← Codesuma apps Puppy Code. A puppy chasing a ball along a row of arrow steps.

Puppy Code

Puppy Code teaches children how programming works by giving them one simple job: help a puppy fetch a ball.

How to play Support Privacy

One idea, taken slowly

A ball is somewhere in the garden. The puppy will fetch it, but only if you tell it exactly how to get there.

Build a plan one step at a time. Press Run, and the puppy follows your instructions exactly.

If the plan does not work, change it and try again.

That is programming.

Puppy Code takes that one idea and builds on it slowly, from tapping arrows to writing code.

The road from arrows to code

There are 27 gardens. Each one adds one small new idea.

Garden 1. Arrow keys on the left, a one-line plan in the middle, the puppy and the ball on the right. — **Gardens 1 to 12.** Children tap arrow buttons and put steps in the right order. The first gardens do not require reading. Pictures carry the meaning.

Gardens 13 to 15. The same instructions are now shown as words instead of arrows. Children press the words rather than having to type them. This creates a small bridge between visual instructions and written code.

Garden 16. A keyboard built into the game, and a plan of six typed words. — **Gardens 16 to 27.** Children start writing the instructions themselves using a keyboard built into the game. By this point, the words are already familiar.

Garden 27. A plan containing do 4 times, with one step set in underneath it. — Later gardens introduce repetition, and children begin writing programs with loops.

There is no sudden jump from pictures to code. Each step grows naturally from the one before it.

What children learn

Puppy Code introduces programming ideas in a practical order.

Putting instructions in the right order
Predicting what a program will do
Reading a plan someone else wrote
Finding and fixing mistakes
Changing a plan instead of starting again
Writing instructions as text
Repeating a group of instructions with a loop
Spotting repeated patterns in a longer program

Children meet each idea because they need it to solve a problem. The programming name for the idea can come afterwards.

A different kind of coding game

Puppy Code does not simply tell a child "Wrong".

When a plan stops working, the game explains what the puppy tried to do and what stopped it. The child can change one instruction and run the plan again.

A long solution that works is still a correct solution. A shorter solution may be shown afterwards as another way to solve the garden, but it is never required.

A card reading Good job, three plan lines, with a Next step button. — The puppy reaches the ball, and the garden is done.

There are no timers, no scores, no streaks, no pressure to finish quickly, and no way to lose. Children can stay in one garden for as long as they want.

Play together

Puppy Code can also be played side by side.

A child and parent can share one screen, discuss what the puppy should do next, make predictions, and take turns writing instructions.

Adults who have never programmed before can start at the first garden too.

Private by design

Puppy Code does not require an account. There are no adverts, no analytics, no tracking, and no sign-up.

Nothing is collected or sent anywhere. Progress is saved on the device and stays on the device. The privacy policy says the same thing in full.

Before you start

The how-to-play page has the six words the puppy knows, how a plan is written, how repeats work, and what to do when a plan stops.

How to play