Printable dog breeds game
Dogs are lovely animals that are known for their loyalty to their owners. They come in all manner of sizes, and colors, and with unique distinguishing features.
Depending on the organisation classing these animals there are said to be around 200 to 500 different kinds of dogs around the world. That’s a lot of hounds to know and this dog breeds game can test your knowledge of these canines or help students learn them. Can you name all the dogs?
For ESL learners, this is advanced vocabulary that animal lovers will appreciate. The game cards can also be used as flashcards for teaching dog breeds and to students who are interested in these animals. It also helps with learning the spelling of different dog breed names. Just print and cut out the dog picture cards that you think are best for them to learn and you are ready to go!
Apologies to any dog lovers out there if your favorite breed has not been included, perhaps more will be added at a later date. Note that the instructions for this game have been provided below. You will also find the answers at the bottom of this page.
How to play the dog breeds game
There are several ways that you can use this free printable game about dogs. Here are some of your options.
The original concept was to match the dog photograph cards with the correct corresponding name cards. Simply print out the photograph and name cards, cut them out, and give each player or team a set to match together.
The game gets harder as it progresses (for most people anyway) with the breeds on the first pages being much more commonly known than those on the last pages. Using the entire set of 40 breeds may be too much for some groups but you can easily reduce that by removing some.
You can also not provide the name cards at all and see how many breeds people can guess. This makes the game much more challenging.
Another option is to play the game as a five-round dog breed quiz. Players score a point for each correct answer and the winner is the one with the highest points total after ending round 5. It is up to you whether to provide the name cards or not for this.
As a bonus round or activity you can ask players to guess the country of origin of each dog breed. This information hasn’t been provided here but you can easily find it on the internet yourself.
Dog breeds game name cards
Here are the name cards that you can use in the dog breeds game. They’re what you will need if you choose to do a matching game or want to focus on teaching spelling.
Printable dog breeds game answers
The names of the dogs in the photographs are as follows –
- Dalmatian
- German Shepherd
- Chihuahua
- Poodle
- Labrador
- Husky
- Pug
- St. Bernard
- Boxer
- Border Collie
- Corgi
- Greyhound
- Doberman
- Beagle
- Blue Heeler
- Bulldog
- Bull Terrier
- Rottweiler
- Chow Chow
- Duschund
- Jack Russell (Terrier)
- Shiba Inu
- Shar Pei
- Schnauzer
- Basset Hound
- Great Dane
- Pit Bull
- French Bulldog
- Yorkshire Terrier
- Samoyed
- Afghan Hound
- Irish Wolfhound
- Rhodesian Ridgeback
- Cocker Spaniel
- Shetland Sheepdog
- Puli
- German Pointer (Shorthaired)
- Pekingese
- Airedale Terrier
- Cane Corso
Related activities
Try one or more of these related resources to extend your lesson or game time with another fun activity. They can be used as either warm-up or follow-up exercises before or after playing the game.
If you want to have a simple discussion about man’s best friend, check out the conversation questions about dogs.
There are also vocabulary matching exercises and a word search on the dog breeds worksheet page.
Finally, the animal tracks matching game is a great similar activity that is a little bit easier.