From August 8th, Sega Toys Japan will start selling a robot dog [JP, PDF] specifically designed for children between 4-8 years old. The “Uchi no Suupa Doggu Sakadachi Rakki” (My Super Stand-up-and-beg Dog Lucky) can respond to a total of 13 spoken phrases.

Sega Toys said the dog was developed with the voices of around 100 children who helped to improve the speech recognition software’s level of accuracy. Lucky will react to commands such as “sit”, “there, there”, “sit up and beg” etc.  I don’t know why, but the robot is also able to sing if you want him to.

The dog stands 25 cm tall and is equipped with 3 mini motors. Sega Toys hopes to sell 60,000 units in the first year (price: $86).