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Life would be so unfair if humans were the only ones to benefit from tech. Well, life is unfair, but not because of a lack of tech for pets.
The good news is that humans aren’t the only ones who can use tech. Your pets can become fans of tech, making their lives easier and more fun. That’s right, your pet can be a techie just like you!
Actually, you don’t have to be a techie to enjoy tech for your pets. Check out these top tech tools that will help your pet’s health, mealtime, training, play and more!
Training – Pet Remote
Pet Remote is a training tool for pets that allows you to train them using sounds or vibrations. The app emits sounds you can use to train your dog to perform commands. When your dog hears the sound from the app, he will/should know to perform the command.
You can also use the Pet Remote training collar that emits a gentle vibration you control using the app. The vibrations can be used to train dogs who have hearing impairments or who need to perform commands in noisy environments.
This video shows you how Pet Remote works to help train your dog:
https://youtu.be/AHtu8nixY_g
Pet Remote is available for $39.99 at the Tractive website and for $64.35 at Amazon. The free app works with:
Petnet SmartFeeder – Mealtime
Let tech help you keep track of your pet’s feeding schedule. Petnet can dispense food for your dog in the proper amount at the correct time of day.
You can set a schedule using the accompanying app and find out how much food you should be feeding your pet based on her size. Petnet works with cats and dogs up to 50 lbs/22 kg.
Petnet SmartFeeder is available from Amazon for $149.99.
iFetch – Playtime
Feeling guilty that your dog wants to play but you simply don’t have the time? Let iFetch play with your dog for you. Like a tennis ball or pitching machine, iFetch throws the ball for your dog, sending her on a chase to retrieve it.
iFetch comes complete with three balls and you can order more to keep your pup entertained for longer.
This video shows you how much fun dogs can have with iFetch:
iFetch is available from Amazon for $115.
Whistle – Health
Do you use an activity tracker to monitor your fitness? Now your dog can have one too! The Whistle attaches to your dog’s collar and tracks his activity throughout the day. The accompanying app helps you keep track of your dog’s activity and alerts you if it detects a change in your dog’s activity level.
Whistle suggest goals for your dog based on his age, breed and weight. You can see a graph of his activity throughout the day and view when he was active.
Not sure if the dogwalker is actually doing her job? Whistle can let you know how much activity your dog is getting while you’re away.
Who knows? Achieving a fitness goal for your pet may have benefits for you too. Sometimes the idea of getting off the couch for your pup may be more incentive than doing it for yourself.
Here’s a video showing you Whistle working to help get dogs fit:
Whistle is available from Amazon for $99.00.
Note: my dog Astro wear a Whistle activity tracker that has definitely given us incentives to walk him more!
Tagg Pet Tracker – Protection
Like Find My iPhone you can now find your pet using a Tagg Pet Tracker. Tagg will show you on a map in the accompanying app where your dog or cat is. Tagg can alert you via text message and/or email if your pet leaves a location.
Learn how Tagg Pet Tracker works from this video:
Tagg Pet Tracker is available from Amazon for $99.95 and comes with two months of free service.
Petcube – Interaction
Curious what your pet does all day? The Petcube camera lets you stream high definition video to your phone, tablet or computer so you can see if your pet is content or up to some mischief while you’re gone (they do that sometimes…).
The camera has a laser pointer you can control with the accompanying app so you can play with your pet even when you’re away from home!
Share videos with friends and family using the app. You can even give your loved ones access to the laser pointer so they can play with your pet from afar.
This video shows you how the Petcube camera and app work:
Petcube is available from Amazon for $199.00.
Pawclub – Travel
Wondering whether you can bring your pet with you when you travel? You may think you’ll have a tough time finding pet-friendly venues but Pawclub can help.
Pawclub is a free app that shows you pet-friendly accommodations, parks, restaurants, beaches and more. Use Pawclub to find a vet or a kennel wherever you are, so long as you’re in Australia.
Pawclub is available free for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store.
Your Thoughts
Do you use tech with your pets? Which tech do you use? Would you like to try any of these tech tools for your pets? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
* Dog and cat photo courtesy of Arquez via Flickr and Creative Commons
** Pet Tech infographic courtesy of Greyhounds as Pets
I am away from the Internet, trying to convince my pup Astro he needs more tech. Articles will continue to be published at The Wonder of Tech while I’m away. I’ll respond to comments after I return on August 24.
