Breeding, trait inheritance, crossbreeds, and the one rule that governs every pup.
Where traits come from
What breeding is for
Breeding is the only way to get a dog with the specific trait and
specific personality a Court client wants. Adoption gives you a random dog.
Merging combines two dogs' traits and picks one. Only breeding lets you choose.
Breeding is also how crossbreeds are made — dogs from two different lineages
that you can't adopt or merge into existence. See Crossbreeds below.
Unlocks at Player Level 3. Before that, the 🧬 Lab tab is locked —
complete the level goals on the meadow first.
Requirements: both parents must be Lv 4 or higher,
healthy, and of opposite sexes. The Lab also needs an
empty meadow cell for the pup — the Recruits tabs don't.
🐾 Purebred vs Mixed
Mode
Cost
Pup spawns at
Lineage
Result
Purebred
150 🪙
Lv 3
One parent's lineage
Normal dog
Mixed
250 🪙
Lv 3
One parent's lineage, but the name shows both
Crossbreed (dashed ring)
Purebred keeps one parent's lineage. Mixed takes two
different lineages and produces a crossbreed — the pup is still one lineage under
the hood, but its name reads as both, and it carries a black-and-white dashed ring and the +15% Market bonus.
Mixed only does something when the parents' lineages differ. If you pick
Mixed with two same-lineage dogs, the game still charges 250 🪙 but the pup comes out
indistinguishable from a Purebred. There's no discount and no crossbreed — it's just a more
expensive Purebred. Always check the "Lineage" line in the trait forecast box before you
press Breed.
When to pick which:
Purebred — for the Court, Packs, breeding stock, and anything that needs a specific lineage at a specific level. Cheaper and more predictable.
Mixed — when you specifically want a crossbreed for the +15% Market bonus, or when a Market request names a lineage you don't have and you want to make one on purpose.
🧬 Crossbreeds
Two different lineages bred together in Mixed mode produce a crossbreed.
The game does not (yet) assign them special breed names — crossbreeds are displayed as
"[Parent Lineage] × [Parent Lineage]", e.g. "Toy × Working" or
"Hound × Terrier". The name order matches the parent order, so
"Toy × Working" and "Working × Toy" are technically different names — and
can only merge with an identical name.
Why generic names? The developer has left room in the code for named
crossbreeds (Labradoodle, Cockapoo, etc.) in a future update — the table is there but empty
for now. Until it's filled in, every crossbreed uses the "Lineage × Lineage" format. The
real-world history of those named crosses is real; the game just doesn't have them yet.
What crossbreeds get you
+15% at the Market — every crossbreed sells for 15% more than its base
value at the 🐕 Dogs tab. This applies to direct sales, not to buyer requests.
The black-and-white dashed ring — around the whole cell, so you can spot
one at a glance.
Nothing else. Crossbreeds do not unlock any Court client, Pack leader,
or buyer request. They're a Market-value and collection feature.
Merging and crossbreeding
Two identical crossbreeds merge normally — same name, same level, and the
crossbreed name survives the merge.
A crossbreed merged with a purebred loses the crossbreed bonus — the
resulting dog is a normal purebred.
Merging two different crossbreeds — drops the crossbreed bonus and
produces a normal purebred.
Breeding two different crossbreeds is blocked — the Lab rejects the
pairing with "Two different crossbreeds can't breed together." Identical crossbreeds
breeding together works normally, and keeps the name.
Don't build your Court or Pack plans around crossbreeds. They don't satisfy
any Court client's breed requirement, they don't lead any Pack, and no buyer request asks for
one specifically. Their only mechanical value is the +15% Market bonus.
🐺 Wolves in breeding
Wolves are their own lineage — Wolf Cub at Lv 1, Grey Wolf at Lv 2, up
through Moonhowl at Lv 8. They cannot be tamed, bathed, or dressed, but they
can be bred (in any of the three breeding locations). Wolf breeding is one
of the biggest coin engines in the game — and one of the trickiest, because of the Wolfkeeper's
escalating demands.
Wolf × Wolf
Two wolves of opposite sexes breed normally. The pup is a pure wolf — no crossbreed override,
no lineage mixing. This is the cleanest wolf breeding outcome: the pup inherits traits and
personality like any dog, and can be delivered to the Wolfkeeper if it meets his current level
requirement.
The Wolfkeeper raises his price — and his standards. His first delivery
takes any wolf Lv 3+ for 650 🪙. After that he wants more:
Two Lv 4 wolf breeders (in 🏰 Court Recruits) will only satisfy deliveries 3 and 4. After
that you need to breed their pups together to make Lv 5s and Lv 6s — or keep a permanent pair
of Lv 6 wolves as your final breeders.
Wolf × Dog = Wolfdog
A wolf bred with a dog in Mixed mode produces a Wolfdog.
Wolfdogs are a special case: the pup inherits one parent's lineage, and the
"Wolfdog" name covers both outcomes. Which parent's lineage it inherits decides
everything.
If the Wolfdog inherits…
Wolf lineage
Dog lineage
Tame / groom / dress?
❌ No
✅ Yes (Lv 3+)
Sell at the open Market?
❌ No
✅ Yes (tamed + bathed)
Deliver to the Wolfkeeper?
✅ Yes (if Lv meets his ask)
❌ No — Wolfkeeper only takes wolf lineage
Agitates the meadow?
✅ Yes
❌ No
Can be bitten down a level?
✅ Yes
❌ No
Gets the +15% Market bonus?
