Rules for O, dog! — a race game for teams of two, based on the classic Brändi Dog.
Two players sitting diagonally opposite form a team. Move all your marbles from the kennel, around the loop, and into your home stretch. The first team with all eight marbles home wins. Once all your own marbles are home you keep drawing cards and play them onto your partner's marbles until the team wins together.
A single player cannot win — this is a partnership game. Talking about your cards or advising partners is forbidden during the game.
Two packs of 55 cards are shuffled together (104 standard cards plus 6 Jokers).
You must play every card by moving its value on the board. Advising partners or revealing your cards is forbidden.
Partners sit diagonally opposite. All four marbles begin in the kennel. One player is chosen as the dealer for the whole game and deals counter-clockwise. Round card counts follow the cycle 6 → 5 → 4 → 3 → 2, then repeat.
At the start of every round each player passes one card face-down to their partner. All four passes resolve simultaneously. The player to the dealer's right opens each round by playing one card face-up in the middle and moving that value. The round ends once everyone has played all cards. If a player cannot move with any card in hand, they are out for the round and their cards are discarded.
Only Ace, King or Joker takes a marble from the kennel onto your start cell. A marble that has just left the kennel blocks its own start cell — it cannot be passed, cannot be captured, and cannot be swapped with a Jack. The blockade is lifted the moment that marble moves.
If you land on a cell already occupied by another marble (your own included), that marble is sent back to its owner's kennel. The only exception is a fresh start-cell blocker — it is protected.
Any marble a whole or split 7 passes over is sent home — your own marbles included. Plan splits carefully.
You may overtake other marbles freely. A fresh start-cell blocker is the only marble that cannot be overtaken; every card except a 7 (see rule 5) stops at it.
A Jack must swap one of your marbles with any other marble on the loop (opponent's or partner's), even if the swap is disadvantageous. Marbles that may not be swapped:
If only your own marbles are on the track and no other card in your hand is playable, the Jack may be played at the end with no effect.
Every card must be played, and its full value carried out. This can force disadvantageous moves. Example: if you need a 5 to enter home but your next card is a 6, that marble must take another lap.
To enter the home stretch, a marble must touch its own start cell at least twice — forwards or backwards. Home is always entered forwards over the start. Once inside, you cannot jump over your own marbles and cannot move backwards. The stretch fills from the inside outwards.
The 7 is especially useful for home entry because it can be broken up into individual steps.
Typical sequence:
Once one player has all their marbles home, they help their partner. A 7 can be split so its remaining points, after bringing the last own marble home, continue on a partner's marble. Cards keep being dealt to a player without marbles — the team plays the endgame together.
To finish, not every card needs to be used, but the last card played must be fully carried out. A last marble may therefore need extra laps before its exact count fits.
Everyone plays alone with 4 marbles. Three marbles start in the kennel and one marble is placed directly on the start cell at setup.
Card exchange: at the start of every round each player passes one card face-down to their right neighbour.
7: a 7 may be split across any marbles on the board and captures whatever it passes over, including a start-cell blocker — so a blockade can be dissolved.
2: may be played normally, or used to draw a card from an opponent's hand; the 2 is then discarded with no board effect and the turn passes.
The first player to bring all four marbles home wins.
Rules adapted from the official Brändi Dog manual (braendi-dog.de).