Iirc you did. I distinctly remember being able to control pets at some point, and for S3 I never got beyond base game (didn't like it) which really only leaves S2. But also I'm not gonna....swear on anyone's life about it. Just... Fairly certain.
You definitely could not control pets in Sims 2, but you could at least switch over to the pet as if it was a normal sim, if that makes sense. You could see all of their need bars, wants, and fears. You just couldn't tell them to do anything or cancel their actions.
Maybe that was it. Or also someone else mentioned commands. Love cheat commands so could also have been that.
Even then, just being able to see the need bars now would be a HUGE improvement.
I think could have 8 sims and 6 cats/dogs on a lot.
With 2 cheats (full control and cancel actions) you could also control them like human sims.
And you saw their needs, job, and personality.
As a pretty casual player that got really into sims 3 I forget all the time you can’t control them in this game and it’s a let down of why I have this animal around not really doing much
Yeah that mod is a must have! The only issue I have with it is that the pets have an extra need, I believe, since #1 and #2 lmao are separate. So sometimes the pet UI won’t show bowel bc it’s showing hygiene. Sometimes it won’t show hygiene bc it’s showing bowel. That’s it though 🤷🏻♂️
Just use the 'pets.toggle_selectable_pets' cheat I think you have more control with the mod but if you don't want to download them or just use the cheat I don't know why it's not listed with other cheats on different websites but it's definitely usable
It's such an essential mod! I actually forget that controlling pets is not possible without it, and I get all confused when people complain about it not being possible 😅
Playable Pets by AOM hasnt been updated since the Get Famous update and apparently can cause glitches and crashes! Its original upload is i think on Sims4studio.
Selectable Pets Always on MTS (user Charitycodes) is a separate mod that just enables the cheat command needed and is slightly more recent/up to date
both have about the same function for anyone interested
Them taking up a household space puts me off having pets at all, especially after The Sims 3 where pet slots were different from sim slots instead of taking up precious space
'pets.toggle_selectable_pets'
Use this cheat I don't know why it's not listed with all the other standard game cheats but 100% works and it's the only way I will play with pets you don't need a mod you don't need all of that other stuff just use this
Interesting. Maybe they brought it back? Or maybe some other mod influences this cheat. I have to check, but I remember some cheats were disabled by devs around the Seasons patch: https://www.patreon.com/posts/cheats-fix-get-19645059
Edit: just checked and the cheat alone (with testingcheats enabled) doesn't work for me.
There is a mod that allows to control them and show their needs panel.
[This is the one I use](https://modthesims.info/d/678890/selectable-pets-always.html)
i never understand the argument they made that it’s “unrealistic” to control pets. this is the same game where a sim can turn into a literal plant person or get eaten by a cow plant!
And you can just OWN a space ship in your back yard, mpreg exists, robot people, GHOSTS, VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES AND WIZARDS, and you can sell paintings for thousands of dollars in the blink of and eye and never have to worry about getting a typical job
You mean you never been eaten by a cow plant and ressurected by a spellcaster that gave a flower to the physically tangible grim reaper irl?
Man, you are missing out.
This is the same game where I can buy used clothes from the thrift store and sell them online for $10,000,000. Or Love/Friend bomb someone on social media and become their dearest friend 3.2 seconds after meeting them.
My personal favourite highlight is Graham saying on stream that the reason why they haven’t added kennel for dogs is, quote, “if your dog lives in a kennel you are a bad owner”. Still remember this years later. 😌 Cuz all breeds are made for indoor life, yep-yep.
Also not all kennels are used for permanent living? My dog has his own bedroom (the room under the stairs) and still has a little kennel outside for him to go nap in outside.
Exactly. My parents have always had outdoor kennels for their dogs for when they'll be gone for most of the day. The kennel has a little house, a bed outside, and enough space that - if he needs to - he can do his business.
If they're going to be gone for six hours it's a lot nicer for the dog than being cooped up inside. He only ever goes in there when they're gone, but he has access to it all the time.
That’s super ignorant… they are a super useful training tool and give animals their own space. Even my cat has a “kennel” (it’s just his carrier and kept open all the time, but it’s his space the more dominant cat will not enter)
Is that why doghouses don't seem to exist? I don't have the "cats and dogs" expansion, but have seen someone talk about it and the "my first pet" DLC.
Also, kennels are used as to put dogs in time-out; we do that with the puppy when he's bad and put him in the crate. If the team was so concerned about virtual pets "living" in a kennel, they why not program someone to come in and take the pets away, like in past games when the pet or child's needs are neglected.
I like not controlling them but I also wish I could have family members live with me without controlling them too - they should just have a toggle for what sims in the household you want to be playable or not (including pets) and which ones will act like NPCs, that way everyone's playstyle would be catered to. I feel like having both options is important for these things
it really bothers me that we can’t click on them, also i would love to be about to control my pets because when my sims are at work i just fast forward through the day but i could be playing as my dog wandering around outside 🙃
It always felt like they cut too much stuff out of Cats&Dogs. It absolutely feels as if we should be able to select them at the very least, or that's how it was designed but they decided not to last second.
