The Dog House Dog or Alive

Theme and Design

Those Cute Pooches Have Swapped Suburbia For The Wild West

Dopey pooches hanging out in a wild west town might not sound like the recipe for a great slot, but it works here. Maybe because we’ve met this lot before in the previous Dog House games so we’re familiar with their sight and sounds, and dressing a dog up in a cowboy outfit is always going to be funny, right?! Tombstone RIP this most definitely is not. Nor is it the same suburban setting of the original Dog House games in fact. But we do get the same kids cartoon styling in the visuals and a typically whacky soundtrack to accompany the gameplay. It’s jaunty, upbeat and fun. So if you like your slots that way, welcome to Dog or Alive!

RTP and Variance

There are three different RTP settings for Pragmatic’s Dog House-Western mash up – 96.08%, 95.08% and 94.08%.

There is little between those but whilst you wouldn’t feel the difference between 94.08% and 96.08% over a few hundred spins it’s still worth finding those casinos that run the game at its optimum level for the best chance of a positive return. My recommendation would be MrQ from Lindar Media, or Casumo, a popular independent brand. Both these sites normally run games at the top RTP rates.

To check the RTP for yourself, hit the ‘I’ button under the reels and scroll through the game info screen until you see Return to Player displayed.

This is also, in keeping with the tone of the series and most westerns, a high variance game. Pragmatic Play know how to crank up the volatility so don’t expect an easy ride. It will produce big moments from time to time but you can also burn your balance fast. So choose a sensible stake.

Maximum Win

The max win comes in at 10,000x. That is higher than most Dog House games but lower than the Megaways release that came in at 12,305x. If you want bigger potential from Pragmatic then check out our list of their highest max win slots.

Symbols and Paytable

Onto the paytable and this is a 5 reel game with 3 rows and 20 paylines to win across. Wins are triggered in the normal way by landing 3 or more identical symbols on a line from left to right, starting at the left most reel.

There is good value to be had from straight forward payline wins before we even get to the features. There are 11 pay symbols in all. The low payers are the cards, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace. These are valued at from 0.1x for 3 10s up to 2.5x for 5 Aces. The premiums are the bone, dog collar, and the four pooches. These are valued at from 0.4x for 3 bonues up to 37.5x for 5 of the smiling sheriff dogs.

There is a wild too, represented by the sheriff’s badge. It can only land on reels 2, 3 and 4. And when it does it ALWAYS carries a multiplier of 2x or 3x to be applied to any win that it forms a part of. If more than one is included on a wining line, their values are ADDED together to create the total multiplier to be applied to the win.

Features and Gameplay

Other than the Wild there are no extra features in the base game. Instead, it’s all about triggering the free spins round by landing THREE BONUS symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5 on one spin.

That gets you into the feature AND awards you a 5x win.

The total number of spins you get is decided at random by the spin of a new mini reel set of 3x3. After the spin each position will display a number between 1 and 3. All numbers are added together to reveal how many spins you get.

This is a progressive feature where wild multipliers grow in value. It works like this …

During the round, ALL wilds are sticky. So, if you land a 3x multiplier wild anywhere, then it stays in place for the remainder of the feature. As before, wilds only land on reels 2, 3 or 4. But now, once 3 have landed, an extra 3 spins are awarded, and ALL multiplier values on the reels double. And the same again once 6 have landed, and then when 9 have landed.

After that, there are no more extensions, and there is NO re-trigger because in free spins no BONUS symbols appear on the reels.