Hi Carolyn,
It’s a shame there isn’t an app for controlling other people’s pets! They drive me nuts! Dogs are the worst when I’m out taking photos, but cats in my garden are a nuisance too. I was trying to put a gazebo up on the lawn yesterday and couldn’t get rid of one.
I’ve prepared some photos for a competition today. I’ll put them on a CD and have the supermarket print them. They have to be mounted for this competition, it’s a lot of trouble but I think there will be fewer entries. I’m still doing summer events. I have some on the website of the regional newspaper today! People are beginning to recognise me now! 🙂
Hi Mike, Yes, that would be a good app, one that could control animals so they’re not a nuisance. None of these tech devices do that, unfortunately.
I was on vacation in Alaska away from the Internet so I haven’t been able to catch up fully yet, but I do hope you did well in the competition. I’m glad that your wonderful photography is being appreciated by your local newspaper!
Hi Carolyn,
Love your blog post as usual! We have two large & in charge German Shepherds that we rescued a couple years ago. One was a former police/protection dog and they are a huge part of our family.
My wife found this great app called “Walk for a Dog”. It is available in the ITunes app store and is free. It is a GPS tracking and distance measuring dog walking app, but the really cool part of it is…for each time you walk your dog and distance you can choose your favorite dog rescue and donations are made directly to your chosen dog rescue. The app works great and is simple to use and we just love that our everyday walks are helping out other homeless dogs looking for a furever home! Our chosen charity rescue is “Oklahoma Save A Dog” and they shared the app with us and have posted how they are already receiving donations!.
Great way to log your miles with your loved pups but more importantly help a great cause! There are thousands of registered rescues you can choose from all over the country!
Hope this helps! Miss you!
Ed Spinelli
Hi Ed, Thanks for sharing that incredible app. I hadn’t heard of it before but it seems like a fantastic one that can benefit us and our furry friends. I like that Walk for a Dog encourages us to be active which helps us and our dogs stay fit, and results in donations to our favorite animal rescue organization.
I’ll have to give Walk for a Dog a try. Here’s the link if any Wonder of Tech readers want to check it out: http://www.wooftrax.com/
Astro likes this article.
Hi Jerry, Astro has good taste.
This post brings together a bunch of great tech goodies for us pet lovers!
The Pet Remote brings clicker training into the 21st Century, I love the idea! Of all these I’d like to try the Tagg Pet Tracker.
But I wish they could make the tracking device implantable. With pet theft and trafficking being such a big problem world wide, I think the company that comes up with an implantable device are going to make millions of pet owners super happy. I’d certainly be first in line!
Hi Rosemary, I’m so glad you enjoyed this article. Yes, pet lovers have lots of tech tools available for their furry friends.
You’re right, location trackers for pets can help us avoid worry when our pets go missing. An embeddable one is a great idea but there is the issue of battery life. Pet trackers use batteries and I don’t know how a battery in an embedded chip would work. Who knows what will be invented next?
Carolyn,
Techie owners will have techie pets 😉 I don’t own pets and you can actually add some GPS tracking for pets.
So that you can keep track of them if you don’t find them for some time.
Between, on right sidebar why did you added the “unsubscirbe” button? it’s not good and it hurt the conversions 🙂
Hope all is well at your end and enjoying the summer.
Cheers
Suresh
Hi Suresh, Yes, people who enjoy tech and pets can enjoy both together with these useful tools. I use the Whistle with my pup Astro and was really surprised at how inactive he can be during the day. It’s kind of like when humans first wear a fitness tracker and realize how little activity we’re get during the day!
You’re right, a GPS tracker can help people know where their pets are at all times and maybe locate lost pets. Imagine the anguish that can be avoided if your pet is lost (if you had a pet).
The Unsubscribe button comes with the plugin, I didn’t add it. I want to give readers a chance to unsubscribe if they want to. No worries, The Wonder of Tech isn’t right for everyone. But the most wise readers will certainly avoid that button and use the Subscribe one instead!