News

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Bluesky We're excited to announce that Furry Paws is now on Bluesky!

If you use Bluesky, be sure to stop by and give us a follow. As we continue working toward FP3, we're always looking for new ways to connect with both current players and future members of the Furry Paws community.

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Return of the Phoenix Summer has officially begun, bringing with it the return of the phoenix to the Meadow! Take up to 20 of your worthiest age 12 dogs to the Phoenix and ask for her blessing on them. The blessing will cause the dogs to gain double experience, but also age twice as fast! Then every day, check in with the phoenix to brag about how well your dogs are doing, and she will give you firestones based on how well they are really doing. These firestones can be used for some pretty great rewards!

And of course, there are new items to introduce this year! Our theme this year is County Fair (props to Fez for the idea and for all the art for the items! And shoutout to the mods who helped brainstorm ideas!) Hope you enjoy!



Rewards have been rearranged this year to be better grouped and less random feeling.

There is also a special Rankings leader board where you can view the frontrunners of the event!

This event will end on August 21, and you will have a week to finish purchasing rewards with your firestones.

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FP3 Preview: FPKC FP3 will have a new feature called the "Furry Paws Kennel Club" (FPKC). Similar to other kennel clubs in real life, FPKC will be responsible for registering your dogs and keeping track of dog populations statistics. As an organization, they have a vested interest in bringing some of the lesser known and less popular breeds to light. The FPKC runs a monthly breed boost for 5 randomly chosen breeds in the bottom 30% of popular breeds. The funds that players all over the site use to register their dogs help fund the jackpot. Once a breed is chosen for a jackpot, there is a cooldown such that it cannot be selected again for a year to help ensure variety every month.



To get a ticket to get a chance at winning part of the jackpot, register one of the chosen breeds that is at least level 5, or reach level 5 with a registered dog of that breed, before the end of the month. On the 1st of every month, 5 winning tickets will be drawn (no duplicate winners allowed), and those players will split the winnings.

Which brings up another change -- in FP3 you'll be able to register dogs with the FPKC starting at level 1!

FPKC replaces Cassos. Cassos had a great core (registration and breed boosts) buried under election overhead and boosts that were reliant on how active your president that month was. FPKC keeps the good part and makes it automatic, reliable, and open to everyone, every month.

Register Whenever The FPKC will allow you to register your dog at any level! If the dog is not yet level 5 or higher at time of registration, the UXP for registering will be rewarded once the dog reaches level 5.

Breed Specializations FPKC also handles automatically assigning specializations to your kennel for the breeds you have at least 6 registered of. No more manual renewal! You will have the option to "hide" a breed from your public specialization list, in case you didn't want it showing up.

This does mean that if you've been dreaming of being a Casso president, you may wish to try to do so before FP3 launches!


Critters in the forest, meadow, and pond! Critters were originally intended to be a money sink, but over time I've noticed that many newer players enjoy them too, and trying to accumulate enough money even for the smallest critter pasture can be difficult. Now, Small Ponds (aquatic), Meadows, and Forest Groves can house critters! But just a few.

Accessibility I've also spent some time addressing some reported issues for screen reader users:
* Kennel Overview: Dog and litter care icons now announce their status (Done, Partly Done, and Not Done) instead of reading out as numbers, and the status columns are properly labeled.
* Kennel Manage: Training area bias options now have correct labels, and page headings follow a proper structure for easier navigation.
* Breeding Center: The "Filter By Breed" option now works without Javascript.

FP3 Accessibility Current FP supports accessibility in part through a no-Javascript option. FP3 will not have one. Screen reader technology has come a long way, and modern screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) work well with interactive, Javascript-driven sites when those sites are built to proper accessibility standards. Maintaining a separate no-Javascript version alongside the modern, interactive stack FP3 is built on would be a second full build, and that isn't something I can sustain as a solo developer.

I do want to be upfront: a small number of players on very old browsers or devices may no longer be able to play. FP3 targets modern browsers (roughly Chrome 57 or newer, Firefox 52 or newer, and Safari 10 or newer; Internet Explorer is not supported). If you're on something older, you may need to update your browser to log in. I don't take that lightly. FP3 is being built to WCAG accessibility standards, and I'm committed to working with our screen reader users during the Beta Test to make sure the site is fully playable for them.

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By Duraplush! This adorable llama duraplush will give your dogs endless cuddles and is even guaranteed not to spit! What's not to love? Available now through July 11, 2026 in the FPP Shop for 7 FPP!

New Upgrade Option By popular request, a 3 month elite upgrade option is now available in the FPP Shop for 18 FPP! It gives you a minor discount over the 1 month upgrade option, but preserves the overall best discount of buying a year at a time.

And also Also, minor accessibility tweak added to the Kennel Owner page that makes it easier to understand how many stars you have invested in which Careers. And I've done some background work on the server itself to try to mitigate some of the more mundane (non DDOS attack related) speed issues the server has been having. Hopefully some of it helps!

