This Twitter Account Tells You Which Dogs You Can Pet in Games

By Cassidee Moser

Look, we’ve all been here. You’re playing a game and happen across a dog. Whether it’s roaming the countryside, hanging out next to a house, sitting inside by the fire, or waiting to sniff out items for you, you’ve seen it, and you’ve probably taken the time to walk up to it and say hi.

And the one thing we’re all secretly hoping for is a button prompt allowing us to pet the dog.

In an age where we love to romance game characters and have our choices feel like they mean something beyond shallow interactions, being able to do something as arbitrary as pet a virtual dog sometimes feels as satisfying as a harrowing combat encounter. But, how can you know if the game you’re about to start will allow you to pet the dogs?

The Twitter account @CanYouPetTheDog seeks to answer that question. Going game by game, the account provides users with a definitive answer on whether or not you can pet the dogs appearing within its virtual world. Ranging from Red Dead Redemption 2 to Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, here are some of our personal favorites:

There’s this good puppy in Darkest Dungeon:

This horrifyingly cute varren pup in Mass Effect 2:

The unjustly locked-behind-bars pups in The Division 2:

And, predictably, you cannot pet the dog in Garfield: Lasagna World Tour. Sorry.

It’s a great resource to use when making your future game purchasing decisions, because even the boldest of heroes needs time to pat a good boy or girl on the head.

Cassidee is a social editor for IGN and just really appreciates the amount of effort being put into this very important account. You can chat with her about dogs and other things on Twitter.