Help files:

  1. How to Play Virtual Pups - First Time Player Guide
  2. Frequently Asked Questions About Virtual Pups
  3. How to Navigate Virtual Pups
  4. Dogs Help File
  5. Events Help File
  6. Advanced Game Features

Frequently Asked Questions

Signing Up

When I sign up I get the following message:
Illegal Action: You may only have one account as a novice player!
As a novice player you may only sign up for one account. If you are a sponsor player and you get this message, then log into your sponsor account, log out, then try signing up.

It says my username or playername is not unique!
Choose a different username or playername, or add symbols or numbers to the name as the one you are trying to use has been taken. Your name must be original (meaning one of a kind). Also make sure you have filled in all the fields.

Logging In

I forgot my password!
Click here.

I forgot my username
You'll need to put a ticket in through support

I didn't get my verification e-mail
Make sure you have a valid e-mail on your account at all times. If you change your e-mail, you will have to reactivate the account, so the new e-mail needs to be valid as well. You can put a ticket in through support Make sure the e-mail you use here is valid as well.

I got my Verification e-mail and it is still not working!
Please read the fine print when signing up :) Only use alpha-numeric characters (numbers or letters), apostrophes and other things will not be accepted. If you are still having trouble, please file a ticket with support

When I try and log in, it just returns to the login screen and nothing happens.
There may be a problem with your browser cookies, First check this resource:
http://www.google.com/cookies.html

Finding My First Dog
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You have to go to the Puppy Plaza tab and find a dog for sale. To do this, click the Puppy Plaza tab and fill in the blanks of what type of dog you are looking for.
**Tip** at the bottom, choose to sort the dogs by price ascending, this will show the cheapest dogs first.


You can also look in the Classified Section of the forums for dogs for sale.


Taking Turns
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In this game you control how fast your dogs age, how fast you train and much more by the concept of 'taking turns'.
When you take a turn, your dog will age one week. It is where the time is 'executed'. It will recover energy, change mood, get dirty, etc. A pregnant dog may give birth during a turn if the dog is due or near due.
Your cash will go down because each dog costs money to keep, and this is where you pay the feed and vet bills.
Without taking a turn, your dog will remain 'untouched'. Between your turns, is where you train your dog, play with it, breed it, do as you wish, but watch its energy!

What happens when I run out of turns?
Nothing happens when you execute a turn. You will have to wait until you receive more turns. Turns are given out every hour whether you are on or offline. Sponsor players are given an unlimited number of turns. The max number of turns you can have displayed is 127. However if you use a turn, and you still have turns saved up, they will be added in at some point.

Breeding

How do I breed my dog?
Dogs aren't able to be bred until they are a year old and can't be bred after they reach 12 years and 6 months.
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If your dog is a male, it will always be ready to breed between those two ages. If you look about halfway down the right side of the dog's page, there is a button to " Breed This Dog " When you click on it, it will list all the female dogs that are in heat on your kennel. Select one and it will be bred.

If your dog is female, it will also have to be in heat in order to breed. If it says Image , you'll need to either continue to take turns or send it to a sponsor breeder to bring into heat. Once it comes into heat, a button will appear where it once said the dog wasn't in heat, that says Image . Click on it an a list of all fertile studs in your kennel will appear, choose the one you want. If you don't want to breed to a dog in your kennel, you can search Puppy Plaza for dogs for stud to find a dog to breed your female to.

It won't let me breed my two dogs
If you are a novice account, make sure you haven't used up your limited breedings. Once the breedings are gone, there is no way to get them back, so you'll need to ask a sponsor to breed for you.
Make sure the dogs are of breeding age and that the female is in heat.
If dogs are too closely related, the game will not allow them to be bred, you may need to find an unrelated stud to breed the female to.

Miscellaneous Questions

What happens if I retire/release my dogs?
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Retired dogs are sent to K9 Heaven to be saved without aging. Dogs under the age of 6 months can be released. When you release a dog, its data is erased from the game. Neither of these options is reversible, which is why both ask for confirmation before doing it.

