Dogs With Jobs – Board Game Review

🐾 Review: Dogs With Jobs Board

Played on: [Tabletop] · Release: [2025] · Designer/Studio: [John Gordon/Lab 380] ·
Time: [⏱ 30m] · Players: [2–5] Geek Link: [Dogs With Jobs]

TL;DR: A ruff-and-ready drafting game, fetch your favorite working hound, juggle jobs, and dig deep for the best combos.

Would I play this instead of tidying the kitchen? [Absolutely].

What is it?

Dogs With Jobs is a drafting and set-collection game for 2–5 players in which you recruit dogs to complete various “job” cards. Each dog has skill values, and jobs require certain combinations of those skills; you draft dogs, assign them to jobs, and score points based on your efficiency and planning.

How it Plays

At its core, the game revolves around drafting dogs from a shared pool and then deploying them to take on jobs. Some job cards are versatile (usable for skills in multiple ways), giving tactical flexibility. Each round you must choose which jobs to pursue and which dogs to allocate, balancing short-term needs with long-term positioning. The setup is fairly quick, and rules are light, making it approachable for varied groups. The pacing tends to be brisk, and the game rewards both planning several moves ahead as well as reacting to opponents’ choices. The variability of dog skills and job cards gives good replay value, though the game is not especially deep, limits on how many dogs can be drafted, and how many jobs each unit of dogs can complete, keep the focus sharp. In addition theres some ( ocassionally mean! ) player interaction, with some of the dogs special abilities targetting other players.

Metric	Rating	Notes (Board / Video)
Tail-Wag Fun 🐾	🐾🐾🐾☆☆	Good fun, even if it feels short, player interactions can be quite mean!
Fetch-Depth 🎾	🐾🐾🐾☆☆	Decent amount of tactical drafting, and use of abilities, add some depth to this drafting game.
Belly-Rub Accessibility ❤️	🐾🐾🐾🐾☆	Simple rules, easy to teach and learn, may take a play or two to fully get the hang of some of the dogs abilities.
Drool-Worthy Presentation 💧	🐾🐾🐾🐾☆	The art for the dog cards is beautiful, production values are high, and iconography is good.
Zoomies & Flow 💨	🐾🐾🐾🐾☆	Game is quick, with short turns, doesnt outstay its welcome.
Treat Value 🍪	🐾🐾🐾☆ ☆	Nicely produced, but this was a kickstarter, so availability and pricing may be an issue.

Good Doggo (Pros) 🐶

• Easy to learn and quick to teach, making it accessible.
• Good replayability thanks to varied jobs and dog skill combos.
• Satisfying drafting decisions with meaningful trade-offs.

Ruff Spots (Cons) 🐶

• The overall depth is modest; heavier strategy gamers may want more complexity.
• In some sessions, dog–job combos feel a bit restricted, limiting ideal plays.
• As with many drafting games, early picks or bad draws can swing balance heavily in some games.

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Verdict

Dogs With Jobs is a nimble, charming tactical drafting game , its not a heavyweight, but a solid choice when you want a fun, light-to-medium-weight puzzle of skills, dogs, and job matching. The artwork in this game is brilliant.

Recommendation Tier : 🐾 🐾 🐾🐾 – Good Doggo

Legend: 0 🐾 Ruff · 1–2 🐾 Patchy · 3 🐾 Solid Sit · 4 🐾 Good Doggo · 5 🐾 Chef’s Kiss