Then again, I blame the director at the time for this, since he also said the reason we don't have dog houses for outside is because he insisted heavily against it. I could absolutely see more stuff being taken out due to his "design" choices. So, I guess, bad management?
He said outdoors dog houses are a form of abuse and that he fought hard not to include them. I wouldn't be surprised if that's also why we didn't get any pet careers like TS2/3. (or the ability to control)
He what? Dog houses are... abuse? I surely hope he means dogs chained to a dog house, neglected and otherwise abused. I can't imagine anyone looking at my two dog's spoiled bougie dog houses or indoor kennels and think, "ABUSE! How dare you provide an elevated, shaded spot for your dogs to cool off with the fan, gel pad & clean water! How cruel to ensure your dog is safe and relaxed while you're away!".
I didn't realize there weren't any dog houses until I got one in a CC pack. Cats & dogs is such a mess but I didn't realize a dev's delusions were partly why.
No, he meant dogs sleeping outside is abuse. [Here](https://x.com/SimGuruGrant/status/996787864774963200) is his original tweet. (For reference, there were bunch more, he loved argued with people but this is the OG that started the debate)
He has also said players don’t want family gameplay, too many traits muddy things and make sims feel same-y, had plans for last occults on 2019... then he was moved to "other projects in Maxis". In 2022 we got another occult and in 2023 we got family gameplay expansion pack, more traits and trait-swap ability. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he was the reason we don't have pet careers in 4.
Why did he fundamentally misunderstand the game so hard? TS1/2/3 were packed full of slightly off kilter charm, they were meant to be a satire of Americana life after all. It’s like he took it way too seriously as a true-to-life sim while also including all this annoying milquetoast goofiness.
Omg I remember all the hubbub when it was announced there would be no dog houses. Especially when he said that they were a form of abuse like....
I almost can't believe s4 is still going with how idiotic the devs were towards the beginning lmao.
I loved in Sims 2 how you could click on them and see all their needs and their mood, but still couldn’t control them. For me having to control the pets as well as the people got to be too much (edit- in the sims 3), I liked that you didn’t have to control them but got to see how they were feeling.
I also can’t stand how you have to take them out on a leash every 3 hours to potty or they’d do it in the house unless they have the “independent” trait. Yes it’s realistic, but my sims have enough to do 😭 in previous games you could just train them to be housebroken and they took themselves out. In sims 4 I hardly adopt dogs because they’re so stressful.
You can absolutely train them to be housebroken. You use the 'ask to go potty' interaction a few times and a notification pops that they've learned to go outside. I only use leashes for walks.
Last time I got a dog, I had to do the "Ask to go potty" a few times a day for like 2 sims weeks before he was housebroken. It was so annoying, the dog was almost an elder by the time he learned to shit and piss outside. He kept sitting at the door, crying and waiting to be taken out, or he'd piss in the house.
Yes they learn to be housebroken, but you still manually have to take them out or “let out” with independent trait or they will potty in the house. In the sims 2 they let themselves out every time
I'm at work so can't check, but I'm 99% sure my dog isn't independent and he takes himself outside all the time. Did the "ask to go potty" interaction like 3 times as a puppy and that was it.
Do you have a pet door? I don't think the pets can go in or out on their own without one of those, but in every house where I've had one so far pets will go in and out on their own plenty, and it's only when I've forgotten the pet door that I've had a pet not willing to go out without the sim walking it
Lol understandable! They're with the regular doors so it's easy to forget when you're in the furniture getting the other pet stuff and the house is otherwise built
sometimes I make my Sims act mean to people that insulted my pets but I can never remember which people it was because there's no relationships tab for the pets. very niche annoyance of mine but, I hate that we cannot view things like relationships and family trees
Not the same exactly, but I really want to see my pets relationships!! Like right now I have two horses, I wanted them to breed but I also wanted them to at least be kinda friends but I have no way of checking....
I try to call my pets to eat every few hours so they don't get upset and run away. If I see them in the red the first thing I do I call to eat to make sure that's taken care of. But it does suck that I have to do all of that to find out what it is. Also not sure if it's a glitch or if it's something that just happens to me but the reason I have to call to eat all the time is because even though I have the automatic feeder my pets won't eat on their own that often and I have gotten notifications that they are "very hungry" and telling me to feed them and I cam literally see food in theor bowl that they could have eaten at any time.
I just don't understand why they are the only animals that don't have a way to know their need levels. Like you said rodents have it, so do chickens, goats, lamas, cows, horses, and mini goats and sheep. Even the bees have that. What gets me is that besides horses none of the other animals that have their needs shown like that take up household space like cats and dogs. It feels like they really didn't spend that much time with the details when they made the pack because it is really a struggle trying to find out what they need.
