What are the chances of the mechs turned pets being shadow played to think and behave like dogs?
The rescue tries so hard to rehabilitate these abused mechs, attempting to reverse the lobotomy but it's futile, they're nothing more but a dog inside a mech's body, permanently. Granted they are abused mechs that were never under the mercy of a memosurgen's needles, but they're still in need of humanization.
Prowl did undergo lobotomy but it was a really botched one. The reason why he excels in police dog missions is because there's a part of him that's still a mech, albeit a small fragment of it. Besides that, anything that requires "higher thinking" (be a functioning member of society) is something he struggles with.
Prowler is smart at dogging, dumb at meching.
shadowplay is definitely an option. there's no chance the k9 units can realize they're mechs and put up a fight when they're literally incapable of doing so. the rescue employs the best surgeons on cybertron, but even they have trouble resetting the damage....
aaaah and the fact that Prowl is so good because a part of him is still a mech is sooo messed up. while the others are simply behaving on instinct, he's capable of understanding what his superiors want on a sapient level, which means he excels at taking orders and being generally good. he never realizes the others can't do that, which is why he resents them so badly for misbehaving. he's such a good dog, why can't they be? it's so easy, you just have to listen to the officers.
i wonder if this means prowl has a little bit of an advantage in the recovery, even if he struggles with things that require higher thinking. maybe we can loop back to prowl simply "pretending" to be a mech because he considers it an order from his superiors. with his processor capable of understanding clearly what the rescuers want from him, it can certainly look like he's recovering a little bit, but anyone who's been with the rescue for a while knows that this is as far as Prowl goes...