How to Get a Dog in Minecraft

Last Updated: May 19, 2022

Sometimes, playing Minecraft by yourself can get lonely. Luckily, developers have made it possible so that players can get dogs. Dogs provide a variety of benefits, they make a great companion and can help you fight mobs or even other players. Although it's not necessary to have a dog to be a good player, getting one will increase your chances of survival and make hunting easier. The best part is, you can get one with just a few bones and some patience.

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1
Get some bones. Killing skeletons is the easiest way to obtain bones, but wither skeletons, skeleton horses, and strays also drop bones when killed. In addition to that, bones can sometimes be found in temple, woodland mansion, or dungeon chests. ^{[1]
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- The tutorial world has bones in a chest sitting near the farm where all the animals are located in pens.
- If you are on creative, you can grab some bones from the creative inventory.
- The amount of bones needed varies. Each bone has a 1/3 chance of taming the wolf, so 6-9 bones should get the job done.
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2
Find a wolf. Wolves spawn naturally in forest and taiga biomes and their variations.
- If you are in Creative mode, you can get a wolf spawn egg from the creative inventory.
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You can now see that you are holding the bones in your hand.
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4
Click on the wolf with while still holding the bones in your hand. Keep clicking on the wolf with the bones until it has been tamed. ^{[2]
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- Don't click on the wolf in Minecraft PE, as it will turn hostile and attack. Instead, press the Tame button.
- You will not be able to tame a wolf that you have attacked.
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5
Verify that the wolf is tamed. Heart particles will appear, the wolf, now a dog, will get a red collar, and it will sit down if you're not in water.
- Click the wolf to make it stand. Then it will follow you around.
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6
Bring the dog home. It'll follow you wherever you go, but if you go really fast it might not be able to track you and it will teleport after a couple of seconds to where you are.
- If you don't want it to follow you, you can click on it (left click or the button you used to tame it) to make it sit, where it will stay until you let it up.
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Get some dye of your choosing, left click (or the button you use to eat/place objects) the dog, and the collar will change to the colour of the dye. ^{[3]
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8
Name your dog(s). You will need to get a name tag, which can be found by looting dungeon, temple, and woodland mansion chests, fishing, or trading with master level librarian villagers. Use an anvil to rename it and left click the dog with the name tag to name it.
- Naming a dog Dinnerbone will make it upside down. Don't worry! This won't affect the gameplay, it's just an easter egg.

Community Q&A

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Question

How can I make a puppy world in Minecraft?

shadowwolf2505

Community Answer

There isn't a seed for a puppy world, but you can add a bunch of dogs in creative and tame them, then switch back to survival.

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How do I make a dog?

Ronan is cool

Community Answer

You can't technically make a dog, but they are most commonly found in spruce forests.

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Is there a way to set the dogs free, make them wild again?

Realtbnrfrags

Community Answer

Jeb is the name of one of the developers of Minecraft, so they used it for this feature. As such, you must name a sheep "jeb_" for it to change colors.

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Tips

If you hit another player or mob, your dog will attack them until either one dies, (everything except creepers). ^{[4]
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If you are attacked by another player/mob, your dog will step in to protect you and attack the offender (everything except creepers).

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Tame another dog so you have two. Then get some raw meat ( raw beef works the best) and give it to both dogs. Wait a little bit, make sure they are both not sitting, and you will get a little puppy who is automatically tamed to you.

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Warnings

Wolves are not very useful against spiders or creepers.

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Don't hit the untamed wolves. If you hit them and there is another one around they will fight you until you die.

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