FarmVille Loyal Sturdy Doghouse: Everything you need to know

We haven't had to wait long for the next Loyal Doghouse to launch in FarmVille, as the Cupcake Doghouse has been quickly followed up by the Sturdy Doghouse. If you're familiar with the way this feature works, you won't have any problems jumping in and completing this third installment, as you'll simply need to build the new Sturdy Doghouse on at least one of your farms to win five new dogs for that farm.

The Loyal Sturdy Doghouse requires building materials to complete: 12 Chew Toys, 12 Dog Beds and 24 Tennis Balls. Once you collect them you'll receive the Black Pug, which is one of five dogs in this event in total. From there, you'll need to ask your friends for Treats to gather the other four dogs. Here's a complete look at the lineup of dogs in this event and how many treats you'll need for each.

Black Pug - Finish the Doghouse
Bulldog - Collect 20 Red Treats
Brindle Boston - Collect 40 Red Treats
Brindle Boxer - Collect 70 Red Treats
Buff French Bulldog - Collect 120 Red Treats

Once you've collected enough Treats to unlock all five dogs, you'll be able to master them by keeping them inside the Doghouse, or can pull them out to display them proudly on your farm(s). You can also use anywhere from 6-30 Treats to send your dog out to "fetch" items for your farm. Finally, the Doghouse will also give you 100 coins per dog stored inside (up to 500 coins in all) when you collect from it each day.

We already know that another Doghouse is going to be released in the future, but an exact release date is still unknown (as is the selection of dogs it will contain). Don't worry though, as we'll bring you all of the news you need to know about this newest Doghouse as we learn more. Stay tuned!

FarmVille Animal Mastery Totems: Everything you need to know

While Double Mastery events in FarmVille frequently give players the chance to earn double the mastery points on all crops and trees harvested in short events, animal mastery is normally ignored entirely. This looks to be changing, however, via the release of Animal Mastery Totems, which offer you double the amount of mastery points on animals within animal storage buildings, like the Livestock Pen or Zoo.

Totems are decorations that need to placed nearby an animal storage building, similar to how groves must be placed near Orchards to boost tree mastery. There are three different varieties of Mastery Totems to purchase thus far, ranging in price from 15 to 25 Farm Cash, and we have a guide to their stats right here, courtesy of Zynga.

The animal pen that you'd like to alter will need to be placed within the full blue area seen above, but some buildings aren't compatible as of this writing (like the Dino Lab, Baby Bunny Hutch or Doghouses, as examples). In addition, you won't be able to "cheat" the system by moving fully ready animal pens into the space, as these harvest-ready buildings will simply be harvested for the standard amount of points, and won't receive a bonus. However, you can place more than one Totem around a single animal pen, earning up to a 400% mastery boost on a single harvest if you have a pen surrounded by multiple Totems and happen to own an Animal Mastery Statue that was released previously.

All in all, these Totems are rather expensive, but if you're incredibly focused on mastering every animal that comes your way in FarmVille, at least these Totems give you a chance to save time in the process. Are they worth the investment price? Ultimately, that will be up to you.