Attack Dogs (killstreak)

"Dogs... I hate dogs."

- John "Soap" MacTavish in "Contingency".

In the Call of Duty Series, Dogs are featured in four games:
 * Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
 * Call of Duty: World at War
 * Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
 * Call of Duty: Black Ops

Hellhounds, a variant of the dog, appear in Nazi Zombies.

Single Player
In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, dogs jump on the player and knock them down. In Call of Duty: World at War, they only jump and bite at the player, without knocking them down. Like a Banzai charger, the player can kill them before they kill the player by pressing the melee button to break their neck at the right time. They're easy to hear and spot by their growling. If the player breaks the dog's neck at the right time and survives the attack on the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, they will get the "Down Boy Down" achievement. Dogs in single player mode will only appear as German Shepherds.

Call of Duty: World at War
In Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer, dogs can be called in by a player as a 7-killstreak. The dogs spawn and attack enemy players on the map for 60 seconds. Friendly dogs appear as German Shepherds and enemy dogs are Black Belgian Malinois.

The dogs can be killed, but will continue to respawn until the 60 second cycle has ended. By default, dogs have 100 health. Dogs attack by lunging and biting at enemy players. In core modes, players with more than 90 health points can survive up to 2 dog lunges before dying in Regular modes, but in Hardcore players die instantly even with Juggernaut. Killing a dog will give a player 3 EXP depending on the game mode, but will not count as a kill or an assist. However, in Team Deathmatch and Free-for-All players score 3 and 2 points respectively, making it possible to actually win the game with fewer kills than would otherwise be necessary. For this reason, it can actually be detrimental to call in Dogs in these gametypes. Dogs rarely go into water and cannot climb ladders. Dogs also cannot attack players in tanks. Some consider this killstreak to be superior to the helicopter in Call of Duty 4 due to the fact that it can attack anywhere (with the exception of water).

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The attack dogs will return in Call of Duty: Black Ops, and have been upgraded to an 11-killstreak reward in Multiplayer. Dogs will constantly spawn for a set period of time after activation, even after you kill them. As compensation, it is smart to kill them quickly, as they can kill with one bite.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

 * In the level, "The Coup", dogs are seen attacking civilians in the city. As most of the other dogs, they are German shepherds. Some are tamed and at their owners' sides, but others are individual and running amok, attacking people. One is seen chasing a man down an alleyway and over a fence.


 * In the level, "Hunted", some dogs are ordered to attack the SAS, after saving Nikolai. One of the squad-mates points out it is very quiet, and then hostiles fire upon them, sending two dogs.

It is not automatic, but many, many dogs will attack the player. They will constantly attack the player, following him through the school and to the hotel. Even if the player survives the attacks, Captain MacMillan will most likely be killed. It is possible for the player and Captain Macmillan to survive, though it is very difficult. The best way is to pick up an assault rifle like a AK-47 or a G36C. Shoot the dog before going down the hall to the open area. When the dogs all flood down the hall, the player will be able to mow most of them down. If the magazine runs out of ammo, don't reload! switch to a pistol or a second assault rifle.The Captain will stand on the left side entrance of the hall the whole time.
 * In the level, "Safehouse", dogs are often seen alongside their owners. As the humans snipe the SAS, the dogs just charge, easily allowing the team to pick them off.
 * In the level, "All Ghillied Up", dogs are first seen if the player misses the first two contacts. Some hostiles will attack the player, and around five dogs will come through the tall grass. If the player successfully takes them out, however, a dog can be seen sleeping on the couch in the house near where they were standing. Alerting the soldiers in the house or the one by the car, will cause the dog to wake up and attack. This one will awaken if anyone is alerted before reaching the church. Dogs are not seen for a while until near the end. A rabid dog is seen, tearing apart a Russian soldier. The player is supposed to sneak around it. Doing this will only make the dog growl and maybe bark. However, shooting - whether or not the player kills it - will result in failure.


 * In part 2 of Captain Price's flash-back, "One Shot, One Kill", a lot of dogs are seen. At the beginning, some are sitting still as Imran Zakhaev unloads the fuel rods, and is sniped by Lieutenant Price. Afterwards, Price and MacMillan must evade wave after wave after wave of enemies, some dogs are seen in the groups. More are seen in pens, as the sniper-team moves through apartments. After Price shoots down the helicopter, it crashes into MacMillan, who breaks his leg. As the player moves forwards to the extraction point, dogs will randomly pop out, depending on earlier actions. Carry MacMillan up a wall of debris to the second floor of an apartment building. He'll tell the player to set him down. Do so, and clear out the floor. Three dogs will be up here, but are easy to pick off. Also, there are about four soldiers. the player will know if he hasn't killed them all, because MacMillan will say when he tries to pick him up, "Why don't you try clearing the floor, first?", or something similar. When the player makes it to the pool building, there are some dogs feasting on a few dead bodies in the emptied deep end of the pool. Sometimes, the dogs will just jump out and flee, killing the two guards, but if left alone they will attack the Ultranationalists that attack the player when he's defending MacMillan at the Ferris wheel. Finally, in the final fight, while trying to defend MacMillan while the helicopter is inbound, some dogs will also attack the player.


