My little boy has just had his first birthday and in the weeks running up we trekked off to Toys R Us to have a look at what we could get him. We had recently purchased the Fisher Price Laugh & learn Bunny for a friends little girl and we had been quite impressed by that. So when we spotted this puppy we thought that would be a good choice for one of his presents.

The first thing I spotted about the puppy was its adorable little face. It has lovely bright puppy dog eyes and a bright red nose. Its smile is cute and its cheeks rosy and it has two soft floppy ears. It also has a patch over one eye. The main body of the puppy is a light beige and he is wearing a small T Shirt with an ABC print. His ears are bright blue and each of his paws has a different brightly coloured circle on the end. On the puppy are several printed words: ear, hand, tummy and foot. I'm not going to insult your intelligence and tell you where the words are written! Although we would call them paws, they are referred to as hands and feet so that baby can relate to his own body parts. On one hand there is a musical note and on one of his feet are control instructions. The back of the puppy's T Shirt unfastens with Velcro. This hides the battery pack and a sliding switch. This alters the volume (there are 2 levels) and switches the puppy off. The puppy takes 3 x AA batteries.

Basically the puppy talks and sings songs to baby. The puppy has 7 contact points on his body. His right ear, his nose, all 4 paws and his tummy. The contact point on his left foot offers three options. ABC, a musical note and off. If ABC is selected the puppy says 'Its learning time', for the musical note he says 'Lets sing and play games' and for off he says 'bye bye'. Each of the other contact points has 2-3 responses for each of the ABC or musical settings. Each time a contact point is pressed baby will hear either a song or a phrase or a doggy type noise!

Most of the usual nursery songs are included such as Heads and Shoulders, Happy and You Know It, The alphabet song, pat-a-cake, and Itsy Bitsy Spider (I'm sure this was Incy Wincy when I was young?) It also has other songs that I've not heard before about counting, body parts and colour. It also has a great version of this little piggy which has become this little puppy:

As well as the songs some of the responses are just words. There are a few that describe the part of the body that you are touching and others describe the part and what colour it is. There are also other things such as 'So big', 'Hooray!' and 'Got my toes' My favourite is the 'Atchoo' when you touch his nose! If you don't press a contact point for a short time (only a few seconds) the puppy says 'hug me'. All the songs and phrases are sung or spoken in cheerful and bright voices.

Although there is an off switch on the puppy's foot, the puppy will switch straight back on if any other contact point is touched. As there are a lot of contact points it is very difficult to move him without him responding. This can be quite annoying when you are putting away when the children are in bed! Obviously it can be turned off at the switch, but this is quite awkward to get to as it is hidden away under his T Shirt. The puppy is quite big (it measures 27.5 x 18 x 33 cm) and its head is large in proportion to the rest of its body. When my little boy is sat in his car seat, he finds it difficult to keep the puppy on his knee. It either flops onto his face or falls to the side.

The puppy is suitable from age 6 months onwards and I think we will get quite a bit of use from it. We have only had it a few days so far and I have found it fun and educational. I've not been able to judge how long the batteries will last, but its been on almost constantly and there are no signs of a loss in quality yet so I think they will last quite well. It makes my little boy laugh and smile, and it is lovely , bright and cheerful. Just looking at it makes me smile! Its also quite popular with my 6 year old who has given it a few cuddles and wishes it was his!