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Your Dogs Your Choice One of FP3's design principles is to respect player agency and allow players to play the way they want to play. The new Grooming Shop will facilitate this.

Groomer Cuts Certain breeds, like the Poodles, Portuguese Water Dog, and Bedlington Terrier, will give you the option to select a groomer cut at the Grooming Shop.

So when you purchase a Standard Poodle from the "Purchase New" dog shop on FP3, it will look like this:



Which is the classic, ungroomed poodle look. But then take your poodle to the groomer and you can choose between the "Show Cut" and the "Lamb Cut" shown below.



You can change between the three poodle looks at any time for a small (FPD) fee. Dog "looks" are purely cosmetic and don't effect gameplay, allowing you to have your dogs look the way you want them to look without being penalized.

Natural vs Modified By default, dogs purchased new from the site will have a "Natural" appearance. But for some breeds, the groomer will offer the option to change your dog's appearance to a "Modified" look, which is the more traditional look for some breeds, like the Doberman Pinscher, with cropping and docking. This can be reversed at any time, giving players full agency to decide how they want their dogs to look, even if purchased from another player that preferred a different look.

Retro vs New Originally, I was planning on allowing users to choose retro or new art per dog within the Grooming Shop as well, but the more I think about it, it seems like it might make more sense for Retro vs New art to just be an account wide setting, where you decide how you want to view dogs on the whole site. This would completely remove the tedium of having to manage the art of a large kennel of dogs. Then within an individual dog's page, there could be an option to see how the dog looks in the other style. What do you think?

Color Concerns Regarding concerns about the last news post's color shades -- silver missing from the collage was an oversight, but it will exist in FP3! I also heard how some of you really missed that rich shade of red from the original retro color set. All of your opinions are being considered, and even if I don't add in everything that's requested, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts!

That concludes the preview of the new breed art! Thank you for following along and sharing your feedback along the way.

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We have a winner! First off, thank you to everyone who entered and shared their favorite Furry Paws breeds with us. We loved reading all of your responses and hearing about the dogs that have earned a special place in your kennels over the years.

It's always a pleasure to see the passion our players have for the game, and we're grateful to have such a wonderful community. Thank you for continuing to make Furry Paws a fun and welcoming place for players old and new alike.

To keep things fair, Kah had the database randomly select a winner from all eligible entries.



Thanks again to everyone who entered. With more FP3 sneak peeks on the horizon and Phoenix Fire just around the corner, there's a lot to look forward to this summer!

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Part 3 Part 1 showed off the new breed art, and Part 2 covered the new genes. This one is a little different: it's about how FP's existing colors and markings render in the new art. Some of these markings (looking at you, brindle) offer enormous challenges to an artist to draw properly, and when you throw in different coat types it only adds to the challenge. Fez has done an amazing job rendering these!



Base colors and variants In the current art, colors like Red, Tan, Cream, and White are essentially flat recolors, the same single shade painted across the whole dog. In the new art, each color takes into account the natural variation in a real dog's pigment, which falls differently across different parts of the body, for a much more lifelike result. I also took the chance to clean up the color variants. In the old art the variant numbers were more or less arbitrary, but now they're ordered: a lower variant number is lighter, and a higher one is richer and deeper. This should make it more straightforward to understand breeding for richer/lighter shades compared to the current system!

This was the color variant change I was mentioning in my Previous News Post.




Undersides "Undersides" is the lighter shading along a dog's muzzle, chest, belly, and legs. In the new system it represents two related things depending on the breed: countershading (the subtle lightening many breeds have underneath) and urajiro (the striking, well-defined cream pattern seen in breeds like the Shiba Inu and Akita). The genetic basis for urajiro and countershading isn't well understood, so for the purposes of the game it makes sense to me to treat the two as the same locus. I've also changed undersides so that it now applies only to the phaeomelanin (the red and tan pigment) regions of the dog, which is much truer to how it actually works.




Greying Last one, and it comes with a breed reveal: the Standard Poodle! Poodles are one of the few breeds that has the greying gene, which makes them perfect for showing off how greying looks in the new art. I'm showing the show clip here, since that's the look you know from the current art (more on this in Part 4!). Greying will gradually become more apparent as the dog ages.



Dalmatian spotting Dalmatians get something special. Rather than standard ticking, Dalmatians use their own spotting system, so each Dalmatian rolls its own unique arrangement of spots by choosing a combination of 10 different layers, leading to over 250 possibilities! Here are just a few of those possibilities:




Down to the puppies One thing I'm making sure of: a litter pup's image will accurately reflect its own genetics, including its exact color variant, its Dalmatian spot arrangement, and its whitehead pattern if it has one. So when you look over a new litter, what you see is what each pup actually is, which makes picking a keeper that much easier. (To be clear, this is about each pup's image being accurate to its own genes, not puppy-specific artwork, which as I mentioned in Part 2 is a someday-maybe.) An exception here is the greying gene since this will become more apparent as the dog ages, but the pup's phenotype/genotype will always let you know if the Greying gene is present.