 * In the level, "The Sins of the Father", dogs attack Soap MacTavish and Griggs as they pursue Viktor Zakhaev. They are very few and very easy.


 * In the level, "Ultimatum", some dogs will attack if their owners are killed. Also, a dog's head can be seen painted onto some signs in Russian and are posted to chain-link fences.

Call of Duty: World at War

 * Dogs appear in one level, Vendetta. Some Germans are seen walking them at the beginning, and one must be killed, while sniping for Reznov. In order to earn the trophy/achievement "The Professional", by killing the two soldiers by the stairs in one shot, then the two in the middle with one, the two crouched near each other on the left with two (or one - doesn't matter), then knifing the dog, and finally killing the last man that runs up with the dog - without reloading.


 * Dogs do not appear in the level Vendetta in the Wii version of World at War, though they are present in multiplayer.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

 * In the level, "Takedown", a dog leaps at Roach from inside of the chain-linked soccer field. He can be knifed, shot, or left to run outside and attack the player. A few yards ahead, a civilian leans out his window and warns the player of dogs and more soldiers ahead. He is shot, then, and the Militia order dogs to attack Roach, as they fire upon him. At the end, a very faint bark can be heard, as "Soap" tackles Rojas onto the car. After this, dogs are not seen again until "Contingency".
 * In "Contingency", Soap says, "Dogs, I hate dogs", when Price tells him that the Russians have them, with Price commenting that these Russian dogs "are pussycats compared to the ones in Prypiat", remembering his times with MacMillan. The "I hate dogs" phrase originates from Indiana Jones, as he comments of his phobia of snakes. Price and Roach have to shoot some dogs as they move towards the town.
 * In "The Enemy Of My Enemy", dogs are seen once again, attacking both Soap and the Shadow Company soldiers. They are rarely seen, and the player can sometimes hear them but not see them.
 * In "Just Like Old Times", at the beginning. Soap and Price have to pick them off, along with two groups of Shadow Company soldiers, before rappelling down towards General Shepherd's cave network.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

 * Dogs are confirmed to appear in the level, WMD, where they are used by Russian troops in the beginning to back-up and find team Kilo-1. However, Team Kilo-1 were able to snipe the dogs out with crossbows along with their Russian owners if they wanted to. Not much else is known if dogs appear in other levels of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Defense against Dogs

 * Dogs should be killed as quickly as possible.
 * Tanks are impervious to Dogs and can kill them easily.
 * The Reconnaissance perk allows the player to see the locations of the dogs.
 * Staying in an area where the dogs can only come from one direction makes them easier to deal with.
 * A common tactic in multiplayer is for players to use bayonets. This will conserve ammo and will instantly kill the dog, and has more range than the knife. Be careful, as many players have died from a missed stab.
 * Dogs will use staircases. Also, in the map "Courtyard", if the player uses the trick to get up above the ground on the two center platforms, dogs can also jump up there. However they cannot get on top of the archway connecting the two. The same goes for all other archways.
 * Bouncing Betties will kill Dogs instantly.
 * Dogs hate water in multiplayer, this makes Makin a good battlefield for avoiding dogs.
 * Be careful about using an unsuppressed weapon when defending against dogs as it will give away the player's position.
 * Dogs cannot reach the player if they stand on a table or other raised surface. They will only look and growl.
 * If the player lies down in a corner dogs will not be able to lunge on top of the player and will only be able to bite at the player from one angle making them much easier to deal with.
 * There is a glitch on Outskirts where if the player goes to the top of the church tower and lie down on the floor facing the stairs, the dogs will stand at the floor below him, look up, and bark.

Strategies with Dogs

 * Following Dogs is an easy way of locating enemies. But beware, the enemy might see the player first so using a longer ranged weapon, such as a rifle, will allow them to attack distant enemies while they are distracted by the dogs.
 * As noted above, if a player is trying to defend himself from dogs and does not have either a flash hider or suppressor equipped, he will show up on the radar as a red dot giving away his position. Use this to the player's advantage.

