The Dog Island/Gameplay

The goal of The Dog Island is to find a certain flower on a distant island which may be able to cure your sick sibling. In order to progress in the game, you must learn scents and help dogs in need.

Scents
Scents are divided into six categories: As you learn new scents, they will be added to the Scent List in the Memo section of the menu. In your Scent List you can see the items you have collected along with a short description. The percentage of all scents in the game which you have collected is also tracked. There are many ways to learn new scents:
 * 1) Flowers
 * 2) Food
 * 3) Fish
 * 4) Bugs
 * 5) Special Items
 * 6) Tools
 * Sniffing and digging up items
 * Collecting fish and bugs
 * Receiving items
 * Being taught new scents by other dogs

Sniffing
For flowers and food, you will sniff around the areas outside of town using the button. At the bottom of the screen is your scent locator, which consists of an icon inside a circle surrounded by a series of ever-larger ovals. The icon in the center will either by a question mark (?) if you haven't already learned the scent you are tracking, or a picture of the item.

As you more directly face the flower or food, the circle in your locator will grow bigger. Conversely, if you face away from the item, it will get smaller. The closer you get to the item, the more ovals around your locator will fill up. Using these two data points in conjunction allows you to determine the heading and proximity. For normal items, such as flowers, food or certain other items like Medicinal Herbs, your locator will be surrounded by yellow orbs. If you are following the scent of a special item, it will be surrounded by blue orbs.

Fishing
Throughout The Dog Island, and on Captain El Dorado's ship, there are piers from which you can fish. You will be pulling from a unique population of fish at each pier. In addition, some fish can only be found at certain piers. To fish, move to the end of the pier and press the button when the "Fish" command appears. Your character will drop a line into the water and wait for a bite. When you get a fish on the hook, a bar will appear across the bottom of the screen with a smaller orange bar overlayed on top of it. The size of the orange bar corresponds with the size of the fish.

The fish will attempt to pull away from you by tugging on the line. As the fish gets close to breaking the line and escaping, the orange bar will start to move to the left. When it reaches the red portion at the end, you will lose your catch. To avoid this outcome, pull up on the Wiimote as though it were a fishing pole. The harder you snap it up the more force your character will give in tugging in the line. As you pull on the line, the orange bar will move in the other direction towards the right side of the fishing meter. You will also lose the fish if you pull too hard and the orange bar makes it into the red portion on the right hand side.

Bug catching
As you run through The Dog Island, you will see various bugs in the areas outside of town. Some bugs, such as butterflies and dragonflies, will fly through the air, while others will be on trees or on the ground, like cicadas and ladybugs, respectively. To catch a bug, simply approach it and press the button when the "Catch" command appears. Catching a bug requires facing in the right direction and correctly timing your button press.

The bug meter is a black bar across the bottom of the screen with a smaller red bar overlayed and a blue timing line moving back and forth. The timing line moves within a portion of the bug meter in the center and the red bug location bar moves across the entire width. The goal is to get the red bug location bar into the center of the bar and press the button to stop the timing line while it is over the red bar. Some bugs move very fast, and their location bar can flit across the bug meter quickly, while others are stationary. Additionally, the timing line will move with varying degrees of celerity.

Use the pawprint cursor on the screen to face toward the bug, bringing the red bar into the center of the bug meter. When the timing line crosses paths with the location bar, press the button to stop it. If the timing line stops on top of the location bar, you will catch your bug. If not, you will return to normal gameplay and can try to catch the bug again. All bugs except for beetles also have a 15 second countdown during which you must catch the bug.

Special Items
The other way to learn new scents is by being taught. Your quests throughout the game will generally center around finding a certain item. Many of the dogs who you will be helping will teach you the scent of the item you must find.

Helping dogs
The bulk of the game will be spent helping dogs in various parts of The Dog Island. Some missions are mandatory and will move the story along, while others are optional or semi-optional. A semi-optional missions occurs when you need to help a certain amount of dogs before you can proceed, and the number of dogs needing help is greater. This means you get to choose which quests you will perform, although you are still required to choose at least one. All your missions are recorded in the Diary in the Memo section of the menu.

In the beginning of the game you will be directed to the dogs that give you missions. Later, you can go into the Map through the menu and press to sniff out dogs that need help. This can only be done on the world map, not the individual village maps. To cycle up to the larger map, press the button. If there are potential quests, a balloon will pop up over the corresponding area on the map. Move from place to place with the buttons to see the names of the areas.

When you come to a dog who has a quest for you, the dog will have a thought balloon with a question mark (?) in it over its heads. Walk up to the dog and a cutscene may start automatically. If not, press the button when the "Talk" command appears.

Diary
If at any time you are unsure of how to complete the mission you are currently on, or if you want to check whether you are on a mission, you can check that quest's entry in your Diary in the Memo section of the menu. Flip pages in your Diary with the and  buttons, and press  to see the contents of an entry. Completed missions will have pink stars next to them, while open missions will have nothing next to them or a blue stylized paw icon. The paw icon appears when you have collected the item you were tasked with getting, but still need to deliver it.