Robot Dog
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Dr. Light: Behold! my greatest invention! Rush, the robotic dog! |
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Robots are cool. Dogs are cool. Put them them together and you get a Robot Dog!
Unsurprisingly, the best traits a dog could have make for excellent traits in robot companions: loyalty, friendliness, a fierce protective streak... so why not jump to the logical conclusion and combine the two? A Robot Dog has all the good perks of a lovable pooch without (theoretically) any of the bad! Tearing furniture up, hiding your slippers, leaving hidden piles of poop for you to step on in the yard? All a thing of the past should you own one of these metallic mutts!
However, these traits also make them a force to be reckoned with. If you thought a fiercely loyal and aggressive attack dog was scary enough, those traits are so much worse in a more durable, powerful robot than can be armed with all kinds of weapons.
As a rule, Robot Dogs tend to be owned by scientists of both the benevolent and mad varieties, tech geeks, kids with family ties to influential toy and robot companies, as well as evil overlords, CEO's, and any other unscrupulous types with money to burn.
Examples of Robot Dog include:
Anime and Manga
- In the late 1970s anime Yatterman, the two heroes ride on a giant dog-shaped mecha.
- Friender from any incarnation of Neo-Human Casshern (save the live action movie), who was a We Can Rebuild Him case. Friender is also the inspiration for Rush.
- Balican from Chargeman Ken was Ken's sidekick robot dog.
- Peach from Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z.
Comic Books
- Robbie the Robot Dog from The DCU.
- Spot, Krypto's robotic friend, from an issue of Superboy.
- Pooch, Manhunter's pet, from Tangent.
- Blackhawk built a robot dog in his self-titled comic series.
- Valeria Richards built a robot dog in The Mighty Avengers.
- Half-Face, from the Marvel Universe, invented several devices including a robot dog.
Fan Works
- In Nobody Dies, Zwei, or Unit-02 as you may know him, is a 200-foot-tall killing machine that thinks that it's Asuka's doggie; it's a deliberate Expy of Dug from Up.
- In Final Stand of Death, more like a Petting Zoo People mixture with Mechanical Lifeform, Fusion Gundam in counts since they do take on wolf-forms.
- In the Mega Crossover No Tendo, the giant AI tank on the planet Refuge creates dozens of AI dog-bots to be its liaisons with various human groups (and to be the occasional infiltrator as well).
Film
- Rags the Robot Dog in Woody Allen's Sleeper:
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Rags: Woof, woof, woof. Hello, I'm Rags. |
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- A rather unpleasant pair of them show up in Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Literature
- The Isaac Asimov story "Robutt" is about a boy and his robot dog.
- The "rat things" of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash combine actual dogs with robotic parts to create extremely deadly guards.
- In Yevgeni Veltistov's Ressi - An Elusive Friend, the titular character is a robotic dog built by a child android named Elektronik as a companion. The dog is highly intelligent and, while incapable of human speech, could remotely transmit data directly to Elektronik. Ressi (which is an acronym) can run and swim extremely fast. In fact, it becomes a plot point after Ressi is captured and reprogrammed by a Corrupt Corporate Executive, as there is almost nothing manmade at sea capable of swimming at Ressi's top nautical speed, which equals to that of a swordfish (about 50 mph). Ressi is finally re-captured by the only boat capable of reaching that speed underwater.
- The Hound in Fahrenheit 451. Interestingly, it may not have actually looked much like a dog since it was built as an octopod, but Bradbury was a little vague on the details.
Live-Action TV
- Robbie built one of these in an an episode of LazyTown. The dog attacks when the word 'trouble' is uttered. There's even a song about him.
- Doctor Who and later The Sarah Jane Adventures have K-9.
- Averted in a Series 6 episode when The Eleventh Doctor advises Craig to avoid stepping on Yappy, the Robot Dog, then remarks that it wasn't as much fun as he remembers.
- Muffy II the robot Daggit in the 1970s Battlestar Galactica.
- Murphy in Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.
- R.I.C. 2.0 (Robotic Interactive Canine) from Power Rangers SPD, he can transform into a BFG for the rangers, or a Powered Armor for the Red Ranger. Or a scooter to ride on when the bumbling assistant scientist pretended to be a Ranger. He really becomes a Do-Anything Robot, with a lot of random things added to him just because they could when said assistant and the tech-savvy Ranger, Bridge, upgraded him in their spare time.
- A few Zords have been giant robot wolves, including the Blue Ninjazord from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Wolf Wildzord, the Wolf Galactabeast who turned from a giant wolf into a giant robot wolf, the Wolf Animal Spirit (a giant robotic-looking wolf... made out of pure ki.) Yeah, Power Rangers a big on giant robot wolves.
- My Name Is Earl: when the gang move into the local big box store because they think Y2K destroyed all civilization, Randy took up residence in the toy department and made friends with a toy robot dog.
- The eponymous hero of Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack is one.
- Denshi Sentai Denziman has IC as the Team Pet and The Mentor at once.
Music
- The They Might Be Giants song "The Ballad of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space)" mentions a robot drone that Crockett reprograms into a robot dog.
- mc chris's Robot Dog.
Newspaper Comics
- There was a Frank and Ernest comic in which a robotic dog was referred to as a "dogmatic".