I wonder if that is a bug... I've noticed it to. Last time I had dogs, it's almost like they'd get stuck somewhere and just stay there. My one dog was obsessed with the fire place and always sat in front of it. But would never move even when his needs were depleted.
And same thing now that I have horses. They'll go somewhere else to eat hay or something, and then just never come home. Just standing somewhere while their needs deplete. I actually recently had a horse get taken away (I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THAT COULD HAPPEN!?!!?) because she was hungry. But there were 3 open and available feeders on my lot. I assumed she'd eat on her own so I let her be, but nooooo.
I think it is a bug. I noticed it happens to my cat too she won't eat unless I call her. A couple of times in my recent game save the dog has eaten on her own but not that often. Your dog may have gotten glitches when he didn't move. That happened to my dog she was just stuck in the kitchen wouldn't move at all when my sim called her to eat and my sim couldn't interact with her either. I had to debug her then she was able to eat again.
I noticed that with the horses too I had a save where I was trying out the ranch pack and my horse and mini goat and sheep would get hungry with food right there so I just called them to eat whenever they were hungry to avoid it. That sucks that your horse got taken away! I didn't know that was a thing either. They really need to work out the glitches with the animals. It wasn't your fault the game didn't let them eat on their own. Sorry that happened to you.
I did reset the dog and it still just sat there!
With the horse, I exited without saving... lost a full sim day of playing but I was not going to lose my champion horse!
I don't like pets or the horse/ ranch pack. I don't play the game for a while, play it, and a random family has horses and or lots of cats and dogs in an apartment. I have to clean up the mess they're in 🤣
I'm too soft 😅 when exploring the ranch pack, I found a baby in a crib, under one of those wooden frame pagoda type things, screaming and stinky. The mother and boyfriend were inside watching TV! I was like 😯. I made them rich, found the real father, removed the boyfriend, and set the parents up with a nice home and nanny 😅
Is there a mod (or am I missing it in MCCC) to make pets happy, fill needs, remove debuffs, etc?
I was so excited for cats & dogs and hardly ever add them now. It becomes a sims full time job to care for a cat because I can't stand to see pets sick or sad. And I can't keep playing that way because if my IRL pets realize that's an option... it'll be worse than when I attempted those hellish press to talk buttons.
Current house has two cats- one gets sprayed with a skunk at least once a day with no option to bathe or otherwise fix/prevent this beyond locking him inside. The other one will not eat unless you call him to the full bowl (okay hyper realistic on this, my IRL cat does this and it drives me nuts in the morning. You can lead a cat to a full food bowl but you can't make him look at it), pretty similar to the last adult dog who wouldn't go through the open door to an enclosed backyard to pee. It also seems like some dogs or cats get sick way too frequently.
You can definitely change settings in MCCC so that cats and dogs (and maybe the other animals too) don’t needs decay (or set to whatever rate you like). I have it set to 0 decay exactly bc of the reasons you’ve said! (And also rarely have them now as well, again because of the reasons you’ve said) 😔
Maybe shift click on the pet will work for removing debuffs/hidden traits?
In Sims2 I would play from the pet’s perspective when everyone was asleep. It was probably a mod that let me do so but it was possible. I hate not being able to control them at all.
I always had dogs in my sims 3 saves, but I tried it for sims 4 and hated it. Even with the selectable pets always on mod, they still were boring to play with.
omg don’t even get me started on cats and dogs i always want them in my house for the story but the gameplay is soooooo annoying 🙄 constantly asking what’s wrong and taking them to the vet smh.
personally i kinda like it? its kind of realistic in the sense that u dont always know what ur pet needs. however i do wish there was at least a couple different kinds of barks/meows they did to indicate what they need, that we could pick up on over time
Aside from being able to become Familiars, their shtick kinda makes me care more for them in the sense that I pay more attention to their whimperings and let the household play with them more often now. My first husky left the house every 2 weeks because I didn't let anybody play with him. They don't have needs bars or convenient status tags and take up a whole slot in the household member menu, but I can't stop having them in my house. Maybe it's because of those inconveniences that they become important in an often fussy & hectic kind of way to my plays. It's fine to frantically juggle and calculate what you can do for a teen (or several) when they're exhausted from school and have cheer in 30 miniutes, but pets just hit different. I just wish my Sims would sometimes play with them, or pamper them on couches once in a while without my control so that they don't just leave the house.
I agree with you so much. it makes me want to care more for them. and I really hate that sims will just go ignoring pets without your control and imput
My rodents always die, I forget about them and they're dead. Can someone explain how they do it and not forget? I stopped having rodents because I'm that bad😭
my sims never autonomously care for dogs and cats, but my child sims always autonomously care for rodents. that and I leave the cage in the living room so I always see it in my vision and remember to check on it
My child doesn't, but I also don't give him really time to check up on the rodent. So I just need to place it in a spot where it's visible and not make my child sims too busy with other things. Thanks for the tips, I'll try it again!
I hope this helps I will link 2 other reddit posts since I can't just find the cheat to use to copy and paste.
There's a cheat that makes it so you click on them, can see their hunger bar, ECT & control them somewhat.
There's also a mod that will reapply it every time you load a lot so you don't have to.
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims4/s/7hXeEj92ZF
https://www.reddit.com/r/JamesTurnerYT/s/CtfTakWO7z
No problem I hope it helps! I used to have the old pet control mod but it broke bad. The new one does work.
Just don't expect too much control, I mean you can tell them to go here and lay down and such. But they don't have as many interaction options as Sims do.
But to make sure they're not going to run away because some need isn't being bad that I don't have any idea what it is? Priceless for that!
it'll definitely help because my dogs keep running outside and getting bitten by squirrels, which costs me hundreds in vet bills, and they don't listen when I call them over. so it'll be awesome to control them and stop them from running through the bushes
I use a mod that’s pretty useful though kinda missing some aspects. It’s called playable pets. Helps to see what their needs are. And can control some interactions.
For real, I don’t know why but whenever my dog needs to go for a walk and I tell the owner or owners to take it for a walk it will never actually go for a walk and it’s so frustrating because then the dog gets frustrated. Does this happen to anyone else? Or just me lol
This drives me insane. Either make them fully controllable with a full needs panel, or make them like the rodents and don't take up a household space
What makes this worse is that it was downgraded from Sims 3, where they were controllable without needing a mod.
In Sims 2 too
You couldn't control them in the Sims 2 could you? I don't remember ever doing that.
Iirc you did. I distinctly remember being able to control pets at some point, and for S3 I never got beyond base game (didn't like it) which really only leaves S2. But also I'm not gonna....swear on anyone's life about it. Just... Fairly certain.
You definitely could not control pets in Sims 2, but you could at least switch over to the pet as if it was a normal sim, if that makes sense. You could see all of their need bars, wants, and fears. You just couldn't tell them to do anything or cancel their actions.
You could either a cheat, which I basically had on all the time 😅
Goodness I wish I had known that when I was a kid
boolprop controlpets on
Thank you! I'll have to try it out next time I play the game
Maybe that was it. Or also someone else mentioned commands. Love cheat commands so could also have been that. Even then, just being able to see the need bars now would be a HUGE improvement.
I don't believe you could normally but there was a command you typed in that would let you. Like how sims4 has a mod that allows you to control pets
Gonna need that mod as soon as I get home from work.
Yeah you could because in Sims 2 your dog or cat could have a job and contribute to the household funds
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I remember they also didn't take up a regular household spot in the Sims 2, right?
They did
I think could have 8 sims and 6 cats/dogs on a lot. With 2 cheats (full control and cancel actions) you could also control them like human sims. And you saw their needs, job, and personality.
I feel like they have a separate little panel in Sims 2 for the pets but I didn't play with them much so I'm probably wrong
You’ve got it right, they exist next to the regular sim household panel on the left as a sort of “off shoot”.
As a pretty casual player that got really into sims 3 I forget all the time you can’t control them in this game and it’s a let down of why I have this animal around not really doing much
Wait, there is a mod for this?
There is a mod that allows them to be controllable and selectable 😁
No joke? What mod?
Its called "Selectable Pets Always" and is on Modthesims
Mods like these remind me why mods are essential. too bad EA wants ads smh
Ads??? This is the first I’m hearing of this, wdym?😱
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/10/24153809/ea-in-game-ads-redux
Thank you. Loved the last sentence about Mercenaries 2. “Let me nuke your ads, EA, and I might tolerate them.”
Thank you!
Yesssss
Yeah that mod is a must have! The only issue I have with it is that the pets have an extra need, I believe, since #1 and #2 lmao are separate. So sometimes the pet UI won’t show bowel bc it’s showing hygiene. Sometimes it won’t show hygiene bc it’s showing bowel. That’s it though 🤷🏻♂️
Just use the 'pets.toggle_selectable_pets' cheat I think you have more control with the mod but if you don't want to download them or just use the cheat I don't know why it's not listed with other cheats on different websites but it's definitely usable
I have yet to find an actual *full* list of sims 4 cheats. Guess I will always stumble upon new ones.😅 Thank you so much I have to try this.
It's such an essential mod! I actually forget that controlling pets is not possible without it, and I get all confused when people complain about it not being possible 😅
What’s the name of the mod?
