Simulation Rules

Unfortunately, a lot of dishonest people come across sites like this and in their desire to win will do almost anything to get ahead.  In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to place restrictions on accounts because everyone would act ethically.  However, we have implemented the following guidelines to ensure that users act ethically and don't try to abuse the system. 

The following actions are not allowed on ShowDog.Com...

Dog Purchase Flip Flops

Do not sell a dog to one account for a high price and then buy it back for a low price.  If you sell a dog to another user, it needs to be because you want to sell the dog to that user and nothing else. 

If you are caught selling dogs back and forth in an attempt to move money into one account you will be banned regardless of your account's status or history.  The accounts will be immediately shut down, no questions asked.  NO WARNINGS WILL BE SENT, THIS is the only warning.  This is NOT up for interpretation, DO NOT sell dogs back and forth to get more money in your main account.

If you wish to use a dog as a stud, do so via the stud dog option.  Do not sell a dog to somebody for a certain price and then buy it back after they have used it to breed one of their dogs.

If you are a basic user, do not sell a bitch to a premium user so they can breed it and sell it back to you.  Getting around the basic account restrictions in this manner is a good way to get an account banned.

Extreme Example:  User A Sells Dog A for $100 to User B.  The same day User B sells Dog A back to User A for $2,000. 

Basic Accounts Buying Pregnant Bitches

Basic accounts are allowed to whelp one litter to get a taste of how breeding on ShowDog works.  After a basic account has bred that one litter, if they want to have more litters, they MUST buy them from other users.  Do not attempt to get around this rule by buying pregnant bitches from other users.

Looting Sinking Accounts

If you know of a user who is about to leave the game and wants to sell all their dogs, do not buy any more than two dogs from them.  If you buy more than two cheap dogs from an account that is quitting you may have them bought from you by the site administrators for a similar price to what you paid and then resold.

Just to clarify, we don't have a problem with selling multiple dogs to somebody at reasonable prices.  What we do have problems with is selling five dogs to a single user for $100 or $200 each.  In essence, selling dogs in bulk which gives the person buying the dogs an unfair advantage.

Merging Accounts

Do not attempt to merge the dogs and money from two accounts into one account. If you have more than one account, manage them as more than one account, do not try to combine two weaker accounts into one stronger account.

Do not operate multiple kennels as a cooperative. Overflow kennels (a kennel for putting dogs in when you have too many kennels), holding kennels (a kennel used to hold puppies, bitches, dogs, or retired dogs away from the main showing kennel), sessioning kennels (a kennel used to get extra sessions to session dogs for the main kennel), etc. are not allowed and are not included in Family subscriptions. Family subscriptions are for five SEPARATE kennels, not a cooperative of three or four kennels and not a super kennel with four usernames.

Multiple Free Accounts

Do not manage more than one free account.  If a user is caught running more than one free account, they will all be shut down.

You are more than welcome to have a free account in addition to your standard/family accounts.

Immature Kennel and Dog Names

ShowDog.Com is not a morning radio station, MTV, or even your local high school parking lot.  If you want to shock people, please do so in one of those environments.  If you want to participate in this simulation, please chose kennel, user, and dog names that are appropriate to the situation.  Murder, drugs, sex, and violence have no place in the names of your dogs or your kennel.

If you are not capable of figuring out an appropriate name for your account or dogs, this site is most likely not what you are looking for.  Don't worry, there are plenty of sites on the web where you will fit in just fine.

Copyright Infringement and Use of Real Kennel Names

Do not use copyrighted pictures for your dogs and/or your kennel pages. 

Do not use the names of famous real life kennels for your kennel/user name on this site.  We realize the idea of recreating those kennels on ShowDog sounds fun, however, if you don't own the real life kennel, please do not use their name for your username.  ShowDog has grown to the point that if the real owner of the kennel is not taking part in the sim, somebody who knows them is. 

If you are caught intentionally pretending to be a famous kennel without their permission you will be forced to change your username and banned from owning the relevant breed of dogs in the future.

Dog Pictures

Dog pictures should not portray abuse, aggressive behavior, or neglect of dogs.  Dog pictures in kennel photos should portray dogs in a relaxed environment, a show, agility events, obedience events, or in a stacked position.

In no circumstance should pictures that suggest dog fighting (as determined by the site administrators) be used for kennel or dog pictures.

Communication with other Users

While we realize that you may get upset with other users, please try to remain civil in your communications with them.  If a basic kennel is ever caught harassing or sending extremely rude e-mails to one our subscribers, the kennel will be banned.

Kennel Sitters

If you chose to give somebody your password and permission to manage your account, we accept no responsibility for what that person does.  Before you give your password to somebody, make sure you can trust them and that you are willing to accept whatever they do to your kennel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are there all these guidelines?  It makes the game no fun.

Did you know that "horseland cheating" and "horseland secrets" are two of the five most searched terms related to horseland.com?  We will not allow ShowDog.Com to turn into a pool of unethical users where you have to cheat to get ahead.  Unfortunately, that means we have to be strict.

What will happen if I do something this page says not to do?

It depends on the situation but in almost every single case, if a basic users is caught acting unethically, the account get banned.

You're stupid, why did you tell us about these things, now I'm going to try them.

Feel free.  We don't post something here unless we already have a system in place to spot it.