Smarty Ants Phonics Reading Pup Husky

Never connected to computer, have to buy other words, batteries discharged fast. Do not spend your money for This toy.

I bought this for my 3 yr old for Christmas. He can't get enough of it! I am amazed at how much he is learning. Within the first day he was pointing to letters and making the phonetic sounds. He even pointed to something in the newspaper (the word "and") and sounded it out correctly! I am very happy with this purchase.

This product is no longer supported. It was a great concept however the company has been trying to get it removed from Amazon for years and it is still available. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE!!!!!!!!

In the age of computers, you would expect something better than this... Having grown up with a Teddy Ruxpin, my standards weren't that high to begin with. So it shouldn't take much to impress me... and this definitely did not deliver...The dog itself is cute with nice, soft fur. It makes a lot of noise when it does its head turning (aka "dancing"). I realize that the movement factor would come with a noise, but it shouldn't be that loud. You can definitely hear the creaking and groaning over the sound of the voice and singing. That is small though in comparison to how bad the dog's enunciation is... I don't know if it's just the voice they chose or what, but it is hard to tell what it is saying in the "story" part. So just imagine how hard it would be to understand what it's singing. Considering the songs and stories are so nonsensical to begin with, you'd have a hard time guessing...I had a heck of a time getting the game to download (granted my computer is riddled with a few too many security softwares which might have played a part). It took me three tries to get it to download- a process that took at least a hour to get through. And once the game was downloaded it took another 5-10 minutes for the game to load... There is little to no direction about what you're supposed to do within the game. There are games for you to play to earn coins- to buy stories or songs. (of which will upload to your dog- BUT you only get one at a time. I don't know if maybe farther along in the game you can get more, but considering the fact that you're to use the dog separate from the game, it's stupid for the song and the story to be the exact same thing and the only option to play.) The songs and stories are pretty stupid to- for example Nell doesn't want to play board games because she has a hangnail...??? What kid knows what a hangnail is? My major complaint about the game is that it is ill-constructed to be much a learning tool. There are words used that no child would recognize or know the meaning of (i.e. quips, hangnail, etc.) I would say that considering most of the games consist of recognizing a word (text) for what is spoken, a more appropriate age range would be 7-10 (the child needs to have some reading skills). The price of this is prohibitive in of itself, especially since with the purchase of the dog you only get a month's subscription to the website. So once your month is up, you either are stuck with the song(s) or story that you have or you have to pay to renew (at $24.99 for 3 months or $49.99 for a year). I would think that it would be better use of your money to get a system/game that is one upfront cost... But I suppose it depends on how much use you get from it. Other systems you do have to pay to get different games or stories... but at least the LeapFrog system seems better targeted to age range with an appropriate educational level of product.Even games available on pbskids.org are easier to play and more geared toward a younger child who is learning to recognize letters. Plus the games are easier for a child to navigate themselves so that they can play and know what to do with little parent direction. Kids learn better when they're learning for themselves not having to have the constant help and direction of a parent- which would be required for the Smarty Ants game...** After doing some digging in the Smarty Ants website help section, I learned, belatedly, that the diving pool game that is the first part of the Smarty Ants game is the assessment tool that determines what type of games will be brought up. (I suppose this is what I get for not fully reading the instructions, what can I say I was eager to get it up and going after all the time waiting for it to download...) Because I was playing as myself to see how it progresses to get a feeling for it before having my nephew play, it categorized me as a Level 11 that's why the games were not appropriate for a 4 year old... BUT you can't go back and redo the assessment part unless you re-register and purchase a separate subscription. Seems a bit of a racket to me...**

The media could not be loaded.  I got this toy for my 18 month old, which is obviously a little young, but I thought I might was well start her on phonics now. He's actually a really great toy. He's soft enough for her to carry around like a normal stuffed animal. He comes pre-programmed with about 8-10 different songs and stories, which are the lowest level of phonics. If you want him to meet your child's level, you simply plug him into the computer (with the mini-USB cable he comes with) and go to the Smarty Ants webpage. The webpage allows your child to create a group of avatars, adopt a dog that looks like theirs, and play games so that the dog can be loaded with the educational content that fits your child. It's really easy to get around the webpage, the games are fun, and even my 18 month old enjoyed the music and stories. His songs are creative and the synchronization between his words and movement is flawless! There is no need to turn him on or off, he has a musical note on one paw and a book on the other and when your child pushes one of the buttons, he does the corresponding thing-also, if the button is pushed to start the singing/story and then pushed again in the middle of it, he stops (which is ALWAYS a nice feature when you've heard the same song a million times and need a quick break!!) The battery life is good (about 1 month, used 15+ mins a day) per set of 3 AAs.There are a few reasons I gave him 4 instead of 5 stars, the first is he only comes with a 30 day trial of the website, after which time you have to pay for it ($24.99 for 3 months or $49.99 for the year). You can keep whatever you have him loaded with, but obviously can't get any new content without the subscription, which seems a little ridiculous to me, but it's not super expensive, just seems like he would come with a longer trial given his price. Another thing that's less than great about this toy is that there is no way to wash him. I was hoping you could slide his "outsides" off the mechanical/computer part, in order to throw him in the wash, but that's not the case, he can only stand up to light spot cleaning - not something a parent really wants to do.The video shows him singing my favorite song (one that he came pre-loaded with) he goes through the entire alphabet and each sound that each letter makes-I didn't record the whole song (for time sake), but I thought that would give you an idea of not only his movement, but the types of phonics songs and stories he/the webpage have for your child to enjoy.