Robot Dog

Dr. Light: Behold! my greatest invention! Rush, the robotic dog!
Mega Man: What? A robotic dog? What's so great about that? Does it transform or something?
Dr. Light: A transforming robotic dog? Of course! Absolutely brilliant!

— Bob and George

Robots are cool. Dogs are cool. Put them together and you get a Robot Dog!

Makes for both an excellent Cool Toy and Robot Buddy, as well as a playful Canine Companion. Usually overlaps with Cute Machines and Fun Size if they're based on Precious Puppy, because why not?

Sometimes, Robots Are Just Better, and this applies to robot dogs too, since they tend to have better intelligence over their living counterparts. They do not have to be regularly walked, fed, bathed, cleaned up after or taken to the veterinarian. Most robot dogs made for consumers also lack aggressiveness of most living dogs, making them fall under Benevolent A.I. and Cheerful A.I. territory. Some robot dogs are also animated plush dogs.

A poorly designed robot dog can result in Uncanny Valley, or become a Funny Robot when Played for Laughs. If it breaks down, you need a Robot Master or a Wrench Wench to help fix it soon.

If the Robot Dog is an Angry Guard Dog or a Hell Hound, on the other hand, be very afraid.

Sub-Trope to Mechanical Animals.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Buso Renkin: Killer Rabies, the buso renkin of Alchemist Warrior Rintaro Inukai, takes the form of a pair of Alsatian-sized robotic dogs that he commands with a whistle. Rintaro uses his dogs as Attack Animals in battle and can make them go berserk so that they will attack anyone not holding the command whistle.
• Ken's sidekick Barican from Chargeman Ken! is described as a robot dog, but has a spherical body and duck-like face.◊
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: In "SA: Automated Capitalism – ¥€$", Batou is chased by robotic guard dogs while infiltrating a billionaire's Big Fancy House. After a Commercial Break Cliffhanger where they're on the verge of running him down, we return to find the dogs happily nuzzling Batou, who's hacked into their AI to make them think he's their owner.
• In Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Kirby gets one as a gift from the Ebrum family and ended up being a big brother to it. Too bad it only lasted for one episode though. Definitely a Tear Jerker moment near the end of said episode.
• In Mazinger Angels, Hikaru's dog Daisuke is a robotic dog that externally seems to be a normal one.
• Friender from any incarnation of Neo Human Casshern (save the live-action movie), who was a We Can Rebuild Him case. Originally Tetsuya's pet dog, Lucky, its data was used to revive it as Friender after it was killed. In order to support Casshern, it can transform into a jet, submarine, tank, or motorcycle, and is even able to breathe flames. Friender is a brave robotic dog capable of standing up to the Android Army alone. Friender is also the inspiration for Rush.
• Hayataro from Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru, he's a robotic dog who's Hachimaru's faithful companion, he can transform into various forms of transportation; and although it looks like a dog, it mews like a cat due to a programming error by Hachimaru.
• Robo-Dog from Super Milk Chan. Originally built to detect counterfeit money in Episode 1, he became a recurring character in later episodes.
• In Yatterman, the two heroes ride on a giant dog-shaped mecha.

Asian Animation

• In Happy Heroes, numerous robot dogs are on the futuristic Planet Xing. There are organic dogs on the planet as well, though, such as the one owned by the blind artist from one episode of Season 7.

Comic Books

• Blackhawk builds a robot dog in his self-titled comic series.
• In Chassis, Elizabeth Tall Mountain owns a robotic attack dog named Coyote.
• Robbie the Robot Dog from The DCU, the loyal sidekick of the original Robotman (not the Doom Patrol version).
• East of West: The Ranger has a robotic dog that doubles as a sniper rifle. It barks after firing.
• Half-Face from Iron Man invented several devices, including a robot dog.
• Valeria Richards builds a robot dog in Mighty Avengers.
• Spider-Man 2099: Robotic dogs are sold as regular pets. At one point Miguel even finds an elderly couple that "breeds" them and considers getting the one that's trying to play with him, though he balks a bit when he hears the price tag.
• Spot, Krypto's robotic friend, from an issue of Superboy.
• Sparky from The Vision (2015), albeit as the result of Brain Uploading from a normal dog.

Comic Strips

• In a throwaway gag in an early Dilbert strip, Dilbert built one. Dogbert was scared he was being replaced, but it turned out that Dilbert had made the robot dog to be Dogbert's servant.
• There's a Frank and Ernest comic in which a robotic dog is referred to as a "dogmatic".

Fan Fiction

• In In Shades of Red and Gold, Zwei — Ruby's dog from RWBY canon — is a robot dog she built, and later upgraded with help from her father, Tony Stark.
• In Nobody Dies, Zwei is a 200-foot-tall killing machine that thinks that it's Asuka's doggie; it's a deliberate Expy of Dug from Up.
• Paper Mario: Countdown to Chaos has Chomptron V3.141, a large, rideable mechanical mutt that can fire laser beams and cause a lot of damage to enemies.

Film — Animated

• Preston turns out to be one of these in A Close Shave.
• The plot of Doraemon: Nobita and the Robot Kingdom is kicked off when Suneo boasts his brand-new, state-of-the-art robot canine pet to his friends, leading to a jealous Nobita asking for Doraemon to get him one. Nobita's attempts gets more than he bargained for with the adventure dragging them to a planet inhabited by robots and humans, with some hostile robot dogs on it as well.
• Isle of Dogs: Kobayashi has been developing these following the exile of the real dogs, both to serve as new pets, and to serve the police to track and fight targets.
• In "The Solid Tin Coyote", Wile E. Coyote builds a giant robotic version of himself to catch the Road Runner, with predictable results.

Film — Live-Action

• A-X-L can be described as "a boy and his highly advanced robot dog created by the military, which they want back".
• CHOMPS (standing for Canine HOMe Protection System), basically an ADT terminal that looks like a mutt. It's as stupid as it sounds.
• In Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the Big Bad's hidden village is guarded by two very large, very dangerous robot mastiffs.
• Looney Tunes: Back in Action: During the climax, D.J. goes up against a giant robotic version of Frisky Puppy.
• Red Planet: The expedition to Mars includes a large more-or-less-dog-shaped robot called AMEE (Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion). It's supposed to be friendly and obedient, but it has some military programming which emphatically does not include the word "friendly" in its vocabulary.
• Robot World: The astronaut encounters them on the planet. One of them joins him and becomes his ally.
• Rags the Robot Dog in Sleeper: "Woof, woof, woof. Hello, I'm Rags."
• The 2004 The Stepford Wives film features a robot dog which looks like a toy dog made of gold rubber. Due to the movie's inability to decide whether the wives were robot replacements or just had mind control chips, it could either be an actual robot or an actual dog put into a toy-like body that can barely walk. A minor plot point suggests the latter.

Literature

• "A Boy's Best Friend": The titular "best friend" is a "robot-mutt" or Robutt. Jimmy's parents want to replace the "imitation" dog with a "real" dog by importing a Scotch terrier.
• The Hound in Fahrenheit 451. Interestingly, it may not actually look much like a dog since it was built as an octopod, but Ray Bradbury is a little vague on the details.
• House of Robots has McFetch, a robot dog that Sammy's mom built so they could have a pet that wouldn't put Maddie at risk due to her SCID.
• The titular hunting machine in Carol Emshwiller's "Hunting Machine" is referred to as a dog by its human owners. The third-person narration occasionally shows what passes for thought by the machine; heartbeat normal, respiration normal. It's designed to be grey-green to camouflage itself in temperate forest environments and was built with six legs.
• In The Place Inside the Storm, Tara sees some of these in a thrift store. They're outdated models, ancestors of her robotic cat Xel.
• 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, can 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 "rat things" of Snow Crash combine actual dogs with robotic parts to create extremely deadly guards.
• The Time Machine Series book The Rings of Saturn has one of these protecting the mansion of an important senator. It can be switched from ferocious guard dog mode to a lovable, face-licking pooch mode.
• Lincoln Child's "Utopia" features a robot dog called Wingnut.
• In the Waylon! books (spin-off series of Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee's Clémentine books), Waylon has always wanted a dog but never been allowed one because his mother is allergic to pet hair of any sort. It's mentioned in Waylon! One Awesome Thing that about a year before the story, he had started building a robot dog and done pretty well, but stopped when he made the eyes because they were dull black, like stones, and it bothered him. He eventually came to realize that a robot dog could never understand him in the way a real dog could.

