I am working on a quest from Irwin in the Hub (Fallout 1). This involves killing about 10 thugs in a building. I have Tycho and Dogmeat with me, and the problem is that no matter what I do, at least one of them gets killed.

I have worked out that I can tell Tycho we're parting ways, and he will just stand where I leave him, and will rejoin me upon request. But I can't talk to Dogmeat, nor apparently control him in any way. Having read elsewhere about what a tank Dogmeat is supposed to be, I'm reluctant to let him die (hoping he'll get stronger over time), but he always charges into the building and is slaughtered quickly. I can't move too far into the building until I kill most of the thugs, because they surround and kill me.

I can't do much to defend him because I find I need to use the SMG burst mode in order to take out this gang, and my bullets hit Dogmeat if I shoot anywhere in his general direction.

Is there some way to control Dogmeat, or will he always dive into the worst of the action no matter what I do? I wonder if I should postpone this quest until my party is stronger (I think I'm level 4), or just let Dogmeat die?

Stand in the door. If you're a melee build, that could be a problem. Short of modding the game (this has been done), he won't. Ever. Dogmeat will die some day. Perhaps you should delay for a while, yes, but know that Dogmeat won't improve, and he will die. And again, short of modding the game (which is probably the same mod which allows him to improve), you can't control him in the slightest.

Edit: It occurs to me to say that having companions at all was an afterthought. If you're at all fond of them, you can lay all the blame for their being awesome and interesting people at the feet of Jess Heinig, who wrote a great deal of NPC dialogue. However, given that this was after all an afterthought, their inclusion as allies on your journey does not incorporate every possible feature. While this gives them an interesting autonomy, this can also result in them being uncontrollable.
Thankfully, none of them are slavishly loyal beyond the obvious effect of adventuring with you, so it's believable they would act with their own agendas.

Thanks for the info, very helpful. It's not so much that I am attached to either Tycho or Dogmeat. But I do worry that I might run into a battle that I can't win without support, so keeping them alive seems prudent. This is my first time playing the game so I don't know how necessary the NPC support will be.

Funny thing about Dogmeat is that I didn't do anything to recruit him, he just started following me everywhere, which I found annoying until my first battle with him. After researching a bit, it seems that he automatically joined me because I was wearing a leather jacket at the time.

Ugh, just discovered that I don't actually have a savegame at the start of this Irwin house. I have two savegames: one after a successful battle but with Tycho dead and Dogmeat alive, another where I just went back to town with both of them, thinking I could try the quest later. Upon talking to Irwin again, it looks like that won't work - now that I left the battle site, I can't go back. Hm, guess I'll proceed with the first savegame, unless Tycho's death is likely to cause problems down the line.

Well, I just lost Dogmeat in the very next battle, doing an assassination for Decker. As there's no obvious way to keep him alive, I'm not going to sweat it

I should read the Fallout Bible one of these days. I've only read about half the manual and bits and pieces of walkthroughs. I think I'm just going to wing it from this point forward rather than worrying about making the "right" decisions. As far as I can tell, as long as I satisfy the main constraint of finding the water chip within the next, hmm, 108 days, then I can play the game however I like. Can always replay in the future if I want the game to go differently.