How do you train your dog in Harvest Moon Save the homeland?

Raising Animals

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The Dog
When you begin the game you'll notice several stray dogs wandering around. If you approach them, they'll run away. To woo a dog to your yard, keep putting food in his bowl. Anything will do: grass, eggs, berries. When you place these foods in the bowl, they immediately turn into doggie mush. After a while, you will notice the dog appearing at your farm more and more. Keep trying to pick up the dog (X). At some point, he will let you pick him up, and he will be yours!

Your dog is a useful ally, but only if you have the Flute (which you can get from Rick). Once you have the flute, you can train your pup with it. Pull out the flute and equip it, then play the following note combos to perform the corresponding function:

Sit: UP, LEFT, DOWN
Down: UP, DOWN, DOWN
Heel: LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT
Drive animals: RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT
Jump: LEFT, UP, RIGHT
Sit up: DOWN, UP, UP

The most useful of all of these commands is drive animals. This way, if you have a bunch of cows and need them put back in the barn at the end of the day, you can tell your dog to herd them while you focus on other things. The dog won't herd the horse, though, and he won't herd animals after he's been sleeping, so make sure to get back to the farm before the sun goes down.

The Horse
To get the horse you'll have to visit Bob's farm quite a bit. Do part-time work taking care of his horses and cows, and give him lots of presents (he likes sweets). Eventually, after a solid chunk of work (a season or more) and a good deal of present-giving, he'll bring a horse to you. The horse is important for one of the events that could potentially save your farm, so put a lot of effort into getting it. Besides, how else will you be able to horse race?

In the beginning, the horse won't let you ride it. That's okay. At first, just push the horse outside to feed it. This takes some doing. Just get behind the horse and push. You'll notice it arches off to the right or left. Just move the stick right and left quickly to keep it on an even kiel.

Continue to brush, feed and talk to the horse every day. After awhile, the horse will let you ride it. Now you can take it into town, ride it around the farm, etc. After a few days of this, your horse will begin to gallop. When this happens, Bob will show up at the farm and talk about racing. Then you're set.

Raising Chickens Cheaply
When you get 500G, go to the Farmer's shop and talk to Bob to get a chicken. He'll bring it to your chicken coop. Feed it and make sure it doesn't get sick, and it will lay eggs for you. When the first one appears, place it on the incubator. Three days later you'll have a chicken. Wait for the chick to grow into a chicken and to start laying eggs. Each time an egg is laid, put it on the incubator to make it grow into a chick. Then raise the chick until it becomes a chicken. Either sell your chickens to Brownie Farm for a pretty penny, or sell your eggs to Clove Villa to make a more constant income off of your poultry. Soon, you'll be able to afford cows and such as well!

Cows
Cows can be a pretty steep investment early on, so hold off on them until you have a good farm going. Before you purchase a cow, make sure you have plenty of fodder in the barn (get this by cutting down the grass in your field. Be sure to have Animal Medicine as well. You don't want your big investment to get sick or die. It's also a good idea to hold off on cows until the puppy is able to herd them. If you have several cows and no dog with herding skills, it can take the better part of a day to get them in and out of the barn. If you don't have a dog, just feed the cows inside the barn until you do.

Milk is your most steady source of income from your bovines. Make sure you keep them quite happy and they'll produce more and more of it. Make sure to talk to your cows daily to check on their moods, and to see if they are sick. Make sure you brush and milk them every day. As they mature, they'll give you better and better milk.

Keeping cows is much different than keeping chickens. In order to get more (to get your cows pregnant), for instance, you have to go buy a Miracle Potion from the farmer. Once you do, take it back to the cow and administer the potion. It takes about ten days to get a calf. Remember, the whole time your cow is pregnant, it will be unable to give milk. When the baby cow is born, it too will not be able to give milk until it reaches a more mature age.

You don't want to sell your cows off like you do your chickens, just to turn a fast buck. It's too expensive to buy Potions and be without milk during pregnancy. Once you have a stable full of cows, just keep them for their milk, and keep cashing in at Clove Villa. You'll be rich in no time.

On to It's People...

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