SureAI

At long last, I tackled this quest. After several attempts, I cornered the dog and the game recorded that I had done so. However, the game will not advance. When I return to Ryneus, he just hops in place and I cannot talk with him. The implication is that I do not have the blasted toy. I retraced my steps to see if I could find the toy to no avail. Could you please give me the setstage instructions to advance to trigger the next step?

Moved to support.
Please attach your savegame:
Savegames are located here: documents\mygames\skyrim\saves
A savegame consists of two files: one .skse file and one .ess file (please zip them together)
Thanks.

Save game attached

Go out of the house again and interact with Thorus. Just tested your save and it works.
If it doesn't work on your side, you maybe have to deactivate your mods to progress.

Turns out there are two dogs in the village. When I went back to the dog, it was labeled "Dog". I looked around, found Thorus, closed out the quest and eventually finished the saddest quest ever. My thanks for your help once again!

Glad it worked