Christmas is over and it's now time to tell the world about the presents that we all received.
This one is actually about a game that one of my kids got from there Great Grand parents, who seem to think that my nine year old is still about four, considering the things that they buy her, (bless them).
Anyway, this particular game that they bought her was a game which, as stated on the box, was aimed at four year olds and above and, from looking at the picture on the box, involved a dog and what looked like the contents of the dogs stomach after it had 'done its business' on the floor.
With the game being aptly called the Doggy Doo game, (Oh my god, what will they come up with next under the title of entertainment?)
So you can sort of guess what it was going to be about.

So, after unpacking the game, with my daughter looking on with a little smirk on her face as she had obviously sussed out what the game was about, I set about reading the instructions and getting ready to play the game, only for her to have already stared to shove what looked like a ball of play dough into the dogs mouth, stuffing half a bone in with it.
It turned out that one of my daughters friends has this particular game and that she had spent many hours happily playing it round at her house, (so maybe Great Granny isn't as senile as she makes out then).
So, with a quick briefing from my daughter, we proceeded to play the game

But firstly, let me tell you about the game itself, it is a game for two to four players
What you get is a plastic Dachshund dog which is on a lead with a pumping trigger on the handle.
Four different coloured scoops, a yellow bone, which acts like a cork, a dice, a doggie doo pellet maker and some play dough which is the doggie doo, or pooh, depending on what you want to call it.

The game is simple to play, with a player using the pellet maker to make a pellet of play dough, or doggie doo, then stuffing it into the dogs mouth, using the yellow bone to get the doggie doo into the mouth properly, then blocking the mouth up to create the 'semi-vacuum' (sort of).
The player then rolls the dice and, holding the handle of the lead, pumps the lead the number of times that the dice landed on.
Each pump of the handle sends the play doggie doo closer to the dogs rear end, with some rather strange noises as it goes, until eventually the inevitable happens, and the player that is holding the lead when this happens has to scoop the poop with their coloured scope.
Simple as that really. Although you do have to make sure that the bone is pushed into the mouth properly or the pumping action won't work as the air will escape from both ends.

The rules state that the person who gets three scopes on their shovel is the winner but you can make up your own winning rules on this one.

The verdict...
What a meaningless yet totally hilarious game indeed, if you like the idea of watching and listening as a dog breaks wind and poops all over the floor... such fun.
The dog is a good size so it does take a few pumps to get the doggie doo through its system.
The pump itself is in the shape of a lead, one of those retractable ones that allow you dog to wonder around in front of you and, with the flick of a button, your dog comes flying back to you, (or is the lead I use on my dog a little to strong?). The pumping action is achieved via a trigger on the leads handle, which, as long as a hand can pull it, any age of person can play this game.

Unfortunately, I did find that after playing the game a few times, following the instructions to the letter, the pooh was getting stuck on transit, with the funny noises that is used to make not being so funny. Luckily, after a brief search on line and a few reviews read about the game, I realised that the actual instructions that came with the game were more a hindrance.
What I mean by that is the reason that the pooh was getting stuck was that I was pushing too much into the dogs mouth, this was leading to their not being enough air inside the dogs insides to get the 'semi- vacuum' effect up to scratch, and with this there wasn't enough compressed air to force the pooh far from the dogs mouth. So, after pushing the stuck pooh out with a long wire brush, (the same one I use for unblocking the kitchen sink plug holes), and after a suggestion I read on line, we now only push a couple of pellets into the mouth at a time, which does seem to have solved the problem of the dogs dodgy digestive dilemma.

So once that little problem was over come, and a slight change to the rules, we carried on playing the game and happily watched as the pooh plopped out of the dogs bottom, ready to be scooped up by the giggling player and their lovely coloured pooper scooper.

As for the price, well, this game is selling for around the £20.00 mark which is not too bad, although they could have warned people about the possibility of the pooh getting stuck in the dogs intestines due to over feeding. But for 20 quid, as long as you don't over feed the dog, you and your kids can have a lot of harmless fun whilst teaching them that scooping the poop is the right thing to do, plus there's absolutely no smell at all, (unless one of the kids 'lets one go' and tries to blame the dog).