Where, oh where did my Dogmeat go?

I was wandering around Megaton, when I decided to put Dogmeat's fetching skills to good use. I asked him to go fetch me some ammo (while still in Megaton) and he immediately wandered of into a guardrail. I shook my head at Fallout 3's amazing [cough] AI mechanics, but did nothing else otherwise.

In the meantime, I entered Craterside Supply (Autosave 1), left again (Autosave 2), and then fast travelled to a different location (Autosave 3), and finally entered a new building (Autosave 4 - automatically deleting my first Autosave).

At this point, I started to wonder where Dogmeat was, as he had not returned. I decided to wait a full 24 hrs (another Autosave), but still he didn't return. I fast-travelled to Vault 101, where he usually waits when you dismiss him, or if he dies and you have the "Puppies" perk (Get a new Dogmeat). I went back to Megaton, waited a bit longer, but still nothing.

Needless to say, the save where I sent him off has long since been deleted. So my only hope of finding Dogmeat is, well, finding him.

So where has he gone?

EDIT: Dogmeat has reappeared, after a few more hours of playing (I had just written him off as glitched out at this point) outside of Craterside Supply. I think that roughs up to about 1 in-game week, with all the fast travelling and waiting involved.

As mentioned previously, I had sent him off to look for ammo, and when he reappeared, I entered into the dialogue with Dogmeat, as if he had returned. This seems like the normal reaction, but a) he didn't return with anything, and b) the length of time he was gone seems excessive.

So to re-iterate the question; is this normal? Did he glitch out, and if not where did he go for so long?