When you begin, you will have a choice of four animals: cats, dogs, baby animals (puppies and kittens), and mice/rabbits. The choice does not have much of a bearing on your gameplay experience, but there are some differences between the creatures.

If you choose to start with cats or dogs, you will be able to bring those animals to the large fenced-in area in your school grounds to train them. If you start with mice/rabbits or babies, you will be provided a smaller fenced-in area where those animals can train.

Overall, this choice will not affect you very much. As you earn money, you will be able to unlock the other animals, as well as horses and parrots, for you to train. The difficulty of the animals you are training will increase with your trainer level and with time.

When you begin, you will be at the pet school. This area has a few features that are important to note.

In the back of the house is the bedroom, where you have the options to sleep (which advances the time to the next day) or to change your appearance. After you have chosen your initial appearance for your character, you will not be able to change their gender or name, but you can alter their clothing and hair. Note that you do not have to sleep every night, but you have the option to prematurely advance to the next day. If you do not sleep, the game will automatically advance to the next day at 5:00 PM.

The center of the house features a room with a bookcase and a computer. The bookcase is where you can keep track of your education and training. Education is important for you to gain more experience and be able to train other animals. The computer is where you can take on new clients, start learning different courses, upgrade your school capabilities and buildings, and keep track of your history and current clients.

The other room of the house is the warehouse, where the objects you purchase will be available for you to take and use. Objects can be purchased from the Food Trader in town. The town can be accessed by walking your character down the path between the fenced-in area and the house.

On the grounds of the school, there are the two fenced-in areas for training, as well as any animal houses you have built. When you start, the second fenced-in area (if you have chosen dog or cat) and the five other animal houses will not be present; they have to be built by choosing them from the computer. They can also be upgraded to provide more comfort for the animals.

There are two other areas you can access from the pet school. If you take the path that leads into the trees next to the house, you will find yourself in the forest. If you take the path past the large fenced-in area, you will be at the film set.

When you start your game, your first client will arrive with their pet. No matter which animal you chose as your first option, the training will be the same. When they have come to a stop, at the bottom of the stairs to the house, you can click on them to gain control of the animal they have brought.

You can bring the animal to their respective animal house (the only other building on the school grounds in the beginning) or to the fenced-in area for training immediately. Note that if the animal is a baby or a mouse/rabbit, they will have to be trained in the small green fenced-in area, instead of the large area surrounded by the white fence. Dogs and cats can be taken to the large area.

When you are in control of the animal, their photo will appear in the bottom left of the screen, along with their stats. In order from top to bottom, the stats are:

• Training level (0% = they know nothing; 100% = you have taught them all they need to learn)
  
• Energy (higher energy means they are more likely to learn quicker)
  
• Trust (more trust means they are more likely to succeed at a trick)
  
• Hunger (a lower bar means they will lose energy quicker)
  
• Cleanliness (lower cleanliness means they are less likely to succeed and may be denied a pass on certain exams)

For animals that follow behind you (dogs and horses), you can pet them with the third button from the top, the open hand with fingers facing right. For other animals that remain in cages when you're carrying them, you have to put them on the ground to pet them. Click the three arrows icon in the bottom left to release them into the area. You can have them follow you (dogs and horses) or pick them up again by clicking the three arrows once more. You have to be in the same area as them to gain control of them. Note that if you lose control of an animal, their photo will disappear; you can regain control by hovering over them and clicking on them.

Once the animal has been released from your control, it is recommended to pet them to increase their trust. Naturally, any animal that you have met for the first time will not trust you completely. Trust, however, will make it easier to train them.

The first two stats for each animal relate to training. If an animal's energy is too low (in the red), any successful tricks will not earn any progress (so even if they succeed and you praise them, they will have +0 to that trick). As energy decreases, too, the amount of progress gained for each success or failure of a trick will decrease as well. A success with 100% energy will earn around +14, while a success with 25% energy might only earn +1 or +2.

