Barbas Not "Missing" From Statue

[Higgliogabalus]

EDIT: After testing I've discovered that this isn't a bug; the dog doesn't disappear until you begin the quest. :)

 

I never did the Clavicus Vile quest the last time I played, so when I found the shrine while randomly exploring I wondered why I couldn't interact with the statue to get a quest. A quick search later, I read that Vile's dog, Barbas. is supposed to be "missing" from the statue...but he's not. He's right there. Is the dog not supposed to be missing until AFTER I start the quest? (Reading about the quest on UESP suggests no, the dog should always be missing from the statue until you complete the quest.)

 

Anyway, after a ton of searching, I can't find any more on this potential bug anywhere. The only thing I could think might be causing it is that I have all of the Unofficial Patches (minus Dragonborn as I don't have it yet) installed. Or possibly Interesting NPCs?

 

Also I'm only level 12 and aside from the tutorial this is the first I've ventured outside of the Whiterun area, so I can't imagine it has anything to do with something happening to Lod or Barbas.

 

Any ideas? Is this even a bug?

 

Thanks.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Higgliogabalus

[LargeStyle]

Never heard of this before, but UESP is correct - the dog statue is supposed to be missing until the related mission is complete. I'll be careful what I say here in fear of giving spoilers, but if you haven't travelled around Skyrim much then you probably won't have triggered the quest (triggering area is around Falkreath).

 

As for solutions I couldn't say. Apart from a mod conflict (which would be rather bizarre in this case) all I could think of is if you happened to use console commands (setstage) to complete quests that you hadn't even started.