Timberdoodle Smart Dog Game Review

I want to share with you today a fun game from Timberdoodle, Smart Dog.  Smart Dog is a one player game recommended for kids 7 and older or 2nd grade and up manufactured by Smart Games.

Game Contents

What's included in our game?

Our set includes the compact game board with transparent lid, 1 dog trainer, 1 dog, 6 obstacle puzzle pieces and a booklet containing 60 challenges and their solutions.  The 60 challenges increase in difficulty from Starter, Junior, Expert, Master, and Wizard.

 

 

How do you play?

Some dogs tackle obstacle courses easily, showcasing both their agility and intelligence, while for others it can be more of a learning curve.  If you have ever watched dogs run agility courses you know they can be fun and impressive!  With Smart Dog, your child can create a path for their "smart dog" to run through its own agility course.  Smart Dog is visually appealing with it's various bright colors and the obstacles are fun (bridge, tubes, hoop).  Your dog travels in a straight line until an obstacle changes its direction.  As your child creates each obstacle course for their pup, they'll not only be entertained but also be incrementally challenged.  The 60 various challenges increase in difficulty from easy to difficult with five levels - Starter, Junior, Expert, Master, and Wizard.

Above, you can see the first 8 challenges at the Starter level 

These easier challenges show the positions of some of the obstacles.

Above, you can see the last 4 challenges at the Wizard level

These harder challenges only show you the positions of the dog and the trainer.

So a player will choose a challenge from the booklet.  They will place the dog and the trainer on the indicated positions on the game board.  Then, they will place the obstacles on the game board to create a path from the dog to the trainer.  They will use every obstacle only once.  The dog can only move horizontally or vertically from square to square, not diagonally.  The dog's path will follow a straight line until the path is changed by a curved obstacle.  The dog's path can go over empty squares in any direction horizontally or vertically and sometimes it will cross the same square on the board twice but from a differing direction.  The path goes underneath the dark blue bridge.  Each challenge has one unique solution.

The unique solutions for each challenge can be found at the back on your challenge booklet.

Above, you can see the solutions for the first four challenges.

It takes a little getting used to the pieces as you place them on the game board.  I love that Smart Dogs is hands-on and great for both visual and kinesthetic learners!

G setting up Challenge 30

Finished!  G solved this one in under 20 minutes :)

Smart Dogs is another one player gem from Smart Games.  Smart Dog encourages concentration, planning, problem solving and flexible thinking and this one has become a fan favorite with the younger boys.  They absolutely love the idea of training their own dog.  If you are looking for a creative single player logic game, we highly recommend Smart Dog.  It's fun and makes you think and works for a variety of ages.

Disclosure:  Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger.  I received Smart Dog in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.