I have learned that while the hostile monster is adjacent to both the PC and the pet, attacking it even in coward mode and missing causes the pet to instantly attack it as well.
It doesn't happen if the pet is two or more tiles away, though I've seen bolt breathing pets attack the hostile monsters from a distance in the above situation, notably starting fairy dragon on gray elven bards.
Still, the mechanism could be more refined so I'm voting yes.

I wonder if this has changed since the ancient version I'm playing, in all of the versions I've played the pets attack anything that tries to attack you from a square away. They also sometimes attack hostile mods monsters and anything that has attacked the player(Which is annoying if your trying to tame another pet)

GEE definitely throw huge rocks at whatever shoots me with arrows/spears/axes/rocks, even from a few tiles away.
On the other hand I've had multiple situations where a tame creature was on the left, hostile on the right and while I was fighting for my life, the pet seemed to ignore the commotion entirely, until it stepped into melee range.

Don't forget the cute puppy is also a pet. I wouldn't want it to be too aggressive.

Cute dog should frankly be handled in a separate way, to make it actually flee hostile monsters or position itself behind the PC.

Hey, why it should? If I were brave stupid cute dog I would attack everything that tries to hurt my savior! This quest is optional and it was never meant to be a cakewalk.

What would you suggest next? Remove time limit giving you time to kill roving raiders, visit SMC or even level up so that you are able to handle PC5 with no risk? Or removing PC5 at all? Removing any chance for cute dog to be killed before you first saw it or making it spawn in the room with the stairs?

No, not agree, my word that cute dog shouldn't be handled in a separate way and shouldn't hide & runaway. It's a the cute dog after all, not a cute kitten or a cute rabbit.

I'm not asking for a cakewalk quest because I never save the dog, it's just not worth the hassle. If I have a wish after closing the gate, I will use it to get the dog just to clear my quest log and have a feeling of completion but that's it.
The idea was that the cute dog goes berserk whenever I hit some monster in front of me. The way it currently works best is: leave the dog one level below, clear the way, get the dog and move the the next level. Rinse and repeat.
If the dog instead cowered in fear, this needless hassle could be cut down. Not that I care that much; like I said, I couldn't care less about one dead puppy.

Sometimes after reading comments on this forum I have a feeling like all ADOM is just about needless hassle, grinding and micromanagement. Just as probably our real life is.

I belive that some players picking up this quest early regardless of hassle. Sometimes for the sake of completeness (no matter if there will be a wish), sometimes they trying a challenge and some player might just feel sorry for the tiny girl and would really love to help her with her problem.

Puppy cave is actually my favorite part of the game. I'm always taking it up despite high chances to die, loose the puppy or level up too much and miss roving raiders quest. Hope I'm not alone who feels the same about it.

We're talking about making the puppy quest harder by making the dog even more suicidal, when the only reward from it is basically to role play anyway. That would be sacrificing way too much fun factor for realism.

Look, if you objection is that a docile dog is unrealistic, well, it's pretty far from being the most illogical aspect of the quest. If the dog is so vulnerable how did he get to the bottom of the caves, for instance?

But the point is that you could just as easily make the opposite argument, there are plenty of danger averse dogs in the real world also.

It sounds like your argument is basically to say that rules, once established, should not have exceptions. But good design is about knowing when rules should have exceptions.

Argument isn't about already established rules. Why do you think having the cute dog less aggressive will be better design then having it more aggressive?

I have my opinion although arguments are mostly rely on my impression of the cute dog but I also stated why some players could love to see it aggressive. What are your arguments do you have anything to say except that you want changes?

Actually I don't like companions wandering and attacking random stuff on their own. Especially with no obvious reason. As well as for cute dog. Don't see a reason why the cute dog should commit suicide hunting chaos brother (or any other being unless it's a wild cat) on PC5 and running away from me.

Seeing companions defending me like was proposed in this RFE would be awesome. Still the same is for cute dog. I wouldn't call such behavior suicidal.

The dog will die almost immediately without doing any damage. That's pretty kamikaze.

And as far as asking for changes to the dog AI, maybe I'm forgetting what we're arguing about here, but (I think) what I was trying to say was to leave the dog AI alone but make other companions more aggressive. That sounds reasonable, anyway, even if I said something else earlier.

I heard about successful experiments on leveling up the cute dog. I even used the cute dog "attack abilities" to stay below level cap for Kranach quest a couple of times. If the cute dog will go coward - this coll possibility will be killed as well.

This would be a hilarious way to make the quest more difficult.

Imagine if the cute dog would flee in terror on PC:5, as soon as a kobold attacks it or something. And run off to the other side of the level, far away from the stairs, right into the middle of yet another spider factory..

PC would have to actively aggro mobs to hone in on him instead of the dog.
It wouldn't be a regular "lead an npc outta cave, collect reward" kinda thing, instead it would actually force players to use tactics to avoid getting the dog killed.
Cute dog should have 0 PV and 1 HP so that a single rock or arrow could kill it.
It would fit very well with the general paranoia of Adom.
Would make it even more fun with random arrow/spear/acid traps, though these are already a threat.

Saving the stupid dog is already more difficult than saving the world.