7 pawsome pieces of pet tech

When they are not trying their luck at becoming internet celebrities, dogs and cats can be moderately entertaining companions for humans. Because of this, humans have invented a range of products to keep these pets safe and happy. We’ve selected our favourites, which you can read about in the gallery.

Cleverpet

A gaming console for dogs. What more do we need to say? CleverPet is an interactive feeding tool that has three paw-sized buttons that illuminate in different ways to create challenges that dogs have to complete in order to receive a treat. It’s designed to keep pups busy while you are away. Initially CleverPet rewards your dog just for hitting one of the buttons when it lights up. But then the challenges get more complex, for example hitting buttons when they are a particular colour or responding to audio cues like “touch blue” or “touch right”. The device is Wi-Fi-enabled, meaning you can monitor your pooch’s progress online or through a mobile app.

Shru

It might look like an egg, but Shru is a cat toy that responds like a living animal, so your puss can go in for the kill without getting your carpet dirty. The product is designed to keep your fur baby “active and engaged” while you’re out. You can tweak Shru’s settings to match your cat’s play style and if it gets lost (or hidden in a den) there’s a “find me feature”. When Shru ran a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign it smashed through its $15,000 (£8,800) target to raise $170,000 (£100,200). It should ship in early 2015. 

Foobler

This puzzle toy feeder taps into your dog’s desire to forage for food. It features six timer-activated pods that can release a small amount of food at each interval. The ball-shaped device has a Pavlovian bell that will ring every 15, 30, 60 or 90 minutes. When that happens, one of the food chambers is rotated so that the kibble (or whatever else you’ve put inside) is released. In order to actually eat the treats, the dog has to rotate the ball so that the food can fall through a small-ish hole on the side of the Foobler. The puzzler comes with an app so that you can schedule treats remotely.

HomeMonitor HD

HomeMonitor is a home security system made up of Wi-Fi cameras connected to broadband that allow you to check up on your pets remotely. You can install multiple cameras around the house and the footage is streamed to the cloud and can be viewed by any device. You can also set up motion-triggered alerts that can be sent to your email account. The cameras shoot video (with night vision capabilities) while a microphone records sound. Piper offers similar functionality.

SureFlap

Reports about burglars and foxes getting in through cat flaps can make pet owners nervous about installing them, but SureFlap is a pet door that only unlocks if the resident animal’s microchip comes into scanning range. It works with the pet’s existing ID microchip or an RFID collar tag and can work with up to 32 pet identities (cat ladies rejoice!). The DualScan model will allow you to restrict some pets to indoors only, while others are allowed outside and back in again. Intruder animals will be kept out. 

Sony ActionCam + dog harness

For a dog’s eye view of the world, you need a Sony ActionCam and dog harness. The camera features a wide-angle 170-degree lens that lets you record panoramas of your dog’s daily activities. The camera shoots in Full HD, has image stabilisation to reduce blur and comes with simple editing software. The camera can be controlled wirelessly for remote recording (pups’ paws aren’t all that dexterous with buttons).

Fitbark

Many Wired readers obsess over wearable technology and the quantified self, so the quantified dog is a natural extension of our desire to monitor every aspect of our lives. Fitbark — a wireless doggie activity tracker — has been designed with the corpulent canine in mind. It gathers data relating to the dog’s activity and rest, providing you as the owner with insights and trend data. All of the activity can be tracked via an app, and the data can be shared with your vet should you so wish.