Trust can be increased by petting or brushing the animal. Brushes can be purchased from the Food Trader in town. Food can also be purchased from him, which is important to keep the animal's hunger up. Page 1 of the Food Trader wares will show different types of food for each animal, as well as three levels. Lower quality food will give less towards the hunger bar. You can click on the items to add them to your cart, hover over the items to see how many you have in storage already, and right click on the items to remove them from your cart. If you want to purchase 4 cans of good dog food, for instance, but click 5 times accidentally, you can right click once to get rid of one of the cans. Once you hit the "Buy" button, those objects in your cart will be added to your warehouse.

Aside from food, the Food Trader has objects available that can help with training. Things like the newspaper, stick, ball, and shoe can be purchased to be used as items to fetch or jump over. Similar to food, once you have purchased those items, they will be added to your warehouse.

To feed your animals, after you've purchased your food, go to the warehouse and add the food to your inventory by clicking on it. The items in your inventory will be featured in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, in the four circles (so you have a maximum of 4 inventory spots available). Head into the animal house and locate the food bowls. You can hover over the food bowl to determine which animal will be using it and how much food is in it (which will be 0% to start). Click on the food in your inventory and a curved arrow will appear. Click with the curved arrow on the proper bowl and the bowl will be filled. Every unit of food will add 25% to the food bowl, so you can place a maximum of 4 into each bowl.

Animals will usually not eat unless they stay overnight at your pet school. If you have easier pets, you may not need to purchase food for a little while. However, it is recommended to have it available, since getting to and from the Food Trader is a bit tedious.

To brush your animals, place the brush in your inventory from the warehouse. When you click on the brush in your inventory, the curved arrow will appear again. Click on the pet you want to brush and your character will go to them and start brushing them. The quality of brush determines how quickly their cleanliness stat will go up. You can slow the decay of their cleanliness by clicking on the brush in the animal house as well; your character will use it to sweep the area. If you hover over the brush, it will tell you the current cleanliness of the animal house.

Animals will gain energy quicker if they are clean, well-fed, and after they have rested. That means you can train them more if you take good care of them!

Each animal will arrive with a list of tricks that their owners want them to learn. Some animals have more options for tricks than others. For example, mice and rabbits cannot be taught to fetch, but dogs and cats can. The tricks that you are expected to teach each animal can be seen by clicking the notebook icon in the top right of the screen. Make sure that the name of the animal at the top matches the animal you are training.

Most of the tricks available are simple in nature. Once the animal is in a training area, you can click on that trick, and they will either obey or fail. If they obey, a green check will appear above their heads, and you can click the thumbs-up icon in the bottom left to praise them. They will gain experience. For some tricks, it might take a second to receive the "success" sign; if you have clicked the trick but there is no red X, wait for a few moments until you move on to the next trick.

The tricks will be displayed in the bottom middle of the screen when you are in control of an animal. They will be grayed out until the animal is released into a training area, so you will know you have brought them to the correct area if the tricks are yellow and have red lines around them. The red lines are a visual representation of their progress for each trick. If they are at 10% experience with a trick, there will be 1 red line and they will succeed at the trick 10% of the time. If they are at 80% with a trick, there will be 8 red lines and they will succeed 80% of the time. The experience level they need is displayed in their trick summary. If they have reached or exceeded the level required for their training, the trick's name will turn green.

The top left trick, the speech bubble, is the animal's name, which is the first trick that you will have to teach. This trick is unique in that every time you click it when it is available, the animal will gain one experience point regardless of whether or not they succeed. If they respond to their name, you can praise them, and if they do not, you can scold them by clicking the thumbs-down button. Both will gain experience towards that trick. Note that praising for a trick will earn much more experience than scolding for a trick. It is recommended to repeat a trick until the animal succeeds, then praise them, and then repeat.

The next trick to the right, the bubble with an arrow in it, is the command to come. When it succeeds, your animal will approach your character. Note that the check mark will not appear until the animal has reached your character.

