.com Forum · General

I'm thinking of upgrading but need the pro's and cons spelled out to me before I make the commitment. It's been such a long time since I played SD as a Premium member that I need a push to upgrade. Money is tight atm so I need to be convinced.

Do I need more than 5 dogs? I don't want to be forever FHing dogs.

Do I need to breed? If player numbers are down and breeds struggling to get players involved why would I breed litters just to FH them?

I log in every day so LB won't change if I upgrade will it?

How do Premium members with 22 sessions a day but maybe 30 dogs and up to 60 puppies make good use of their sessions without some(a lot) of their dogs suffering? Atm all my dogs get at least 3 sessions a day each if needed and I'm able to obedience train too (as a basic).

Your thoughts welcomed.

If your happy being a basic and not breeding then it may not be worth it for you if money is tight.

The perks are

Can breed - u can work on your own line instead of only buying dogs from others to show, you can try to be the one who breeds the next top dog of your breed.

30 dog limit - more dogs means more u can show and more you can breed so better chance of getting that next great dog.

Can mix your own food - can make seasoning faster

Login bonus would still be the same.

You don't need to session every dog you have, just the ones your want to show.

Forever homing pups/dogs not needed is not a bad thing, it's like placing it into a pet home. As in real life most of a litter will end up not in a show/breeding home.

Personally for me,
Pros:

-Ability to have more dogs (if the limit was 15, I'd have 15, if the limit was 45 I'd have 45 though)

-Ability to breed, I enjoy 'competing' with other breeders to have the better dogs, I also enjoy having several things to enter and show

-Custom food rations - I love this. I can raise condition, muscle, and coat much faster and use fewer sessions.

-Puppies! It's like christmas time when I log in and there's litters of puppies to sort through!! Yes, I FH several of the dogs, but it is exciting when I get a new high SOP for the breed or my kennel, or in my rare breed I hit the 80 SOP or 90 SOP!

Cons:

-Family account. You'll get hooked and want more!

-$. I don't really enjoy spending the money but I have it set to come out automatically from PayPal so I pretend it doesn't happen

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posted by Astoria2
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-$ I don't really enjoy spending the money but I have it set to come out automatically from PayPal so I pretend it doesn't happen

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That is hilarious!

Surely the obvious benefit from having a large kennel of a not-so-well-supported breed is that you can stack the entries for points and thus make up champions in 3 shows. If no other kennel is showing against you you can just churn out and make up champions by showing against yourself.

Does anyone use eBay income to fund SD? I'm thinking if I sold enough 'stuff' I wouldn't notice the money coming out to pay for SD.

One thing to be aware of is that you can only have 1 basic kennel.

I was going to say being a premium you can have one basic also... If you currently have 2 basic accounts you are breaking a big SD rule.

The main thing I find really annoying about being basic is sessioning dogs. I am working on a few poodles at the moment and with the rations that I have it is almost impossible to get them in show condition.
www.showdog.com/dog.aspx?id=13678850
Especially him. He's been on Super Duper or Condition formula all his life and this is where we are at. He'll probably be about 60 days old by the time he hits the show rings He was only a few days old when I got him. The dogs improve so fast that I almost wonder if the younger ones will just run all over him by the time I get to showing him.

In response to the churn out of champions comment. This is one of three premium accounts I have. No one else shows Sussex, so I provide all entries. It's incredibly expensive and not always as productive as you'd think.

Do those players campaigning a breed that's not so well supported ie they are the only, or one of 1 or 2 in the breed think there should be some kind of incentive to promote these breeds then? Maybe free entry shows once a week or fortnight for those breeds.
I know we have SD breed specialities and Worldcup but unless your dog/s gain some points they aren't invited to the invitations are they?

I service 3 basic accounts - 1 is my son's, 1 mine, 1 my mums. We've had them since the inception of SD in 2003. I don't think we are breaking any rules and I'm sure someone will point out our 3 accounts to Admin if they feel it's a contravention of SD rules. Incidentally 1 kennel does have 5 dogs but 1 has 4 and one has 3 dogs, hardly pushing the rules to avoid upgrading to premium or family.

If you are using all three basic kennels that I would think would count as you having more than one basic as you are tecknley playing in them even though u say the other two belong to your family members.
Other wise I could have 5 basics and claim only one Is mine and I'm just kennel sitting the others.

Well Admin must be well aware that the same ISP address serves all 3 basic kennels - how can one household have three members of the same family playing the game with a different kennel name each but all using the same pc and the same ISP address - it's not possible to do anything else if we all want to play, and yes I do often session my son's dogs whilst he's at college, and my mother's (who is 75 years young) when she's not feeling so great.

How about we have a bit less of the 'you are breaking the rules' and a bit more of 'it's nice to have 3 basic kennels back playing on SD'. It is a game after all (albeit a good one). I begin to see now why so few players post on the forums. I'm getting frustrated posting questions and suggestions looking to generate some posts only to feel my efforts are unwelcome.

Oh and I know our household isn't the only one with more than one basic kennel, just how important is it in the great game that is SD?

It would also be nice to see less of people making assumptions about the tone/intent of a comment. I think that the intent was not to criticise, but rather as a helpful reminder.


Analeyn

None of us who don't personaly know you don't know your situation so all people can see and know for sure is that the same person is using more then one basic account, so it's perfectly reasonable that those users would point out the rules to that person. It's not a personal attack.

I don't think the issue is one house hold having more than one person having an account each but it's that they should be run by those people only. With kennel assistants they do seasoning so u shouldn't need to often log in to session dogs in others accounts.

Back when me and a friend were basics we both used the same computer but I never logged in as her.

Otherwise anyone can just make up a story (not saying you are) and keep mutable basics by one person.



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Last edited by PPvallhunds on 1/31/2015 6:24:03 AM

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Last edited by PPvallhunds on 1/31/2015 6:25:52 AM