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[Apolloin]

As a super happy fun welcome surprise for marauding goblin armies I dug a dog pit as part of the defences of my fortress. Said dogpit is a 3x3 chamber one level below the ground with a 1x3 ramped exit. Each space in the chamber had an iron chain hooked up to a lever with a wardog attached. The entrance ramps were concealed by iron floorhatces - also hooked to the same lever.

Upon testing the hatches opened, the dogs flew out, but when I investigated in the dogpit all the chains had vanished, leaving a sprinkling of mechanisms. Now rock mechanisms are a dime a dozen, but I'm not happy that all nine of my iron chains ALSO vanished.

Is there anyway to achieve what I'm after without the disapearing chains? If I use cages instead, will the cages vanish? Lend me your fiendish aid, Fortress Keepers!

[Albedo]

The chains didn't disappear - they're still around the necks of your dogs.  (<v, i> to see.)

wiki: "restraint" and/or "lever" to recover them and see why it worked that way the first time.

I'd build a "kennel" room w/ a drawbridge as a wall.  Might get the added advantage of squashing a few gobbos flat. (see wiki "atom smasher")

[Psychoceramics]

the chains are still on the dogs.

Your best bet to achieve the effect you want in a repeatable manner is to channel out a 2nd room from the z-level above, make it a pit and stick a door or floodgate between them. When you want to release the hounds, pull the lever on the door or floodgate and they'll go pouring through. When the mayhem is over, close the gate, and pit all the dogs.

[Albedo]

(ninja'd by 9 seconds    good answer, tho'.  )

[Apolloin]

I salute the DF community, the only community where you can get help in freaking REAL TIME while playing.

I shall sacrifice 10 dollars on the altar of Toady in honour of your awesomeness.

[Albedo]

Woohoo!

You have no small element of "rule" yerself!

(To be clear, when I said "kennel room" I did not mean you should build a kennel/workshop - but a generic walled space with a door to specifically act as a place to house and constrain your wardogs. 

Carry on.)

[Apolloin]

Indeed, that is what I did!

My final solution was to channel a single pit hole through the ceiling of my canine bunker, seal the floor hatches and proceed to fill the bunker with snarling fury through the pit.

Now when I trigger my 'dogsplosion' pit, I can simply reseal it after the emergency and stuff the survivors and their descendants back in. A worthy solution!

[zooeyglass]

i've been doing a similar thing, but with a slight variant:
my dogs are all stuffed into one quantum cage, so that on a pull of a lever the cage flies open and the hounds of hell are released. (in fact, they release behind the goblin sieges normally from a side passage so that as the goblins break and run they are met by 30 war dogs).

i use a cage and lever rather than pit to store the dogs simply to cut down marginally on fps - the dogs sit still in the cage rather than pathing around a small pit. minor, i know, but on my ancient machine (typewriter) every little helps to get my fps to a workable amount...