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I was on my way to another quest when I triggered Find the Dog Outside Falkreath, so I went and finished the first quest before starting A Daedra's Best Friend. Somehow I misplaced the frest meat (ate it or sold it or something), so I got some more fresh meat. I tried every type of meat in the game (I had every raw type of meat), tried putting meat on the quest marker, and waited there for two days, one hour at a time and still no dog.

I then discovered I had a ratiant quest to get a random enchanted sword from a dungon triggered by a note which was in the location the axe was supposed to be during the daedra quest. I thought maybe that was what was making it mess up, so I went ahead and did the quest thinking it would fix the problem.

Nope. I wasn't that lucky, so I went through the cave where the shrine is and killed all the vampires to see if he had went in without me. Still nothing.

Any suggestions? I've never had this happen before and I've had a lot of play throughs. I play on PS3.

The "fresh meat" you're missing seems to be unique and quest-specific.

The only answer I can give is to reload a Save from before speaking to Lod.

Yeah, I would suggest reloading. Also, the fresh meat isn't a quest item and really isn't necessary for the quest.

The UESP Wiki page "Skyrim:A Daedra's Best Friend" has several mentions, under the "Talk" Tab, of Barbas not appearing. Unfortunately, any fixes spoken about involve using console commands on PC.

The problem was discovered rl hours after speaking to Lod, so loading an old save isn't possible as I no longer have one that old.

If it is a glitch, why isn"t it mentioned on the page for the quest? I guess it must have slipped through the cracks on edits needed or something...

Yeah, that's the top suggestion for most issues I believe. Playing on PS3 is my only option for Skyrim and simming as my computer started causing migraines. I get left out of a lot of the discussions because of it. It can be frustrating sometimes.

I really can't say if the "Fresh Meat" is required to get Barbas to show up or not. If it is, and you no longer have it, I'd say this quest is pooched for you. On the off-chance that the meat isn't required, I'd do some fast traveling away from and back to the quest marker, and I'd try it several times. Fast travel sometimes gets NPCs who are supposed to meet you show up.

Or, you could try doing several sleep cycles at the Falkreath Inn to see if this nudges things along. Barbas certainly isn't dead, he's essential and unkillable. Perhaps the game spawned him in a location he can't get out of. As a last resort, I'd leave the Falkreath game cell and go to a home you own, like Breezehome in Whiterun, some distance away in a different exterior game world cell. I'd stay indoors for 30 days by spamming the sleeping thing, and then return to Falkreath. That game cell should have reset by then, and perhaps Barbas will spawn normally. (In truth, I'm sure the Falkreath exterior cell would reset after 10 days, but I'm being cautious.)

Great suggestions! Next time I play, I'll give it a try. Unpacking is a pain, so I'm stuck doing that for a while. I'll report back with the end result after trying all your suggestions. Thank you for all your help

bluewind wrote:Great suggestions! Next time I play, I'll give it a try. Unpacking is a pain, so I'm stuck doing that for a while. I'll report back with the end result after trying all your suggestions. Thank you for all your help

Bluewind! Did you ever manage to solve this. I just did the same thing as you and I can't go back to an old save. I've literally spent 4 hours now and I still can't find that bloody dog lol.