Terms of use

Last updated October 14, 2026

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Dock Pets is made by Derissen Software Engineering, a Swiss sole proprietorship of Jonas Derissen, Riedmatt 4, 6300 Zug, Switzerland ("we", "us"). These terms apply to the Dock Pets app for macOS, the pets you adopt or make in it, and the website dock-pets.com.

You get the app from the Mac App Store, so Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement applies to it as well. These terms add what's specific to Dock Pets. If the two differ, Apple's agreement governs the licence to the app itself.

2. The app, your starter pet and adopted pets

The app, your starter pet and every interaction are given to you free of charge, with no ads and no account. The starter pet is drawn at random from the pets of the species you choose, weighted so that some coats are rarer than others; it can't be drawn again or exchanged. These are provided as they are and as available, without any guarantee. We keep developing the app and may add, change or remove pets and features, or stop offering the app, at any time. Pets you have adopted or made stay usable on your Mac (see below and section 3).

Because the free app and the starter pet are a gift, we are liable for them only for intent and gross negligence (Art. 248 Swiss Code of Obligations, CO), and we give no warranty for their defects. Section 8 applies in addition.

Adopting more pets

Every other ready-made pet is a one-time in-app purchase, priced by how rare its coat is (currently $0.99, $1.99 or $3.99, or the equivalent price shown in your App Store), with no subscription. What you buy is the right to use that pet, as shown in the app before you buy it, in the app on the Macs signed in with your Apple Account. You can restore it with Restore Purchases. Prices for pets you haven't bought yet may change.

3. Custom pets

What you buy

A custom pet is a one-time in-app purchase of $4.99 per pet (or the equivalent price shown in your App Store), with no subscription. From your photo, the app makes a pixel pet in your animal's coat colours and markings, built on one of our hand-drawn bodies, with every animation that body has. It's a stylised likeness: the pose, proportions and level of detail are those of our pixel art, not an exact copy of your animal.

Which animals

Custom pets can be made of cats and of the dog breeds our artist has drawn (Beagle, Bull Terrier, Chihuahua, Corgi, Miniature Poodle, Papillon, Pug, Afghan Hound, Australian Shepherd, Bernese Mountain Dog, Bloodhound, Dalmatian, Doberman, German Shepherd, Great Dane, Greyhound, Leonberger, Shiba Inu, Siberian Husky), and of dogs that closely resemble one of them. Before you pay, the app tells you whether it can make a good match. Other animals aren't available yet; you can request yours.

Seeing it before you pay

The app shows you your pet before you pay. If it isn't right, you can have it repainted up to 3 times, with the same or a different photo, at no cost. You pay only when you choose to keep it, and by then you have seen exactly what you're buying.

Keeping your pet

Your custom pet is saved in the app on your Mac. You are responsible for backing up your Mac (for example with Time Machine) so you don't lose it with the Mac. If something goes wrong, write to us and we'll try to help.

What is agreed, and what isn't

The agreed quality of a custom pet is exactly what this section describes: a pixel pet in our style, coloured from your photo by an automated process, as shown to you before you paid. We give no guarantee or assurance of any kind (including no warranted quality or durability) that it will look like your animal in any particular way, and descriptions, pictures and examples on our website or in the App Store are illustrations, not guarantees. Making a new custom pet depends on our server and on third-party services; we don't guarantee that it is available at any particular time, and we may end it. Pets you have already received keep working on your Mac.

4. Your photos

• Only use photos you took yourself or are otherwise allowed to use, of an animal. You are responsible for the photos you upload.
• Don't upload photos showing people as the subject, or anything illegal, hurtful or that infringes someone else's rights.
• You keep all rights to your photos. You allow us to process them only to make your pet; they're deleted as soon as you keep your pet, or within a day if you don't (see the privacy policy).
• If someone makes a claim against us because a photo you uploaded infringed their rights, and you are at fault, you will indemnify us against that claim and the reasonable costs of defending it.

5. Payments, cancellation and refunds

We don't sell anything directly. Apple sells the app and every in-app purchase and handles payment, invoices, taxes and refunds under the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions. This includes any statutory right of withdrawal you have as a consumer in the EU or UK. To ask for a refund, go to reportaproblem.apple.com. Because a custom pet is digital content made for you and delivered immediately, the right of withdrawal can end when the pet is delivered, if you agreed to that when buying. Any warranty claims for the purchase are against Apple as the seller, under Apple's terms and the law that applies to them.

6. Pixel art and other rights

The pet animations are drawn by the pixel artist girlypixels and used by us under licence. The app, the website and their content belong to us or our licensors. You may use the pets, including your custom pet, privately inside the app. Please don't extract, copy, sell or share the sprites, animation frames or pet files, or use them in other software, products or merchandise. Screenshots and screen recordings of your pets for sharing online are welcome.

7. Using the website

Please use the website and its forms only as intended: no automated mass requests, spam or attempts to disrupt the site or the servers behind it.

8. No guarantees and liability

The app, the pets, the custom pet service and this website are provided as they are and as available. To the extent permitted by law, we give no guarantees or warranties of any kind, express or implied, including that they are free of errors, always available, compatible with your Mac or future versions of macOS, or suitable for any particular purpose. You use Dock Pets at your own risk. It's a small desktop toy; please don't rely on it for anything important.

For everything in connection with the app, custom pets and this website, whatever the legal reason:

1. Our liability for slight negligence is excluded, as Art. 100 CO allows. We are liable only for unlawful intent and gross negligence.
2. We are not liable for indirect or consequential damage, lost profit or lost data, except in the case of intent or gross negligence. For loss of data, our liability is in any case limited to the effort it would have taken to restore it from regular, adequate backups.
3. We are not responsible for Apple's services, macOS, the Dock, your hardware or other software on your Mac, third-party services we rely on, or for damage that results from them or from changes to them.
4. Liability for our auxiliary persons (employees, contractors and service providers) is excluded to the extent permitted by law (Art. 101 para. 2 CO).
5. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law, such as under the Swiss Product Liability Act.

If you are a consumer and the mandatory law of the country where you live gives you more protection than these terms (for example, in the EU, liability for slight negligence that injures life, body or health, or that breaches an essential contractual obligation, limited to the damage typically foreseeable when the contract was made), that protection applies instead, but only to the extent it is mandatory.

9. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. We'll show the date of the last change at the top. Changes don't take away anything you have already bought.

10. Law and disputes

These terms and all disputes arising from them are governed by Swiss law, excluding its conflict-of-law rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The courts at our registered place of business in Switzerland have exclusive jurisdiction, unless mandatory law gives you, as a consumer, the right to sue or be sued at the courts where you live. If you are a consumer outside Switzerland, the choice of Swiss law doesn't take away the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live.

We don't take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board. If something isn't right, please write to us first; we'd much rather fix it.

If any part of these terms is invalid or unenforceable, the rest stays in force, and the invalid part is replaced by the valid rule that comes closest to its purpose. These terms are written in English; any translation is for convenience only.

Contact

Derissen Software Engineering · Riedmatt 4 · 6300 Zug · Switzerland · [email protected]