Yeah.. you could run around the wastes with a pack of dogs if you so chose... Robodog, K-9 and Dogmeat.. then there was also Pariah Dog who you could find somewhere that would join your party even if you already had your companion limit.. He would do something bad but I can't remember what... I just remember playing a game specifically to find him and then run around with my pack of dogs.. I didn't care what the bad status was.
Honestly, i wonder why it was to much to ask for just a regular looking dog that you can recruit. I would rather have dogmeat.:shrug: The wild wasteland perk should replace the robodog with dogmeat... but noooo....
Presumably Rex will still do all the things that Dogmeat did....maybe more. I can see your point in having Dogmeat if you take the Wild Wasteland perk, that would add a bit of Fallout 3 nostalgia :hubbahubba: