Few peripheral characters in modern open-world gaming have generated as much fan affection as the animal companions Rockstar Games has woven into its titles over the last decade. From Chop, the irascible Rottweiler of Grand Theft Auto V, to the loyal hunting dogs Arthur Morgan and John Marston could adopt at Beecher's Hope in Red Dead Redemption 2, the studio has steadily proven that virtual animals can deepen player attachment to a world that otherwise revels in chaos. With Grand Theft Auto VI confirmed for release on 19 November 2026 (Rockstar Games, 2026), speculation about whether pets will return — and in what form — has become a recurring topic of community discussion. This report surveys the precedents set by GTA V and RDR2, examines what has been confirmed or hinted at for GTA VI, and assesses the most plausible directions Rockstar might take.
Chop is a large Rottweiler originally owned by Lamar Davis and entrusted to Franklin Clinton for much of GTA V's storyline (GTA Wiki, 2026). Introduced in the eponymous mission "Chop", he assists Franklin in tracking a Ballas member named D by scent, and the player can directly switch perspective to control Chop while he searches for targets (GTA Wiki, 2026). He reappears in significant story beats including "Hood Safari" and "Predator", where his tracking ability is again leveraged as a gameplay mechanic.
Beyond combat utility, Chop was designed as an interactive companion. Players could feed, pet, walk, and play fetch with him, and his mood and obedience could be managed through the companion smartphone application "iFruit", a tie-in mobile app that synced with the main game (Wikipedia, 2026). This second-screen experience was a relatively novel attempt to extend pet ownership beyond the console session itself. By the GTA Online: The Contract update in 2021, Chop reappears as Franklin's officially owned, visibly aged dog at the F. Clinton and Partner agency, where the player can pet him and the security guard treats him with affection and jerky (GTA Wiki, 2026). Chop's longevity across nearly a decade of Rockstar content underscores how successfully Rockstar fused a side-character animal into the broader fiction.
Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) significantly expanded Rockstar's treatment of animal companions. Players can interact with stray dogs throughout the world, pet them, and feed them, and after the main story Arthur's successor John Marston can adopt up to three dogs at his Beecher's Hope ranch — choices typically including a Border Collie, a Labrador, and a Husky-type breed. These dogs follow the player around the ranch, bark at intruders, and contribute to the homestead's atmosphere. RDR2 also features wider behavioural simulation for wild and domestic animals, including hunting dogs used by NPCs, lawmen's bloodhounds that track the player when wanted, and emotional reactions when animals are mistreated (Rockstar Games, 2026, drawing on the studio's earlier output cited in Wikipedia, 2026). This level of detail demonstrated that Rockstar's animation, AI and emotional design pipelines could sustain pets as more than mission-specific gimmicks.
Rockstar's official GTA VI marketing has, to date, focused on protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos and the fictional state of Leonida, a Florida pastiche centred on Vice City (Rockstar Games, 2026). No pet companion has been formally announced. However, several factors fuel community speculation:
Plausible directions therefore include: a single named dog (the "new Chop"), tameable wildlife such as raccoons or alligators reminiscent of RDR2's animal interactions, and exotic pets — pythons, parrots, even pet monkeys — as ambient status symbols owned by NPC drug dealers and celebrities. A more ambitious possibility is a "pet store / shelter" property system permitting the protagonists to adopt and customise companions, integrated with the property ownership loop that GTA V and GTA Online established.
It must be stressed that, as of the latest publicly available trailers, no in-game pet has been confirmed for GTA VI (Rockstar Games, 2026). All discussion above is informed speculation grounded in Rockstar's design history, not leaked or confirmed features. Source-code material from the 2023 GTA V leak revealed cancelled DLC including Liberty City content (Wikipedia, 2026), reinforcing that Rockstar's actual feature pipeline often diverges substantially from fan expectations.
Chop established that a single, expressive dog could function as both gameplay tool and emotional anchor; RDR2's ranch dogs proved Rockstar could sustain multiple persistent companions in a simulated home. GTA VI's Florida-coded Leonida setting, two-protagonist structure, and decade of intervening technical advances make some form of pet system a reasonable expectation, even if Rockstar has not yet committed publicly. Whether that takes the form of a successor to Chop, exotic-animal ownership reflecting Florida's cultural quirks, or something more ambitious, pets remain one of the most quietly anticipated features of the 2026 release.
GTA Wiki (2026) Chop. Available at: https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Chop (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Rockstar Games (2026) Grand Theft Auto VI. Available at: https://www.rockstargames.com/VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2026) Grand Theft Auto V. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_V (Accessed: 14 May 2026).