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[ShadowHammer]

Do war dogs have...
1. Better attributes?
2. Higher skill in biting/wrestling?
3. Are they just more aggressive?
4. Or, do they have no bonus other than allowing you to assign it to a dwarf?
5. Are there any negative effects?
Answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
EDIT: I know the wiki says stronger, but does that mean more muscular or just better?

[grody311]

I would assume that the dog receives basic training in biting and scratching skills.  Perhaps even dodging.  I don't think it provides any physical attribute training. Hunting training supplants some of this martial ability for ambush ability.

If you are wondering about whether it's better to train a dog, or just leave it available as a pet (so any dwarf can get a personal guard dog), I vote train.  If you want them to all have personal guard dogs, you should assign them yourself.  Otherwise, usually 2 or 3 dwarfs just adopt them all for themselves.  My last fortress had a mayor with a 20 dog/puppy entourage everywhere he went.  Clogged up my hallways and stairwells something awful.

I only wish there was a better interface for animal assigning, a la therapist.

[AutomataKittay]

As far as I can tell, war training makes them more aggressive. I haven't noticed other improvement. Hunting training makes them able to sneak with hunters.

[Garath]

Word Of God some time ago (or Word Of Toady, the next best thing) was that war training did nothing but make the creature engage hostiles instead of running away, and hunting training makes them aggressive too but also lets them sneak

[ORCACommander]

hunting training also increases los by 1 tile

[travellersside]

I believe that way back in 40D and earlier, War Training doubled their damage, which would be why you heard that it makes them stronger. It's changed since then, and I don't believe that it now does anything more than the aggression/lack of fear effect that's already been mentioned.

[ShadowHammer]

The consensus seems that it merely makes them more aggressive. I assumed this was it, as you can't give them war training in the Arena, but they don't run away anyway.

[AutomataKittay]

The consensus seems that it merely makes them more aggressive. I assumed this was it, as you can't give them war training in the Arena, but they don't run away anyway.

Arena mode's pretty much hard-coded aggression between independents or different groups. It makes testing interactions a bit annoying among modders from what I've seen

[Hectonkhyres]

I believe that way back in 40D and earlier, War Training doubled their damage, which would be why you heard that it makes them stronger. It's changed since then, and I don't believe that it now does anything more than the aggression/lack of fear effect that's already been mentioned.

Dammit. I've got a woodcutter running around with five warhounds for effing nothing right this minute. 

[Garath]

if an ambush shows up the woodcutter will have time to flee?

[Tirion]

if an ambush shows up the woodcutter will have time to flee?

And go mad from losing 5 pets at once.

[Ivan Issaccs]

Aye but if he trained them himself...

[ShadowHammer]

If you want fleeing time, go with hunting dogs, as they can see the ambush coming from farther away.

[deepdowner]

An easy way to spot ambushes early:
have 3 female (dogs) inside your fort for breeding, (one male somewhere as well). Don't send those out.
Train the grown ups to war (dogs, bears, whatever).

a) pasture random animals like cats across the map. They will spot hidden enemies with a good chance. If they're normal animals they'll flee, war or hunting animals will attack.

[Garath]

I always prefer ducks or geese or something flying for spotting duty. Aside from running away, they'll also go up, giving them much more use as a distraction because they usually survive longer. Similarly, a war or hunting animal on that particular spot will die fast, unless it is an elephant or cave dragon or something, and will not buy you much time