In the First week I set up and created the behaviour tree. I decided to use a behvaiour tree mostly due to being somewhat inexperienced with it. I had used a statemachine extensively throughout my studies at TGA, therefore I wanted to use something I had not personally used as much.  

I set up and planned the basic structure for the behaviour tree and started creating some of the basic nodes I would be using, such as walking to a point. 

During this week I set up all the basic node structure of the tree, with the basic selectors and sequencers of the sturcture. some Nodes were still unfinished at this stage however things were taking shape.

Now all nodes were in place and the real work could begin. I wanted to work as much as I could with the polishing of the movement as I could. This is because having a smooth and nice looking movement is very much required for having a natural looking AI. I also decided that instead of the dog following the player's position it would go to one of two points ahead of the player, whichever was closest. I wanted the dog to almost always to be seen which is why I let the AI always try to be ahead of the player.

I first began with reworking the movement itself so that the AI would always walk forward and the AI would simply rotate in order to change direction.

 I felt as this would be the simplest way to do it and with that I could also create a wander behaviour were the AI would deviate from time to time in its intended direction to give a more natural look to the movement. 

I also wanted to make the dog match the speed of the player because having a companion that you have to constantly wait for is something that have always frustrated many players throughout the years. 

For this I calculated the movement delta of the player and set the speed accordingly. I also wanted the AI to be able to catch up to the player since I would have it moving about to different locations and then running back, like after a fight for example. Thusly I added a distance to the speed, so the further away from the target point the faster it would go. Not a crazy amount mind you but enough so that the AI could catch up to the player when far behind. 

The digging was not too complicated, at an interval it would check if it managed to find an item it would then deliver it to the player. 

When calling the player to a point of interest I decided that the dog would only go toward the point if it was visible to the camera. This way the player would notice when the dog started to dart in another direction. I also made sure the dog didn't go to a point too far away. 

As a form of individual quirk I let the dog fetch an item the player dropped, as a way to appear wanting to play with the player or be helpful 'oh you dropped this, allow me to help' kind of thing or just playing fetch.

At this point I started to attempt to further polish on what I already had made. 

I started allowing the AI to cheat behind the scenes, when the dog was out of sight it would turn slightly faster and would run faster to ensure that it would always catch up quickly to the player & feel like you always had your companion with you. It would also wait for a shorter amount of time at the interestpoints if you stopped looking at it. 

I mostly worked on movement trying to make it as smooth and natural with the time I had left. I made it so it would turn slightly faster depending on how much it had to turn, it would slow down upon coming closer to the target point, it would rotate first if the point was too close so the AI wouldn't start orbiting a point instead