Make no bones about it. Fallout 4 players are barking mad for Dogmeat, the Sole Survivor's German Shepherd sidekick, and those gaming fans decided to make their voices heard by casting the majority of the votes for the pup to win The CW's Top Video Game Dog Award.

Technically speaking, though, it wasn't the actual in-game character that won the trophy, but it was Dogmeat's real life inspiration, River, which is the pet of a Bethesda lead level designer, Joel Burgess, that received the honor. Of course, there was stiff competition hounding the German Shepherd for the award, as the popular Fallout 4 pooch was up against Metal Gear Solid 5's D-Dog, as well as Chop from Grand Theft Auto 5.

As seen in the tweet below, Bethesda hosted River along with her owners and handlers back at its studios to celebrate and congratulate the proud tail-wagger for the coveted win of the much sought after Golden Hydrant. Surely, being bestowed such an award prompted River to express plenty of relief after the fact.

[HTML1]

For those unaware, The CW's World Dog Awards aired Thursday, January 14 on the American network, and it honored man's best friend in a variety of other categories beyond video games, such as those in the world of television, film, as well as community service. Bearing this in mind, we here at Game Rant are obviously are behind the times with this news, so we regret the lapse in reportage.

Taking into consideration the fact that Dogmeat is not only an adorable companion, but also a fierce combatant, the Fallout 4 pup's win is much deserved. However, there have been several occasions in the post-apocalyptic RPG that could portray the character in a negative light, such as the instance of Dogmeat's wanton carelessness, which led a player getting killed. Plus, it's no secret that the Sole Survivor's pet often goes missing in action, and it takes careful detective skills on the parts of the game's fans, as players usually find the missing dog in strange places.

At any rate, Fallout 4 fans are likely looking forward to the open world title's first bout of expansion materials, as the Automatron DLC's release date is not far off, with it launching on March 22, 2016 for all platforms. Naturally, if developers have made it a possibility, a lot of players will probably want to bring Dogmeat along for the hunt once the add-on finally goes live.

Fallout 4 is out now and is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Bethesda – Twitter (via VG 24/7)