Live-Action TV

• The Black Mirror episode "Metalhead" prominently features Killer Robots referred to as "Dogs". However, they only really resemble dogs in that they're quadrupedal; their name and design are references to real-life robots being designed by Boston Dynamics such as the "BigDog", which yes, are just as creepy-looking in real life (but thankfully nowhere near as armed).
• The Book of Boba Fett. In the first episode there's brief shot of a woman herding a pack of Boston Dymanics-type dogs.
• The Eureka episode "Best in Faux" reveals that the town has an annual robot dog show. Fargo wins the coveted Most Realistic prize with his Shih-Tzu, Sparky, who is an actual living Shih-Tzu.
• Frasier buys an AIBO for his father to amuse himself with while everybody else is out of town. Martin is later seen on the phone to technical support because he can't work out how to turn it on. As he's talking Eddie, his Jack Russell Terrier, starts barking at the robot which is when it finally comes to life. During The Stinger the AIBO does a series of tricks which Eddie imitates until he gets fed up and knocks the robot over.
  Martin: Oh, good, you got the girl one so it won't fight with Eddie.
  Frasier: Dad, it's not a girl. That's where the batteries go.
• Kamen Rider Zero-One: Before Hiden Intelligence made the HumaGears, they created an AI robo-dog ("played" by the Sony Aibo); a young Gai Amatsu owned one, which he named "Thouser". However, he had to get rid of it after his father insisted that friendships held him back from achieving his full potential, which marked his slow descent into Corrupt Corporate Executive-dom. Decades later, after Gai reluctantly opened up to the "friend" AI Ai-chan, she had Hiden create a brand-new Thouser for him to convince him to open up to people again, which began his slow Heel–Face Turn.
• Robbie builds one of these in an episode of LazyTown. The dog attacks when the word 'trouble' is uttered. There's even a song about him.
• 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.
• Power Rangers S.P.D.:
  • R.I.C. 2.0 (Robotic Interactive Canine), who 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. (Before that, RIC 1.0 was a run-down screw-up of a robot dog, making the sound of any animal but a dog and basically being comic relief. Some fans liked him better that way.)
  • Another SPD commander has a version of RIC that looks like a bulldog.
• In one episode of Sesame Street, after meeting Elmo's puppy Tango for the first time, the robot Norbert expresses a desire to have a dog of his own. Elmo, Tamir and Alan decide to create a robot dog companion for him, which Norbert ultimately names it Alfred after they give it to him.
• Played for Laughs in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles when Cameron goes to a convention on Artificial Intelligence and gets barked at by an AIBO robot, as dogs can detect Terminators.
• Ultraman X: Rudian is the mechanical canine-like ally to the friendly Alien Gold, who acts as a protector to its creators and assists Ultraman X to battle the show's first Arc Villain, Gargorgon.
• Whoniverse:
  • Doctor Who and later The Sarah Jane Adventures have K9. There were also two attempts at giving him his own show, the Failed Pilot Episode K-9 and Company (which eventually had its basic set up repurposed for the aforementioned The Sarah Jane Adventures with the focus shifted to Sarah Jane) and the UK-Australian co-production K9.
  • Averted in a Series 6 Doctor Who 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 (though he may have only been comparing Yappy to K9, deciding Yappy — who is, after all, just a children's toy — inferior).

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.

Radio

• This spoof toy ad (in Spanish) by the now defunct Mexican music station Radioactivo 98.5: Fuchi el Robo-perro (Fuchi the Robo-dog). For added black humor: "Gain some extra money by signing Fuchi to dog fighting! Just don't tell anybody that he's a robot, Hehe!"
  Dog Ringer: Come on Coffee! To the right! Go for the neck!
  *Shhhhrrrrippp...* *Crunch*
  Dog Ringer: Cofffffeeeee!

Tabletop Games

• Eberron:
  • The Iron Defender is a mechanical homounculus sometimes used as a security robot, or crafted as an optional companion to the Artficer player class. While the Iron Defender can be made in the likeness of any creature, the illustration in the Monster Manual is of a hellhound variant. The Iron Defenders seen in Dungeons & Dragons Online are modeled after this illustration.
  • In 5th Edition, the Iron Defender's been replaced with the Steel Defender. Its illustration has also been updated to a robot mastiff.
• Star Munchkin has a card "Dogbot" which is probably an Expy of Doctor Who's K9.
• Paranoia:
  • A petbot in the shape of a dog appears in the 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..."
• Transhuman Space: One of the countless "cybershell" robot body configurations described in this setting is the "Cyberdog".
• Yu-Gi-Oh! gives us Mecha-Dog Marron as well as Wroughtweiler, the latter of whom is a rather blatant expy of Friender (its Japanese name is outright "Friendog").

Toys

• The iDog is a sleek, robotic dog meant to be used as a speaker for your iPod.

