BABY Born Puppy Doodle review

If your children have grown out of playing with dolls (even of the crying, weeing kind) but are still fascinated with all things involving bodily functions, they are bound to get excited about one of the latest additions to the BABY Born range : the interactive Puppy Doodle.

He is VERY well attached to the packaging so be prepared for a few minutes fighting with the twisted wires keeping him prisoner in the box before he will finally be free for cuddles !

The parental input isn't quite finished yet though ! After lots of futile looking at the box to see what type of batteries it required, I opened up the compartment and discovered that it needs 2 x AAA batteries. Once they were installed, we were ready to go.

He comes with a few accessories to play with, including a plastic bone that fits into his mouth.

There is also a squishy plastic feeding bottle that fits into his mouth and activates a lapping water noise.

When I was inserting the batteries, Pierre had already noticed that he has a "willy" - or more precisely, a hole. This means that if you fill the bottle with water and feed him, he will do a wee. Cue instant giggles and excited cries of "can we try?"

You need to press the nozzle deep in the hole in his mouth, stand him upright and press to squeeze the water inside him. A lot of water dribbles out of the bottle and his mouth so he quickly gets quite wet. It's also hard to tell how much water has actually been ingested.

Afterwards, you press on his back which makes him lift his leg and start weeing. You get a water noise which sounds more like a tap running than a genuine dog wee but it still had the kids in fits of giggles and, after a few false starts, he did start weeing.

Here's a little video to show how we got on. It's a bit hit and miss - it took us a couple of attempts to get any "wee" out at all (presumably it takes time for the water to work through the tubes inside his body - I wonder if that means there is some water that remains stagnant inside once you've finished playing?) and it takes about two or three bottles of water before he will wee properly, although this probably depends on how much leaks out when you feed him.

He does get quite wet all down his front when he dribbles and you'll need kitchen towel or a tea towel to mop up the water when he wees. It might be a good outdoor toy on the patio in the summer months, when it won't matter and he'll dry out quickly.

He also has a cute dog tag on his front but it is covered in paper - judging by how wet he gets, it would probably have been a good idea to have laminated it in plastic so it would be waterproof. To be honest though, as he makes the noises and lifts his leg with or without water, we'll probably play with him more without water than with, as it's easier, less messy and the kids are just as happy.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £29.99

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.