The chances of me reading a book or watching a movie rise by about 50% if a dog is featured as a main character. Put a dog in a post-apocalyptic setting and it rises to 100%. I love seeing how characters cope in the aftermath of world-ending scenarios, but the addition of a faithful hound adds stakes and a particular dynamic that I just can’t get enough of, so I’ve rounded up eleven of my favorite fictional dogs in stories about surviving the end of the world.
These books and films always make me think about whether my own dog, a rescue greyhound called Misty, would be a good post-apocalypse buddy. On the one hand, she’s a fast runner (good for getting away from danger) and never barks (meaning she wouldn’t draw unwanted attention). On the other hand, she has to have me arrange her blanket just right before she’ll even consider sitting down, so maybe she’s not cut out for the difficulties of post-apocalyptic living. (But then, neither am I.)
Hopefully Misty and I won’t ever find ourselves in the position that the people and dogs on the list below do. I won’t reveal the fate of any of the dogs, but you can check doesthedogdie.com if that’s something you need to know before diving into these post-apocalyptic books and films.
Blood — A Boy and His Dog (1969) by Harlan Ellison
If you’re looking for a wholesome story like My Dog Skip (2000) then A Boy and His Dog is not for you. Vic, the boy, and Blood, the dog, can communicate telepathically thanks to some scientific modifications to canine genetics. That might sound like a dream come true for any dog-lover, but the duo’s relationship isn’t exactly smooth. The barren world that they live in has caused them to become cruel—to each other, as well as others—but they’re dependent on one another for survival. Still, buried underneath their antagonism and need is genuine love.
If you want more from Blood and Vic then you can also read the prequel, Eggsucker (1977), and sequel, Run, Spot, Run (1980)—both of which further flesh out their story—and watch the 1975 film adaptation, directed by L. Q. Jones.
Boy — Love and Monsters (2020), dir. Michael Matthews
Set seven years after all of Earth’s cold-blooded creatures have mutated into giant monsters, Love and Monsters sees Joel (Dylan O’Brien) leave his relatively safe underground bunker and set off on an adventure to be reunited with his pre-apocalypse girlfriend. While it’s a brave endeavor, Joel has basically no survival skills. Thankfully for him, he soon meets a stray dog called Boy who is much more capable of dealing with the oversized monsters. This means that Boy is no mere sidekick in their partnership and plays an integral role in their survival. But, as in all the best stories, the two end up saving each other.
Jess and Jip — A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World (2019) by C. A. Fletcher
C. A. Fletcher offers not just one, but two, fantastic dog characters in A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. The story is set many years after an infertility crisis has ravaged the world’s population. Griz is a teenager who lives with his family, including dogs Jess and Jip, on an island off the coast of the UK. Dogs are known for their loyalty, but it’s Griz who proves his loyalty when Jess is stolen by a stranger. He and Jip immediately set off to the mainland to get her back—danger be damned! Jess and Jip feel like fully-fledged characters in the story rather than mere plot devices, and you’re sure to fall in love with them.
Unnamed Dog — I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson
The dog in I Am Legend may only appear fleetingly in the book, but it’s the most poignant part of the narrative. Robert Neville is the sole survivor of a plague that has killed most people and turned the rest into vampires and he is very much Not Okay. The effects of extreme isolation are taking their toll on him mentally, but then a glimmer of hope arrives in the form of a stray dog that, like him, has evaded the vampires. His attempts to befriend the scared dog are hopeful and heart-wrenching. If I had been in Neville’s position though, I couldn’t have resisted naming the dog the second I saw it.
Sam — I Am Legend (2007), dir. Francis Lawrence
Sam the German Shepherd from the 2007 film adaptation of I Am Legend is so far removed from the dog in the book that she deserves her own separate spot on this list. Do I actually like the movie? No, it completely misses the point of the story. But is Sam a very good dog? Absolutely, and her storyline, while totally different, has its own merits. Sam takes on a far larger role than her unnamed book counterpart. She does everything with Will Smith’s Neville, from riding shotgun in his car while he ventures out into NYC to kill Darkseekers (ugh, they’re really awful) to cuddling up with him in the bathtub at night for comfort and protection.
