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[Unofficial] Strategy Guide for Furry-Paws.com
Notes: This guide is designed for someone who is somewhat familiar with the way the game works. It's a strategy guide, not a help file or FAQ. If you're still finding your way around, then there are several excellent guides to get you started in the Help section of the Furry-Paws website. Read those and then come back here. It is also not endorsed by Furry-Paws.com; I don't run the site, I just goof around on it and try to figure it out. :)
General Overview
Furry-Paws is a game where you breed and compete with purebred show dogs (no mixed breeds are allowed). Like many online pet games, it centers around an Atlas from which you access all of the locations in the game and a Market where you can buy objects from the game stores or other users and use them with/on your dogs. You choose a profession from several options, each with its own disadvantages and advantages, and receive a weekly salary that you must pick up at the bank. Each day you get a User Experience Point, or UXP, which leads to promotions and greater benefits from your career.
You can acquire dogs from other users, the Humane Society, or the Pet Store (where you choose the breed and gender). Your dogs can be trained in one area of competition (two if you are a professional trainer or buy a "ditto training ticket" for 5 Furry Paws Points, $2.50 real money). You then enter shows where your dog competes against other players' dogs to earn titles and levels, which lead to better offspring and may even win you a spot on the site Achievement Boards. Dogs can enter shows until they are 100 days old; after that they retire.
If you are having trouble figuring out a specific part of the game, check the help files. I have not linked to them directly because you must be logged in to navigate the site.
How to make a dog great in Furry-Paws
In Furry-Paws as in real life, showing a dog will require a significant investment of money. Your starting $30,000 is more than enough to purchase a dog and start it on its path to greatness, but it's not enough to support a huge number of dogs. Choose quality over quantity and decide on one or two dogs to show.
If you are just getting started in the game, then buy the best puppy that you can find. You can probably find a dog for sale using the Search feature with better numbers than you'd get from the pet store. In general, if you find a dog for sale with one or more numbers over twenty, it's off to a good start.
A dog that is under 12 days old cannot be entered in shows yet, but it can be fed and trained --- and you may be able to raise its numbers significantly before it starts its showing career. If you're serious about earning titles, then choose the Competitor profession; extra points will be added to your dogs' scores in each show, and this can be the deciding factor between several equally good dogs.
Be sure to train your dog in the type of show it will be best in! Look at the chart below and look at which of your dog's numbers are highest. Each show type uses a different three numbers to decide the winner (sometimes counting one number twice). Choose a show type that will give the most weight to your dog's highest numbers.
Show: Numbers: Agility Earthdog Trials Flyball Frisbee Herding Hunting/Field Trials Obedience Pulling Racing Schutzhund Show Sledding Water Work Can't decide? Don't worry --- as long as your dog's highest number is included, you'll probably be fine. Dogs can gain a lot of points as long as you feed, show, and train them, so you can catch up in any show type.
If you've already trained your dog and that show type doesn't take advantage of its highest numbers, there are other options. You can look for a Professional Trainer to double-train your dog in the show type that it would be good in --- or, if it's only a matter of a couple of points, simply work on increasing the numbers that are counted with training, accessories, treats, and levels.
Buy your dog the best accessory available. Look at the chart below and find an accessory that will increase one of the numbers counted in the type of show you've chosen. Your dog can only wear one accessory at a time, so be sure that you choose the leash or collar that will give your dog the greatest boost!
Increases Accessory AGI +1 Blue Leash CON +1 Green Collar CON +1 Red Collar CON +2 Two-Tone Collar CON +6 Pink Collar INT +2 Blue Collar SPD +1 Green Leash SPD +7 Leopard Print Collar STM +3 Purple Leash
STM +8 Spiked Collar STR +1 Red Leash STR +10 Radioactive Blue Collar Every day, play with your dog! Happiness is counted in the show score and toys are cheap. Not only do you have no excuse not to, but other players don't like to see a kennel full of unhappy dogs, and if you can't care for the ones you have it is extremely unlikely that others will let you breed your dogs to theirs or approve your bid on a private sale.
Every day, enter your dog in the maximum number of shows! Dogs earn points by competing in shows and points become levels. Levels lead to better puppies and increase your dog's numbers. Enter your dog in as many shows as you can every day --- basic players can enter 30 and elite players can enter 50. Even if your dogs don't place very high, they will earn points. Meanwhile, continue on down this list and do things that will help your dog place higher in shows.
