Dog Lover Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Credits
  • Designer Thanks
• Components
• Card Anatomy
• Setup
• How to Play
• End of the Game
• Glossary
• Card Types
  • Fetch
  • Dogs
  • Adoptions
  • Walks
  • Food
  • Bones
  • Trainings
  • Favorite Things
  • Traits
• Card Clarifications
  • Rescued Dogs Al, Bailey, Bear, Mario Andre Eddie, and Precious
  • Rescued Dogs 50 Scent, Dexter, Droolious Caesar, George, and Laddie
  • Rescued Dog Ichabod
  • Rescued Dogs Miss Penelope, Muggles, Nutmeg, and Tripod
  • Trait Best Friend
  • Trait Dirt Monster
  • Trait Escape Artist
  • Trait Food Thief
  • Trait Jitterbug
  • Trait Landlord
  • Trait Rule Breaker
  • Trait Teacher's Pet
  • Trait Tour Guide
• Game Summary
  • On Your Turn
  • Reminders
  • At Game End

Credits

Design: David Short

Director of Projects: Nicolas Bongiu

Production: David Lepore

Development Lead: John Goodenough

Art Direction: David Short

Illustration: Caravan Studio

Graphic Design: Kalissa Fitzgerald

Editing: Neil Kimball

Playtesters: Brad Butler, John Clair, Tom Cox, Giuliana Damiana, Nathan Emmerich, Luis Fernando, Kalissa Fitzgerald, Chris Hall, Rob Howlett, Rob Hoy, Seth Jaffee, Neil Kimball, Matt Manis, Josh Martin, Patricio Mansilla, Kwanchai Moriya, Vladimir Orellana, Rafael Pisoni, Morales Ramos, Eileen Short, Kaia Short, Micah Short, Taylor Shuss, Mark Starr, Ben Vaterlaus, Emma Vaterlaus, Josh Wood, Mark Wootton, John Zinser

Designer Thanks

His wife, Eileen, for her endless love, support, and encouragement in this endeavor. You're on a whole other level! His kids, Kaia and Micah, for making him smile. His dog Daisy for spreading unconditional love. His family and friends for the joy they bring him. His local F5 gaming group for all the laughs and support. And especially, the JumpStart design group for all the playtesting and comments.

And to everyone that plays this, thanks for allowing this game to sit on your table. Hopefully it will be a great excuse to gather friends and family around the table for an enjoyable time.

Components

Your game of Dog Lover should include the following. If it does not, visit https://alderac.com/customer-service for assistance.

• 1 Watch Dog token
• 1 Fetch card
• 1 End Game card
• 1 Score Pad
• 5 Standard Tricks (with Special Tricks on the reverse side)
• 11 Dog Trick cards
• 15 Rescue Shelter cards
• 60 Food cubes
  • 5 black wilds
  • 15 blue canned
  • 20 tan dry bits
  • 20 burgundy scraps
• 120 Game cards

Card Anatomy

Each dog card shows, from top to bottom:

• Card Type and Number of Players icon (top corners of the bone banner)
• Name — the dog's name, on the bone banner
• Paw Prints (Dog Size) — paw print icons in the corners of the card
• Victory Points — the number in the circle on the left
• Special Ability/Action — text describing what the dog card does
• Cost — the food cubes required to rescue/acquire the dog, shown at the bottom

Setup

1. Shuffle the Standard Trick cards and deal 1 to each player with the standard trick face up. Return any extras to the box. If this is one of your first few games, keep the standard trick face up, otherwise you may flip it over to the Special Trick side. This card is known as your starting trick and will remain in your play area for the duration of the game.

2. Game cards form the main deck. This main deck will have a different number of cards depending on the number of players:

   • 2 players: Remove all cards with a number 3+ and 4+ in the top right corner and return them to the box.
   • 3 players: Remove all cards with a number 4+ in the top right corner and return them to the box.
   • 4 players: No cards are removed.

3. After forming the main deck, separate out the Dog cards from this deck. As noted at the top of these cards, Dog cards come in 3 sizes: small, medium, and big. Shuffle all of these Dog cards and deal 1 face up to each player. Each player places their Dog card face up in their play area next to their starting trick card. Return the remaining Dog cards back to the main deck.

4. Shuffle the main deck face down. Make sure to shuffle thoroughly with the returned Dog cards. Deal cards face down in a stack, depending on the number of players:

   • 2 players: 7 cards
   • 3 players: 11 cards
   • 4 players: 15 cards

5. Place the End Game card on top of that stack of cards. Then, place the rest of the main deck on top of the End Game card to create one deck. Deal 9 cards face up in the center of the play area to form a 3x3 grid.

