Fisher-Price Puppy Grows & Knows Your Name Retriever

by Fisher-Price

Product Features

• It is an electronic mechanized plush dog
• The child can personalize puppy and as puppy grows he will learn to speak, learn his own name, the child's name and more
• Puppy is personalized using the software on the included CD-ROM
• Comes with a bone, brush, tape measure, growth chart, birth certificate and programming CD

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 12 x 14.1 inches ; 4.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000NW132Y
• Item model number: K4190
• Manufacturer recommended age: 3 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,885 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

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.

Product Description

Give this adorable puppy lots of tender loving care, and he'll grow to his full size within one week. This plush pooch is at his smallest size when you bring him home, and over the course of the week, he flourishes under your care.

As your puppy grows, he will learn to speak, learn his own name, your name, your birthday and your friend's name. He'll even pick out his favorite spots to visit, along with a couple of favorite activities. Puppy can be reset to a small size so you can watch him grow again and again. Includes personalization software, plus bone, brush and puppy toy. Requires 4 "AA" batteries, included. Measures 14"L x 8"W x 12"H.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Puppy might not know your child's name, November 10, 2007

By 

Sonia Gallant "Alicia" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fisher-Price Puppy Grows & Knows Your Name Retriever (Toy)

I bought two Puppies that Grow for my 4 yr old twin girls. They had seen commercials on tv and knew what the dogs were supposed to do. For the most part, they love them, but we had two problems. The first was that the girls wanted the puppies to know their names; when we tried to program them, one of my daughters' names was on the list that the puppy has preprogrammed to learn, my other daughter's name was not. It was such a bummer to tell her that her puppy will never "know" her name. Then, on top of that, the batteries in her puppy were low when the dog arrived so her dog never grew! It took me a while to figure out that that was the problem b/c the dog sang and moved its head and wagged its tail; it just never grew! So one of our puppies was growing day by day and the other just stayed little. I felt so sorry for my one daughter. We did replace the batteries after a few days and that worked.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Help with 'name' downloading, December 16, 2007

By 

S. Watkins (Houston, Tx) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fisher-Price Puppy Grows & Knows Your Name Retriever (Toy)

If you get a MSVCR80.dll error message trying to load the CD with Puppy Grows... you will need to uninstall or remove Windows Defender from the Add/Remove Programs on your Control Panel. Got these instructions off an MSDN forum page; once I uninstalled Windows Defender, the CD loaded and I was able to download the names of my child and the puppy in under 5 minutes. You will need an A to B USB cable... if you have a card reader, or some other similar device then you can use the USB cable that comes with that equipment(not a camera USB cable), if not, you'll have to buy the cable separately.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not all proported to be from "professional" toy reviewers., November 11, 2007

By 

David F. Pocai "rpocai" (DFW area, Tx) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fisher-Price Puppy Grows & Knows Your Name Retriever (Toy)

Perhaps there is something wrong with our puppy?
"Professional" toy reviews I read on this toy said that there were questions in the personalization program that we were never asked for when personalizing our puppy (we only had to name the puppy and enter our child's name. That's all it ever asked for. Reviewers claim it asks for birthday, friends names and other things as well!).
Our puppy also only says one phrase. It doesn't sing, as professional reviews have stated it would. Nor does it have any phrases other than "Hi (child's name) I'm so happy to see you."
I thought it should at least wag it's tail or move it's head a little in response to petting, grooming and playing with it (would have been a cute feature if it had). It just says one phrase and grows a little every day. It quickly became a boring and disappointing toy to my DD.
I'm sincerely hoping mine is broken.