Video Games

• In Firefly Studios' mini game Alien Horde, a robotic dog helps Venus fend off the attacking aliens.
• ANNO: Mutationem: In Skopp City, a civilian with a robotic dog is seen barking at a patron trying to hit on her. Over at Harbor Town, a cyborg corgi is the one in charge of the local bar, it also detests being petted.
• ARMS: Barq is a robot dog whose owner, Byte, is a robot cop.
• Assault Android Cactus has the FIDOs (informally known as "toaster dogs"), robots who act as cute, skipping puppies while they either launch ballistic missiles you have to escape or Tractor Beam you to keep you from evading the other Killer Robots.
• Atlas Reactor: PuP, the Series Mascot. Despite his appearance and inability to talk he has a human intellect. Little guy also has quite a number of tricks housed in his chassis, including sonic barks and the ability to turn invisible at will. He was originally part of a scrapped project named Project Universal Protector from a MegaCorp named Warbotics to develop a stealth-spy bot.
• Command & Conquer: Chitzkoi, a cyborg dog from the expansions. His owner, Volkov, is also a cyborg.
• Fallout: The companions Robodog and K-9 in Fallout 2 and Rex in Fallout: New Vegas are cyborg dogs with mechanical limbs, spines and craniums.
• Girls' Frontline: Dinergates, despite being little more than trapezoid on four legs, behave much like dogs outside of combat. It's quite telling that their King Mook version, Garm/Cerberus, is named after a mythological hellhound. KCCO Beasts are much closer in appearance to a traditional dog, to the point that they have a howling animation for their active skill.
• GunFu Fighter has a boss being a robotic hound loosely based on Boston Dynamic's Big Dog project.
• Half-Life 2: Alyx Vance's robot companion Dog isn't very dog-shaped, but it has a dog-like behavior and name. Alyx says he used to be "yay-high", and a photo◊ in Half-Life: Alyx shows he looked more dog-like before Alyx began "adding on to him".
• Harvest Moon: Light of Hope: The scientist Doc owns a robotic pet dog.
• Hellforces has a gigantic, robotic canine called "Cerber" who attacks you outside the sewer stage. It's also a one-of-a-kind enemy.
• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: The Mecha-Chomps are robotic Chain Chomps with the body of a standard robot dog.
• Mass Effect 2: The FENRIS Mechs. The Collector's Edition of Mass Effect 3 includes a non-hostile version that inhabits the cargo-bay. It's explained she belongs to one of the scientists in charge of retrofitting the Normandy and accidentally was left behind when the ship had to bug-out during the Reaper invasion. Her owner later sends Shepard an email asking them to take care of "Sophie" and make sure she gets her walks.
• Max of MDK and its sequel is a sapient bipedal four-armed robotic dog, who packs more firepower than the Terminator. One of the bosses in the second game is an evil duplicate of Max.
• Mega Man:
  • Mega Man (Classic): Rush, Mega Man's robot dog. There's also the giant, fire-breathing robot dogs in Wood Man's stage. There's also Treble, essentially an Evil Knockoff of Rush. Although, Treble is more of a wolf than a dog.
  • Mega Man X: Sigma's robot pet Velguarder is one, that looks similar to Friender above. Like Treble, it might be more of a wolf. There's also Blizzard Wolfang from X6.
  • Mega Man Zero has Tretista Kelverian (robot Hell Hound) and Fenri Lunaedge (robot wolf, and expy to Wolfang above).
  • Mega Man Battle Network: The start of the sixth game has Lan and Mega Man assisting Iris when a RoboDog gets infected with viruses and starts attacking.
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: The IF Prototype LQ-84i, or "Bladewolf". First fought as a sub-boss in Mission R-01, Raiden later takes him in for repairs and slight reprogramming, and the Bladewolf joins him on a few scouting missions later in the game. Bladewolf is an experimental version of the LQ-84 Fenrir, which while being less intelligent, has no problems with attempting to kill Raiden without hesitation.
• Nintendogs + Cats has a Robopup that is unlocked with 11,000 owner points or 34 days of play. The voucher to get it is "crafted" from the secondhand shop using an extensive number of material items.
• Pokémon Sun and Moon: Type: Null and its evolution Silvally are man-made canine Pokémon who can change types according to the memory disk they are holding.
• 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.
• Project: Horned Owl: Mechanical canines created by the Metalica corporation are a reoccurring enemy in the second level, particularly in the warehouse part.
• Robo Army has robotic guard dogs as recurring enemies, used by the robot army to guard imprisoned humans in internment camps. There's also a King Mook robot canine serving as the first boss.
• Secret Agent: A robotic bulldog is a type of enemy, 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.
• 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).
• In Sir, You Are Being Hunted, there are robot dogs called Hounds.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): Egg-Cerberus is a giant mechanical guard dog constructed by Dr. Eggman that serves as the game's first boss for Sonic and Shadow's stories. To defeat it, Sonic/Shadow must grab on its head antenna and charge it against the wall to damage it. Oh, and despite being named after a three-headed dog, it has only one head.
• Space Debris has a gigantic Killer Robot dog in the derelict military installation serving as the first of two bosses in said level.
• Steel Assault have several areas with robotic canine enemies as guard dogs, who attacks either by pouncing and biting or with their back rocket-launchers.
• Steel Harbinger: Humans are not the only victims of the alien pods' Assimilation Plot, with numerous neighborhood dogs getting converted into half-mechanical enemies, where they are a recurring opponent besides the human converts.
• StreetPass Mii Plaza: In Battleground Z/StreetPass Zombies, survivors whose hobby is pet care will provide you with a robot dog as a weapon, whose appearance is based on the Aibo. Its main attack is to run around and damage zombies on contact, and its special move causes it to discharge a large amount of electricity.
• Warframe has the Corpus and their robotic proxies, most of which are named after animals and have physical shapes that are very animalistic in design.
  • There's the Jackal, an enormous quadruped combat form, and a Wake-Up Call Boss.
  • The Hyena Pack are a Wolf Pack Boss that attacks you with Fire, Ice, Lightning attacks... or More Dakka.
  • The custom Sister of Parvos Hounds are Elite Mooks that serve as bodyguards and hit squads, attacking any Tenno that lands on a node controlled by a Sister. Defeat the Sister and you can take command of her Hound as a reward.
• Wolfenstein: The New Order: The Panzerhund, a terror weapon used by Deathshead's army, was deemed Ugly Cute enough to serve as the game's official Mascot Mook. The level set on the moon likewise replaces the regular guard dogs, which are already armored and outfitted to the point that they veer into a sort of "Cyborg Dog" territory, with fully-robotic ones.

