Dog Crimes

Dog Crimes - A puzzle of logic and deductive reasoning

The dogs are getting their day. If you follow my blog, you know that I already blogged about Cat Crimes a couple of years ago. The dogs are now getting their turn in Dog Crimes, a logic puzzle with 40 challenges that will take more and more spatial and deductive reasoning as you work throw the four levels of challenges. 

You are dog-sitting six dogs who have been into all kinds of mischief since their owners left including tearing up pillows, leaving a mess on the rug and eating a cake. Each dog has a name and a unique personalty, and you can read a short bio about each in the instruction booklet. Each challenge card will feature one crime and it will be your job to figure out which dog committed the crime by using the clues that you are given. 

The game board, dogs, stands, and discs are all made of a heavy cardboard material. The playing board is rather small, measuring 8"L X 5"H, but it is a one-person game so the smaller board size is sufficient. The game board is a picture of an oval rug on the floor. On the rug are different items such as a bone, chew toy, cake, pillow and shoes. Each dog slips into a small half disk at the bottom that makes it stand (see below). There are also six crime tokens, one to represent each of the six crimes that are committed.

Each dog will be sitting in one of the six positions around the rug when you are done solving each challenge, with the guilty party sitting in front of the crime disc. Your job will be to fill in who is sitting where with the basic clues you are given. Clues will be obvious and straightforward to start, and require trial and error as the puzzles get harder and less specific information is given.

The puzzle cards are numbered 1-40 for difficulty. The four levels of difficulty are beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert, and each level can be identified by a colored border. The front of each card will give you anywhere from five to eight clues about the locations of dogs and/or items left behind at the crime screen. The solution is on the back of each card.

Examples of clues are:

• Suzette was sitting in front of the cake.
• Pepper was sitting to Suzette's left. 
• Neither Daisy nor Cider was sitting in front of a rope toy.
• Pepper was sitting in front of a sock, but not across from Cider. 
• Suzette was sitting between a dog with a bandana and a dog with white paws.

Below is the first challenge card and the last, so you can see how they grade in difficulty.

The first and last challenges.

The solutions for the first and last challenges.

There's no reason to rewrite all the directions when they are the same as for Cat Crimes, just with different animals. So I will be copying and pasting from that post below. If you are more of a cat lover and would like to go read the Cat Crime post instead, click here.

If you are interested in reading more about one-person logic games, check out my post What's in Your Therapy Box? Logic Puzzle Edition. 

Play:
Choose a crime (challenge) card. Each crime will be described at the top of the card. Place the crime disc on the associated area of the rug (on the pillow if the crime is who tore up the pillow). This is just to remind you, as you are working out the solution, what the crime was and where the criminal will end up sitting.

Example below: The crime is who unraveled the yarn? The game is set up with the unraveled yarn crime disc in place and the usual suspects standing by. As you read the clues you will be placing dogs by the six spaces on the rug game board. Some placements will be a sure thing, some will just be your best guess with the clues you have. You may move some of the dogs around several times as you read clues and problem sovle. Clues will be obvious and straightforward to start and require trial and error as the puzzles get harder and less specific information is given.

The suspects from Cat Crimes.

At least one clue will refer to an item on the rug (game board) for placement, so you will know for sure this dog is in the right place, but the clues mostly involve where dogs were in relation to each other at the time of each crime. So if you get a dog in the the wrong place by the rug, other dogs will end up in wrong places too. Clues may ask you to put a dog in front of, near, across from, to the right of, and/or to the left of other dogs or items, and/or between dogs. Clues may also refer to specific things about the dogs such as placing a dog near another dog with white paws. There will always be at least two options that qualify in these cases. As the spaces fill up, you will get closer and closer to figuring out which dog committed the crime.

Play until you can place one dog at the crime seat with confidence. Turn the card over and check to see if you are right.

Try this:

• Stress how it is a trial-and-error process if the player starts to get frustrated when they can't figure it out right away. Model thoughtful perseverance.
• Give the player a location of one or more of the dogs if they get stuck. 
• Work the puzzle yourself and talk out loud to model how to problem solve and eliminate options. Start sentences with "This can't go here because..." or "This one must go here (or may go here) because..." and then explain the logic. Then take the pieces out and ask the person to complete the same challenge.
• Work on following directions, cognitive flexibility, logic, problem solving, planning, working memory, decision-making, evaluating and retrying, spatial reasoning, visualization, visual discrimination, manual dexterity, executive functioning skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: Game board, 6 dogs with stands, 6 crime tokens, 40 challenge cards

If you are interested in purchasing this game or just want more information, click on the image below.