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.

Logic City

Logic City - Think spatially

If I had named this game I would have called it something like Visual City, instead of Logic City, since it focuses on visual discrimination and spatial thinking and not so much on problem solving or deductive reasoning. I like to work on spatial reasoning because it is used so often in the routine course of a day that people who have trouble in this area can struggle with multiple occupations. Like Top That!, I am using this puzzle successfully with kids who have a moderate cognitive disability.

The puzzle depicts a city block and is built in the box bottom. You will be building three-story structures, always in the same sequence (door, window, roof), always the same height (3 blocks high), always the same orientation (facing forward) and your job will be to look at a grid to figure out where to build them. There is a sturdy cardboard piece under the houses (in the image above) that shows a grid with 18 possible locations (white squares) where houses can be built. On the back of this cardboard piece is pictured green grass with a single row with six white spaces, for the easier challenges. There is a cardboard picture that you can place standing up in the back of the box to give the feeling of being outdoors. The houses are basically built in the box bottom so that you can prop the scene behind it. I stopped using the box bottom almost right away and just build on the table. It isn't wobbly in the box, but just feels more stable on the table top.

There are 14 wooden blocks that form four 3-piece buildings (door, window, roof) and 2 green triangles (I call them bushes). The bushes have the option of being placed in two different orientations (you're always looking at a slope from the front). Some challenges do not require using all the pieces.

There are 45 challenge cards and you can see two full examples in the image above. The front of the each card shows a puzzle and the back shows the 3D solution. The cards are in three different levels - beginner, intermediate and advanced. The beginner puzzles are all built on the side of the board that has a single row. Each house is one color. The intermediate and advanced puzzles are all built on the 18 square grid. The only difference between the two levels is that the intermediate houses are each only one color and the advanced houses are mixed colors. The cards are not numbered, but they do have different colored borders for quick sorting into these three categories. Even though the highest category is called advanced, this puzzle would be quite easy for most of the kids I work with. So don't be fooled by the word 'advanced', but instead decide for yourself if this puzzle is too easy or a just right challenge for those you want to use it with.

Each puzzle card will show three views. The front of the card shows a grid at the bottom to indicate where you will be building each house or placing each bush. The view is from the top so you will only see one colored square with a design on it (the roof) and you will have to be able to look at the standing structure (top view) to determine the color sequence. The view at the top of each card will show you a 2D image of how you will build the scene (color sequence, bush orientation). The back of each card shows you a 3D image of the puzzle so you can check if you are correct. Each building on the beginner and intermediate cards are a single color (door, window and roof). The advanced cards show buildings with mixed colors. Every building on every challenge card throughout is three blocks high. Here is an example of an easy challenge and an advanced challenge. The orange challenge card in the image above is an intermediate challenge.

    Left: Easy level                                 Right: Advanced level

These are the backs of the cards above. Check this side to see if you built correctly.

So far I have bought three of these to send to kids to use during remote sessions and I plan to get one more. With 45 challenges at three challenge levels I consider it a good value. Plus kids like it, and you know how important that is.

Object:
Build scenes that match the puzzle cards.

Set up:
Place the bottom piece in the built-up box, stand the background piece in the back of the box, place the blocks and the challenge cards nearby.

Play:
Choose one card and place it by the box. Build your scene from the challenge card. Turn it over and check to see if you got it right.

Try this:

• Show the card in two steps. Cover the bottom, which is the hardest part to understand for most, and just show the top of each card. Build a few of the structures to get the idea of what you will be doing. Then cover the top and show the bottom. Show how the grid on the cardboard piece matches the grid on the challenge card. Point out the colors and where buildings and bushes will be built and that the squares with the design is picturing the buildings from overhead (roof). Build a three pieces house, stand up, look down on the rooftop. Once they understand them separately, then reveal the card as a whole.
• Compare the 18 square grid on the cardboard piece to the one on the card. Count the squares and the rows. Build starting at the back so you don't have to reach behind things. Cover the two rows in front of it with a plain piece of paper. Build the back row. Then pull the paper down to reveal the middle row and build it, then finally the front row.
• Use consistent terminology such as front, middle and back. Mixing terminology, such as saying 'front, 2nd row and lastly', may be confusing while they are learning.  
• Build a structure yourself if they cannot determine where to put it. Then take it down and ask them to build it.
• Count the squares in a row to determine which square to build on. Put one finger on the square on the cardboard and one finger on the same space on the challenge card as you count.
• Show the entire card to challenge building only after each element is learned separately.
• Flip the card to the back after building and challenge them to determine if it has been built successfully.
• Build from the back.
• Stand the challenge card upright on the table when building from the top of the card, covering the bottom. Place the card flat on the table surface, covering the top of the card, when building from the overhead view. 

In the box: One cardboard with grid, one cardboard with outdoor scene, 14 blocks, 45 challenge cards

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