Dog

The Dog is a unit found in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon and Age of Empires III.

Dog
The Dog is a Scenario Editor-only unit available in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon, it was originally a trainable unit at one stage, before being removed.

The Dog functions essentially as a (once trainable Chinese) version of the Wolves that Set can convert with Priests.

Interesting enough, the Dog was meant to be in the original version of Age of Mythology according to the "dog_anim.txt" located in the Anim.bar file.

War Dog
War Dogs are a Spanish unique unit in Age of Empires III and can only be trained by the Explorer. They can be rescued at some treasure sites by other civilizations, but only the Spanish can train them or use cards which specifically boost them. They do not count towards population but there is a limit on how many can be trained at a time.

The Spanish receive one War Dog at the start of each Random Map game and can train up to four more.

History
"The Spanish Conquistadors brought dogs with them to the New World. These were big, fierce dogs, probably a mix of mastiff and greyhound. They were good at tracking, hunting, and killing prey (often human). Becerrillo, which means "little bull calf," was owned by Spanish Conquistador Ponce de Leon. Becerrillo sired the more famous Leoncico, "little lion," who stowed away in a wooden cask with his owner, the Explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa."

- In-game history

Explorer Dog
Unlike the War Dog, the Explorer Dog remains permanently in play and, like the Explorer, cannot die when its hit points reach 0. Instead, it collapses and must be rescued when an allied unit or building is near and it has enough hit points.

There can only be one Explorer Dog for each civilization, and it is unlocked through the following Home City card for all European civilizations except the Spanish:
 * British: Captain
 * Dutch: Stadhouder
 * French: Voyageur
 * Germans: Buergermeister
 * Ottomans: Agha
 * Portuguese: Navigator
 * Russians: Polar Explorer

Explorer Dogs can be obtained as pets by non-European civilizations from treasures, which includes a pair of them.

Trivia

 * The Dog was originally cut from the original Age of Mythology, however it was meant to return as a trainable unit for the Chinese, likely as a scout, before becoming just a scenario-editor unit, similar to the Cataphract.
 * The Dog appears as a unit in the Expanded Mod as a cheap harassment unit, with early-game scouting role, for all civilizations, requiring Hunting Dogs.
 * When the Explorer dog collapses, a text box appears near it that quotes Hamlet's final line from the Shakespearean play Hamlet: "Horatio, I am dead; Thou livest; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied."