owner, accompanying him to meetings, press conferences, national events, and even visits with foreign dignitaries. Oh, and if an attempt is made to keep her from being beside Putin at any given time, she ''will'' escape her captivity and find a way to go to his side. This has caused some comical headaches for the overprotective President, who has urged the press to "please not feed my dog."
* UsefulNotes/{{Hachiko}} accompanied his master to and from the train station every day. Even after his master died at work, Hachiko would continue to wait for him at the train station, becoming a modern legend in Japan for his UndyingLoyalty.
* A military working dog named Cairo[[note]]whose canine teeth were equipped with razor-sharp titanium caps[[/note]] accompanied the U.S. Navy Seals who took part in Operation Neptune Spear, in which Osama Bin Laden was killed.
* Lord Byron's ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitaph_to_a_Dog Epitaph To a Dog]]'' written as a eulogy to his beloved Newfoundland dog Boatswain, who had died of rabies. Byron tended to the sick animal even at the risk of getting bitten himself.
** Boatswain's tomb is bigger than Byron's.
-->''But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend\\
The first to welcome, foremost to defend...''
* Assistance dogs fulfill this role perfectly. They go with their handlers everywhere and make sure they don't die from whatever disability they're trained to mitigate. Guide dogs in particular, though, have to be able to distinguish between when they're on and off duty as well. Most service dogs at work use senses that are common to them: smelling a diabetic handler's sweat to detect when their blood sugar is low, hearing a doorbell and alerting a Deaf handler, etc. Seeing-eye dogs rely on sight, a sense they don't use as much (or in the same way) as humans do. Being on duty is an intense experience for guide dogs, and as such they need off-duty time to unwind and behave like normal dogs.
* [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]] had a lab named Maise, who was credited for her barks and biting on Nine Inch Nails' cover of [[Music/AdamAnt "Physical"]], and on some occasions during the Self-Destruct tour Trent would have her flown into wherever they were playing at the time. Sadly, she passed away during the tour after accidentally jumping from a hotel balcony while Trent was out performing. An article published almost a year later showed that he was still affected by her death. He's had other dogs since then, including a retired racing greyhound he adopted.
* Frederick the Great of Prussia was known to have a very strong bond with his greyhounds, and is credited with having coined the term "man's best friend" to describe dogs. He loved his dogs so much that he was buried beside them after he died.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champ_and_Major Champ and Major]], the German Shepherds owned by UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, and the first pets to occupy the White House after the Trump Administration. Champ was bought by Biden during his tenure as Vice President for UsefulNotes/BarackObama, while Major was a rescue dog brought in 2018.
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* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': Rantanplan, who isn't actually Luke's dog, but rather a guard dog for a prison somewhere in the American Southwest (where the Dalton Brothers are usually imprisoned), but still follows Luke on many of his adventures. Taken UpToEleven in the animated adaptation by Hanna-Barbera, where he was adapted into stories he wasn't part of in the original comics.

* The ''Series/MadTV'' [[https://youtu.be/GLSlGmVrmuM ad campaign for]] [[HughMann Smith Comma John]], [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Human Being for President]] takes this trope UpToEleven by having him pose with Nilly, a ([[EvilDetectingDog hostile]]) labrador.

[[caption-width-right:260:I Am Legend, and this is my dog.]]

* In ''Fanfic/{{Wonderful}}'', [[AntiVillain Rachel]] really loves her dogs. When she and a lot of her dogs were trapped in a building, badly hurt, and the main characters found them, she did not resist arrest in exchange for treatment for her dogs (and herself, but she insisted that they healed her dogs first).

* ''Literature/{{Magehunter}}'': In the market of Kallamehr, you can purchase a loyal attack dog named Kurt ([[WeNamedTheMomkeyJack after your distant uncle]]) which functions as an AssistCharacter. In every odd Attack Round Kurt can automatically inflict 1 STAMINA point of damage on your opponents, and with Kurt around you can bypass an obstacle in the book's final battle (though at a cost - [[HeroicSacrifice Kurt wouldn't survive the book no matter what choices you make]]).

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champ_and_Major Champ and Major]], the German Shepards owned by UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, and the first pets to occupy the White House after the Trump Administration. Champ was bought by Biden during his tenure as Vice President for UsefulNotes/BarackObama, while Major was a rescue dog brought in 2018.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fics of Creator/AAPessimal, Assassin Johanna Smith-Rhodes has experience of keeping companion pets. Her first animal companion was vetoed by Lord Downey, who politely requested her to consider the best place for a fully grown lion (raised from a rejected cub) might be the Zoo and not the Assassins' Guild. She then got two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, nominally big fierce attack dogs, but which became beloved House animals to the girls of Raven House. Marrying and moving out, Kaffee and Creme went with her and became family pets. In the inevitable fullness of time, they were relaced by two even bigger [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Rimwards Howondalandian]] dogs: two Boerboels, called [[SpotOfTea Rooibuis]] and [[IntoxicationEnsues Klipdrift]]. Like the previous dogs, the two huge mastiffs are friendly, affectionate, ideal housepets to a growing family, who loved being taken on walkies by Raven House girls, and gentle with the children - until anything threatens their mistresses.

* The ''VideoGame/DeadToRights'' games has Shadow, an insanely vicious husky capable of killing Mooks as well as his CowboyCop partner Jack Slate as well as being able to solve puzzles or get various objects needed for Jack to progress.

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* Assistance dogs fulfill this role perfectly. They go with their master everywhere and make sure they don't die from whatever disability they're trained to mitigate. Interestingly, unlike most other varieties of working dogs, service dogs seem to understand that what they do isn't a game and take it very seriously...until the vest signifying their role comes off, at which point they understand they're "off-duty" and can behave like dogs.
* [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]] had a lab named Maise, who was credited for her barks and biting on Nine Inch Nails' cover of [[Music/AdamAnt "Physical"]], and on some occasions during the Self-Destruct tour Trent would have her flown into wherever they were playing at the time. Sadly she passed away during the tour after accidentally jumping from a hotel balcony while Trent was out performing, and an article published almost a year later showed that he was still affected by her death. He's had other dogs since then, including a retired racing greyhound he adopted.

* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Mitchell and Cody.

* Season 9 of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' introduces Dog, who is Daryl's Belgian Malinois and his only companion for the better part of [[spoiler:six years.]]

* In the ‘’44 Scotland Street’’ series by Alexander McCall Smith, the dog Cyril is an associate member of the Scottish Arts Club so he can accompany Angus. He also goes to pubs with Angus and drinks beer, to the consternation of some