Welcome Video I Breeding Video
1: How do I buy a dog? / What is a dog slot? 2: What should I know to Breed my dogs? 3: How do I feed/play with/groom my dog? How do I raise it's mood/happiness/health? Why can't I _____ with my dog? 4: How do I train my dog? 5: What about other items like accessories, backgrounds, and companions? 6: How do I enter my dog in an agility trial? 7: Uh oh! My dog got injured! 8: Do I need to take my dog to the vet? 9: What will happen to my dogs when I am away? Is there a vacation mode I can set? 10: Why should I upgrade my account? / Do I HAVE to upgrade to play?
Question: How do I buy a dog? / What is a dog slot? | Answer: Go to Earthly Goods > Foundation Auctions. There is an auction system that allows one random breed of five (5) puppies to appear in auction for six (6) hours. These dog's are foundation, meaning they have no parents, and no lineage on Alacrity. They are brand new line's
Try buying a dog from another player via Earthly Goods > Auctions > Dog Auctions instead.
You can also try going to Life > The Pound if you are looking for a dog and want one immediately. These dog's have been placed here either by their owner's choice, or because they ran away from their owner and were not claimed. All pound dog's cost $500 and are spayed or neutered automatically. While they can not be used for breeding, they are still able to be trained and trialed like all other dogs on Alacrity. Rescue one today!
If you cannot find one there you like, you can wait until the new auctions, search for dogs for sale by other players, get a custom dog, you have many choices! Newly released breeds will only be available in the Custom Tool for their first two (2) weeks. After that they will be rotated into the Foundation Auctions like all other breeds.
Each dog takes up one dog slot (puppies under the age of 2 months share a single slot, but once they reach 2 months of age you must have a spot open for them to move into, else they will runaway), you start off with 5 and may purchase more on the kennel page for cash or with bones (site donation credits). Each basic account has the ability to purchase up to 10 more dog slots, for a total of 15, or 15 dogs. See more detailed info on this in the user's guide. |
Question: What should I know to breed my dogs? |
| Answer: The following are necessities for both the stud and bitch before they may breed: at least 70 mood, 70 health, and they must not be spayed/neutered. It takes 50 energy for a stud to breed, and 75 for a bitch, as it is more taxing on her.
A Stud can start breeding at 8 months old, and can breed as many times, and as often as he has the mood, health, and energy.
A Bitch begins her heat cycle at 12 months old, and will go into heat every 6 months for 1 month. (12 months, 18 months, 24 months, etc.)
If your stud does not fit these qualifications, the "breed" button will not appear in the "actions" sections of the dog page where it normally would. If your bitch does not meet the qualifications, she will not appear in the dropdown list on the "request studding" page. For outside breedings, a request will be sent to the stud's owner, and as soon as it is approved, the bitch's owner will receive a message, and the breeding will occur instantaneously. There is a small chance a random marking or coat color could appear, and sometimes generations are skipped for certain qualities, but the majority of the colors and markings will take after one of the parents. There is a small chance no pregnancy will occur, though the stud fee must still be paid, as in real life. Secondary, white, and tan markings can all be increased by breeding to dogs with higher opacity levels for secondary markings, and more body coverage for white and tan markings.
The bitch is pregnant for two months of aging, the equivalent of 2 days of straight logged on time. The puppies will be born when the bitch is 2 months older than when she was bred, to the bitch's owner. Litter's consist of 2-4 puppies each.
All dogs under 2 months of age take up 1 dog slot. At 2 months of age they must have their own slot in the kennel. If there is not enough room in the owner's kennel when the puppy reaches 2 months of age, they will run away and be taken to the pound.
The goal of breeding is of course to pass on markings and breed beautiful dogs, but also to breed champions as well. Dogs have a capped level of ability in each agility object training, known as Total Potential, or called "TP" for short. The goal of training each dog is to max out each object. Upgraded users can see the total potential of each dog, and everyone will know when it has been maxed out if the stat is bold, like so. All dogs start at 0 in training.
A puppy's total potential is based on it's parents, and there are major bonuses if one of the parents has a maxed out stat, and even more if BOTH parents have maxed out stats in the same object. The goal of breeding is to have the highest total potential to allow a dog to excel in each object area.
The reverse is also true if you breed dog's that are NOT maxed out in their stats. The puppies will have a lower total potential than either of the parents. So normally it is best to wait and breed AFTER both parents are fully trained.
Basic accounts are only allowed two breedings a month, but more can be purchased via the bones page. Monthly breedings also "stack", so if you don't use one one month, you'll have 3 next month!
Upgraded accounts are allowed unlimited breedings per month. |
Question: How do I feed/play with/groom my dog? How do I raise it's mood/happiness/health? Why can't I _____ with my dog? |
| Answer: You need to purchase some dog food. Go to Earthly Goods > Main Stores. You will find various stores to buy food, toys, and grooming items (Stores restock every 30 minutes). Once bought, they will be added to your inventory. Go to your inventory to view them. You can do everything with your dog as far as items are concerned via the inventory page.
