Toy Poodles at the kennel in Nintendogs + Cats.
The kennel is where players can purchase dogs in both Nintendogs and Nintendogs + Cats. In Nintendogs + Cats, the player can adopt a cat after they have chosen their first puppy. The kennel is the first place the player will visit.
Nintendogs
In Nintendogs, players are given the options "Look" and "Buy".
LOOK: The Look option allows the player to interact with the kennel's three display dogs: Lucky, Maxwell, or Daisy. These dogs represent three versions of Nintendogs: Dachshund & Friends, Chihuahua & Friends, and Labrador & Friends. These example dogs cannot be purchased, but the player can play with them and make them do various tricks. The player cannot use toys with the kennel's dogs, and they cannot be trained to remember tricks.
BUY: The Buy option allows the player to view a list of available breeds to choose from. Each version of Nintendogs starts with six starter breeds available, with the starter breeds varying from version to version.
Each breed is available in three different color combinations, with the exception of the Chihuahua (4). Other breeds can be unlocked through various methods, such as gathering more trainer points or using Bark Mode with other players.
When the player selects a breed, three dogs of that breed with a randomized gender, price, and personality will pop up. The player can view this information with the touch screen when they select that specific dog, and can confirm whether or not they would like to buy the dog after viewing the information. The dogs' colors will be randomized every time the player selects a breed of dog.
Breed Prices in Nintendogs
Each breed has a set price, which is not affected in any way by color, gender or personality.
Please note that this table is sorted by starter breed for each version. Across versions, the price of a breed will be the same.
| Version | |
|---|---|
| Chihuahua & Friends | Chihuahua: $557
|
| Labrador & Friends | Labrador Retriever: $535
|
| Dachshund & Friends | Miniature Dachshund: $540
|
| Dalmatian & Friends | Dalmatian: $680
|
| Best Friends | Labrador Retriever: $535
|
Nintendogs + Cats
Each version of Nintendogs + Cats starts with nine dog starter breeds. Cats become available after starting the game, but unlike dogs, breeds of cat are not version-specific.
In Nintendogs + Cats, the player can press a button called "Call Over" while viewing the available breeds, so that any random breed of pet on the top screen at the kennel will go over to the player. On the top screen there can only be three pets available, with a possible mixture of both cats and dogs that are randomly generated when first entering the kennel.
When choosing a breed from the touch screen menu, there will be a variety of different color patterns to choose from, as well as a "Surprise Me!" button.
When choosing a pattern, there will be three dogs or cats shown (depending on the breed the player picked) in variations of that color pattern. The Surprise Me! button will show three dogs or cats in random variations of color patterns and may also show one in an odd, unique color only available via the Surprise Me! function.
Kennel Pet Behavior
Dogs
Dogs will automatically come to the player once their breed and color option are selected, allowing the future owner to interact with them. However, the player must wait for all three dogs to come over to them before they can select one, and must do this every time they change the dog they are examining.
Viewing the breed selection will cause dogs to wander instead. When left to themselves, the kennel dogs will commonly sniff around, dig, shake themselves and yawn, and may also occasionally stretch or scratch themselves. The action appears to be randomized, and is not influenced by what other dogs in the field are doing.
Unlike the original game, Kennel dogs do not chase each other or cuddle with each other in Nintendogs + Cats. They roam freely and are programmed to ignore their kennelmates.
Personality has no correlation with the dog's response to the player selecting them. Once the dogs are aware of the player, they will run over (with a small probability of tripping on the way there or taking longer to respond) and jump up at the screen until selected. While the player is interacting with a dog, it may perform one of the following randomized actions:
- sniffing (only when first meeting)
- playbowing
- hopping side to side
- running in circles
- leaping at the camera
- swatting at the camera
- licking the camera
- sitting up and falling backwards
Cats
Cats do not excitedly run to the player when he or she observes the available pets in the kennel; kittens may occasionally wander up to the player and mew at them, but will quickly grow disinterested and wander away until they decide to come back. Cats will always wander independently of each other, and can be selected from anywhere in the field. When left to themselves, cats will yawn, pause to inspect the grass, and occasionally arch their backs or sit down for a short period of time.
Breed Prices in Nintendogs + Cats
Each breed has a set price, which is not affected in any way by color, gender or personality.
Please note that this table is sorted by starter breed for each version. Across versions, the price of a breed will be the same.
| Version | |
|---|---|
| Toy Poodle & New Friends | Toy Poodle: $1,580
|
| Golden Retriever & New Friends | Golden Retriever: $1,580
|
| French Bulldog & New Friends | French Bulldog: $1,580
|
| All Versions / Not Version Specific | RoboPup: $0 (Requires a voucher from Mr. Recycle)
|
Trivia
- In Nintendogs, smaller dog breeds tend to run much faster than large dog breeds, which affects their performance in Disc Competitions and Agility Trials.
- Each breed has a set of "voices" and specific sounds. Usually, a breed shares the set of "voices" with other breeds; for example Shiba Inus and Beagles have the same voices, and all cats have the same voices.
- The ability to look at sample dogs (Lucky, Maxwell and Daisy) was removed in the remake.
- There is a caretaker seen standing with all the purchased pets in Nintendogs + Cats. It is a female Mii with brown hair, a white apron, navy jeans, and dark blue sneakers.
- Unlike the original game, Nintendogs + Cats lets players pick which pattern of dog or cat they want. In the original, different coat patterns would be pulled from the CPU, with no variations or alternate colors within those patterns.
- Surprise Me! cannot be used with standard shorthair cats or Maltese dogs.
- Inversely, Surprise Me! is the only color option available for RoboPups.
