Every youth leader has his or her “go to” game – the one game that is certain to be fun. Mine is “Wanna Buy A Dog?” I’ve used this game with large groups of several hundred, and with the family around the dinner table. It works! AND, it illustrates an important lesson: we need each other’s “style” of playing the game to win and to have fun.

Here’s how to play:

• Gather your participants in groups of five.
• Have the groups sit in tight circles, facing inward.
• Tell the groups that their first task is to identify the most intelligent member of their team.
• Have each group ID that most-intelligent person.
• Tell the groups to give their most-intelligent person an item – set of keys, wallet, pair of eyeglasses, etc. – small enough that the most-intelligent person can hold that item.
• Now have the groups give their most-intelligent person another item, but dissimilar to the first.
• Tell the most-intelligent people to hold the first item in their right and, the second in their left.
• Tell the most-intelligent people to show the item in their right hand to their team and say, “This is the dog.”
• Tell the most-intelligent people to show the item in their left hand to their team and say, “This is the cat.”
• Explain that the object of this game is to “sell” the dog to the person on your right, and the cat to the person on your left, so that the dog and cat go all the way around the circle, back to the most-intelligent person.
• Explain how to “sell” the dog and the cat. First, the dog:
  • Turn to the person on your right and say, “Do you wanna buy a dog?”
  • They respond, “A what?”
  • You say, “A dog.”
  • They ask, “Does it bark?”
  • You say, “Yes, it barks.”
  • They say, “I’ll buy it” and take the dog from you.
• Now, have the groups pretend that you are the person with the dog, and that they are sitting on your right. Go through the “sales” experience, having them say what they’re supposed to say together.
• Then, tell them that they have the dog, and are selling it to you. Make sure they say ALL the words – for instance, not just “Yes” but “Yes, it barks.”
• Now explain that selling the cat is just like selling the dog, only the cat moves to the left, and you replace “dog” with “cat” and “bark” with “meow.”
• Here’s the twist. Tell the groups that the reason the most-intelligent person is the most-intelligent person is that ONLY the most-intelligent person knows the answers to all questions. That means that whenever there is a question (“A what?” “Does it bark/meow?”), that question has to be relayed person-to-person back to the most-intelligent person. AND, every answer (“A dog/cat” “Yes, it barks/meows”), must be relayed person-to-person back to the questioner. No fair yelling a question across the circle directly to the most-intelligent person. So, by the end of the game, the most-intelligent person will ask “A what” – and that question will be relayed person-to-person all the way around the circle back to the most-intelligent person, who will then answer his or her own question – and the answer will be relay all the way back around the circle to the most-intelligent person.
• Explain that the dog and the cat must be moving around the circle at the same time.
• Finally, let the teams know that this is a race to see which team can get the dog and the cat all the way around the circle back to the most-intelligent person.
• Tell the teams to stand and cheer when they have completed their task.
• Have a stopwatch ready, and say, “Ready. Set. GO!”
• Watch the progressive mayhem develop. The teams will likely not be prepared for the confusion that happens when the dog and cat cross paths, and questions/answers are being relayed in both directions at once.

Debrief

• Gather the teams back together into one group.
• Point out the varying kinds of people you observed playing this game:
  • The Traffic Cop – Points to team members and shouts, “YOU say ‘A what?’ to HER, and YOU say ‘A cat’ to HIM and…” Have the teams ID their Traffic Cops.
  • The Giggler – This person just can’t stop laughing. They can’t relay questions, or answers. But they’re having a great time. The Traffic Cops get real frustrated by Gigglers.
  • The Focused – This person efficiently goes about their task. They’re not distracted by the Gigglers, they want to complete their job and do it well.
  • The Clueless – These folks just don’t seem to get it. They don’t understand the rules, when offered a wallet and asked, “Wanna buy a cat?” they say “Cat? What cat? I don’t want a cat? Do you have a cat you’re trying to get rid of?”
  • Others – point out other “types” of people that you observed.
• Talk about how little fun the game would be if a team was made up of all Traffic Cops, or Gigglers, etc. For the game to be fun, you need all kinds of people.
• The same is true in any endeavor. You need leaders, you need the people who have a great time, you need the efficient workers… God will give you the people you need to have a great team.
• This also illustrates the “we are all members of the same body” concept.