6. Shuffle the Dog Trick cards face down and deal 3 face up near the grid of Game cards.

7. Shuffle the Rescue Shelter cards face down and deal 3 face up near the Dog Trick cards.

8. Separate the Food cubes by type and place all four piles near the grid of Game cards.

9. Have a random player, or the player who owns the most dogs in real life, be the starting player. This player takes the score pad as a reminder of who started the game.

10. The player sitting counterclockwise from the starting player takes the Watch Dog and places it next to one of the rows or columns in the grid. This player also takes the Fetch card and places it face up in their play area.

11. The starting player is now ready to take the first turn!

The setup diagram lays out the play area as follows: (1) each player's starting trick card, (2)/(4) the main deck (with the discard pile beside it), (5) discard pile, (6) the 3 face-up Dog Trick cards, (7) the 3 face-up Rescue Shelter cards, the 3x3 grid of Game cards in the center, (8) the four piles of Food cubes and the Watch Dog token, (9) the score pad, and (10) each player's play area with their starting Dog card and trick.

How to Play

The game is played over several rounds. Each round, each player will take one turn in clockwise order, beginning with the starting player. During your turn, you must retrieve cards from the grid of Game cards by using any 1 Dog Trick you own. At the beginning of the game, you only own your starting trick, but over the course of the game you may accumulate more. Note, you never use up your dog tricks, instead, you keep them throughout the game and use them again and again. Rotate your chosen Dog Trick card and position it anywhere within the grid to represent the cards you want to gain. You cannot mirror your Trick card, only rotate and/or shift.

Important: when retrieving cards from the grid, you cannot take more than 1 card from the row or column that the Watch Dog is next to.

The diagrams on this page illustrate valid and invalid placements for three example Dog Trick cards:

• Sit (a straight line of 3): can be placed vertically overlapping the Watch Dog's row/column only if it takes just 1 card from that row/column; a horizontal placement taking only 1 card from the Watch Dog's row/column is also valid; a placement that would take more than 1 card from the Watch Dog's row/column is invalid.
• Heel (a plus/cross shape of 5): valid placements are shown where no more than 1 card is taken from the Watch Dog's row/column; a placement is invalid where it would take 2 or more cards from the Watch Dog's row/column.
• Catch (an irregular shape of 4, with 1 card separated from the other 3): a placement fully within the grid and respecting the Watch Dog limit is valid; placements that extend outside the grid boundary, or that take more than 1 card from the Watch Dog's row/column, are invalid.

After collecting cards from the grid, reference the * on the Dog Trick card that you used. Move the Watch Dog to that spot on the grid.

During your turn, before and/or after retrieving cards from the grid, you may play any cards that you want from your hand in any order (see Card Types). If you have retrieved cards from the grid and have finished playing cards from your hand, end your turn by refilling the grid with new Game cards face up from the main deck. Any empty spots in the 3x3 grid must be filled left to right, top to bottom. Then the next player clockwise takes a turn. Players continue taking turns until the end of the game.

Example: On Micah's turn, the Watch Dog is in the center row, so he cannot take more than 1 card from that row (red highlight). Micah uses his Dog Trick Sit to take 3 cards (green highlight). He puts Annabelle in front of him, discards the Dry Bits to take the matching tan cube, and takes the Adoption into his hand.

All the empty spaces are refilled from the deck and the Watch Dog is placed at the top of the center column, following the asterisk on his Sit Trick card.

End of the Game

While refilling the grid, if the End Game card is drawn, this indicates that this is the last round of the game. Discard the End Game card, then continue refilling the grid with the Game cards that were below the End Game card. At the end of this round, when all players have had an equal number of turns, the game ends. Use a sheet from the score pad to add up each player's victory points (VP) from dogs, rescued dogs, favorite things, and bones. The player with the highest total VP wins the game! If two or more players are tied for the highest total, the tied player who has the most fed dogs is the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied player who has the most fed rescued dogs is the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied player that wins the next game of Dog Lover is the winner.

Example: This is Kaia's play area at the end of the game. She writes on the score pad her VP's for each of her Dogs. Then she reveals and scores the Favorite Things and Bones that were in her hand. Kaia scores 33 VP and wins!

Glossary

Attached: This refers to 2 cards being joined, like a dog and a trait. Once attached, a card cannot be moved somewhere else.

Hand: This refers to cards that you hold in your hand. Any cards held in hand may be kept hidden from all other players until you decide to play them. There is no limit to the amount of cards you can have in your hand.

On this turn: This means anytime between gaining the card and the end of that immediate turn. This means you can gain a Walk card without having an available dog to tuck it under, then adopt a rescued dog, then finally tuck the walk under the dog you just rescued.

