If you are talking about the second dog, then yes the tank lb is a cheese strat its honestly pretty obvious to see it not being the intended way of doing it.
Looks fairly intended to me, otherwise the tiger could have easily just been made to wipe the party outright if it was ignored. They didn't.

They aren't shy about putting "do what we want you to, or die" mechanics in this game, and they avoided doing so here. Doesn't that tell you something?