Dog's Priority List for Food

[Owlant]

Could the priority for feed for dogs to be changed slightly?

I don't know if this is a bug or a suggestion.

It is winter, my pack of dogs wake me with barking and I go out to see one of my fox traps had an Arctic fox caught in it, alive. I am happy, winter arctic fox fur! I leave the dogs to eat their bones, raw meat, spoiled raw meat etc scattered in piles between the traps.

I kick the beast dead. I was exhausted. I need to wait to be less tired to skin it. Only in the minutes I rested, the dogs had eaten the entire fox. Leaving just bones. Valuable fur gone.

I don't know why they ate it first? I had other meat already game tiles away, all cut up, spoiled and fresh even piles of bones, all spread out in many piles. I would have thought they would go for the easier food.

Just miffed at loosing a superior winter arctic fox fur.

[StefanPravda]

I keep my dogs very far away from anything that has valuable fur. Either tied, or behind a fence, or on another screen It's the best solution, I don't think you can keep them away from a fox if you leave them be, you have to both order them to stay away and keep them away, because if you turn your back they'll just maul the fox. That'd be IRL.

[PALU]

In your case I'd pick the carcass up to protect it from potential harm by dogs (putting it in the cellar if I'd have to go to sleep overnight).

[ineedcords]

That sounds annoying. Root cause is dogs were hungry though. If you regularly feed dogs, that won't happen.
I regularly feed my dogs, and that never happened to me.

[StefanPravda]

That sounds annoying. Root cause is dogs were hungry though. If you regularly feed dogs, that won't happen.
I regularly feed my dogs, and that never happened to me.

He says there is enough food between the traps. I think the issue is the proximity. But it shouldn't be a problem because between old meat and a fresh fox, the dogs would definitely pick the fox at least to toy with.

Solution is as said above, cellar, tie dogs, etc.

[ineedcords]

That sounds annoying. Root cause is dogs were hungry though. If you regularly feed dogs, that won't happen.
I regularly feed my dogs, and that never happened to me.

He says there is enough food between the traps. I think the issue is the proximity. But it shouldn't be a problem because between old meat and a fresh fox, the dogs would definitely pick the fox at least to toy with.

Solution is as said above, cellar, tie dogs, etc.

He said dogs woke him up (hungry) and he went to a trap.

Since dogs follow the owner, he should have dropped food around him and group order dogs to eat (unless he stands next to trapped fox) they will eat food closes to the PC (player character) thus the fox will be untouched.

I drop food around me and group order dogs to eat and never had an issue with dogs eating something I did not want them to eat.

[Privateer]

 Not sure why you would have food laying amongst traps, I do keep a pile of 'dog feed' so that I don't have to service them.
I can see how proximity to traps could create feeding zone which includes traps or more over 'fresh kills'.

[Owlant]

That sounds annoying. Root cause is dogs were hungry though. If you regularly feed dogs, that won't happen.
I regularly feed my dogs, and that never happened to me.

He says there is enough food between the traps. I think the issue is the proximity. But it shouldn't be a problem because between old meat and a fresh fox, the dogs would definitely pick the fox at least to toy with.

Solution is as said above, cellar, tie dogs, etc.

He said dogs woke him up (hungry) and he went to a trap.

Since dogs follow the owner, he should have dropped food around him and group order dogs to eat (unless he stands next to trapped fox) they will eat food closes to the PC (player character) thus the fox will be untouched.

I drop food around me and group order dogs to eat and never had an issue with dogs eating something I did not want them to eat.

*She said dogs woke her character up (barking in alarm not hunger) so I went to the trap nearby. I stood next to the carcass waiting to catch my breath and instantly the fox was eaten. No orders given.

There was piles of food around the animals, all 4 had access to pre-cut fresh meat next to me.

Not sure why you would have food laying amongst traps, I do keep a pile of 'dog feed' so that I don't have to service them.
I can see how proximity to traps could create feeding zone which includes traps or more over 'fresh kills'.

The dog food attracts a lot of foxes, gluttons, badgers and lynx even. I set some big fall traps and fox traps and get 3 decent fur bearing animals a season doing nothing. It also keeps the beasts from the cellar and smoking cabin.

My suggestion is either let me pick up small carcasses and skin them from my inventory so I don't have to worry about dogs eating my game so much or make the priority list for dog feeds: Fresh raw meat, Fresh cooked meat, Stale raw meat, Stale cooked meat, Fresh animal corpses, Fish, Spoiled raw meat, Bones, Spoiled raw fish, Spoiled corpses. 