—
✅ Yes
You can't see the lineage from the card. Both wolf-lineage and dog-lineage
Wolfdogs show the same "Wolfdog" name and the same glow. The way to check: tap the dog
and look at the action panel. If "Tame" and "Wash" buttons appear, it's dog-lineage
(safe, sellable, groomable). If not, it's wolf-lineage (deliver it to the Wolfkeeper and keep
it off the meadow). The portrait colours are a hint too — grey Wolfdog = wolf lineage;
coloured Wolfdog = dog lineage.
50/50 odds. The game randomly picks which parent's lineage the pup inherits,
so expect a mixed bag from a wolf-dog breeding pair. If you specifically want a wolf-lineage
Wolfdog for the Wolfkeeper, you may need to breed several times. If you want dog-lineage
Wolfdogs (for the Market's +15%), same story — patience.
🧬 Trait inheritance
Every dog can carry at most one trait. The pup inherits one trait from its parents
— never two, never none unless neither parent had one. The trait forecast box in the Lab
tells you the exact odds before you spend. Inheritance works the same regardless of
whether the pup is purebred, crossbred, or a Wolfdog.
The three conflicts
💨 Swift Paws ↔ 🌸 Silk Coat
💪 Strong Jaw ↔ ✨ Show Charm
🦴 Hunting Nose ↔ 🐑 Herding Instinct
If both parents have conflicting traits, the pup gets a random new trait —
neither parent's. This is the one pairing to avoid unless you actively want randomness.
🍀 The empty-cell problem
Lab breeding needs an empty meadow cell for the pup. If the board is full,
the breed button will refuse. This is the single most common reason players can't breed.
Recruit breeding — inside 📦 Pack Recruits or 🏰 Court Recruits — does
not need an empty cell. The pup is added to that storage area directly. It's also
better value: the pup spawns at the parents' level, not at Lv 3.
Where
Cost
Pup level
Needs empty cell?
🧬 Lab (Purebred)
150 🪙
Lv 3
✅ Yes
🧬 Lab (Mixed)
250 🪙
Lv 3 (crossbreed)
✅ Yes
📦 Pack Recruits
150 🪙
Parents' level
❌ No
🏰 Court Recruits
150 🪙
Parents' level
❌ No
Recruit breeding is the strongest move in the game. Two Lv 6 Bloodhounds
breed Lv 6 pups for 150 coins each. You skip 32 dogs' worth of merging every time. The same
applies to wolves — two Lv 6 wolves breed Lv 6 pups that each sell to the Wolfkeeper for
1,100 🪙 once you're deep into his escalation. See the Pack Challenges
page for the full strategy.
Recruit breeding is always Purebred. There's no Mixed option inside the
Recruits tabs — if you want a crossbreed, you have to breed it in the Lab and find a
meadow cell.
📜 The real history
Trait inheritance is real, and it was worked out with peas. Gregor Mendel, an
Augustinian friar, published his experiments on pea plants in 1866 and described how discrete
traits pass from parent to offspring — dominant, recessive, and the 3:1 ratios that come out
of them. Nobody paid much attention until the early 1900s, when his work was rediscovered and
became the foundation of genetics.
The game's "one trait per dog" rule is a simplification of that. Real inheritance is messier:
most traits are controlled by many genes, and the environment matters too. But the
50/50 split, the 100% guarantee, and the conflicts are all based on real
Mendelian logic — they just compress a whole genome into a single letter.
Named crossbreeds are real, even though this game doesn't have them yet.
The Labradoodle was invented in 1989 by Australian breeder Wally Conron, who crossed a
Labrador Retriever with a Poodle looking for a low-shedding guide dog. Cockapoos,
Yorkipoos, and the rest followed — a market that barely existed in the 1990s now produces
hundreds of thousands of designer puppies each year. Real dog registries argue about whether
they count as breeds or not. The game currently labels all mixed-lineage pups by their
parent lineages ("Toy × Working") rather than by name — but the code is set up for the named
crosses to be added in a future update.
Kennel Keeper's note
The Russian fox-farm experiment (Belyaev, 1959) tried to do with foxes what breeders do with
dogs — select for one trait (tameness) and see what follows. Within a few decades the foxes
were also floppier-eared, patchier-coated and more puppy-faced. The lesson: selecting
for one trait drags others along with it. The game's trait conflicts are a
simplified version of that idea.
🎯 Practical tips
Check the trait forecast before you spend. It tells you the exact odds
for the pairing you've chosen.
Breed for one trait at a time. Deciding you want Keen Nose and
Gentle on the same pup takes more tries than either alone.
Personality is 50/50 and conflict-free. If both parents share the
personality you want, the pup gets it every time.
Pick Purebred for Court, Packs, and breeding stock. The lineage needs to
match, and Mixed produces a crossbreed that no client or pack leader wants.
Pick Mixed when you want a crossbreed for the Market's +15% bonus.
Nothing else in the game uses crossbreeds.
Don't pay 250 for a Mixed breeding of two same-lineage parents. The
result is identical to a Purebred — you've just wasted 100 🪙.
Use the Recruits tabs for anything above Lv 4. The Lab spawns at Lv 3
regardless — Recruit breeding matches the parents' level.
Keep two cells free at all times if you're breeding in the Lab. You'll
need one for the pup and one for the parent you're about to move.
Wolf × Wolf = wolf (goes to Wolfkeeper).
Check a Wolfdog's action panel before you act — if "Tame" appears, it's dog-lineage and
can be sold at Market. If not, it's wolf-lineage and belongs at the Wolfkeeper.
Plan your wolf breeders for the Wolfkeeper's escalation. Two Lv 4 wolves
will only satisfy deliveries 3–4. Two Lv 6 wolves are your endgame breed pair.
