New Calendar Guide for Island of Happiness

I sent a new mini-guide for Island of Happiness to IGN a few moments ago. It is a Calendar Guide and includes both a complete Calendar of all Birthdays and Festivals as well as a section that gives detailed information about all Festivals in the game.
Some players had emailed me asking for a Festival Guide. Although I have included much of this information now in my General Guide as well, I always find quick reference guides helpful in Harvest Moon.

The guide describes the requirements for winning each of the Contests as well as giving basic information about location and time. All the community festivals occur at the Meadow, so that information is not as useful as it might be in other Harvest Moon games, but there are a few Festivals that occur at night. As usual in Harvest Moon, the Cooking Festival is a festival in two parts. You need to go to the Meadow twice to experience both.

Meanwhile, I have been experimenting with the Wild Dog. I built a new improved Chicken Pen outside using Material Stone. In other Harvest Moon games, that and a trained dog would guarantee the safety of the Animals. Not in IoH. Furthermore, you don't witness any attack by the Wild Dog on a chicken or animal as you do in HM DS/Cute DS for example. The horrid creature slinks about silently and yet causes damage randomly.

He leaves the field always at 1.00 a.m. and yet that does not guarantee safety from stress either. My chickens were in the Coop while I was rebuilding the pen. None of them had suffered any stress. When I took them outside at 5.00 a.m. to place them in the new Pen, they were fine and the Wild Dog was nowhere to be found... (He never stays after 1.00 a.m.)

The next morning, 5 out of 8 chickens had suffered stress. It seems, therefore, that having them outside at any time between 8.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m. places them at a chance of risk of stress, irrespective of the actual time frame in which they are outside.

I cannot see any other reason for the stress. They all had been fed and when I went to bed, none had suffered any stress...

The perfidious Wild Dog in Island of Happiness

Well, I have been forced to eat my words with respect to the Wild Dog in Island of Happiness. With only a stone pen but with my dog at 10 hearts, I had been able to leave my chickens outside overnight throughout the Summer season without one incident where any of them developed the telltale stress signs that indicate 'damage' from an attack. Now, however, to my dismay, I have experienced betrayal from my canine pet.

It was a sunny day yesterday and all my chickens sunned themselves in their pen throughout the day, falling asleep peacefully at night as usual...

I went fishing in order to keep my shipments of fish at a level that would keep all the Fishing characters on the Island, returning home only at 11.40 p.m.

There had been no barking to indicate the presence of the Wild Dog anywhere, but when I entered my field, I saw the creature slinking about silently near the Chicken Pen.

The Chickens continued to sleep peacefully... but then I found my DOG sleeping as well! He could not be roused to do his duty either. I picked him up, but as soon as I put him down, he fell asleep again, ignoring the continuing threat of the Wild Dog!

I equipped a tool but by now it was 1.00 a.m., the time when the Wild Dog leaves of his own accord. He departed as silently as he had appeared.

This morning, rather to my dismay, I found that three of my Chickens were stressed. How could my Dog betray me so, after all the Pet Food, petting and holding I did to bring him to 10 hearts!

So I guess you can't count on your Dog to keep the Wild Dog at bay, even if he has done so dozens of times in the past. I must add here that my Dog certainly has demonstrated the ability to go after the Wild Dog. On many occasions, he has sent him howling from the field... so what happened last night???

In many Harvest Moon games, a pen made of stones or branches is not sufficient to protect chickens or livestock. Perhaps Island of Happiness is the same. I simply didn't have the heart to rebuild the pen with better materials, as it takes so long to position each item on the ground in this game.

The other possibility is that the Dog is not fully trained until his title reaches that of Gold Medal Dog, which would occur when he has participated in three Dog Contests. (Apparently, an animal does not have to Win the Contest to gain a higher title. A Chicken who lost the first Chicken Contest nonetheless was given the title of Copper Medal Chicken. When she won the 2nd, she was given the title of Silver Medal Chicken. My Cow who won her first Contest was given the title of Copper Medal Cow, even though she won first prize. So the title depends on participation rather than winning, evidently.)