Product Description

The Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name magically grow up to be a full-sized dog in only four days. Just as easily, the dog can magically become a puppy again as puppy grows, it learns to know your name, its name and when it is fed or groomed. Plus, each can even sing songs using your name with the programming CD and accessories which is also included.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7537 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Fisher-Price
• Model: M9797
• Released on: 2008-06-01

Features

• Puppy grows and knows your name magically grow up to be a full-sized dog in only four days
• Just as easily, the dog can magically become a puppy again
• As puppy grows, it learns to know your name, its name and when it is fed or groomed
• Plus, each can even sing songs using your name
• Programming CD and accessories are included

Amazon.com Review
Getting to know a new friend is fun with the Puppy Grows & Knows Your Name Poodle from Fisher-Price. This interactive toy puppy comes complete with curly white hair, a pink plastic collar, a bone-shaped treat, and a brush. More than that, the puppy actually "grows" over time, and it can be programmed to know your child's name and it's own name (which you pick). With this puppy, children 18 months and up can enjoy having an interactive pet all their own.

What We Think Fun Factor: Durability: (what this means) The Good: Puppy really grows and "learns" new sayings The Bad: Hard body isn't padded beneath the soft fur In a Nutshell: Kids are sure to love having a pet that calls them by name At a Glance Ages: 18 months and older Requires: Windows PC with a CD drive and USB port

Puppy is smallest when you first open the box. (Poodle version shown) View larger.

In four days, puppy is fully grown. (Poodle version shown) View Larger.

Cute, Cuddly, and Easy-to-Program
Before your child adopts this puppy, an adult will need to program the puppy and make sure that four AA batteries are installed. Programming is fast and easy. Simply insert the included CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive, follow the directions to complete installation, and open the user-friendly application. This lets you select your child's name, check the pronunciation, pick a name for your puppy, and upload the data to your puppy using the included USB cable.

Now "Pickles," "Snowball," or "Chi Chi" is ready to meet your child. The first time we touched her back, our puppy wagged her tail and said, "Hi, Tony. How are you? I'm feeling happy today." A few seconds later, she said, "Let's play, Tony." Try sticking the bone in her mouth to hear crunching sounds, or petting her soft fur.

Have Fun Charting Puppy's Growth
Puppy has more to offer than just fun, interactive movements and sayings. Over the course of four days, this puppy actually "grows." Watching the puppy get taller right in front of our eyes quickly won us over. And, unlike a real dog, Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name can go back to being a puppy, so you and your child can watch the growth cycle all over again. Our puppy didn't come with a set of instructions, so we had to figure out her pattern of growth on our own.

The included chart helps kids measure and track the growth of their puppy. Plus, puppy has something new to say each of the four days, which makes it seem like she really is learning as she grows. Part of this learning process includes singing two songs that feature your child's name, which are sure to delight little pet owners.

This puppy is recommended for children as young as 18 months, but younger children, who are sure to love the way puppy speaks right to them, may not be as interested in measuring growth and watching puppy mature. Plus, since Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name is battery powered, she has a hard body underneath her furry coat. We felt that a little more padding would make this her a much more huggable friend.

While the programming CD requires a system running Windows 2000, XP, Vista or higher, the puppy can still be fun even if you use a Mac or don't have a computer. Without programming, the poodle simply calls itself "Puppy" and your child "Friend." And even though a wide variety of names, including David, Geronimo, Sharif, and Zelda, appear in the list of names your puppy recognizes, if your child has a very unusual name, you may not be able to "teach" it to the puppy. Setting the puppy to speak to a "Friend" or "Buddy" instead of using a single name can also be an excellent solution for children who share their puppy with siblings.

Overall, Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name is a great pick for children who love dogs but can't have a live puppy of their own. She's sure to inspire lots of creative interaction, and parents are sure to appreciate that they don't get stuck walking the dog, buying food, and picking up messes.

What's in the Box
Puppy, bone, brush, tape measure, growth chart, birth certificate, 4 AA batteries, USB cable, and programming CD.

Customer Reviews

Boring!
I bought this last year for my then 2-year-old son when it first came out for [...] Since I ordered it on Amazon, sending it back would mean losing out on a big chunk of what I paid for it in return shipping, so we just kept it. It was one of the worst toy purchases I have ever made.

The puppy's voice is not very pleasant, in my opinion, and upon loading up the software you'll find that at least 80% of the names available to give your puppy are female names. It's not that big of a deal, but my son wanted his puppy to be a boy and the voice sounds like a boy, so I didn't quite get the lack of male names on the software.

My major gripe is the total lack of variety. On the first day, the puppy says only 2 or 3 different things. As he grows, he says one new thing each day and repeats all the others. It gets extremely repetitive very fast. The bone and brush (if you can manage to not lose them) are fun at first because the puppy says something specifically about the item, but the bone is tricky to get in the right spot. You have to push it against his nose more than put it in his mouth. Still, it made my son giggle quite a bit when the puppy burped the first few times after having the bone.

The growing aspect is also lacking. It does not grow as much as you're led to believe. A few inches is about it. And due to all the mechanical parts that make this puppy tick, it is hard as a rock and not cuddly in any way. My son used to try to drag him around the house and it's just silly seeing him drag this heavy, stiff animal around.

He did enjoy him the first few days, but now the puppy is lucky to get his attention once every few weeks. I cringe every time I think of all the other quality toys I could have gotten him for what I paid for this. Not recommended!

You have to remember that it is a toy......
This was one of the Amazon "bargains" of the day - and thought 11 year old granddaughter would like it. Wasn't exactly sure what it did, etc. but she loves stuffed animals......and this dog is just too cute!!!! As people came to her house, I kept saying - look at this dog - and finally everyone said - We Saw The Dog - but, that IS how cute it is!!!!!

Cute, fun toy...
I bought this for my almost 3 year old daughter for Christmas and it has been a huge hit. She loves dogs anyway, so this gives her her very own to take care of. Since my daughter loves dragging it around, I'm not sure how long it will work properly. She has the carrier also and loves putting her puppy into it. The dog is a bit hard under its soft fur, but we expected that, being the kind of toy that it is. My only disappointment was with the fact that you had to choose one of the dog names off the list/software, and couldn't create one of your own. Thankfully, my daughter was agreeable to almost anything at the time. A cute toy overall.