Next on the right, the person walking with an arrow at their heels, is the Heel trick. This trick is not available for every type of animal. To succeed at this trick, click it, and if there is no red X, you can walk around the fenced-in area until the check appears. You are training the animal to follow behind you when walking. Continue this until they have reached the desired level.

The next trick, with the arrow pointing to the ground, is the command to sit. Next to it, the curvy arrow pointing parallel to the ground, is the command to lie down. Then, the speech bubble with the exclamation point, is the command to speak/make a noise. The last trick on the top row, a single arrow pointing up, is the give paw trick. It will take a second to complete, because the animal will come to your character, sit, and lift their paw. If the animal does not fail immediately, wait a few moments before moving on.

The bottom row starts with two arrows pointing upwards, which is the ask command. This trick notably takes a few seconds. In the case of a success, the animal will come to your character, stand up, beg for a moment, then sit back down, and then you will be able to praise them.

Next to that, the arrow with a ball in the middle, is the fetch command. When you click on it, a curved arrow will appear on your cursor. You have to choose an item for the animal to fetch. Items can be purchased from the Food Trader, such as a ball or a stick. You can retrieve that item from your warehouse, click it, and then click somewhere in the fenced-in area, and your character will toss it to that spot. The item can be fetched by clicking the fetch trick and then clicking the item. If the animal succeeds, they will bring it to you, and it will be placed in your inventory, where you can throw it again.

The next one, with an arrow pointing up and a gear, is the use trick. You will need one of the two objects with buttons for this trick to be completed. Place one of them in the fenced area, then click the trick, and click the item with the curved arrow that appears. If your animal succeeds, they will press the button.

The curved arrow trick on the bottom row is the jump trick. Select it, then click on an object in the fenced-in area, and your animal will go and jump over the object. Sometimes they can get stuck if the object is too close to the edge of the area or another object. Again, this takes a little while to complete, so give it a second.

The next trick is

The circle trick is spin, and the trick in the bottom right, with a thought bubble and "zzz" inside, is the play dead trick. Both will be immediately completed after being clicked.

For baby animals, they have a hidden trick: housebreaking. It is not something that you can prompt them to perform. Sometimes, when they are in their animal house or if you release them inside the pet school building, a yellow puddle will appear underneath them, and there will be stars and a red X. If you see this, ensure you are in control of them, then hit the thumbs-down button to scold them. After a few times of doing this, they will learn to be housebroken, and the trick will turn green in their trick summary.

When training your animals, there is a cooldown period after each trick is performed. You cannot simply spam click the spin trick and teach them how to spin. However, a tip is that you can click the three arrows to pick them up or put them on a leash again, and then you can release them back into the area; this will reset the cooldown timer so that you can immediately perform that trick again.

Every trick will use energy once you have either praised or scolded the animal. Just telling them to do a trick will not take up energy, and you do not have to praise or scold every single time. Praising and scolding, however, are the only ways to gain experience (with the exception of the name). You can also praise an animal with the treats that you can purchase from the Food Trader. Each type of animal (ex dogs or cats) has a specific type of treat associated with them.

When you have trained an animal to the level specified by the owner, you will either receive the payment or be told to bring the animal to their exam or audition. If there is no final test, the owner will return. Gain control of their animal and bring them to the owner; they will walk away with their animal, and you will have more space for more animals to train.

When you gain trainer levels and start taking on more difficult animals, eventually you will be able to train them to complete an exam of varying types. The easiest is the Family Animal Exam, with harder ones being advertisement auditions, TV auditions, and film auditions.

The first type of exam you will see in your training is the Family Animal Exam. The owner will say that they want their animal to become a family animal. You will train them just as you would any other animal, but when you have finished their training, instead of receiving payment and returning the animal, a person will appear and you will be prompted to take the test.

To begin the test, click on the person that has appeared while you are in control of the proper animal. They will give you a prompt of the trick that they want to see the animal perform. If you have the animal perform the trick and they succeed, the examiner will prompt with another trick. Typically, the exams are three or four tricks long. If you fail, you will be able to try again. Note that if you pass an exam with no failures of any tricks, you will earn a monetary bonus. When you have finished, the animal's owner will arrive and you can hand off the animal to them as usual.