What do you think? A few things in particular I'd love to hear thoughts on. These questions refer to the current art (aka "retro" art):

Should the retro art keep the current variant colors, or should it be changed to scale from lighter to darker based on variant number? Should retro art also be changed so that the undersides/urajiro layers only affect phaeomelanin so that it's more true to life?

What these both get down to is that I'm uncertain if I should go with a policy of keeping the retro art identical to what it is now, or if I should apply some of the same adjustments that are being made in the new art, provided the retro art can support the changes.



What's next Part 4 is where you'll get to learn about the new grooming shop, including the styling options that change a dog's look (the Poodle's clips among them). Thank you, as always, for following along and sharing your thoughts/feedback. More to come soon!

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Part 2 In the first post in this series I showed you the new breed art for FP3. This post is about why it exists: the new genetics it makes possible.

One important note before we dig in: the new genes, and the particulars of exactly how each one will work, are still being decided. Everything below is my best guess at where things stand right now, and I reserve full rights to change any of it as I keep building and testing FP3. I've also taken liberties to diverge from researchers' current theories where I feel it's necessary to make a good game system out of them. But basically, think of this as a preview of the direction, not a final spec.

In addition, even though users have pointed out some flaws with the current genetics system compared to what some researchers believe is actually true, I've decided to keep the existing color genes as is. They work well within the game system, and in my opinion, offer a fairly close pseudo-realistic approximation of how the genes work in real life. I hope you'll find that with the addition of these new genes, FP's color genetics will have a much richer depth, and exponentially increased variety, than it ever had before!

Coat lengths (Coat locus (new)! Sh/md/lg; Wire locus (new)! Wi/wi; and Curl locus (new)! Cu/cu) This has been a suggestion for many years! Dogs can now come in different coat lengths: short, medium, long, wire, and curly. Coat length isn't fully understood in real life, and some of the theories about it wouldn't work very well for our game. For example, some researchers theorize that there is no true medium coat, just short and long, but for the Border Collie and others we need the ability to have short, medium, and long. We also need to make sure that for breeds that only come in one coat type (like medium) that they breed true. As a result, I've come up with a system that makes sure that each coat type can breed true by using a simple complete dominance system.

A note on wire and curl: while it's true that they could technically affect any coat length, in practice (for the breeds I've looked at so far) it seems that one wire haired dog looks very similar to another, so for now just expect that if a dog is Wi-, its coat type will be Wire, and if a dog has Cu-, its coat type will be curly. Note that this is very much subject to change (like everything presented here). There is some aspect of this that Fez and I are figuring out as we go. Sometimes as we get to the next breed it presents new challenges that force us to adapt.

I am so excited about the variety that this makes possible! Fez has done a fantastic job with the coat types so far, and has been carefully crafting each marking to look incredible and perfect for its coat type (more on that in Part 3). To give a sense of the scale here: because every coat length needs its own complete redraw, and every marking redone to fit it, adding coat types alone is roughly the art equivalent of adding over 40 brand new breeds to the game. It's a big part of why building an all-new art foundation made sense, rather than trying to retrofit coat types onto the old art. Here are the coat types of the breeds that have been announced so far (breeds from the initial announcement that are excluded from this list only have one coat type).






And this last breed was not announced in the initial post, but it is needed later to showcase one of the other new genes, so let me go ahead and announce it now:



Domino Domino (the ed allele on the E locus) is a new addition seen in many breeds in real life. It changes how eumelanin (the dark pigment) is distributed across the dog. But the most dramatic thing it does is completely change how brindle is expressed. Here is the full A locus and E locus interaction, first on its own, then with brindle layered on:







Domino is actually what many people call "grizzle". FP uses the term "grizzle" as the word to describe the aw, or wild-type agouti, allele. This is actually one change I'm considering making as it would be fairly easy... what do you think? Should grizzle be renamed to wild-type? No genetics changes, just a label change.

You may also notice the top two rows of the chart: clear sable (Ay) and shaded sable (Ays). This is a new distinction too. The old art showed sable as either clear or shaded depending on the breed, with no consistency or choice in the matter. Now both are proper, separate options, so a breed can come in one, the other, or both.