Each item increases/decreases different stats by different amounts, but here's a good rule of thumb:
health: feeding, grooming, vaccinations, and the refill at 12:00am server time. |
Q: How do I train my dog? |
| A: Go to your dog's page and scroll down to the training section. At the top you?ll see ?Basic Training? followed by a 0.00% - click on the percentage to train that dog in basic. It costs 5 energy to train, each time. Basic training is the equivalent of obedience, and you must complete it before you can start trial training! You wouldn't send a dog who doesn't know how to sit on command out in an arena! After basic training is at 100%, it will disappear and you'll be able to click the dog's skill in each object to train in it. Each account earns 2 training sessions per dog slot (not the amount of dogs you have), so each account starts with 10. |
Q: What about the other items like accessories, backgrounds, and companions? |
| A: Store items prices have doubled! You may have more luck finding cheaper items in Life > Search > Search User Shops. If you've noticed, other stores have backgrounds and accessories. You can put these on your dog via the inventory page, and you can remove them via the dog's page. Backgrounds and accessories are completely separate from agility trials; they are just for fun, and can be used in the beauty contests we have on the Forum to compete in and judge to show off your combinations and cute dog! You can equip unlimited accessories to your dog, and only one background and companion at a time. Companions are found through rare events, the monthly shop (If you have bones you can buy) or item giveaways for holidays, each set boosts a different temporal stat (mood, energy, health, etc.) every 30 minutes and can be seen on your dog's images. They also are taken off via the dog's page. |
Q: How do I enter my dog in an agility trial? |
| A: To find trials to enter, you can look at upgraded player's user profiles, or you can click the "enter agility trial" link in the training section on your dog's page. If your dog doesn't show up on the page, there's a detailed box right below the form to tell you why exactly each dog isn't eligible, so you can right the problem and start trialing! Dogs cannot have or be recovering from an accident, must be 8 months old, and must have basic training completed before they can trial. The trick to placing well in trials is training, and entering trials that feature objects your dog's training excels in. A dog's score is based on it's personality (dogs with too much energy and/or not enough focus for example will do slightly worse) and it's ability in each object that is featured in the trial. Trials run every 10 minutes until there are at least 5 entrants, then it will run in the next 5 minute increment (e.g. 5th entrant enters at 1:22, trial will run at 1:25). Scores are released multiple ways as soon as the trial processes. A log will be on your dog's page under the log section, you will receive a message if the dog placed in the top 3 with how much reward money you earned (you earn more money the better your dog scores, i.e. the better your dog's training is, to simulate higher level agility trials in real life with larger pots), and you'll also be able to see the last 30 placings on the "placings" page, which a link can be found to on your dog's page. You can also view the trial entries waiting for more entrants via a link on your dog's page. Placing in trials gives your dog a slight chance at perfecting a personality skill, or earning skill in a trial object training area. |
Q: Uh oh! My dog got injured! |
| A: If your dog got injured, then click the button at the bottom of his page to take him to the vet right away. After that you will be shown a recovery period, in which a dog cannot be trained or shown and will have a somewhat severe depletion in energy and health. After the recovery period is over you will receive a message and a log will be on the dog's page. Your dog will not recover if you don't logon! So if your dog is scheduled to recover the next night but you don't logon that day, it will recover at 12:00am the night that you actually login to the game. |
Q: Do I need to take my dog to the vet? |
| A: Your dog will need periodic vaccinations, every Friday in the game, to simulate once a year vaccinations in real life. You can take him to the vet to do this by going to his profile then scrolling down and clicking "Vaccinate." It costs $250, and must be done to be eligible to enter agility trials. There are also options to spay/neuter your dog or put him to sleep. Fixing your dog increases a random TP by 2%, even if maxed out, since fixed dogs are calmer and do better in shows. Their personalities also become more tame. Both of these are irreversable except via rare items which are very difficult to obtain, which can bring a dog back to life, or reverse the gender and spay/neuter status. |
Q: What will happen to my dogs when I'm away? Is there a vacation mode I can set? |
| A: Nothing will happen to them! Dogs only age after you login each day, and then they age .03 months and get ever so slightly hungry every 30 minutes, whether you stay logged in or not. In the game, one real life day is a month in the game, but dogs don't start aging until you login each day. So your dogs will get older faster if you login at 7 AM each morning instead of 10 AM, and your dog cannot get accidents or starve to death or die if you haven't logged in that day, so breathe easy! Vacation mode is built into the game, because we know some virtual sites can suck the life right out of.. well, life! |
Q: Why should I upgrade my account? / Do I HAVE to upgrade to play? |
| A: Under Construction |