A trick to these exams is that you can save your game before starting the exam and at any point during the exam. You can start the exam and perform a trick, and if your animal fails, you can re-load your game from the point before the failure. If your animal succeeds, you can save, and then when you re-load your game, you will be at the point after the success and before the next trick.

Later in your training journey, you will be able to bring animals to advertisements, television shoots, and film shoots. This can be accessed by heading up the path past the fenced-in area of the pet school. Once you arrive, there will be a person standing at the edge of the set who acts as an examiner. You can click them to begin the exam, but make sure you have released the animal onto the set beforehand.

Again, you will follow the instructions given by the examiner. These are typically more elaborate and can involve performing specific actions, such as spinning on the left side of the counter or asking in the middle of the set. Completing the exam without any failures will earn you a monetary bonus. After the exam, the completion screen will not appear until you arrive back onto the grounds of your pet school.

As you earn money, you will be able to upgrade your pet school, as well as educate yourself on various animals.

Upgrading buildings can be done once per day, and the building upgrade will be completed the next morning. Upgrading the animal houses will increase animals' comfort, make the cleanliness decay slower, and increase space.

Since you start with only one animal house, the others have to be built for you to be able to train those types of animals. For example, dogs will not be available to train until you have built the dog house. After the house is available, you will receive requests to train dogs on your computer.

Education can be done to increase your trainer level quicker, as well as the difficulty levels offered for each animal. Once you choose a course, you will receive the first lesson immediately. The next two lessons will be given to you on the next two mornings, followed by a quiz on the fourth day. Lessons can be accessed again by clicking on the bookshelf in the pet school, so you can cram before the exam. If you pass the exam, your knowledge for that animal will increase. If you fail,

Note that higher-level animals can sometimes have time limits on their training. These can be viewed in their training summary by clicking the notebook icon in the top right of the screen. If no date and time is displayed, there is no time limit for that particular animal.

Besides the pet school grounds, there are three other areas that you can explore with your pets.

The town can be accessed by following the path between the pet school house and the fenced-in area. There is a sign with buildings on it, and if you hover over the sign, it will say "Town".

When you arrive in town, you will see a large park to your right, a Food Trader ahead of you, and two other business owners to your left. From these two, you can purchase advertisements, which will increase the frequency of clients offered on your computer for a given time, or you can take out a loan from the bank. You can use this loan money to upgrade your pet school or purchase supplies, but you will have to pay it back with interest, so keep track of that.

The Food Trader offers food, treats, brushes, pet toys, and other supplies needed to train your animals. The amount you currently have of each item can be seen by hovering over the items. You can click an item to put it in your cart, and right click the item to remove it, both one at a time. Once you have hit okay on the screen, any items in your cart will be purchased and the price will be removed from your wallet. Any purchased items can be found in the warehouse of your pet school.

The park in town acts as another training area. You are able to bring any pets here and train them as if they are in the fenced-in area in your pet school. It is recommended to keep an object, such as a stick, in your inventory, so you can train animals at this field without forgetting any supplies, since any purchased supplies have to be accessed from the warehouse.

The film set is where animals will complete assessments for advertisements, TV, and movies. It can be accessed from the path past the fenced-in area of your pet school. There is a sign with a film clapper and a dog on it, and if you hover over the sign, it will say "Film Set".

The film set will change based on the current animal and scenario at hand. For example, sometimes it will be a crime scene set, with a chalk-outlined body. For advertisements, it is usually a yellow set with two counters and a ball in the center. Any supplies needed for the exam will be provided, so you do not need to bring anything with you.

The examiner stands at the edge of the set, and you will complete the exam on the set, in front of the cameras. It does not matter where your character stands; even if they are blocking the shot, that does not affect the outcome.

The forest is where you can take animals on a walk. It can be accessed from the path past the pet school, towards the trees. There is a path around a lake, as well as a large fenced-in area where you can train your animals.