Web Animation

• DSBT InsaniT: Rodney, Robo's pet who he won at an arcade.
• Robo-san and Wan-chan has Wan-chan, Robo-san's robotic canine friend.

Webcomics

• Achewood has Roast Beef's pet AIBO, Winston.
• A Beginner's Guide to the End of the Universe: Snuffy the Pooch gradually turns into one of these, as the protagonist uses his Reality Warper powers to upgrade her into a Cyborg.
• Pacific Rim: Amara: Kai and Hannah have a robotic dog named Twitch, which instantly bonds with Amara.
• Working Doodles stars a robot dog in it's very first page.

Web Videos

• Atop the Fourth Wall: Linkara expresses his distaste for these things as video game enemies in his Adamantium Rage review:
  "Ugh, a robot dog. Why do video game designers always include dogs? They're one of the most annoying enemies ever!"

Western Animation

• 101 Dalmatians: The Series: P.H. Devil creates a robotic version of Rolly in "Robo-Rolly".
• Rivet from The Adventures of Figaro Pho. Figaro specifically built him to cope with his fear of being alone.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Goddard, Jimmy's robotic canine sidekick that he invented.
• The Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers episode "Catteries Not Included" features an army of robot bulldogs built by Professor Nimnul, programmed to hunt and kidnap cats for his evil scheme.
• In C.O.P.S. (1988), part of the Backstory is that Officer Bowser of the K-9 Unit worked with a dog named Blitz, who sacrificed himself to save his master. Fortunately, Blitz's brain was retrieved and placed in a Cyborg body.
• Danger Mouse poses a question to a menacing robot dog in "Planet of the Cats". The answer flummoxes it.
• Liv from Doc McStuffins is a space-explorer toy rover who behaves pretty much like a dog.
• Dynomutt, Dog Wonder:
  • The goofball sidekick of The Blue Falcon who would also become a member of the Scooby Doobies on Laff-A-Lympics. He later appeared on Dexter's Laboratory, as well, where Dexter attempted to replace him with a larger "upgraded" version.
  • Dynomutt also appeared in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. RIP.
  • Dynomutt gets a guest appearance on an episode of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, wherein he is given an origin story that also incorporates the world of Jonny Quest and reveals him (in that continuity at least) to be a cyborg made by Doctor Quest from a loyal security dog that had been injured by one of Doctor Xin's agents.
  • He also appears in the movie SCOOB! where he has trouble getting used to the new Blue Falcon.
• Fred the Caveman: In one episode, Fred is hit with an alien intelligence enhancing ray. While under its effects, he, among other things, built a robotic dog.
• Futurama: Robo-Puppy, which is a direct parody of Sony's AIBO mentioned below. Bender actually kicks the Robo-dog.
  Robo-Puppy: Robo-Puppy commencing two hour yipping session: YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP!
• G9 from Gadget Boy & Heather is a transforming robot dog. Like his master's gadgets, he has little regard for conservation of mass, as seen in the opening credits.
• Krypto the Superdog has a robot dog named Dogbot who came from Krypto's rocket. He only appeared in two episodes.
• The Magic Key: Nadim attempts to assemble one from a kit in “Nadim’s Machine”, although he is initially unable to put it together properly due to not reading the instructions.
• In the Animated Adaptation of The Partridge Family, Danny has a robot dog named Orbit.
• PAW Patrol: Robo-Dog, who first appears in the episode 'Pups Save Ryder's Robot' and is seen in later episodes driving the PAW Patroller and the Air Patroller.
• Phineas and Ferb: A robotic dog shows up in the theme song. The eponymous duo actually build it in "Canderemy".
