Petting the dog in Modern Warfare 3 reveals a cute Ghosts Easter egg

Call of Duty's relationship with furry animals is a strange one.

For years, barking brothers and sisters were only ever used as a killstreak in the yearly multiplayer games, ravaging players across the map as they hunted down foes and gnarled their faces off.

Then, they were turned into evil undead flesh-eating zombies, as "fluffy" turned possessed and formed a hunt for our souls in Kino Der Toten.

But finally, you can stop fearing dogs in Call of Duty and begin appreciating the good boys that they can be, and finally pet them.

You can pet dogs in Modern Warfare 3

Despite all of the hitches and criticism of Modern Warfare 3's Campaign, there's one shining light that justifies its hefty price tag, and that comes by petting the dog in the final level Trojan Horse.

As you first start the mission, you serve as Soap and Gaz on the London strip underneath the Golden Jubilee Bridge with the London Eye in the backdrop, as you try and close in on a hacker in cahoots with Makarov.

In a bid not to be detected by the suspicious criminal, you are physically prompted to find distractions, and one of those is petting the dog.

Near the vicinity of the hacker is a cute German Shepherd who is happy enough to interact with and earn a nice little head scratch and chinny rubs.

But wait, that dog looks familiar...

Modern Warfare 3 has a cute Riley Easter egg

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Once the dog has been petted, it generates a nametag, and those familiar with Call of Duty Ghosts will feel a warm sense of nostalgia.

Riley is the popular dog who was an integral part and a playable character in the Ghosts Campaign, breaking our hearts as he sniffs out bombs, takes bullets for us, and survives wounds to his leg to go on and live a happy life by the end of the prologue.

It's not the first time Riley has popped up in the Modern Warfare series either, as the woofer also appears in both of the previous series instalments, arriving in the Modern Warfare 2019 & MW2 Christmas maps, riding Santa's sleigh in Winter Docks and Shipmas respectively.

Unfortunately, this coincidence isn't canon, as Riley was just 14 months old when appearing in Ghosts, and was born on May 30, 2026, some two and a half years before the start of Modern Warfare 3.

Nonetheless, it was a cute token to the legend that is Riley, and maybe by the time (a presumed) Modern Warfare 4 comes in 2026, we might actually get to see him in action again.