All 63 of them! Why are you responsible for so many dogs? I have no idea, you’d have to ask the SimplyFun folks who came up with Walk The Dogs!
The game starts with all 63 dogs lined up nose-to-tail in the center of the playing area. That’s a lot of plastic pups, so the line will probably curve a few times, but the important part is that there’s a clear front and back of the line. Once the game has started, players will also have their own lines in front of them, which should also have an obvious direction.
Players start with two cards and draw one, then play one each turn. Most of the cards are Dog cards, which indicate a number of dogs and a side of the line – front, back, or one dog from each. When you play these, you take the indicated number of pups from the appropriate section and add them to your own line, front or back, in any combination. Once your pups are placed, their order is almost always unchangeable, though there are three Leash cards that let you claim a dog from an opponent’s line instead of the general stock. In the end, the goal is to have as many of the same breed in a row as possible!
If anyone gets five matching dogs in a row, they automatically win. Otherwise, the game continues until all the dogs from the middle are taken, and chains score exponentially – one poodle in a row is one point, two make four points, and so forth. The player with the most points wins!
There are also a couple special cards that are played immediately when drawn and replaced. The first is the Bone, which is a three-point bonus awarded to whomever has the least dogs when the card is drawn. Fewer dogs, but happy dogs! The other card is the Dog Catcher, which causes everyone to lose their longest exposed group of same-type pups. (If the front and the back each have chains of equal amount, they get to choose which goes.) All discarded pups go back in the Doggie Bag, never to be seen again. At least, not this game!
While Walk The Dogs is theoretically designed for elementary schoolers, and accordingly easy to learn, the lines’ static nature makes it challenging and fun for strategists of any age.