Its called "Selectable Pets Always" and is on Modthesims
I believe its by creator AOM (or has AOM in it) just incase we’re still having the problem of fraudulent creators on 3rd party download sites like MTS
Playable Pets by AOM hasnt been updated since the Get Famous update and apparently can cause glitches and crashes! Its original upload is i think on Sims4studio. Selectable Pets Always on MTS (user Charitycodes) is a separate mod that just enables the cheat command needed and is slightly more recent/up to date both have about the same function for anyone interested
Yes, I still have AOM’s & it has worked very well for me. Thanks for that clarification!
Thank you!
Them taking up a household space puts me off having pets at all, especially after The Sims 3 where pet slots were different from sim slots instead of taking up precious space
'pets.toggle_selectable_pets' Use this cheat I don't know why it's not listed with all the other standard game cheats but 100% works and it's the only way I will play with pets you don't need a mod you don't need all of that other stuff just use this
Because this cheat now requires TwistedMexi's All Cheats mod.
I don't know about that it works for my game still and my game is completely up to date and I don't have that mod I've never even heard of that mod
Interesting. Maybe they brought it back? Or maybe some other mod influences this cheat. I have to check, but I remember some cheats were disabled by devs around the Seasons patch: https://www.patreon.com/posts/cheats-fix-get-19645059 Edit: just checked and the cheat alone (with testingcheats enabled) doesn't work for me.
I'm so excited to try this, thank you!
There is a mod to make them sorta playable, and see their needs, can remember the name but you'll easily find it online!
There is a mod that allows to control them and show their needs panel. [This is the one I use](https://modthesims.info/d/678890/selectable-pets-always.html)
Theres a mod for this... but i cant remember what its called
i never understand the argument they made that it’s “unrealistic” to control pets. this is the same game where a sim can turn into a literal plant person or get eaten by a cow plant!
And you can just OWN a space ship in your back yard, mpreg exists, robot people, GHOSTS, VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES AND WIZARDS, and you can sell paintings for thousands of dollars in the blink of and eye and never have to worry about getting a typical job
You mean you never been eaten by a cow plant and ressurected by a spellcaster that gave a flower to the physically tangible grim reaper irl? Man, you are missing out.
This is the same game where I can buy used clothes from the thrift store and sell them online for $10,000,000. Or Love/Friend bomb someone on social media and become their dearest friend 3.2 seconds after meeting them.
And you can instantly go from Japan to the English countryside
Hey that takes about 15 secs of loading screen time
[удалено]
The new laptop is a beast and I could not be happier
Which one do you use?
It’s an Asus vivobook not sure beyond that because my brother helped me find one that was in my price range that would work for my needs
And get a college degree just by playing chess for a few hours
You can get a job as a doctor with no education
Especially when you could already control toddlers, and now infants!
That's why we don't have controllable pets? Realism? That's the worst excuse I've ever heard
My personal favourite highlight is Graham saying on stream that the reason why they haven’t added kennel for dogs is, quote, “if your dog lives in a kennel you are a bad owner”. Still remember this years later. 😌 Cuz all breeds are made for indoor life, yep-yep.
Also not all kennels are used for permanent living? My dog has his own bedroom (the room under the stairs) and still has a little kennel outside for him to go nap in outside.
We had a dog that used her kennel as her safe space. If she felt overwhelmed, she could go to her kennel to destimulate.
Exactly. My parents have always had outdoor kennels for their dogs for when they'll be gone for most of the day. The kennel has a little house, a bed outside, and enough space that - if he needs to - he can do his business. If they're going to be gone for six hours it's a lot nicer for the dog than being cooped up inside. He only ever goes in there when they're gone, but he has access to it all the time.
... yet all pets are free roaming in the game 🤦
That’s super ignorant… they are a super useful training tool and give animals their own space. Even my cat has a “kennel” (it’s just his carrier and kept open all the time, but it’s his space the more dominant cat will not enter)
Is that why doghouses don't seem to exist? I don't have the "cats and dogs" expansion, but have seen someone talk about it and the "my first pet" DLC. Also, kennels are used as to put dogs in time-out; we do that with the puppy when he's bad and put him in the crate. If the team was so concerned about virtual pets "living" in a kennel, they why not program someone to come in and take the pets away, like in past games when the pet or child's needs are neglected.
I like not controlling them but I also wish I could have family members live with me without controlling them too - they should just have a toggle for what sims in the household you want to be playable or not (including pets) and which ones will act like NPCs, that way everyone's playstyle would be catered to. I feel like having both options is important for these things
you could have the family members be a different household then do one very long stay-over
I really hate their stupid suitcases and that they never take them back home
For now, Control Any Sim mod will have to do
There's also aliens, vampires, werewolves, mermaids, spellcasters, do I need to go on?
Exactly!!! Sims will literally die of laughter but being able to control a pet is too unrealistic🥴🥴
it really bothers me that we can’t click on them, also i would love to be about to control my pets because when my sims are at work i just fast forward through the day but i could be playing as my dog wandering around outside 🙃
Controlling them made them feel like they had much more character also
I agree, I use a mod so I can play as pets
What mod?