What does neutering my do do?
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Neutering will make your dog unable to breed. This is actually a decent way to make money because the game will pay you $500 for each dog you neuter. Buy cheap dogs from Puppy Plaza, neuter and release/retire them.

Someone bought my dog and then retired it, what can I do?
Once you sell a dog, it is no longer yours. The new owner can do what they wish with the dog, be it retire it, breed it, sell it or train and event it.

How do I make money?
There are lots of ways to make money.
-You can enter your dogs in events (for the best outcome, make sure you have the dogs trained)
-You can bet on events (try to bet on dogs with lots of winnings).
-You can neuter and release dogs
-You can learn to train and charge to train dogs (There are training guides in the Tips and Tricks section ) and
-You can sell artwork such as banners and layouts, if you are artistic/know how to code, in the art section .

How do I upgrade my account or become a sponsor?
The easiest way is to click Upgrade in the top right corner and use PayPal or a credit card to pay for the upgrade. There are sometimes players who will upgrade accounts for you for playcash. You can visit the Classified Section of the forums to check prices and availability. It's suggested that if you use this way to upgrade that you also use a game administrator to "middle man" the deal so no one gets scammed.

Why should I upgrade?
No one has to upgrade their account to continue playing. However, you will get more features if you do, and will be able to enjoy the game in its entirety.

You will be able to breed and own unlimited dogs, host and run events, receive additional playcash, and additional accounts to play on.
You can also take advantage of using all the skills!
You get to choose a specialty kennel type with enhanced features and abilities ( Additional Features ).
The reason we have to charge for this stuff, is so we can keep this game running!

What happens when my sponsor account expires?
Your account, when it expires, will be set back as a basic account. If you re-upgrade again you will receive all your previous information from when you were a sponsor, it will save. This means that your skills, fame, cash, branded dogs and such will remain as-is, until you upgrade again. However you will not be able to use these features as a novice account.

I used to be a sponsor and had multiple holding accounts, my sponsor has expired but I can still use all my accounts right?
No. Once your sponsor expires you are set back to a novice account and must follow the rules of a novice. If you re-upgrade, then you may access your other accounts (9 Novice accounts for each active sponsor that you have). If you are not going to re-upgrade, then you must choose one account to continue playing on and stop logging into the rest.

How do I report someone for breaking the rules?
You are asked anytime you think someone is breaking the rules to contact the support site and report them there. Be sure to include as much information as you can, player name/number, what they are doing, etc. If you are unsure, you are also welcome to contact any game administrator/game master in game, on chat or on the forums.

All information is confidential, unless absolutely necessary (such as someone stole money from you) we will not disclose who or how a player is reported. Likewise, we do not discuss actions taken after someone is reported.

Help... Im suspended/banned!
If you are suspended from the game, you will be suspended one or more ways, depending on the severity of the rule violation or the type of suspension. You will receive a message if your account is suspended, in any of the following ways:

A basic suspension for small stuff starts with your account being suspended. When logging in to your account you will receive a message of your suspension and directed to the support site .

If you don't receive this message... your account is fine and the problem must be elsewhere and you may need to contact the support site to try and determine what the problem is.

For more severe circumstances, we may completely ban to your access to the game. In this case you may still contact the support site for details. This means one is not allowed on the website at all, and when you try and access the site, you will simply get a message summarizing the possible reasons of your suspension.

Chat and forum bans... When unaccepted behavior occurs by an individual in the chat room, the individual may be banned. When this happens you will receive a message why when you are kicked out. Chat rules are enforced fully to create a pleasant environment, and in most cases if your banned from chat, you will just have to await your terms. You may also contact a game administrator or the support site to discuss your ban.

If you are banned, this means you should not be accessing other accounts or creating new ones. This will only get you into deeper trouble.

Other restrictions. Sometimes in some cases we may restrict your access to certain parts of the site, this is usually as a whole because that part of the site is being worked on, or as an individual because you have been warned and have abused this feature.

To keep this game and pleasant, don't break the rules and you should be fine!

If you have questions about the rules or the game, game administrators or game masters are always willing to answer. They can be found in game listed with Game Master beneath their name, listed on chat with @in front of their name and here on the forums with their names in green, or you can contact the support site