How to Play & FAQ

Meet your two starter dogs, go to Breed, and pair a female with a male. Watch the stork deliver the litter, then keep your favorites in the kennel or place the rest. That's the whole loop — everything else builds on it.

Each dog carries genes it doesn't visibly show. A puppy might look just like mom, just like dad, or pull a rare surprise out of the family tree generations later. Coat color and markings usually travel together as a package unless you use gene-slicing breeding methods to lock specific traits.

Puppies kept from a bred litter become adults after about 20 minutes; puppies kept from a rescue run grow up faster, in about 2 minutes. The countdown runs on real time, so they keep growing even while the app is closed. Puppies can still enter the puppies-only Puppy League events while they grow. In a hurry? The Birthday Cake item adds an instant Age Up button.

Competitions run from Backyard up through Local, State, Nationals, International, Universe, and the Legends circuit. Each event cares about different stats, and higher stats mean better odds.

Odds are a chance, not a promise. If the odds say 70%, your dog wins about 7 of every 10 imagined shows. Only 100% is a guaranteed win — anything less can still surprise you on show day.

A marketplace for buying dogs with new traits or bloodlines, and selling pups you don't keep for coins and kennel space. A dog that's earned ribbons and titles is worth more, so competing before selling can raise the offer.

Collect a favorite dog's DNA (free) to preserve its genome, portrait, and family links forever. Later, with The Sequencer from the Store, you can clone it back. Clones keep the saved genes exactly — they don't invent new genetics.

Props are decorative accessories — hats, wings, and other deeply unserious finery. Buy a prop once and use it on any number of dogs; drag, resize, and rotate it, and place it behind or in front of the dog. Props never affect scores, genes, odds, or sale value. They're purely for style and screenshots.

The game is free to play. Optional purchases are clearly named extras: coin packs (a shortcut — every coin is also earnable by playing), the Wolf Pack supporter bundle (a disclosed breedable wolfdog line plus a 25,000-coin purchaser bonus), Quick Compete (a planner that enters dogs in bulk to save taps), and Genome Loom (a DNA Lab tool that builds hybrids only from DNA records you have saved, with one purchaser-only included use). Family Sharing includes permanent pets and tools, not duplicate coin/use bonuses.

Quick Compete never improves odds, scores, prizes, or results. Paid rewards are never randomized, and every purchase shows exactly what it contains before you buy.

No. There are no slot machines, no spinning reels, no wagers, and no randomized or mystery-box purchases of any kind. Every purchase is a clear, named item, and litter outcomes are part of normal breeding — never a bet.

Neither. The game has no accounts and no sign-in, and it's fully playable offline. Progress is saved on your device; an optional private iCloud backup in your Apple Account lets you choose to restore it on a new phone.

With iCloud Drive enabled, installing the game on a new device signed in to the same Apple Account offers your valid backup on first launch. Choose Restore iCloud Game to recover it; choose Keep This Device only when you intentionally want the new local game to replace the cloud copy. To re-enable one-time purchases such as the Wolf Pack, Quick Compete, and Genome Loom, open the game's Settings and tap Restore Purchases. Full steps are on the Support page.

Yes — it's rated 4+. The games collect no data from anyone and have no chat, public profiles, or in-app social network. Optional sharing uses Apple's system share sheet only when the player chooses it. See the Privacy Policy for details.

Cat Genome Game brings the same real-genetics engine to kittens, a Cattery, colorpoints, torties, and a 312-look core Cat-Dex. The optional Wild Cat Pack adds separate large-cat and exotic looks without gating core completion. Explore it on the cat page.