Seal Seal (the new Se locus) is a subtle effect that acts on what would otherwise be a solid eumelanin dog with either K/Kbr or K/k and allows its agouti or brindle patterning to show through. On a solid recessive black dog there's nothing hidden to reveal, so Seal has no effect there. Here is the same dog, without and with Seal:




Whitehead Whitehead (W locus (new)) is a striking white-on-the-face pattern seen across a number of breeds. The exact genetics behind it aren't fully understood in real life, but it is suspected as one of the reasons some dogs test as being S/S but show up with a ton of white. In FP, Whitehead sits on its own locus: a dog with no copies shows no whitehead, a dog with one copy can show one of several partial patterns (randomly selected, does not breed true), and a dog with two copies shows a fuller pattern (old english sheepdog will have this!). This was a main driver in wanting to show more of the dog's face! Here are the variations:




Note that a dog with whitehead will always show some body white as well, so the white head looks natural rather than floating on an otherwise solid coat.

Better white spotting This arguably belongs in Part 3, but I feel like it makes more sense to mention it here where we're talking about genes. We've also reworked how white spotting (the S locus) is expressed, using incomplete dominance, which is more accurate as far as how it's suspected the S locus works:




Between Whitehead and Partial Expression of the S locus, a wide array of new marking options has been opened up!

What's not changing (yet) A couple of things I've seen people guessing about, so let me clear them up. New ear types (and ear-shape genetics) aren't part of this. They would multiply the amount of art needed for every single breed and add a lot of complexity, so they're not in the plans. I would love to add puppy art, but it would also add a huge amount of work so it's not in the works quite yet, although it's something I'd love to do someday. And heterochromia (two different colored eyes), which some of you guessed at now that both eyes are visible, isn't in FP3 at launch. I'd genuinely love to add it down the road, it's high on my personal wishlist, just not yet.

I know it's been a request over the years to have different variations of white markings to make each dog more unique. While the changes to S locus expression and addition of whitehead aren't exactly that, they will still add a wide variety of variations that weren't possible before! I am not opposed to adding more variety to white markings in the future that is purely random and not genetics based, but that will have to be a future update after the new breed art is complete.

These belong to everyone Like I said in the last post, these genes exist on every dog no matter which art style you use, and a dog's full genetics are always written out in plain text on its page, so you can breed for them and trade for them regardless of your art choice. Some traits (coat length especially) can only be drawn on the new art, since the old art was never built to show them, and that's a big reason the new art exists at all. But the genetics themselves are for everyone. The retro art will be modified to show the genes only if it's possible to do so without adding new art. For example, there's no reason the new Seal gene can't be expressed, and whitehead can be approximated by forcing the dog to always show a Piebald layer if Whitehead is present. Domino can be roughly approximated as well, just not as accurately. Coat length is, unfortunately, off the table for retro art.

Existing dogs? For existing dogs, you'll get a choice for how the new genes get assigned (this only touches the new genes, nothing else about your dog changes): either roll them so your dog keeps its current appearance, or roll them completely fresh for new possibilities. I'd love your feedback here, because it's important to me to do this properly, so if you see an issue with only offering these two options, let me know! That said, I don't love the idea of letting people pick exactly which new genes their dogs express. Part of the fun, and part of a healthy market, is in the roll, so I'd like to keep some randomness to it, beyond the option to simply keep your dog looking exactly as it does today.

Clarification: When I talk about rolling genes, I'm only talking about the new genes! Your dogs will keep their existing genes as-is. One caveat: there is a decision to be made about how to handle the addition of Ays! One possibility: if a dog has Ay, user can choose whether to keep Ay, or roll between Ay/Ays

Props to the researchers! Getting all of these right meant a lot of studying how they actually present in real dogs, and I'm grateful to the dog-genetics researchers and communities who document this stuff so thoroughly.

Thanks to our alpha testers! You can thank our alpha testing team for many of these genes! My original plan was limited to adding partial S expression and coat types. Our testers pushed for whitehead and domino and I'm so glad they did!

Huge props to Fez! Fez has been amazing at understanding my vision when it comes to complex dynamic image systems like this one. Adding some of these has been very complex and difficult to explain, but she has done an amazing job of putting the ideas into pixels that my code works perfectly with!

More breeds on the way There are quite a few more breeds (~20) already finished beyond the ones shown so far. (It was important to me to get through a decent number, including some of the more complex breeds, before announcing this, so that I could get a clearer idea of how everything might work.) Rather than drop them all at once, I'll be revealing them a handful at a time over the coming weeks, so each breed gets the spotlight it deserves and we can talk about the coat types and markings available to it. As each one goes up, I'll be listing which coat types and genes are available to it, and opening up a topic for feedback so that if anything is missing, it can be at the very least considered to be added (not guaranteeing everything will be added!)

The initial 11 revealed breeds will get the same treatment after I finish with this initial 4 part series about the new breed art, so thank you for your patience there!

A reminder that I still plan to implement the community poll idea for new breeds that was mentioned in the first post, but that won't be until FP3 launch. Until then, Fez and I get free reign to choose which breeds to work on to hopefully get the new systems fully figured out prior to launch!

Coming up next is Part 3, which will showcase how existing markings render in the new breed art. Part 4 will be talking about the new grooming shop!

