How to Delete Your Nintendogs+Cats Completely

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Last Updated: July 4, 2025

You want to completely delete your Nintendogs + Cats game. Maybe you've made a mistake, or you have too many dogs, or you just want to start over. You can find this information and more in the Nintendogs manual – but if you don't have a manual, read on and learn how to quickly and easily delete your old file!

Steps

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To begin, turn on your Nintendo3DS and navigate to your Nintendogs + Cats game.
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Press and hold the A, B, X, and Y buttons.^{[1]
X
Research source} While your Nintendogs + Cats game is loading, hold these four buttons down at the same time. This will bring up a pop-up screen that prompts you to delete your save file and start the game over. Make sure to press the buttons before the title screen appears!
- Press A, B, X, and Y as soon as the "Nintendogs + Cats" logo appears. This should be a white loading screen with a small dog icon running in the bottom left-hand corner.
- If this button combination doesn't work, try pressing the L and R buttons in addition. In total: A, B, X, Y, L, and R.
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A question will pop up asking you if you want to delete your save file. Make sure that you are ready to lose all of your progress from this game – including all dogs, cats, and items. There is no way to recover the save file once it's gone.^{[2]
X
Research source}
Once you click "Yes," you have completely deleted the old Nintendogs + Cats file. Let the game load again, and begin fresh!

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Question

How do I get my game back?

Community Answer

I'm so sorry, but you can't get back your data once it's already deleted. You'll have to start over from scratch.

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Will this work on Petz Nursery 2?

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I'm afraid it won't, but here's what you can do: hold down L, X, B, and Select. After that, the Ubisoft logo and a prompt will appear asking if you want to delete saved game data.

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How do I delete a Nintendogs game?

Community Answer

All you have to do is hold down the buttons L, R, A, B, Y and X when the white Nintendo screen appears. It should prompt you to delete your save.

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Tips

Some sources, including the Nintendo website, say that you should press and hold A, B, X, Y, L, and R to bring up the file-delete prompt. Other sources claim that you only need to press A, B, X, and Y. If one button combination doesn't work, try the other!

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