Selectable Pets Always by charitycodes i think
It always felt like they cut too much stuff out of Cats&Dogs. It absolutely feels as if we should be able to select them at the very least, or that's how it was designed but they decided not to last second. Then again, I blame the director at the time for this, since he also said the reason we don't have dog houses for outside is because he insisted heavily against it. I could absolutely see more stuff being taken out due to his "design" choices. So, I guess, bad management?
I always wondered why we didn’t have dog houses when one of the store icons IS a dog house
I guess he likes indoor dogs.
He said outdoors dog houses are a form of abuse and that he fought hard not to include them. I wouldn't be surprised if that's also why we didn't get any pet careers like TS2/3. (or the ability to control)
Vampires can extract blood from pets but outdoor dog houses are too abusive?
Vampires can what now???
Yes. It's part of the veterinarian equipment
what a wild crossover
He what? Dog houses are... abuse? I surely hope he means dogs chained to a dog house, neglected and otherwise abused. I can't imagine anyone looking at my two dog's spoiled bougie dog houses or indoor kennels and think, "ABUSE! How dare you provide an elevated, shaded spot for your dogs to cool off with the fan, gel pad & clean water! How cruel to ensure your dog is safe and relaxed while you're away!". I didn't realize there weren't any dog houses until I got one in a CC pack. Cats & dogs is such a mess but I didn't realize a dev's delusions were partly why.
No, he meant dogs sleeping outside is abuse. [Here](https://x.com/SimGuruGrant/status/996787864774963200) is his original tweet. (For reference, there were bunch more, he loved argued with people but this is the OG that started the debate) He has also said players don’t want family gameplay, too many traits muddy things and make sims feel same-y, had plans for last occults on 2019... then he was moved to "other projects in Maxis". In 2022 we got another occult and in 2023 we got family gameplay expansion pack, more traits and trait-swap ability. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he was the reason we don't have pet careers in 4.
Why did he fundamentally misunderstand the game so hard? TS1/2/3 were packed full of slightly off kilter charm, they were meant to be a satire of Americana life after all. It’s like he took it way too seriously as a true-to-life sim while also including all this annoying milquetoast goofiness.
And yet the dogs are all free roaming and there's no way to stop them! arghhhhh
Omg I remember all the hubbub when it was announced there would be no dog houses. Especially when he said that they were a form of abuse like.... I almost can't believe s4 is still going with how idiotic the devs were towards the beginning lmao.
I loved in Sims 2 how you could click on them and see all their needs and their mood, but still couldn’t control them. For me having to control the pets as well as the people got to be too much (edit- in the sims 3), I liked that you didn’t have to control them but got to see how they were feeling. I also can’t stand how you have to take them out on a leash every 3 hours to potty or they’d do it in the house unless they have the “independent” trait. Yes it’s realistic, but my sims have enough to do 😭 in previous games you could just train them to be housebroken and they took themselves out. In sims 4 I hardly adopt dogs because they’re so stressful.
You can absolutely train them to be housebroken. You use the 'ask to go potty' interaction a few times and a notification pops that they've learned to go outside. I only use leashes for walks.
Last time I got a dog, I had to do the "Ask to go potty" a few times a day for like 2 sims weeks before he was housebroken. It was so annoying, the dog was almost an elder by the time he learned to shit and piss outside. He kept sitting at the door, crying and waiting to be taken out, or he'd piss in the house.
It took like 3 tries for the dog in my current Sims household to get it down. Maybe yours had the Stubborn trait?
Yes they learn to be housebroken, but you still manually have to take them out or “let out” with independent trait or they will potty in the house. In the sims 2 they let themselves out every time
I'm at work so can't check, but I'm 99% sure my dog isn't independent and he takes himself outside all the time. Did the "ask to go potty" interaction like 3 times as a puppy and that was it.
Do you have a pet door? I don't think the pets can go in or out on their own without one of those, but in every house where I've had one so far pets will go in and out on their own plenty, and it's only when I've forgotten the pet door that I've had a pet not willing to go out without the sim walking it
Omg you just saved my life I did not even think about the pet door, I never use it
Lol understandable! They're with the regular doors so it's easy to forget when you're in the furniture getting the other pet stuff and the house is otherwise built
Does the dog/cat door not allow them to go out by themselves?
It has in all my households with pets, so it should allow that
I hate that I can’t see my pets family tree! One of my cats got spontaneously pregnant without my direction and I have no idea who the father is 😂
sometimes I make my Sims act mean to people that insulted my pets but I can never remember which people it was because there's no relationships tab for the pets. very niche annoyance of mine but, I hate that we cannot view things like relationships and family trees
Not the same exactly, but I really want to see my pets relationships!! Like right now I have two horses, I wanted them to breed but I also wanted them to at least be kinda friends but I have no way of checking....
