Life-Sized Board Game Fun!
Bella had the idea that it would be fun to build a life-sized Diggin’ Doggies game board and use real dogs. We cracked up imagining real dogs trying to play the game. It’s a simple game – but for dogs – it would be a challenge.
If you have never played, let me explain. There are 4 players in total, but you can play with fewer. Each has a different colored collar and a matching colored dog house. A player rolls the dice to move around the board to search for the bones that match their designated color. The dogs and bones are magnetized, so you lift by touching the nose of each dog to the bone in the nearest square where you land. If it is your color underneath, you take it home and store it in your house. If it is someone else’s color, you put it back down and the next player takes a turn. The first dog to find all 3 is the winner!
It took us a while to gather together the pieces… One of the more challenging things was finding the different colored dog houses online.
We used food grade coloring pens to mark the bones. I wanted to use colored stickers, but Bella thought that would be dangerous if a real dog gnawed at the bone. She felt the food safe pens would be the better route.
We decided to give the game a test run using stuffed animals before we try it with real dogs. There are so many considerations with dogs. They need to know each other and be friendly, so they don’t fight over the bones. We still think it will be hilarious hijinks with real dogs – as no dog is gonna want to put back a bone, or take turns, and they may mark the board or the houses… who knows…
What you need to build your own life-sized Diggin’ Doggies backyard game:
- 4 dogs (stuffed animals or real)
- 4 dog collars (red, green, blue, yellow)
- 4 dog houses (red, green, blue, yellow)
- 12 dog bones
- 12 pretend holes. (We used brown plant saucers for ours.)
- Food grade coloring pens.
- Giant dice
- Sidewalk pavers (We used concrete wallpaper over cardboard for ours.)
- Astroturf (Optional. Real grass would probably be nicer to play on!)
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Stay tuned for our test run at the park (or a neighbor’s house). Alas, we have no dogs of our own – so we must work to find some willing game contestants!
UPDATE!!!! We found 3 dogs to play.
It went about as well as expected! Chauncey was happy with his bone and went off to enjoy it. Gracie and Plum had no interest whatsoever. The game lasted a whopping 35 seconds.
So there you have it, Life-sized Diggin’ Doggies with real dogs based on the original board game.
Next up, Doggie Doo!!
Just kidding.