Effective April 28, 2022, we are implementing new timing rules based on community feedback. The timing for run start and run end have changed as follows:

Start: Upon confirming your dog's name (Previously: Selecting "Start Game").

End: Upon the first black frame after affirmatively choosing to leave Pupsville at the end of the game (Previously: Upon the first frame of the end credits appearing).

These new start and end points offer quality-of-life improvements for runners; namely, the freedom to choose the dog breed / name of their choice without taking a time loss, as well as the elimination of load times before/after the end cutscene (and for many versions, the end cutscene itself). No gameplay of consequence occurs before or after these points.

These changes were proposed, discussed, and then unanimously approved by participating users on the Discord.

The change to the end point does happen to nullify the only currently-known major timesave between regional releases - Wii JP's ability to skip the end cutscene, a consistent 20-to-25ish-second save. It should be noted that prominent Wii JP runners were among the first to propose and endorse the end point change; in no way is the timesave being wrested away in bad faith.

Existing runs have been manually retimed to the new specifications and will be updated on the leaderboards accordingly shortly after this post is made. No changes to rankings will result.

Happy running and as always, we welcome your thoughts, questions, feedback, etc.!