Tabletop Games
Card Games
- Star Munchkin has a card "Dogbot" which is probably an Expy of Doctor Who's K9.
Tabletop RPG
- A petbot in the shape of a dog in the Paranoia adventure Send in the Clones.
- A few missions also include doberbots. Naturally, a doberbot's primary combat tactic is "attack someone until they die, attack someone else until they die, attack someone else until they die..."
- In Warhammer 40,000 'verse Imperium has Cyber-Mastiffs (umbrella term for variety of types, rather than specific), mainly used by Adeptus Arbites and local enforcers. They don't appear in the tactical tabletop, but in spin-offs where law enforcement is present - Inquisitor, Necromunda, Dark Heresy and Black Crusade.
- Dark Heresy even have Cyber-Mastiff Handler character option for Tech-Priest in Book of Judgement - much like with other servitors, while an enforcer can command one of those with basic training, optimal use and care require qualification.
Toys
- Energy Hounds from Bionicle.
- The Alphas from Mechatars
Video Games
- Dog from Half-Life 2. Not too dog-shaped, but it has a dog-like behavior and name. Then again, Alyx said he used to be "yay-high", implying that Dog was more dog-like until Alyx began "adding on to him".
- The Mecha-Chomps from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga are robotic Chain Chomps with the body of a standard robot dog.
- K9 in Fallout 2 is a cyborg, but close enough to qualify. Rex from Fallout New Vegas is also an example.
- Rush is Mega Man's robot dog. There's also the giant, fire-breathing robot dogs in Wood Man's stage. And while he's more wolf-like, Bass's Canine Companion Treble is another example.
- Sigma has one of his own in the form of Velguarder in the first Mega Man X game. If his dialogue is any indication, he regularly lets him deal with soldiers of his that turn traitor.
- The K9000 enemy from Mother 3.
- The FENRIS Mechs from Mass Effect 2. The collector's edition of Mass Effect 3 will include a non-hostile one that follows Shepard around on the Normandy.
- In Professor Layton and the Curious Village, you can build your very own robot dog. In addition to unlocking new puzzles, he can be used to tell you when there are hidden things in the area.
- In Secret of Evermore, your dog would change according to the region he was in. Naturally, the "future" world made him a robot (and a toaster).
- A robotic bulldog is a type of enemy in Secret Agent, described as "not a man's best friend". Curiously, these are always found near tiny little dog houses.
- In Secret Agent Barbie, one of Barbie’s gadgets is a tiny and rather cute robot dog.
- MEL from the late 1990s Blaster Series games.
- Wolfenstein: The New Order has Panzerhunds, which are colossal mechanical nightmares created by Deathshead to serve as some of the deadliest killing machines the Nazis have in their arsenal.
Web Comics
- Snuffy the Pooch from A Beginner's Guide to the End of the Universe gradually turns into one of these, as the protagonist uses his Reality Warper powers to upgrade her into a Cyborg.
- In Schlock Mercenary the fabber tutorial for sophonts from Earth involves making toy robot dogs.
- Unintentionally Pretentious has Aibo — Do-Anything Robot/generic Non-Human Sidekick. A mobile music player/roomba/guide dog (it got built-in GPS navigator)/bodyguard.
Web Original
- Linkara expresses his distaste for these things as video game enemies in his Adamantium Rage review:
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"Ugh, a robot dog. Why do video game designers always include dogs? They're one of the most annoying enemies ever!" |
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Western Animation
- Subverted in The Jetsons, as Lectronimo was nowhere near as good as Astro.
- Also there's Cogswell's robot dog, Centro.
- Dynomutt Dog Wonder, with the Blue Falcon. He later appeared on Dexter's Laboratory, as well.
- Dynomutt also appeared in Harvey Birdman. RIP.
- Goddard from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron.
- A robotic dog was featured as a rival for Scooby Doo in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
- Phineas and Ferb had a robotic dog show up in the theme song. They actually build it in "Canderemy".
- Robo-Puppy from Futurama, which is a direct parody of Sony's AIBO mentioned below. Bender actually kicks the Robo-dog!
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Robo-Puppy: Robo-Puppy commencing two hour yipping session: YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! |
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- 1-Rover-1 from Battle of the Planets.
- Rover in Planet 51.
- Sniffer McGross from Grossology.
- Preston turns out to be one of these in Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave.
- Sari's pet Sparkplug in Transformers Animated.
- K-999 in The Problem Solverz. He's actually not very helpful and constantly insults and pranks the team.
- In the Animated Adaptation of The Partridge Family, Danny had a robot dog named Orbit.
- Again, MEL from Blasters Universe.
Real Life
- Sony's AIBO series of robots were literal robot dogs, or at least as close as was possible within the limits of artificial intelligence.
- Hasbro's Furreal Friends included Biscuit, a robot dog for kids.
- Poo-Chi, a robot dog for kids (followed by Meow-Chi, Chirpie-Chi [bird] and Dino-Chi), which came in various colors. Among the variants were a poodle, a bulldog and three dalmatians (actually Domino, Little Dipper and Oddball, to promote 102 Dalmatians. The toys were made from 2000 to 2002. One of the complaints about them was that they wouldn't shut up!