Thank you, as always, for your excitement and your feedback. More to come!




Screenreader Tweak Small tweak for our screenreader users: puppy links on the litter page now have alt text for their icons so you can more easily find males, females, and kept puppies!




Edited to add clarification to "Existing Dogs?" section.

Edited to add:
Regarding if "Smooth Collie" and "Rough Collie", which exist as two separate breeds, or breeds in a similar situation, will be merged. No, they'll be kept separate. The rule will be, if they are already two separate breeds, they will stay that way, and that breed will only have access to one coat type. Do you want the ability to cross breed Smooth and Rough Collies? Let me know about that.

Now Mastiff and English Mastiff? Those two really ought to be merged, they are the same breed. I've been trying to figure out how to do it in a way that's respectful of the time players have spent on dogs in both breeds. Share your thoughts on how best to go about that as well!

Gene genie? Yes, it will have the new genes. Though maybe there should be a "difficulty level" setting now, and different reputations for each?

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Who we are I want to step back and talk to you as a person, not a "company." I'm one programmer who loves dogs. Fez is one artist, and she has been THE artist behind FP for well over a decade. The vast majority of the art all of us have enjoyed over the years on FP (other than the retro breed art, done by Nova) is from Fez's hand. I picked her for the breed art project because I trust her completely, because her hand keeps the whole site looking like one cohesive place, and because I have complete confidence that everything she sends me is from her hand, not AI. A big development studio with a team might approach a project like this differently, but FP has always been a small, hands-on labor of love.

On breed type The most common feedback by far has been about breed type and recognizability, and I want you to know it matters to me and to Fez too. We both recognize there are some areas in the revealed art where the conformation could be improved. It's something we will be paying extra careful attention to as the project goes on.

Early in the process, I told Fez to re-use what she could from breed-to-breed, because at the time the idea of her redrawing 220+ breeds within any sane time frame with all the genetics additions I wanted to make seemed like such an enormous undertaking that I thought it would be ok to re-use some things. So she followed my request, and many of you noticed how much some of the faces looked the same, or the legs. That is my mistake and I take full responsibility for it. From now on, Fez will be drawing completely unique lineart for each breed (some markings may still be partially re-used where it makes sense to because that is a big time savings and shouldn't impact breed type as much). That should help each breed feel more distinct and more true to itself. We are also going to focus more on keeping eye size more balanced with the size of the breed, while still maintaining Fez's overall style and look.

As for the breeds already revealed, Fez has looked back at a few of the earliest ones herself and would like to refine them, and I'll support her in that. Two honest caveats, though: any touch-ups will be refinements within her style, not a switch to a more realistic one, and I can't promise every breed or every piece of feedback will be reworked. If the style itself simply isn't for you, that's what the retro option is for.

On involving the community I've seen the suggestion, here and over the years, that I should bring the community further into decisions like this one. I do value your input, truly, and it shapes FP constantly: I post updates all through development, I read every feedback thread, and my mod team (who range from very casual players to hardcore ones) test everything and push back on me hard. But I can't put every major creative decision to a vote. I've tried versions of that before throughout the years, and the result is a project that stalls and never ships. So instead I listen, weigh years of your suggestions, and then make the call I believe is best for the site, even knowing not everyone will love every call. That's the job, and I take it seriously.

Retro & genetics First the firm promises: your dogs are safe, nothing is being invalidated, you are not starting your lines over, and switching between retro and new art is free, with no time limit, indefinitely. Now the hard part. The new genes (to be announced) will exist on every dog and will always be listed in plain text, so you can breed them and trade them no matter which art you use. But some of these traits can only be drawn on art that was built to show them, and the old art wasn't. That's actually a big reason the new art exists at all. You choose per dog, you're never forced, and your dog's genetics are always there whichever art you pick. In addition, you will still have the option to specify a url to a completely custom image of your dog. I'll be going into more detail on the new genetics available in the next post about the new breed art, planned for Monday. It's a big post with a lot of info so it's not quite ready yet.

A few answers Things that have come up a lot:
* I'm adding an account setting so you can default your dogs to retro or new instead of changing them one at a time. I'm also looking into letting you view other players' dogs in your preferred style.
* Litter pups will initially inherit from their parents, but it can be changed at any time.
* New breeds added in the future will be in the new style only, since there was never a retro version of them to keep. Existing breeds will always have both.

Last thing FP3 is still the same realism focused, dog sport competition game it has always been at heart (with a touch of whimsy, we do have a phoenix event and color changing grapes after all). The depth, the breed focus, the genetics, none of that is going anywhere, and the retro art stays right where it is for those who love it. FP3 is bringing so many incredible quality of life improvements to the game that everyone will get to enjoy, whether they prefer retro or the new art. I'll share the full details on the new genetics soon. Thank you for caring about this game enough to tell me what you really think, even when it's hard to hear. It genuinely helps and I truly do value your voice. Please keep it kind to one another, and to Fez.

