Hirelings or Wardogs?

[foxroe]

He has a special affinity with mules apparently.

< insert inappropriate "ass" joke here >

[JDJarvis]

Get a hireling. They can climb ladders and ropes and dogs can't.
Gnomish hirelings are best of all as they are easy to throw ahead of you to search for pit traps and you don't feel as guilty as you would if you used a dog for that.

[Werral]

A MU in one party had three war dogs, the whole party was wiped out except for the dogs.

The players asked if they could run the dogs and continue the adventure. I let them and they ran them like Rin Tin Tin, Lassie, Littlest Hobo style (except that they were savage snarling, slavering man-killers) and overcame the evil cult that had slaughtered their 5th level characters with probably implausible canine cunning.

[Matthew]

Hirelings every time. Not really sure why, but never really fancied the idea of war dogs in a dungeon without a handler.

[Chainsaw]

Eh, I didn't think about the wardogs too carefully. The first party had just been wiped out (except for one guy who ran away) in a random encounter against some orcs (first combat), so when a character in the second party bought a wardog to take on the overland trek to the temple, I was like "Uh, OK, whatever. So, anyway.."

[PatW]

My players are in love with wardogs. Or were. Now that the entrance to the second level is a 200' descent down a well, they're less in love and have been leaving them up top.

I do two things:

a. Unmuzzled dogs bark at inopportune times. If you muzzle your puppy, you have to spend a round unmuzzling

b. Dogs are petrified of the undead and cower in fear

With their 2 HD they are a major boon for a first level party. After first level their usefulness seems to be dropping off pretty dramatically.

[AxeMental]

A war dog is going to be more deadly, no doubt (short of strapping oil to your henchmen/slaves and forcing them to hug the enemy while you ignite them from a safe distance with your bow.

That said, alot of DMs think dogs (as normal animals) will be less likely to stick around if they get a wiff of undead and supernatural bad boys. All the training in the world won't be able to stop that instinct. So, going up against a camp of orcs, I'd take dogs. Going up against a ghast and zombies, I'd take the villagers.

Another thing about dogs. As I see it, its going to take some training and time to get good at this, and its probably not something cut out for everyone.