The King Charles Spaniel is much cuter than some of the other FurReal pets (to me, the white cat is the only cat that's not scary!). We found the spaniel at regular price, and the white cat on Amazon on sale - it's certainly not worth paying double or triple the price, as some vendors are charging. But it's fun enough for little children.
I used to read the instructions for new purchases. (I used to do a lot of things, before kids.) But it was only by accident that we noticed these FurReal pets have a settings switch underneath (near the battery compartment). It has a switch for "Try Me", which is how it arrives, so that it can bark at you and wiggle in the shop. But to really see what it can do, make sure you switch it to "On." It's not that amazing, but it's a little more active on the right setting.
There are a few more tips in the instructions about how to get the most out of the toy, so they are worth a look.
We had as much fun making a dog house out of one of the boxes that .. uh, Santa shipped the presents to us in, as we did playing with the FurReal pet. But, overall, it's a fun toy for us.