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Are you feeling lucky? We're giving away either the brand new Suburban Backyard Background or 10 FPP (winner's choice) to one lucky player!



Maybe it's a breed you've spent years breeding, one that holds a special memory, or simply one you can't resist adding to your kennel. We'd love to hear what makes it your favorite.

Entries close at 11:59 PM FP Time (EST) on June 4th. One winner will be selected at random from all eligible entries. Limit one entry per person. The winner may choose either the new Suburban Backyard Background or 10 FPP.

Good luck!

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Did you spot it? A few of you spotted it in the FP3 screenshots, and word has been getting around. In addition, I've teased a few times that I've been commissioning a lot of extra art from our artist. Today is the day of the official announcement: there is new breed art coming to FP3. I know new art is one of those changes that comes with a lot of feelings attached. FP's current art has been part of its identity for over a decade and many of you associate it very strongly with what this site is. So I want to make it very clear that the art you've known for years isn't going anywhere, and nothing about your dogs changes unless you decide you want it to.

What's coming I've brought on our site artist, Fez (many of you already know her work from around the site), to redraw the art for all 220+ breeds. It's a more detailed, richly shaded style than the current art. The pose is different and both eyes are very visible (which gives some interesting customization possibilities in the future!)

A first look Here are ten breeds Fez has already finished. These were taken from the current top 10 popular breeds on Furry Paws. All of these will be there from day one when FP3 launches.





















Why now? New art opens new possibilities. There are features that people have been asking for on FP for years that simply need new art to accomplish, since going back and adding them to the existing art convincingly isn't possible. More on the "new stuff" will be revealed in future posts!

Love the current look? Keep it The old ("retro") art isn't being deleted, and you are never forced onto the new style. FP3 will have a new feature called the "Grooming Shop". In the grooming shop you'll be able to switch any dog between retro and new art (free to start, a small cost later on). Every existing dog begins on the retro art, and whether or when to switch is entirely your call. If you prefer the old look, whether out of attachment to your dogs or simply because it's the style you like, you can keep it for as long as you want. Dogs newly created on FP3 will default to the new art style once the new art for that breed becomes available, but you'll be able to switch them to the retro look as well if desired.

A few at a time Redrawing 220+ breeds is an enormous undertaking, and it won't all be ready at once (Fez is wonderful, but she's one person!). So rather than making everyone wait years for one big release, the new art will roll out a handful of breeds at a time, with a news post each month showing off the latest additions. Every breed will get done. None are being skipped or left behind.

You help pick the order I didn't want to just hand down a list from on high, so you'll have a direct say in which breeds come next through a community vote. To make sure less common breeds aren't stuck waiting forever, there will also be a safeguard that regularly pulls in breeds that don't get many votes, and Fez will get to draw a few of her own favorites along the way. I'll share exactly how this works closer to launch.

What's next This is just the first piece. Coming up: new genetics (Part 2), changes to existing markings (Part 3), and new styling options at the groomer (Part 4).

As always, your thoughts and concerns genuinely help shape this, so please share them below.


Edited to add: Based on the feedback received, retro to new art style changes will be free indefinitely! I will also be looking into ways to make it easier to manage this setting in large kennels, and possibly account wide. As far as litter pup style, these will inherit their default image style from their parents.

I hear the concern about breed accuracy. Every sketch is compared against real-world references, and we have a conformation-focused player with RL experience on the review team who's been part of the process from early on. Some of the new interpretations intentionally differ from how the legacy art rendered the same breeds as an artistic choice, not an oversight. It won't be everyone's preference, and that's completely fine. If you love the old style, the retro option is yours to keep, indefinitely. There's nothing wrong with preferring it, it's what made FP what it is for over a decade.

I am reading through your feedback, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

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PHOENIX FIRE EVENT The Summer Phoenix Fire Event will officially return to Furry Paws on June 21st, which means we’re now only one month away from one of the biggest events of the summer.

For anyone planning ahead, remember that dogs must be exactly 12 days old during the event in order to receive the Phoenix blessing, so now is the perfect time to start thinking about pairings, litters, and which dogs you want to bring into the event this year.

PHOENIX BREED BOOST Sara's Phoenix Breed Boost will also be returning for its fifth year! For full details and information about this year’s awesome prizes, be sure to check out the post on the Contest Board.

Some players may be preparing dogs from their long-established lines, while others may be planning to pick up store dogs or search for event prospects from other players closer to the event itself.

We’d love to hear what everyone is planning this year, so be sure to cast your vote in the poll attached to this post!

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Walk the dog FP3 will be introducing a new feature, Walks! Choose your favorite dog, then take them on a walk to increase your bond with them, find treasures, earn uxp, and perhaps even meet some friends along the way.