Every day, feed your dog three servings of food. Each serving of food has a chance of raising one of your dog's values. Choose a food that will raise the attributes that your dog needs in the type of competition it is trained for. (see below) Bagged food seem to have the lowest chance, and treats the highest, but nothing is certain --- like many elements of Furry-Paws, it's a lottery, but you want to make sure that you have as good a chance as possible.
Bag foods, in italics, are the least likely to increase a dog's numbers.
Treats, in bold, seem to be the most likely.
Increases Food AGI +1 Lacrima Biscuits AGI +1 Lacrima Canned Lamb & Potatoes AGI +1 Hotdog Bites CON +1 Lacrima Canned Health Formula CON +1 T-Bone Bits INT +1 Lacrima Canned Salmon Dinner INT +1 Bacon Strips Treat SPD +1 Lacrima Canned Chicken & Veggies SPD +1 Chicken Morsels STM +1 Lacrima Canned Veggie STM +1 Veggie Snacks STR +1 Lacrima Basic Stock STR +1 Lacrima Premium Beef & Rice STR +1 Lacrima Canned Beef Dinner Every day, take your dog to a training area. This has a chance of raising one of your dog's numbers. The higher the training area is rated, the higher this chance is, but that doesn't mean that you have to go to the most expensive one. Scroll through several pages until you find one that suits your budget.
-> If your kennel is size 5 or larger, you can start your own training area (although you cannot offer it to the public unless you are a Professional trainer). Adding items to it will increase its rating. Teeter Totters and Weave Poles are both worth 7 points, and filling your entire area with this equipment will give you a rating of 56.
All of this reflects my philosophy on fake game money. I bought the best food, accessories, and training that I could afford. By my second week in the game I was very poor compared to other players (like my sister), but my dogs had higher numbers, higher levels, and were starting to place in shows. Spend your money! You'll be able to build up a huge savings account later, when your salary has increased.
A final tip --- if you have more than one great-dog-in-progress, write down some information about it, particularly what you need to feed it each day. It's also fun to write down what the dog's stats were when you bought it; then you can see how much you increase them!
How to make money with shows:
Shows can be a great way to make money on FP. Each kennel can create up to 5 shows per day; just click on the Shows pavilion and look for the link underneath the Search options. The money that you put up as prizes is deducted from your account, and you get the money from entry fees.
Your first impulse will probably be to create shows of the same type and level that your dog is entering so that you can enter your dogs for free. (Note: Don't try to start a show and declare that it is only for your dogs or only for a certain breed which you raise --- since dogs earn titles based on how many shows they've placed in, this is an obvious attempt to cheat the game by ensuring that your dogs win. It's annoying, and other players will simply ignore your warnings and enter their dogs anyway.)
However, you can make much more money by identifying areas where there aren't enough shows! There are usually plenty of shows for Novice level dogs, but the owners of dogs with higher titles notice that the number of shows available decreases rapidly.
Search the current shows to find a show type and level without many shows. If there's a clear demand for the show that you start, you'll be able to set a higher entry fee and people will still enter. The best entry fee is usually around $20. Very high entry fees will make your show ignored by many people and force you to give out a very large prize --- when combined, these factors make it hard to break even.
Breeding dogs
When you breed dogs, the parents' level numbers are added to the upper and lower bounds when the puppy's numbers are generated. This means that if the mother is level 10 and the father is level 8, the number that is boosted will be at least 10 points higher than the lowest Pet Store dog of that breed and might be as much as 18 points higher than the best Pet Store dog of that breed. Breeders get this boost applied to two numbers.
If you breed two level one dogs, the puppy's numbers will all be generated randomly exactly as if you bought it from the Pet Store. This means that you probably won't be able to sell this puppy to other users. And a puppy born with one number at 30 or more is an impressive accomplishment --- it has a head start when it starts showing and a very good chance of making it onto the Achievement Boards during its career. Players recognize the value of a young puppy with outstanding numbers and are willing to pay a high price for it.
Although they differ on exactly how high the dogs should be, most FP players agree that you should wait until both of the parent dogs are at least level 5-10 before breeding puppies. (This applies mostly to dogs that you plan to sell. If you are impatient, you can breed puppies for yourself at any time, but don't be disappointed if the numbers are low.)
A female dog must wait 12 days after the birth of a puppy before she can be bred again. This must be part of your strategy if you have an accomplished but elderly female; remember that she will not be able to breed when she is more than 100 days old. If you are still showing her and she might gain another level, wait until she is close to 100 before breeding her last puppy, and make sure that you have left her enough recovery time when planning her next-to-last puppy.
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