Tuck: This refers to all cards placed under a dog, like walks and training. Once tucked, a card cannot be moved somewhere else. You may only tuck 1 card of each type under each dog, unless otherwise stated on cards such as Traits.

Card Types

Fetch

Important: The Fetch card starts the game face up in the last player's play area. They keep it in their play area until they choose to play it during one of their turns.

Playing a Fetch card allows you to trade the fetch with 1 of the cards in the grid, while ignoring the Watch Dog. Like all cards that you play, this can be done before or after retrieving cards from the grid. Take the chosen card from the grid, then place your Fetch card in the grid where the chosen card was. This is done in addition to whatever cards you may have retrieved during your turn, and it happens before the grid is refilled.

Once the Fetch card is in the grid, it can be taken like any other card in the grid by any player on a future turn. Each time it is taken, it remains face up in that player's play area until they decide to play it. A Fetch card in your play area at the end of the game has no value.

Example: After retrieving cards from the grid, Kaia plays her Fetch card to take the Training card still left in the grid.

Dogs

When you take a Dog card, place it face up in the play area in front of you. At the end of the game, all of your dogs need to be fed, represented by the food symbol(s) on the bottom of the card. If a dog is fully fed, you gain VP equal to the number on the left side of the card. In addition, you score any cards attached to it and tucked under it.

If a dog is not fully fed, you lose 2 VP regardless of the number on the left side of the card. Unfortunately, you also don't score any cards attached to, or tucked under, an unfed dog. There are no partial points for feeding a dog part of its needs.

Example: If Joey is fed 2 scraps and 1 canned food the player gains 5 VP. If Joey is not fully fed, the player will lose 2 VP.

Dogs come in 3 sizes: small, medium, and big. These sizes are represented by the paw prints in the corners and may be referenced by other cards.

Adoptions

When you take Adoption cards, keep them in your hand until you choose to play them during one of your turns. Rescuing dogs from the Rescue Shelter requires you to discard 2 Adoption cards from your hand to rescue one of the face up rescued dogs next to the Rescue Shelter deck. Place this newly rescued dog face up in front of you. Rescued dogs are like regular Dog cards and must be fully fed at the end of the game or you lose 2 VP. If a rescued dog is fully fed at the end of the game, its special ability is activated. After a dog is rescued, slide the remaining Rescued Dog cards down and immediately refill the empty space at the top with a new face up card from the Rescue Shelter deck. Adoption cards remaining in your hand at the end of the game have no value.

Walks

When you take a Walk card, you must tuck it under one of your dogs in your play area. If you tuck it, that Walk card will be worth 2 VP at the end of the game, as noted by the small VP symbol on the top left corner of the card. Each dog can only have 1 Walk tucked under it. If you cannot tuck it under one of your dogs by the end of your turn, then you must discard it.

Food

Food cards are needed to feed your dogs at the end of the game. There are three types of food: scraps, dry bits, and canned food. When you take a Food card, you discard it to collect a food cube of that color which you keep until the end of the game. There are also x2 Food cards. When you take one of these cards, you collect 2 Food cubes of that color. If you take a Wild Food card, you must discard it and take a wild (black) cube. Wilds can be used as any type of food (scraps, dry bits, and canned food).

Food Card Availability: Scraps (Common) → Dry Bits (Uncommon) → Canned (Rare)

Bones

When you take a Bone card, keep it in your hand until the end of the game. At the end of the game, if you only have 1 Bone you lose 1 VP. If you have 2 Bones, you gain 1 VP for each of your fully fed dogs. If you have 3 or more Bones, you gain 2 VP for each of your fully fed dogs.

Trainings

When you take Training cards, keep them in your hand until you choose to play them during one of your turns. There are two ways to use Training cards. First, you can tuck it under one of your dogs in your play area. If you tuck it, that Training card will be worth 1 VP at the end of the game, as noted by the small VP symbol on the top left corner of the card. Each dog can only have 1 Training card tucked under it.

Instead of tucking it, you can gain new dog tricks by discarding Training cards from your hand to gain one of the face up Dog Trick cards next to the Dog Tricks deck. The number of Training cards you discard is equal to your chosen dog trick's cost. Place the newly gained dog trick face up in front of you next to your other dog tricks.

Example: Micah wants to gain a new dog trick and has 2 Training cards. He looks at the face up available dog tricks and wants to gain Beg, but it is too expensive with a cost of 3. Instead he chooses to gain Heel, placing the dog trick in his play area and discarding his 2 Training cards. From now on, Micah can use Heel for taking cards from the grid.

