Whatever you thought of Game of Thrones Season 8, fans were united in their condemnation of Jon Snow when he didn’t pet his direwolf Ghost in Episode 4. To give you a reminder, in the scene where Jon is saying his goodbyes to Tormund and Samwell Tarly before setting off to King’s Landing, Jon doesn’t pet Ghost before leaving. In fact, he tells Tormund to take Ghost with him when he heads back north of the wall.
After the fandom’s outcry over Ghost, the episode’s director, David Nutter, said that the goodbye didn’t take place because of CGI considerations.
“Since the direwolves are kind of CG creations, we felt it best to keep it as simple as possible,” said Nutter. “And I think that it played out much more powerfully that way.”
“Keeping Ghost off to the side, I thought that played out better,” he added.
Source : https://www.distractify.com/p/game-of-thrones-jon-pet-ghost