But why? Walks are an optional way for you to spend time with more of your favorite dogs: old or new, retired or not. Bond with them, buy souvenirs for them, see how they interact with other walkers' dogs. If you like collecting, unlock all the souvenirs, or explore all the different trails, or see all the different signature events or all the different personalities. Nothing required, no pressure, modest rewards and a richer way to spend time with your favorite dogs.

I have been very careful to not add anything to walks that would make it essential for the competitive play loop. That means that your dogs won't be earning extra energy or stats (and won't be losing it either) by walking with them. Walks are meant to be an on the side if you like it and if you have time, not essential for competitive play.



The Mechanics Walks are set up as a set of linked random rooms with set milestones in between. Each random room could be one of several things: a bond room where your dog gains bond with you, a uxp room where you learn something and earn uxp, a treasure room where you receive a spinner based prize, a "signature" room where you choose between several actions (more on this below), or an encounter with another player who has been walking recently.

Each room consumes "free time", a new resource that regenerates over time. I know some other pet sims revolve around this sort of mechanic, but I think it's important to point out that for Furry Paws, it will be an optional side game. It's not required for the core competitive game loop, it's just something to do when you're done competing your dogs and have more time to spend here. Use free time when you feel like walking a dog, ignore it when you don't.

There are multiple trails branching off of the main trail that can be explored once you collect enough bond with your dog!



Personality Matters How your dog interacts to the different rooms is based on their personality. Learning your dog's personality and its preferences will help you navigate the Signature Events, which present you with several options on how to navigate an encounter. If you pick an option that jives with your dog's personality, you'll get more bond. Encounters with other players on the trail will only go well and reward bond if the dogs have personalities that get along. This will add so much more depth to your dog's personality!




Build your Bond Bonding with your dog is purely for fun. As your bond increases, you'll reach different bond tiers. You'll start as Neutral, then progress up to Heart Dog, or Soulfriend if you are REALLY ambitious. Starting with Friend, your bonded dogs will show a little bond icon in front of their name to make it clear who the favored ones are.

Pat Pat Pat Semi-related, in FP3 you will be able to pet your dog on their page (you can even pet other players' dogs). There's no reason to do this other than out of pure appreciation. But the number of hearts that spawn from petting depends on your bond with the dog.



Collectors Rejoice A new series of items called "Souvenirs" are being added along with walks. Souvenirs are unlocked as you discover new landmarks or complete the trail for the first time. Once unlocked, you'll use special walk currencies you collect along the walks to purchase these items. Souvenirs can be added to a dog's image, and the best part is you can move/rotate them and decide if they are in front of or behind the dog. It allows you to spend some extra time with your favorite dog, fine tuning their image into something special! There are also some special walk exclusive items and re-releases of old items that are available for when you land on a "LEGENDARY" roll on the spinner in treasure or signature event rooms!

Early testing has begun! Early alpha testing for a small subset of players has officially begun! While much work remains to do, I am aiming to have a beta test available for the larger Furry Paws player base to try out in August-September 2026.

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Introducing the...



And the...



You might be wondering why these two and not one of the more recently popular breed suggestions. I commissioned the art for both years ago based on supporter posts at the time, then forgot I had the files. Oops. Rediscovering them this week felt like a good excuse to finally add the breeds.

The Presa Canario has 274 supporters! The Entlebucher Mountain Dog's original suggestion post got auto-deleted in the meantime, but the art was already done, so it's joining in too.

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New Background A new background has been added to the FPP Shop: the Suburban Backyard Background for 10 FPP! This is the first of a small handful of nice backgrounds I'm adding that will always be available in the FPP Shop. If seasonal events or the monthly item releases sometimes feel like a monthly clock you have to beat, this is meant to be the opposite. If you like it, you have plenty of time to save up to grab it on your own timeline.

I know I've been releasing more shop items lately. FP3 needs a lot of art, and these sales help fund it. In return, FP3 is bringing a new feature (walks) that'll add stunning backgrounds (and critters! And foregrounds! And more!) available to everyone, no FPP required.

And the walks feature is finally taking enough shape to where I feel like I can share more about it soon, so that will be my next FP3 preview post!

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Community Poll Kah is working on some upcoming items, and we’d really like your input on where to focus next.



Let us know! Cast your vote using the poll attached to this post, and if you’ve got a specific idea in mind, feel free to share it in the comments. We do check the suggestions board too, so if you’ve already posted it there, it’s probably already on our radar.

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In FP3, I'm giving a lot of careful thought into addressing the pain points that make the site difficult to return to. One of the things that keeps coming up is how painful it is when you're not able to log on before midnight for whatever reason: RL problems, internet issues, or you just forget. Your dogs miss important time that feels like lost potential. For more casual players who only log on every once in a while and who don't pay attention to locking as much, it means their favorite dog auto-retires way before they're ready to say goodbye. It might seem small, but for a lot of people, that's the sort of thing that can make a game feel hard to come back to.

