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How do you turn a ferocious wolf into a loyal dog? Turns out they're suckers for a handful of bones. Once you've tamed your dog, he will follow you around and fight by your side.
Steps
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Turn off Peaceful difficulty. If you're playing on Peaceful difficulty, increase the difficulty until you're done taming your wolf. Wolves will show up in Peaceful mode, but skeletons will not spawn because you need their bones. Once tamed, the dog will not disappear when you change the difficulty back but will follow and teleport loyally to you.
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Gather several bones. You can find bones in Survival mode by killing skeletons, or by opening chests in desert and jungle temples. Gather at least 5 bones for each wolf you plan to tame, and preferably 10 to be safe.
- While you're hunting skeletons, kill zombies as well and gather rotten meat. This comes in handy to feed your dog but this isn't the best food for them; as Rabbit Stew is. Rotten flesh cannot be used in taming, it may be convincing when they are begging but all it will do it breed an untamed wolf.
- If you're in Creative mode, just add one to your inventory.
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Find a wild wolf. Wolves can be found in forest and taiga biomes, usually near spruce trees. They are not hostile unless you hit them.
- If you don't mind starting a new world, you can find world seeds online that create worlds with many taiga biomes. Forest also work but as of 1.13 (Ocean update) there is a couple of seeds to choose from.
- In Creative mode, you can spawn a wolf anywhere. If you are an Operator you could summon one. The command for this is /summon minecraft:wolf .
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Equip the bones. When you hold a bone, wolves will usually move toward you. Be very careful not to click on the wolf, or all surrounding wolves may attack you.
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Press the tame button until the wolf is tamed. A Tame button will appear. Press this button, and you'll use up a bone and have a chance to tame the wolf. Ashes floating above the wolf means the attempt was unsuccessful. Hearts and a collar means that you've tamed the wolf. This will often take 3–6 tries. It can take more if you're unlucky. Also, instead of pressing the tame button you could hold down on the wolf but this is more risky as a fail would result as the wolves swarming you.
- Be very careful to click the Tame button and not the wolf. It's easy to click the wolf accidentally and turn it hostile.
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Tell it to sit or stand. Your dogs will follow you around until you move your character's hand over them and press the Sit button that appears. Hover over them again and press Stand to make them move again. Once again, holding down works
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Bring them along to protect you. Dogs will attack most enemies once the enemy has hurt you, or once you hurt the enemy. They will not attack certain types of enemies, such as creepers or guardians. Axolotl can be used for underwater fights as cats are good for creeper fights. (as of 1.17 - Caves & Cliffs update.)
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Feed the dog to heal it. As a dog takes damage, it lowers its tail. Equip a piece of meat (of any kind) and feed it to the injured dog to heal it. Even rotten meat will work. Also,
- You cannot feed a dog bones. They only work on wild wolves.
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Dye your dog's collar. You can dye your dog's collar by hovering over it with dye in hand and pressing the Dye button on your screen.
- You can find dye ingredients in treasure chests. Dyes can be made from plants. White is bonemeal, black is wither roses or ink sacks
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Breed two dogs by feeding them. Once you've tamed two wolves, bring them to the same location. Feed a piece of meat to each one by equipping the meat and hovering over the dog. Once both dogs have eaten, hearts will appear over their head. They will approach each other and a young dog will appear. The young dog is already tamed and its collar is red.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionHow do you name your dog?Community AnswerGet an anvil and a name tag (creative mode). Click on the anvil, then put your name tag in the empty slot. Next, type in your dog's name. Then take your name tag out of the slot, escape the anvil, then put your name tag on your dog. A bar with your dog's name should appear above your dog.
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QuestionHow do I change a dog's skin in Minecraft?Arna SnorradottirCommunity AnswerYou can't change the dog's skin without a mod or a texture pack, but if you tame it, you can change the color of its collar by right clicking the dog with the desired dye color.
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QuestionHow do you name your dog?Community AnswerGet an anvil and a wolf. Click on the anvil, put in a wolf egg, and name it what you want it to be. Double-click on the egg, then spawn it, and it should have the name you gave it.
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Tips
- If the tame option doesn't seem to be appearing, go to the options and make sure "Hide GUI" is not checked. You can also try decreasing the "D-pad size" slider.Thanks
- Standing dogs will teleport to you if you get too far away. To prevent this from happening, make your dog sit.Thanks
- If you're scared of attacking skeletons, stay in your home until sunrise. Go outside and you might see enemies burning to death as the light hits them. Skeletons killed this way sometimes leave bones behind.Thanks
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Warnings
- You cannot tame an angry wolf. It will continue to attack until you run away, die, or kill it.Thanks
- If you hit a wolf all of the other surrounding wolves will turn hostile.Thanks
- You cannot calm a wolf.Thanks
- If you kill a wolf with one hit all other wolves shouldn't turn hostile unless you are highly unlucky.Thanks
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Things You'll Need
- A wild wolf
- Several bones
About This Article
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 116,418 times.
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