After training a new dog trick, slide the remaining Dog Trick cards down and immediately refill the empty space at the top with a new face up card from the Dog Tricks deck. You may own unlimited dog tricks; however, you may only use 1 Dog Trick per turn for retrieving cards from the grid. Training cards remaining in your hand at the end of the game have no value.

Favorite Things

When you take a Favorite Things card, keep it in your hand until the end of the game. At the end of the game, you gain VP based on the number of different favorite things you have. You may score for multiple sets.

Unique Favorite Things	1	2	3	4	5
VP	1	3	6	10	15

Example: Kaia ends the game with 1 Chew Toy, 2 Frisbees, and 2 Leashes. Kaia has one set of 3 unique Favorite Things that scores 6 VP, and a second set of Frisbee and Leash that scores 3 VP.

Traits

When you take a Trait card, you must do what the card instructs, usually attaching the trait to a dog of a specified size. To attach a trait, place the Trait card face up to the left of the dog it attaches to. Each dog can only have 1 Trait card attached to it.

If you do not have the appropriate dog to attach to, instead of attaching, follow the instructions on the trait to discard itself and possibly other cards or food. If you do not have all the items instructed to discard, then simply discard as many as you can.

While attached to a dog, Trait cards have abilities on the bottom of the card that are active and may override rules in the rulebook. At the end of the game, if the attached dog is fully fed, you gain VP from the Trait card equal to the number on the right side of the card.

Example: Micah attaches Best Friend to Taco and tucks a Dog House from his hand under Taco. At the end of the game, if Taco is fully fed it would be worth 7 VP (3 VP from Taco, 1 VP from Best Friend, 3 VP from the tucked favorite thing).

Card Clarifications

Rescued Dogs Al, Bailey, Bear, Mario Andre Eddie, and Precious

Once a Favorite Thing card has been tucked, it loses its ability to score as part of a set of favorite things.

Rescued Dogs 50 Scent, Dexter, Droolious Caesar, George, and Laddie

The referenced Trait card does not need to be attached to the dog that references it. The only requirement is that the trait is attached to one of the dogs in your play area.

Rescued Dog Ichabod

The Training cards do not need to be tucked under this dog to score. The only requirement is that the Training cards are tucked under dogs in your play area. In addition, the Training cards still score their usual 1 VP for being tucked.

Rescued Dogs Miss Penelope, Muggles, Nutmeg, and Tripod

Each of these dogs may count itself when scoring its special ability.

Trait Best Friend

You may tuck duplicate Favorite Thing cards. Once a Favorite Thing card has been tucked, it loses its ability to score as part of a set of favorite things.

Note: This trait often scores very high, but don't overlook that those same favorite things could have scored on their own.

Trait Dirt Monster

Once a Bone card has been tucked, it loses its usual ability to score as a bone. This typically works in your favor, especially if you are able to tuck your only Bone card and avoid the usual loss of 1 VP.

Trait Escape Artist

This allows you to completely ignore the feeding cost noted on the dog attached to this trait, and instead feed that dog with a single food of any color. If you must discard a dog due to not being able to successfully attach this trait, anything attached to, and tucked under, that dog must also be discarded.

Trait Food Thief

Since a Food card must be used on the turn that you take it, you must decide to either discard it for its usual ability to gain food, or tuck it under the dog attached to this trait WITHOUT gaining any food. You may tuck duplicate Food cards.

Trait Jitterbug

The dog you attach this trait to may already have some cards tucked under it. However, after attaching this trait it may not tuck any more cards from then on.

Trait Landlord

Adoption cards may not be used for their usual ability before being tucked.

Trait Rule Breaker

You may tuck any card (even Fetch), except for Dog cards and Trick cards. However, duplicate card TYPES do not score. In addition, tucked Training and Walk cards still score their usual VPs for being tucked. If you must discard a Trick card due to not being able to successfully attach this trait, you may NOT discard your last remaining trick.

Trait Teacher's Pet

In addition, the Training cards still score their usual 1 VP for being tucked.

Trait Tour Guide

In addition, the Walk cards still score their usual 2 VPs for being tucked.

Game Summary

On Your Turn

1. May Play and Tuck Cards
2. Must Retrieve from the Grid
3. May Play and Tuck More
4. Move Watch Dog and Refill the Grid

Reminders

• No hand limit
• Refill Dog Tricks and Rescue Shelter immediately
• Cannot mirror Tricks
• Cannot take more than 1 card from the Watch Dog
• Food card availability: Scraps (Common), Dry Bits (Uncommon), Canned (Rare)

At Game End

• When the "End Game" card shows up, play until the end of that round
• Fed Dogs: Score their VP (plus attached and tucked cards)
• Unfed Dogs: -2 VP (and don't score attached or tucked cards)
• Score Favorite Things and Bones left in hand