Doggy, Doggy, Where’s Your Bone? Rules and Tips

Doggy, Doggy, Where’s Your Bone? is a quiet guessing game for a classroom, a circle time or a rainy party. One player is the doggy and sits with their back to the group. Someone sneaks up, takes the doggy’s bone and hides it, and the doggy has to work out who it was. It needs no kit except one small object, it takes a minute to explain, and young children often ask to play it again.

What you need

• A group of about 6 to 30 players, sitting on the floor or at their desks.
• One chair for the doggy, facing away from the group.
• One “bone”: a block, a soft toy, a rubber, a dog-shaped cut-out or anything small that fits in a hand.
• A fair way to pick the doggy and the bone taker, such as a random name picker or a picker wheel.

How to play

1. Pick a doggy. The doggy sits on the chair with their back to the group and closes their eyes. The bone goes under or just behind the chair.
2. Pick a bone taker without saying the name out loud. The leader can point or tap a shoulder, or show the name on a screen the doggy cannot see.
3. The bone taker creeps up, takes the bone, goes back to their place and hides it behind their back or under their legs.
4. Everyone puts their hands behind their back so the doggy cannot see who has it.
5. The whole group chants: “Doggy, doggy, where’s your bone? Somebody stole it from your home!”
6. The doggy turns round and guesses who has the bone. In a common version the doggy gets three guesses.
7. If the guess is right, the bone taker becomes the next doggy, or the leader picks a new doggy at random. If all the guesses are wrong, the bone taker shows the bone and the leader picks the next doggy.

Words of the chant change from school to school. Some groups add a second line such as “Wake up, doggy, find your bone!”, and in some versions the bone taker answers in a disguised voice, “I’ve got your bone!”, so the doggy can use the voice as a clue. Agree on one version before you start.

Picking the doggy and the bone taker fairly

The fun only works if nobody feels left out. If the leader chooses by eye, the same confident children tend to be picked again and again, and the shy ones wait all session. Two simple habits fix that:

• Put every name into a random name picker and turn on the option to remove each name after it is picked. Everyone gets a turn as doggy before anyone has a second go.
• Use a second draw for the bone taker, with the doggy’s name taken out. On a picker wheel you can do the same with “Remove and spin”.

The same idea works for deciding who goes first in any game, and you will find more ideas in our guide to classroom games with a random picker.

Guess odds by group size

The table below shows how hard the doggy’s job is. “Players” is the size of the whole group, doggy included. “One” is the chance that a single pure guess is right, and “Three” is the chance with three different guesses, when the doggy has no clues at all. “Missed” is the chance that a given child is never the doggy in 10 rounds if the leader picks at random each time and keeps every name in.

Two things stand out. In a big class a blind guess is close to hopeless, so clues matter: a giggle, a bulge behind someone’s back, a disguised voice. And with names kept in, a large share of a class of 25 or 30 may never get to be doggy in a 10-round session, which is why removing names after each pick is the fairer choice. These numbers are simple probability, not a study of real classrooms; real doggies often do better than chance because children give themselves away.

Tips for teachers and parents

• Keep rounds short. If the doggy is stuck, offer a clue such as “the bone is on the window side”.
• For a large class, let the doggy have three guesses, or split the class into two circles with two doggies.
• Ask everyone to keep both hands behind their back the whole time, not only the bone taker, so nobody is given away by accident.
• Praise good acting. A child who looks guilty without having the bone makes the game more fun.
• Use it as a calm-down game after break, like sleeping lions or Heads Up, Seven Up.

Variations

• Voice clue: the bone taker says “Woof woof!” or “I’ve got your bone!” in a funny voice, and the doggy guesses from the voice alone.
• Two bones: two bone takers, and the doggy must find both. Good for 25 or more players.
• Fake hiders: two or three other players also pretend to hide something behind their backs.
• Name practice: the doggy must say the guessed child’s full name, which helps a new class learn names.
• Language lessons: say the chant and the guesses in the language the class is learning.
• Pass it round: like hot potato, the bone is passed behind backs while the chant is said, and stops where the chant ends.

If your group likes quiet guessing games, try Heads Up, Seven Up next, or the telephone game for a listening game with no winner at all.

A close cousin of this game is Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?, where a button is secretly dropped into one player’s hands.

FAQ

How do you play Doggy, Doggy, Where’s Your Bone?

One player, the doggy, sits with their back to the group. Another player quietly takes the bone and hides it behind their back. Everyone chants “Doggy, doggy, where’s your bone? Somebody stole it from your home!”, and the doggy turns round and guesses who has it.

How many guesses does the doggy get?

Groups differ. A common rule is three guesses; with a small group, one guess keeps it harder.

What age is the game for?

It is mostly played by children of about 3 to 8, in preschool, early school years and at parties, but older groups can play the voice-clue version.

What can I use as the bone?

Anything small that can be hidden in a hand or behind a back: a block, a soft toy, a rubber or a paper bone.

How do I make sure every child gets a turn as the doggy?

Put all names into a random name picker and remove each name after it is picked, so nobody gets a second turn until everyone has had one.