🐕 Dogs Companion – Loyal Combat Companions

⚠️ BETA VERSION This is a beta version, several features are still work in progress.

Important update note: Always remove all old versions of this plugin from your mods folder before updating, to avoid issues like double saving or server startup errors!

📖 Overview

This plugin adds tameable dogs to Hytale that follow you, defend you, and fight alongside you. Unlike cats (peaceful, decorative), dogs are active combat companions with defense and offense modes.

🐱 Cats – Peaceful companions, no combat
🐕 Dogs – Combat companions that fight and defend

✅ Features

3 breeds: Generic Dog, German Shepherd, Shiba Inu (more planned)
Taming with raw or cooked meat, success screen with name input
Action Wheel to control your dog (follow, sit, sleep, play, wander, combat mode, search, pet, rename)
Dog Whistle to recall dogs, send them to attack, or cancel attacks
Mood particles show how your dog feels
Interaction hints change based on what you hold (food, whistle, empty hand)
Combat modes: Defense (auto-protect), Offense (assist attacks), Attack Command (manual target)
Nameplates show the current mode: [DEF], [OFF], [ATK], [SIT]
Sounds and animations for each behavior state
All dog data is saved persistently (owner, state, position)
Dog limit per player, configurable via permissions
/dog reload to reload config on the fly (admin only)

How to Get a Dog

Manual Spawning: Use the NPC spawn command to create dogs:

/npc spawn DogsCompanion_Wild
/npc spawn DogsCompanion_GermanShepherd_Wild
/npc spawn DogsCompanion_ShibaInu_Wild

Spawn Eggs: Each breed has a spawn egg:

Egg_Spawner_DogsCompanion – Generic Dog
Egg_Spawner_DogsCompanion_GermanShepherd – German Shepherd
Egg_Spawner_DogsCompanion_ShibaInu – Shiba Inu

Note: Natural spawning is planned for a future update.

How to Tame a Dog

Get meat (Raw Wildmeat or Cooked Wildmeat)
Hold meat and walk up to a wild dog
Press F (interact) a few times – takes 2-5 feedings
A success screen shows the breed and suggests a name
Keep the name or type a new one, then confirm

In Creative Mode, enable "Allow NPC Detection" in Quick Settings (TAB) first. Wrong items may upset wild dogs!

Dog Whistle

Use a Dog Whistle to command your dogs from a distance:

Recall – use without targeting anything, all nearby dogs come back
Attack – use while looking at an enemy, all nearby dogs attack it
Cancel – use on one of your attacking dogs to stop the attack

Has a short cooldown. Only affects dogs within range.

Action Wheel

Press F on your tamed dog to open the Action Wheel:

Action	Effect
Follow	Dog follows you
Sit	Dog sits and stays
Sleep / Wake Up	Toggle sleep
Play	Playful mood
Wander / Return	Free roaming or come back
Combat Mode	Cycle Normal → Defense → Offense
Search	Dog searches the area for items
Pet	Pet your dog

Stop (center) cancels the current action, Rename opens a name input screen.

Combat System

Stats

6.0 damage per hit, 2.5s cooldown, ~2.5 block range, 400ms wind-up

Combat Modes

Switch modes via the Action Wheel or with commands. The current mode is shown on the nameplate.

Defense [DEF] – Dog auto-defends you when something attacks you (20 block radius)

Offense [OFF] – Dog helps when you attack something (20 block radius)

Attack [ATK] – Look at a target and use /dog attack to send your dog after it

Dogs return to following after defeating a target in Defense/Offense mode. Set them to Sit to keep them out of combat.

Loyalty Defense

Dogs in active states (Following, Searching, Wandering, Playing, Returning) will automatically defend you if your HP drops below 75% — even without Defense mode enabled. This reflects the dog's instinct to protect someone they're close to. Dogs set to Sit, Sleep, or Wait stay put and will not react.

Commands

All commands start with /dog (or /dogs). Look at your dog when using them.

General: info – dog details | list – your dogs | spawn / despawn – spawn or save a dog | owner – change owner (admin) | reload – reload config (admin)

🔐 Permissions

Supports Hytale permissions and LuckPerms. Default limit is 16 dogs per player. Adjust with markusbordihn.dogs.limit.8 or markusbordihn.dogs.limit.unlimited.

⚠️ Known Limitations

Important Notes

Natural spawning Wild dogs do not yet spawn naturally in the world. Use spawn commands or spawn eggs.
Limited breed variety Currently only 3 dog breeds are available. More breeds are planned for future updates.

🚧 Planned

Natural spawning in different biomes
More breeds (Husky, Golden Retriever, Border Collie, …)
Breeding and puppies
Collars, armor, beds, toys
Leveling system and breed-specific abilities
Pack behavior for multiple dogs

🗃️ Data Storage

Dog data saves automatically to worlds/default/resources/DogsCompanionData.json (UUIDs, names, states, positions, combat info). Back up this file when moving worlds.

🐛 Known Issues

Wild dogs sometimes get stuck near players with meat
Some animation transitions are rough
Pathfinding needs work
Defense/Offense mode may activate with slight delay

🔗 Related Plugins

🐱 Cats Companion – Peaceful companions with decorative features and playful interactions, no combat.

👉 Download Cats Companion

Enjoy your new canine companions. 🐕

This plugin is under active development. Updates and improvements are added regularly.