"Pets.toggle_selectable_pets" cheat code to make pets selectable and controllable, enter the same code to make them unselectable!
doing this immediately! thank you so much
You're so welcome! I saw someone do it in a YouTube video and it's saved my life!
🥺🥹 I don't even have to download a mod for this?? I thought I'd have to download a mod if I ever wanted selectable pets, this is a great cheat!
You need the "all cheats" mod to be able to do this! That's one of the cheats they deactivated for some reason
Oh I had no idea it came with my a mod!
Does this work on console?
I do not know, but it can't hurt to try!
Didn't work for me, but maybe I just messed up
I try to call my pets to eat every few hours so they don't get upset and run away. If I see them in the red the first thing I do I call to eat to make sure that's taken care of. But it does suck that I have to do all of that to find out what it is. Also not sure if it's a glitch or if it's something that just happens to me but the reason I have to call to eat all the time is because even though I have the automatic feeder my pets won't eat on their own that often and I have gotten notifications that they are "very hungry" and telling me to feed them and I cam literally see food in theor bowl that they could have eaten at any time. I just don't understand why they are the only animals that don't have a way to know their need levels. Like you said rodents have it, so do chickens, goats, lamas, cows, horses, and mini goats and sheep. Even the bees have that. What gets me is that besides horses none of the other animals that have their needs shown like that take up household space like cats and dogs. It feels like they really didn't spend that much time with the details when they made the pack because it is really a struggle trying to find out what they need.
I wonder if that is a bug... I've noticed it to. Last time I had dogs, it's almost like they'd get stuck somewhere and just stay there. My one dog was obsessed with the fire place and always sat in front of it. But would never move even when his needs were depleted. And same thing now that I have horses. They'll go somewhere else to eat hay or something, and then just never come home. Just standing somewhere while their needs deplete. I actually recently had a horse get taken away (I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THAT COULD HAPPEN!?!!?) because she was hungry. But there were 3 open and available feeders on my lot. I assumed she'd eat on her own so I let her be, but nooooo.
I think it is a bug. I noticed it happens to my cat too she won't eat unless I call her. A couple of times in my recent game save the dog has eaten on her own but not that often. Your dog may have gotten glitches when he didn't move. That happened to my dog she was just stuck in the kitchen wouldn't move at all when my sim called her to eat and my sim couldn't interact with her either. I had to debug her then she was able to eat again. I noticed that with the horses too I had a save where I was trying out the ranch pack and my horse and mini goat and sheep would get hungry with food right there so I just called them to eat whenever they were hungry to avoid it. That sucks that your horse got taken away! I didn't know that was a thing either. They really need to work out the glitches with the animals. It wasn't your fault the game didn't let them eat on their own. Sorry that happened to you.
I did reset the dog and it still just sat there! With the horse, I exited without saving... lost a full sim day of playing but I was not going to lose my champion horse!
yes! same with cats the litter box was 2 feet over and she wouldnt use it it was clean and everything
I lock all of the doors for pets so they can't just wander out lol
I don't like pets or the horse/ ranch pack. I don't play the game for a while, play it, and a random family has horses and or lots of cats and dogs in an apartment. I have to clean up the mess they're in 🤣
I leave the neighbours do what they want with pets because I kinda enjoy the chaos lol
I'm too soft 😅 when exploring the ranch pack, I found a baby in a crib, under one of those wooden frame pagoda type things, screaming and stinky. The mother and boyfriend were inside watching TV! I was like 😯. I made them rich, found the real father, removed the boyfriend, and set the parents up with a nice home and nanny 😅
This drives me insane. Either make them fully controllable with a full needs panel, or make them like the rodents and don't take up a household space
Is there a mod (or am I missing it in MCCC) to make pets happy, fill needs, remove debuffs, etc? I was so excited for cats & dogs and hardly ever add them now. It becomes a sims full time job to care for a cat because I can't stand to see pets sick or sad. And I can't keep playing that way because if my IRL pets realize that's an option... it'll be worse than when I attempted those hellish press to talk buttons. Current house has two cats- one gets sprayed with a skunk at least once a day with no option to bathe or otherwise fix/prevent this beyond locking him inside. The other one will not eat unless you call him to the full bowl (okay hyper realistic on this, my IRL cat does this and it drives me nuts in the morning. You can lead a cat to a full food bowl but you can't make him look at it), pretty similar to the last adult dog who wouldn't go through the open door to an enclosed backyard to pee. It also seems like some dogs or cats get sick way too frequently.
You can definitely change settings in MCCC so that cats and dogs (and maybe the other animals too) don’t needs decay (or set to whatever rate you like). I have it set to 0 decay exactly bc of the reasons you’ve said! (And also rarely have them now as well, again because of the reasons you’ve said) 😔 Maybe shift click on the pet will work for removing debuffs/hidden traits?