• An episode of Pound Puppies (2010) features Toyoshiko, Bark Friend Machine. She shares a Partially Civilized intellect with the other dogs, yet still manages to be slightly lower in societal stature.
• K-999 in The Problem Solverz. He's actually not very helpful and constantly insults and pranks the team.
• A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: A robotic dog is featured as a rival for Scooby-Doo.
• Rugrats (2021): In "Tail of the Dogbot", Stu invents a robot dog called Rusty for Chas and Chuckie to keep as a pet since it won't affect their allergies. However, they both find Rusty scary, since he sets off loud alarms when noisy cars pass by in the middle of the night and mistakes Chas for a dog catcher and chases him up a tree. Tommy eventually uses his screwdriver to program Rusty to fly away.
• In the ToddWorld episode "Dog's Day", Sophie invents one named Dempsey that can say "hello" in 58 different languages, fly, and predict the weather. Todd's dog Benny is very jealous of him until Todd tells him that he loves him regardless of what he can or can't do.
• The Tool Street Gang have one, named “Cog”, as their Team Pet.
• Numerous characters in Transformers have had canine alt-modes. Weirdwolf, Carnivac, and Sixshot from G1 are prominent examples.
• Transformers: Rescue Bots:
  • Servo is, in Chase's words, "a cross between a schnauzer and a toolbox". He's a loyal, helpful robotic rescue dog who can transform his limbs or entire body into a variety of useful tools, and even responds to a Cybertronian dog whistle. While it hasn't been directly addressed, he seems to be a Mechanical Lifeform like the Transformers.
  • Earth-made robo-dog Wi-Fido is... less helpful than Servo, to put it mildly.
• Velma builds a robot dog for a science fair in an episode of What's New, Scooby-Doo?. She gives it to a competitor because while she gave it a king-sized brain, "it just can't match Scooby-Doo's king-sized heart".

Real Life

• This trope is officially Older Than Television — a "mechanical dog" called Sparko was built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation for the 1939 New York World’s Fair as a companion to Elektro, a mechanical man. An article from the June 12, 1940 edition of The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa details the dog's abilities and includes a diagram of the inner workings.
• Sony's AIBO series of robots are literal (and adorable) robot dogs, or at least as close as they are possible within the limits of artificial intelligence. The newest iteration arrived in 2018, ending the Sequel Gap of 12 years.
• Hasbro's Furreal Friends included Biscuit, a robot dog for kids.
• Poo-Chi, a robot dog for kids (followed by Meow-Chi, Chirpy-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, and there were even smaller plastic variants that were sold in McDonald's Happy Meals. One of the complaints about them was that they wouldn't shut up!
• Similar to Poo-Chi was Techno the robotic dog made by Techno electronics. Introduced the same year as Poo-Chi, he recently got a revision.
• From the same creators as Poo-Chi came iCybie, a robotic dog with artificial intelligence.
• Wow Wee's original robotic dog was Robopet from 2005, but in recent years they have introduced CHiP, once again a full robotic dog with artificial intelligence.
• Zoomer Pup is the offering from Spin Master.
• Boston Dynamics has BigDog and Spot. They're not very dog-like, though.
• An actual Robot Guard Dog is currently being used in Japan. "Super Monster Wolf" is a solar-powered, motion-activated animatronic dummy with a collection of recorded "howls", employed to scare wild boar and other scrounging wildlife away from farmers' crops.

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