Goodyear — Finch (2021), dir. Miguel Sapochnik
Tom Hanks trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world with his dog and robot companions is basically the recipe for my perfect movie. Hanks stars as Finch, one of the few survivors of a solar flare that has turned Earth into a scorched wasteland. To look after himself and his dog, Goodyear, he has built a dog-like robot called Dewey (a nod to the 1972 film Silent Running) and has almost finished building a humanoid robot.
Goodyear is truly the heart of the film. He isn’t just a good dog along for the bumpy post-apocalyptic ride with his owner—he is the driving force of the story. Finch features all the flashes of excitement expected of a post-apocalyptic tale, but it is ultimately a tender story about the incredible bond between humans and dogs (and robots).
Jasper — The Dog Stars (2012) by Peter Heller
There’s something irresistibly cute about dogs riding shotgun in a car—something which multiple mutts on this list do—even though I would never let my own dog do it (she’s huge, okay, she wouldn’t fit). But The Dog Stars goes one better: Jasper the dog gets to fly around as a passenger in a little Cessna airplane. He lives in an airplane hangar with his owner, Hig, after a deadly flu has wiped out most of the population. The writing style of this book wasn’t for me but I’m sure there are readers out there who will love it, and I can’t deny that Jasper is an excellent friend for the end of the world.
Kojak — The Stand (1978) by Stephen King
Kojak is literary proof that humans don’t deserve dogs. Captain Trips, the superflu that kills off the majority of humanity in The Stand, is also deadly for dogs. Glen Bateman comes across a rare doggy survivor, an Irish Setter formally known as Big Steve, and renames him Kojak, after the ’70s TV detective. After initially establishing himself as a great guy by looking after Kojak, Glen then becomes a villain in my eyes by leaving him behind (!) to travel across the United States with Stu Redman, instead of figuring out a way to bring him with them. Even Randall Flagg, the real villain of the story, wouldn’t sink that low.
But Kojak is a loyal hound (not that Glen deserves it) and makes the difficult trip on his own. We even get an amazing, but deeply harrowing, section recounting the journey from Kojak’s point of view. Kojak isn’t just a good boy…by the end of the story he’s an absolute hero.
Dog — Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), dir. George Miller
Hardened survivor Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) refers to his canine companion only as “Dog”—which feels hilariously true to life for me given that this is what my dad calls my dog Misty about 90% of the time. Max operates as a lone wolf in this leather-clad post-apocalyptic world that is thirsty for oil, but while he shuns the company of people, he still craves companionship: enter Dog. We don’t get to know their backstory but we do know that they are fiercely loyal to each other, sharing food and fighting off danger together. Dog adds a bit of much-needed levity to the film and humanizes Max precisely the right amount.
Lucky — Last One at the Party (2021) by Bethany Clift
Lucky is another perfect example of dogs being far too good for humans. He’s a Golden Retriever who is left on his own after an extremely lethal virus, nicknamed 6DM (which stands for 6 Days Maximum, the longest period of time before the virus kills), wipes out almost all humans. He’s found by the protagonist of the novel, an unnamed woman who rescues him and calls him Lucky. I didn’t gel with the protagonist—almost every decision she makes is painfully foolish—but Lucky is an optimistic bundle of happiness who deserves an endless supply of belly rubs and head pats.
Have I missed any good post-apocalyptic stories that feature dogs? Let me know so I can add them to my TBR (to be read) and TBW (to be watched) lists right away…
Lorna Wallace has a PhD in English Literature and is a lover of all things science fiction and horror. She lives in Scotland with her aforementioned rescue greyhound, Misty.
The Disreputable Dog from the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.
