Dogs, we need them.

[Gracia_WolfSlayer]

Are dogs cool and cute and helpful? Yes. Do I like dogs? absolutely! Do I think that they would fit in with the game? No.

I feel an animal companion of any kind would take away from the core, (I don't know...mood? Spirit? feel?) of the game. Isolation and removal from the world. In the same way I think multiplayer (which I've also seen suggested on the forums) would break the feel of you struggling to survive in a frozen wasteland. If story mode had a small bit about a dog, I think that'd be fine. But I'd say, for me, leave it out of survival mode

There's always Skyrim if you need to scratch the doggy itch!

[Jotown]

I honestly think that’d be a great game addition- but only in say the easier modes (Pilgrim, Voyageur, maybe extremely rare in Stalker), because isolation seems to be a key aspect to the game- if it wasn’t, we’d have multiplayer! But I do like the idea. A fluffy companion would be lovely~ specifically how you said husky, I get the idea that if sleds were introduced you could train them to pull those, too!