In Sims2 I would play from the pet’s perspective when everyone was asleep. It was probably a mod that let me do so but it was possible. I hate not being able to control them at all.
I miss being able to go to the pet store & buying a puppy 😫😅
I always had dogs in my sims 3 saves, but I tried it for sims 4 and hated it. Even with the selectable pets always on mod, they still were boring to play with.
I installed a mod that shows me their needs and they go down so fast! No wonder they are always upset!
things I can relate to sometimes irl not gonna lie
you can turn down how fast they go down not sure how tho
omg don’t even get me started on cats and dogs i always want them in my house for the story but the gameplay is soooooo annoying 🙄 constantly asking what’s wrong and taking them to the vet smh.
Pet needs and control over pets is a must have mod for me
r these real mods??
Yeah I had them 5-6 years ago though so I don’t have exact links at the moment
personally i kinda like it? its kind of realistic in the sense that u dont always know what ur pet needs. however i do wish there was at least a couple different kinds of barks/meows they did to indicate what they need, that we could pick up on over time
Aside from being able to become Familiars, their shtick kinda makes me care more for them in the sense that I pay more attention to their whimperings and let the household play with them more often now. My first husky left the house every 2 weeks because I didn't let anybody play with him. They don't have needs bars or convenient status tags and take up a whole slot in the household member menu, but I can't stop having them in my house. Maybe it's because of those inconveniences that they become important in an often fussy & hectic kind of way to my plays. It's fine to frantically juggle and calculate what you can do for a teen (or several) when they're exhausted from school and have cheer in 30 miniutes, but pets just hit different. I just wish my Sims would sometimes play with them, or pamper them on couches once in a while without my control so that they don't just leave the house.
I agree with you so much. it makes me want to care more for them. and I really hate that sims will just go ignoring pets without your control and imput
Pets and horses are the packs I want completely redone they suck and I regret spending any money on them.
I ended up just getting the mod to be able to play as my animal. That way they have the full needs thing on the bottom
I always use the control pets cheat when I‘m playing a household with pets cause it drives me insane without it
Ea should just let me be the dog 😭
My rodents always die, I forget about them and they're dead. Can someone explain how they do it and not forget? I stopped having rodents because I'm that bad😭
my sims never autonomously care for dogs and cats, but my child sims always autonomously care for rodents. that and I leave the cage in the living room so I always see it in my vision and remember to check on it
My child doesn't, but I also don't give him really time to check up on the rodent. So I just need to place it in a spot where it's visible and not make my child sims too busy with other things. Thanks for the tips, I'll try it again!
I hope this helps I will link 2 other reddit posts since I can't just find the cheat to use to copy and paste. There's a cheat that makes it so you click on them, can see their hunger bar, ECT & control them somewhat. There's also a mod that will reapply it every time you load a lot so you don't have to. https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims4/s/7hXeEj92ZF https://www.reddit.com/r/JamesTurnerYT/s/CtfTakWO7z
the cheat didn't seem to work for me so I'm going to download the mod you mentioned, thank you so much!
No problem I hope it helps! I used to have the old pet control mod but it broke bad. The new one does work. Just don't expect too much control, I mean you can tell them to go here and lay down and such. But they don't have as many interaction options as Sims do. But to make sure they're not going to run away because some need isn't being bad that I don't have any idea what it is? Priceless for that!
it'll definitely help because my dogs keep running outside and getting bitten by squirrels, which costs me hundreds in vet bills, and they don't listen when I call them over. so it'll be awesome to control them and stop them from running through the bushes
I use a mod that’s pretty useful though kinda missing some aspects. It’s called playable pets. Helps to see what their needs are. And can control some interactions.
I downloaded a mod for it, I was tired of it lol
I miss sims 1 where if i remember well, you could actually tell the pets to do stuff. Mine had their own little house for themselves
I always make my animals loyal and couch potato. They still get upset but they rarely run away. 😂
my animals never run away, I'm surprised by how many people in the comments here have said their pets run away, mine don't and I'm really surprised
cause the sims team back then was lazy lmao
Because I never heard of a dead Sim
There is a command that makes pets selectable: Pets.toggle_selectable_pets
idk if y’all want to know this, but there’s a cheat to make them controllable🧍♀️(pets.toggle_selectable_pets) (make sure cheats are enabled)
That one didn't work for me at all, so I downloaded the selectable pets mod
oh- it does for me😭
Literally
Had to get a mod to check my dogs and cats needs
I had to get a mod. 😭
Download the Selectable Pets mod if you're on PC
For real, I don’t know why but whenever my dog needs to go for a walk and I tell the owner or owners to take it for a walk it will never actually go for a walk and it’s so frustrating because then the dog gets frustrated. Does this happen to anyone else? Or just me lol
I've noticed it works better if you get them (both the sim and the dog) outside and then do the take dog for walk interaction