Maybe the remnants of Kibeth on earth, but still a good doggy. Especially when compared to the cat Mogget.
Re: calling a dog “Dog”
My cat’s name is Sophie.
Far more often, both in annoyance and affection, she’s “Furball”.
I don’t like to contemplate facing the end of civilization with my pup. She is brave, loyal and true, but as a Havanese, weighs in at only nine pounds, much of which is fur.
In Zelazny’s This Immortal, the protagonist’s dog Bortan doesn’t appear that much, but when he does, he plays a critical role. And while there is some civilization on Earth, this is after a nuclear war that did a lot of damage, leaving a lot of mutants (such as the dog).
Bortan is a very good dog.
The dog in T Kingfisher’s “The Twisted Ones” – I’m bad at remembering names but that was a great dog!
Gaspode, the goodest boy in Ankh-Morpork comes to mind.
@6–His name is Bongo, and he is indeed a good dog.
I doubt it’s aged well, but reading it in my teens (25 years ago), I loved Einstein the human-intelligent dog from Dean Koontz’s Watchers.
The Dog Crusoe by R.M.Ballantyne
Do video games count? Dogmeat in Fallout 4 is a very good dog.
Houdini in The Last Policeman, just a little dog following his human while the world ends.
Dog in the game Arcanum. You save his life, you’ve got a loyal, sturdy companion.
Oberon in the Iron Druid Chronicles is the bestest snarky nerd of a dog. Those books might not be classified as post-apocalyptic, but they do involve Ragnarok…happening sometime soon after 2022.
@10 You beat me to it, Dogmeat immediately sprang to mind. Especially since you can take the Lone Wanderer perk and still keep him around. (Plus, his 🧸 animation is adorable).
I would offer up two choices.
A Night in the Lonesome October, the whole story is told from the dog’s view.
The Dresden Files’ Mouse. Specifically, Changes and the novella Zoo Day. Very few things will top a dog threatening to literally rip the ass off a Sidhe sorceress if she doesn’t end her spell, and being able to back it up with snark
The unnamed dog in “The Terminator” in 2029. Dogs can sense Terminators.
The movie, being all macho, had a German Shepherd. In the novelization, it was far more sensibly a beagle (eats less and with a far louder bark to warn people). I can’t remember its name in the novelization. It’s been a while.
Also, Clifford Simak’s stories about dogs after humanity might count. After all, what is an “apocalypse” to humans but the end of humans?
@8: I remember Einstein fondly. Watchers is one of Koontz’s best, IMO. Einstein is pretty clearly not just a super-intelligent dog: he’s a super-intelligent Golden Retriever.
I don’t agree with this article’s assessment of Glen Bateman. Glen loved Kojak immensely, so much so, that he was taking Kojak with him on their fateful journey. This alone could be considered selfish, as you might be led to think that Glen was unconcerned about Kojak’s safety. Yet, as it turns out, he makes the heart-breaking decision to leave Kojak behind —- to help and watch over Stu, who had broken a leg in a fall.
In a way, I think Stu’s fall was a way for Glen to do the actual, best thing for Kojak, which was to leave him behind. Why? Because they all knew this was more than likely a one-way trip. Essentially, a suicide mission. I think without saying it out loud, Glen was able to save Kojak, who in turn was able to save Stu.
Glen was a great guy! That’s why Kojak (Big Steve) began to pal aroud with him, in the first place!
Manchee in the Knife of Never Letting Go (Patrick Ness). I didn’t see the movie adaptation (“Chaos Walking“) but I’m positive they didn’t do Manchee justice, if he was even included.
I dunno if it’s “post-apocalyptic” or not; but I’m almost done reading Nona the Ninth (third book in Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir) and there is a six legged pup named Noodle. While he is a by-stander (so far, I’m ~100pgs from the end); he certainly represents the simplicity of life’s basic needs on a planet that is about to explode, where everyone is terrified of necromancers.