So here's the idea: user directed rollover. This means that when FP game time hits midnight, your dogs/litters don't automatically age. Instead, you gain access to the rollover page. On this page, you can preview things like:

* Care progress for dogs/litters in a quick progressbar style view to make sure you didn't miss anyone's care for the day
* Puppies about to wean (with warnings if you haven't picked a keeper yet)
* Reserved pups that cannot be weaned (typically due to the recipient not having enough kennel space) which would cause the litter to be auto-locked
* Dogs about to auto-retire



Before rolling over, you can still navigate the site as normal, so you can correct anything that you see that's amiss. Forgot to pick a pup? You can go do so. Missed a training session on a dog or had some energy left over? Easy to fix before rolling over.

When you do click the Rollover button, here's what happens:
* You receive your daily salary
* Your games reset so you can earn more money
* Active dogs age and restore energy
* Active litters age and restore actions
* Locked dogs and litters do not age
* You become eligible for the score boards and your dogs for awards



You can only roll over one time per day (with "day" being defined by FP's game time, which is EST).

Midnight FP time is still when competitions run, dog titles update, new competitions get created, score boards and hall of fame update, and breed stats update.

So if life gets busy and you don't log in for a week? Your dogs haven't aged a day. No more coming back to dirty, hungry dogs. No more racing the midnight clock to lock before you go to bed. No more losing a champion because you were in the hospital or traveling or just forgot.

Yes, we have the locking feature, and it is a great tool that lets you strategically choose when to focus on specific dogs or pressing pause when RL takes you away. But many of us are just... busy. I know for me personally, sometimes I log in to care for my dogs and only then realize I've missed a day. Maybe I'm just absent minded but I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one.

What does this actually change? Not much. FP is already very well set up for this. The locking feature means a lot of the challenges with having a user directed rollover are already solved. This is just an additional quality-of-life feature that I think a lot of people are going to end up loving.

And hopefully, it will make FP3 feel much easier to come back to after time away, a game you can always jump right back into from where you left off, where your dogs are always waiting for your return.

Feel free to post your thoughts! Your concerns and opinions are very helpful to me as I work on making FP3 the best it can be.

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Focus Tracking Competitor 3 players have a new perk: they automatically track focused and unfocused days on their dogs! In addition, if you have Competitor 3, you can create "Focus Tracking Pamphlets" that other players can use to track the focus on a particular dog they are interested in. And finally, a "Definitive Focus Tracking Guide" can be purchased in the FPP Shop for 30 FPP, which automatically tracks focused and unfocused days for all dogs on your account while it is in your inventory.

In addition, the game will let you know during a dog's training session for the day if they are feeling particularly focused or unfocused.

Also, upon retirement, dogs now keep their XPM information, as well as their focus tracking information!

Note that these changes are not retroactive. And if you ever are tracking a dog, then untrack them for some reason (ie, if you were a competitor 3 and then sell them to someone else without tracking) the data may become stale (unless that player starts tracking them).

There is a little quirk though, because if a Focus Tracking Pamphlet was used on a dog, their focus tracking will stay enabled no matter what account they move to.

I hope this is a welcome change for many of you who have been buried in spreadsheets trying to keep track of your dogs' performance! Unless you like your spreadsheets, in which case, please carry on!


New Fox The Blonde Fox Critter is now available in the FPP Shop for 5 FPP until the end of the month!

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Oh no! These bunnies have gotten out of control! They are absolutely TAKING OVER! And what happened to all of your dogs? Why are they all bunnies?




And to make things worse, they are just leaving eggs everywhere. I did a little work to gather up most of the eggs in one place. If for some reason you want some, go here and use the code BUNNYHOARD (Edit: Expires at end of day 4/11)!

I'll be working hard to get the site back to normal. Wish me luck! And happy April Fools!


-Kah
(PS: Send cookies!)

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We got hit with another DOS (Denial of Service) attack today. The attack occurred because it was bypassing cloudflare by hitting our server IP directly. So to mitigate this, I've blocked all requests that try to go to the IP directly, and am only allowing requests that go through furry-paws.com, and thus Cloudflare. This should help immensely with avoiding this type of attack in the future!

In addition, I spent some time optimizing the Next/Previous dog links on the dog and retired dog pages to help reduce the strain on the server. I did my best to preserve original functionality there but if there is a glaring difference to how it worked before that's frustrating for you let me know and I can see if there's an easy way to make it do the same thing again. But the changes I made will make those links much less strenuous on the server than they were previously, so they were very much worth it!

Thanks for your patience and for still playing Furry Paws even though we occasionally deal with issues like these!

-Kah
(PS: send cookies)



Edit (2:23pm game time): Advanced Competition Entry form bug fixed!

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