The problem with the dog is the same problem with all the XIII games, Crystal Tools engine. That engine can't do polygons well, which is why even the main characters don't get more than 7-8k polygons, that's 6th Gen console territory, and I think they did a damn good job to create character models that good looking with barely any polygons.
Crystal tools was a nightmare, shit documentation, tons of problems, would start chugging with even 10k poly characters, couldn't do alpha transparencies (they managed to get it in XIII-2 but at the cost of framerate) and last of all it caused a lot of money..is the reason why FFXVI was never released when it was Versus XIII (underwent engine changes, then platform changes)