Muir assure readers on in an online Q&A that Noodle lives. So I’m hanging onto that as you can never be sure who might die (or who will stay dead…) in this zombie world.
It’s a side detail, but Magdeline, a side character in Mira Grant’s Newsflash series, breeds teacup bulldogs. In the zombie apocalypse, any mammal over 40 points becomes a zombie if they die or bodily fluids carrying the active form of the zombie virus enters their system. Thus, large animals, especially the more carnivorous sorts, are a risk. Hence dog owners trying to miniaturize their favorite breeds to keep them into the ‘relatively safe’ category.
2nd for Noodle! He also shows up in Nona’s Guest List under “Dogs to invite to birthday party” (the whole list is so Nona).
Noodle, king of dogs in secret, white-adjacent, small sized, six legs
I am sure these are all good pups, but a list without Noodle is just not a list. This is a perfect time to be like Nona and say “Oh! I forgot about Noodle!” and get the old man up there. I mean, he IS the king of dogs, in secret.
That’s much later in the book than what the article references. Bateman leaves Kojak behind in New Hampshire, because he won’t be able to keep up with the mopeds. Kodak trails them all the way to Colorado, though he’s nearly killed along the way.
While not a dog and not a book, I’ve always been fond of D0g from Half-life 2.
Sirius, the Dog Star. Edited by Martin Greenberg and Alexander Potter. Collection of short stories, science fiction, and of course dogs in every one.
It’s a wolf, not a dog (and I haven’t read it in forever so I don’t know if it holds up) but Wolf and Iron by Gordon R. Dickson is a good man-and-his-canine-companion-in-the-aftermath story.
There’s a Very Good Dog in Stephen King’s FAIRY TALE as well.
And how could we forget Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman?
Old school… the 1950s!
Clifford Simak wrote a group of short stories that got pulled together under the title City.
The preface begins:
“These are the stories that the Dogs tell when the fires burn high and the wind is from the north. Then each family circle gathers at the hearthstone and the pups sit silently and listen and when the story’s done they ask many questions:
“What is Man?” they’ll ask.
Or perhaps: “What is a city?”
Or: “What is a war?”
Bortan, Conrad’s dog from Zelazny’s “This Immortal”. Endlessly faithful, intelligent, and the last of his … kind, whatever kind that is.
I remember that there was a very good dog in Snow Crash.
Let’s not forget Muskrat in The Expanse books.
” Rex is a good dog” Adrian Tchaikovsky, The dogs of war. Also, Sirius, Olaf Stapledon.
Wasn’t there a loyal and “good” hellhound in Good Omens?
@26 Gordon Dickson put wolves in a lot of his stories. My personal favorite is probably Lucas in Sleepwalker’s World. All of them are very definitely not dogs.
There are two anthologies of short stories that are not all about dogs, other animals are included. The first one is Tails of the Apocalypse and the second on is Chronicle Worlds: Tails of Dystopia (Future Chronicles Book 17). Currently available from Amazon…
Interesting reading.
*bangs on table* we want Noodle!
Not one mention of all the dogs in Clifford Smak’s CITY?!?
For shame!
@27 That is also a Doctor Who reference.
A) The Wayback Machine had lots of round things on the walls just like the classic TARDIS
B) Mr. Peabody is The Dogtor and Sherman is his Companion!
You’ve missed my top 3, though you can be forgiven as two of them are indie published and one is very new.
Linkekar from The Last Dog on Earth by Adrian J Walker is my all time fave, half the book is written from his view point and very skillfully done.
Number 2 is Brown, an indominatable Manchester Terrier from Before & After by Andrew Shanahan, companion to the most unlikely hero of the apocalypse you’ll ever meet. Such a funny & heartwarming book.
And a new entry at number 3 is Scram from What Survives by M. Amelia Eikli – he’s a beautifully written, bright and light counterpoint in a very moving book about grief and loss in a deserted post-apoc world.