Minecraft's mobs breathe life in the vast voxel world, especially for solo players. There are plenty of tameable animals in Minecraft that players can take care of, including wolves, cats, and horses. However, Minecraft seems to bias toward cats over dogs given the amount of detail and effort it puts into cats compared to wolves.
Dogs and cats are two of the most popular pets in the real world, so Mojang had to include some tameable version of the animals in Minecraft. Wolves act as alternatives to actual dogs in the wild and have served as canine pets well throughout many years, but they haven't received any major updates to their appearance and behaviors in some time.
Minecraft's Focus on Felines Over the Years
Although cats were introduced later than wolves, cats have received more love throughout Minecraft history. When cats were first introduced, Mojang added two distinct mobs: ocelots and cats. Cats came with three different skins on release, and as of the 1.14 update they now have a total of 11 skins. Meanwhile, tamed wolves are still stuck with a single skin. One of the cat skins named "Jellie" was implemented as the winner of a community vote in 2018, but since then Mojang has yet to initiate a similar contest for wolves/dogs.
Furthermore, Mojang has given cats more unique properties compared to wolves. Cats cannot take fall damage in reference to their "righting reflex," a cat's ability to adjust its body to land of their feet while falling. Cats are also able to gift players items upon waking up from sleep. Unlike wolves, whose job is to attack mobs, a cat's job is to hiss at creepers and phantoms, adding to their companionship for players by scaring off some of the game's scaries mobs. Clearly, Mojang has put a lot of effort into incorporating real-life cat behaviors into this virtual rendition.
The Potential for Dogs in Minecraft's Future
To even the playing field between cats and dogs, Mojang needs to create a better dog mob. Although wolves have been an iconic part of Minecraft since its inception, like the separation between ocelots and cats in the 1.14 update, a new update could do something similar for dog fans.
Dogs should acquire new behaviors to not only outshine wolves and cats, but other mobs as well. That doesn't mean dogs should have unrealistic features such as becoming rideable like the upcoming camel mob, they should have unique traits akin to their real-life counterparts such as fetching dropped items and holding them in their mouths. Dogs should also be able to dig through dirt or sand to find bones or other hidden items, which is the equivalent to cats providing items upon a player waking up.
Adding different dog breed skins into Minecraft would be an essential task for Mojang to appeal to fans. However, Minecraft already lacks diverse mob models for any single mob, so the safest option would be only including medium-sized dog breeds that thrive in the outdoors: shepherds, huskies, sheepdogs, and so on. With regard to finding dogs, it seems appropriate for them to spawn in villages, similarly to cats. Minecraft's new camel mobs will spawn in desert villages, meaning the settlements are becoming even more important for finding specific companions.
Wolves don't have to be removed from the game for dogs to flourish, they could remain wild mobs just like ocelots. Wolves can retain their original role in Minecraft as wild hunters, whereas dogs should be the canines that act more like pet companions. Minecraft's pool of mobs continuously grows with each update through frogs, axolotls, and mountains goats, and changes to dogs would breathe even more life into Mojang's blocky world.
Minecraft is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