Levels featuring Dogs

 * Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
 * The Coup
 * Hunted
 * Safehouse
 * All Ghillied Up
 * One Shot, One Kill
 * Sins Of The Father
 * Ultimatum


 * Call of Duty: World at War
 * Vendetta


 * Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
 * Takedown
 * Contingency
 * Loose Ends
 * Just Like Old Times
 * The Enemy Of My Enemy
 * Museum


 * Call of Duty: Black Ops
 * WMD

Trivia

 * Although realistically dogs cannot climb ladders, they have been known to leap 6-foot high to get on top of objects, such as the grassy-jungle-like walls on "Courtyard" and can even jump the entire ladder on the balcony in "Dome."
 * Dogs can hit and kill the player that called them in, but the player would have to be standing in the way of an enemy, which is practically impossible, if not extremely unlikely.
 * In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, when dogs jump on NPCs (such as MacMillan), the NPCs will not attempt to break the dogs' necks, but rather shoot them in the side of the head with a pistol.
 * When using the god cheat on the PC version of Modern Warfare, if the player is killed by a dog, their body will dissolve into a pool of blood but they will still be able to move around as a "ghost". Enemies will still shoot at the "ghost".
 * In the Modern Warfare 2 mission "Contingency," MacTavish says "Dogs. I hate dogs." This saying is a reference to Indiana Jones where he says "Snakes. I hate Snakes", and also a reference to the many dogs the player encountered in the original Modern Warfare. It could also be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the movie Dog Soldiers, which Kevin McKidd, the voice actor of Soap, starred in.
 * In Modern Warfare 2, it is actually possible to permanently cripple a dog if the player shoots it in a specific part of it's leg. This can be done in Contingency where in the beginning the player sees a patrol with a dog and its master in front. Even with its speed reduced to about 10%, it will relentlessly chase after the player, in which case he can either outrun it or put it out of its misery - a direct hit with a thrown stun grenade should finish it off.
 * In Modern Warfare 2, if the player is playing Special Ops, when a dog jumps on him, the player's friend can kill the dog while it is on him, before or after the player fails to grab the dog.
 * In World at War, if the server settings are to have life set to 2x, dogs are relatively ineffective as they take two hits on the enemy to kill them. Considering this is outside the dogs natural programming (it should only take one strike to kill) it will stand there for a few seconds before dealing the deadly strike giving the player time to kill the dog. It should be noted, however, that the dogs themselves have double the life meaning they are harder to take down.
 * Because of the incredible feats dogs sometimes pull off in order to kill an enemy in World at War, some have jokingly compared them to "Underdog." This generally comes after the dog appears to fly through the air over a barrier.
 * In Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer, chains and collars can be heard jingling while dogs are running around even though the dogs have no collars.
 * When playing Shi No Numa or Der Riese, the game will sometimes mess up when a dog is shot, making it stand up even and able to walk through after it is dead. Like the zombies, it will disappear after a few rounds.
 * It has been confirmed that dogs will appear in Call of Duty: Black Ops. They will appear as a killstreak option in multiplayer, like in Treyarch's previous game, Call of Duty: World at War.
 * The dogs in all of the Call of Duty series (with the exception of Call of Duty: World at War) seem to be of only one breed, German Shepherds.
 * Sometimes when a dog is killed a glitch will occur causing the dog's corpse to float motionless in mid-air. Other times a dog may die and remain frozen in a standing position as if it were still alive. This can confuse some players, causing them to shoot at the corpse not realizing it is dead, and thus giving away their position to the enemy.
 * Normally, dogs aren't counted towards killstreak rewards. However, on the Wii version of World at War, there is a glitch that will cause them to count. It is more likely to happen if the player dies immediately after calling in dogs, and then the dogs get multiple kills and then when you get a kill, if the dogs passed the killstreak kills needed, each kill will award you with the killstreak.
 * Dogs are affected by Tabun Gas. Proof of this can easily be seen in the Kill Cam if a player gets killed by a dog hit by such a grenade. The dog's vision will be distorted in much the same way that a human player's would be.
 * Dogs are much more likely to fall victim to traps like Bouncing Betties and Martyrdom grenades, as they are not programmed to avoid them. Defending players may find it irritating to lose their Betties to dogs, when they could have killed enemy players instead.
 * It is odd that World at War has dogs as a killstreak, considering they appear in the least amount of missions out of the three games.
 * In World at War's multiplayer, all friendly dogs are seen as German Shepherds. All enemy dogs are Black Belgian Malinois.

Quotes



 * Marine Raiders
 * "Bring in the dogs!"
 * "Dogs, coming right at us!"


 * Imperial Japanese Army
 * "The dogs hunger for the flesh of our enemies!"
 * "The savages send dogs to do their work!"


 * Wehrmacht
 * "Our hounds will tear them to shreds!"
 * "They send their hounds! But they too will find only death!"
 * Red Army
 * "Unleash the dogs!"
 * "They have released the dogs!"