[PALU]

You can pick the carcass up and drop it by your feet (or move the character on top of the carcass, unless too fatigued). It's possible to do in the current version, although it doesn't do anything about dog stupidity (such as refusing food thrown at them only to bark of hunger a few minutes later).

My typical approach with any game that's small enough to carry with relative ease is to pick them up, bring them back to the homestead, walk to the water front (rapids for never freezing water), drop everything carried (which includes the carcass, of course), recover the breath if needed, skin, clean, butcher, tan.

When it comes to any predators, your dogs can get agitated and attack the animal even when it's trapped, so I typically tie my character's (single) dog to a tree before dealing with predators that aren't too dangerous (chasing a badger around the yard, for instance), but wolves and bear in the wild definitely should be taken seriously, unless they're breathless (at which time I can tie the leashed dog to a tree when dealing with the mostly neutralized creature). I'd also be wary about gluttons and wild boars.

[JP_Finn]

You can pick carcasses in current 3.62 and fatigue doesn’t stop that.

The dog non-feeding on existing food is indeed odd; I have side yard/kennel, with multiple piles of bones and cuts of meat on them too. If I open the gate and tell the dogs to Eat, they’ll invariably beeline out of the kennel and eat from any source out of their kennel. Gate closed, they’ll eat anything that’s on top for f the inventory pile, bones over meat&fish too.

I do heartily second the suggestion of  dog feeding logic to get updated to eat meat & fish from pile with bones automatically and prioritize the meat and fish above gnawing on the bones. If character fails to feed their dog(s) in the field, then better pick the carcass up fast or risk losing it to their mistreated dogs.

Second related suggestion on picking up carcasses would be to either set a variable in configuration for carcass pickup weight, or hardset carcass pickup weight to somewhere around 20-40lbs.
As currently “, +” doesn’t select carcasses if there’s a rock, twig etc anything other than carcasses on the ground. It’s a pain when going through bird traps: killing game, picking game, dropping everything, resetting trap, pushing berries as bait, picking up everything, picking up everything AGAIN, moving to next trap 3-20 tiles away, repeat.

[Buoidda]

...killing game, picking game, dropping everything, resetting trap, pushing berries as bait, picking up everything, picking up ...

JP knows this already, but just noting that setting traps doesn't involve burden penalty or any penalties for that matter.

Dogs of Unreal world sure are well-trained pedigree champions when it comes to eating habits but not when telling them to cease attacking 

Yes I too am a bit frustrated of dogs not eating the cuts of meat I've thrown them earlier. (Without telling them to eat.) Instead they starve, bark and gnaw on bones.

I think ideally dogs would eat everything I've thrown at them first, then other fresh foods, then carcasses, then bones. All this autonomously. Dogs are really greedy bastards irl and having such power as dogs in this game should have a bit of drawback of keeping their reckless eating in check. Also it'd be nice to tell dogs not to eat something when they're about to. Then they'd of course obey for only as long as they see me. 

[Sami]

It is winter, my pack of dogs wake me with barking and I go out to see one of my fox traps had an Arctic fox caught in it, alive. I am happy, winter arctic fox fur! I leave the dogs to eat their bones, raw meat, spoiled raw meat etc scattered in piles between the traps.

I kick the beast dead. I was exhausted. I need to wait to be less tired to skin it. Only in the minutes I rested, the dogs had eaten the entire fox. Leaving just bones. Valuable fur gone.

I don't know why they ate it first?

Most probably they chose to go for the fox because they were starved or really hungry, and in their condition prioritized the fresh kill over other foods available.
In any case, this isn’t really a suggestion but more of a question, unless the actual suggestion is that dogs should never eat fresh kills if there’s other food closer by. For that, the answer would be no, and starving dogs will remain keen on tasting fresh kills and carcasses.

[PALU]

Well, the problem is that the dogs ignore the food available to them, only to suddenly decide that they're very hungry and eat the "wrong" food.
In my view the main problem is that they're not eating when peckish even when food is available, only to bark from hunger minutes later.
To me it makes perfect sense that when hungry they'd go for fresh meat over worse offerings, so you should always keep the dog(s) under control and supervision when fresh meat is available. Turn your back at a dog when fresh meat is available if you dare, but don't be surprised if the steak is gone when you turn back...

[Buoidda]

Yes I too am a bit frustrated of dogs not eating the cuts of meat I've thrown them earlier. (Without telling them to eat.) Instead they starve, bark and gnaw on bones.

So I end up quoting myself. I concur a bigger issue with dogs is them not eating.

[Sami]

It's hard to say what's everyone's situation, but feel free to send me sample save of a situation where you feel the dogs clearly should eat but they don't and I'll promise to check it.
They shouldn't be picky if the food is proper.