Ben Madilynn
Dogs are great. There aren’t many who would dispute that, and the few who would are sad, silly people who hate joy and will not see the light of heaven. Dogs have been serving as companions to humans for tens of thousands of years. Dogs as we know them today are not naturally occurring animals, having been redesigned for our benefit through selective breeding, and they’ve been forged into the ultimate companions.
If you’re one of the many people out there who is both a dog enthusiast and a gamer, then boy are you in luck today! We’ve gotten together a list of the best dog-themed, dog-oriented, and otherwise dog-related games for dog-lovers to enjoy.
Best For Experienced Gamers
Dog Park
It’ll force you to use that human brain of yours
This intricate, well-designed euro-style game casts the players as dog walkers, and tasks them with earning the best reputation they can by strategically walking dogs through the park, and making numerous decisions as they do so.
- Well-crafted mechanics
- Fun theme
In case you were worried this list would be dominated by games that try to make up for having minimal substance by having tons of pictures of dogs, let our selection of this game assure you otherwise.
This is a serious, intricately designed eurogame with a dog-walking theme. There are numerous strategic decisions to make as you compete for dogs at the beginning of each round and then decide how to walk them. Dogs have different abilities and needs, and these can be leveraged in a large number of ways to gain, or, if you’re not careful, lose the reputation points that you need to win.
Most Realistic
Bark Avenue
It’s pretty on-point for what pro dog-walking is like
This strategic dog-walking game places the players in the dense urban jungle of Manhattan, and tasks them with carefully planning and executing every element of their route and completing additional tasks as they do.
- The dogs have more personality
- Genuinely captures many aspects of the dog-walking profession
- Has a sense of humor
Another game about professional dog walking, this game swaps reputation for money, and denies you the convenient dog park in which the last game took place, forcing you to walk clients’ dogs around the streets of Manhattan. You’ll make a ton of strategic decisions as you plot to bring compatible dogs on well-planned routes, and work to accomplish tasks fully and cleanly so they get you as much money as possible.
Where the last game’s various dogs each stood in for an entire breed, the clients’ dogs in this game have names, and their unique abilities and compatibilities convey their personalities. That adds a role-play element to this game that will make dog lovers enjoy it all the more.
Most Heartwarming
Forever Home
Rescue as many dogs as you can
This surprisingly complex meeple management game casts players as workers at a shelter, and tasks them with finding loads of dogs their forever homes in patterns that earn the most points.
- Can be genuinely emotional
- Cool strategy with tons of mechanics
Not all work regarding dogs is as gentle as simple walking. Unfortunately, lots of dogs don’t have the loving homes they, as good boys and girls, deserve, and the people who try to change that have to put in a ton of work.
This game casts you as one of those people, working to distribute a variety of dogs to their ideal homes. This is done through some surprisingly complex and quite abstract mechanics revolving around the idea that different homes want different combinations of dogs. There are tons of ways to pair dogs with homes, but finding the best ones is challenging, and requires you to think things through and plan ahead.
Best For Kids
Name That Puppy
Simple yet satisfying
Following a similar formula to Apples to Apples and its derivatives, this game tasks players with selecting the perfects dogs to go with the name given each round.
- Simple enough for children
- Genuinely engaging
- Lots of cute dog pictures
We’ve covered a couple of more complicated games, so here’s a simpler one. Name That Puppy is an Apples to Apples style card game, where each player is tasked with picking one card from their hand to respond to a common prompt, and the best card is then selected by a judge.
Other games of this kind use adjectives and nouns, questions and answers, or joke setups and punchlines. This one uses a name for its prompt cards, and has pictures of dogs as the response cards. Players are meant to pick the dogs they think suit each name best. It’s pretty simple to understand, but, like other games of its type, the complex judgment calls it entails keep it engaging and skill-based despite its simplicity.
Best Wordplay
Farting Frenchies
Lots of punny names for various smells
This simple, silly, smelly little card game tasks players with creating the stinkiest collection of farting frenchies they can create, complete with tons of goofy card names and adorable art.
- A variety of interesting, amusing cards
- A surprising amount of strategy
- Simple enough for children
- Its ross-out humor will be off-putting to some
It is possible for a game to come in the form of an amusing little diversion for kids while hiding a surprising amount of strategic depth, and this game does exactly that. Its theme, making dogs as smelly as possible with a variety of cards, will have some people giggling along with it, and others grossed out, but either way, its mechanics are genuinely engaging, with deceptively complicated board states that can be manipulated in a variety of interesting ways.
Best Humor
Boss Dog
For dogs, there is no greater crime than dining on people food
From the same creators as the last game, Boss Dog is a silly game about collecting a variety of people food to assemble the best canine crime family you can create.
- Great sense of humor
- Decent strategic depth
This game is similar to the last one, partially because it’s from the same creators. It has a similar sense of humor, but is missing the gross-out elements that might put some players off the last one.
It replaces them with a subtler sort of amusement, and players play as the heads of canine crime families, collecting a variety of canine criminals with neat art and funny names and giving them all sorts of oddly specific foods. The winner is whoever can assemble the best canine crime family, for there is no greater crime a dog can commit than stealing people’s food that was not meant for them.
Best Coop Game
Dog Man: Attack Of The Fleas
Work together to save the city
Based on the Dog Man novels by Dav Pikey, this cooperative board game casts the players as Dog Man and his allies, and tasks them with saving the city from the FLEAS (Fuzzy Little Evil Animal Squad) using a variety of tools.
- Tons of amusing little details
- Fun superhero framing
Despite the friendly nature of our canine companions, we’ve not had a cooperative game so far this list. Well, it’s time to change that, with this game, based on the Dog Man books by Dav Pikey, the creator of Captain Underpants.
The books follow this silly little dog-man’s adventures, facing off against the villainous FLEAS (Fuzzy Little Evil Animal Squad) who seek to bring havoc with their dangerous technology. You’ll have to work together to collect all the silly tools you’ll need to win.
Best Memory Game
Dog Man: The Hot Dog
A twist on the card-based memory game
Another game based on the Dog Man novels, this one shows that canine hero engaging in more recreational behavior after saving the city, and enjoying a bunch of hot dogs.
- Interesting and amusing premise
- Good sense of humor
- Tests players’ physical skill in a rare way
- Requires a large play area
- High luck component
Another game based on the same set of novels, this game has lower stakes, and a competitive format, as players seek to eat as many hot dogs as possible. The mechanics by which they do this are an interesting combination of memory and physical activity, where the players must physically grab face-up cards in real time when it’s time to score. This is something not a lot of other games do, and makes this one unique.
FAQ
What do dogs like to play with the most?
When engaged in actual play among themselves, dogs typically wrestle and roughhouse with each other. This is a pretty easy behavior to observe, and it’s something any dogs of compatible age and size are likely to do if they’re loose together and get along.
