The coolest gadgets for your furry friends
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While we humans enjoy technology and innovation, connecting just about everything to the Internet, there are plenty of cool gadgets and electronic toys for pets that will certainly carve a smile on the faces of our four-legged friends as well as their owners. Just in time for the upcoming Yuletide season, we take a look at which gadgets for pets are popular on the market at the moment.
Whoever loves dogs or cats and calls them his/her own knows just how much time and attention the furry family members require. This makes smart toys for animals a big deal! Every year at technology exhibitions like CES in Las Vegas, entire areas are booked just to present technology that is related to pets. Among them include smart feeding bowls which are supposed to provide information about the state of health of the animal via an app while providing you with the ability to control both feeding times and amount. There are also smart drinking fountains that come equipped with filter change alarms, ball launchers, or even GPS trackers for dogs and cats, ensuring that the nightly outings in the neighbourhood resulting in rummaging for dry food cans are over once and for all. You want to make your pet happy or gift a special present to a pet owner? If your answer is in the affirmative, you will certainly find something useful and practical in our carefully curated list of pet gifts.
Ball launchers for dog training
Maybe you have heard of the iFetch ball launcher, which carries a rather hefty price tag of $115! On Amazon, the iFetch ball launcher has racked up close to 2,000 reviews and an average rating of 3.5 stars. A far more affordable counterpart is retailing for approximately £65.99 has similarly good ratings. It can launch tennis balls up to three, six, and nine meters away while encourage your small to medium-sized quadruped to retrieve them and clock up some exercise simultaneously.
Up to three balls can be placed in the device at any one time. It is powered by half a dozen C-sized batteries, i.e. the thick baby batteries, or - if a power outlet is nearby, via the included power supply unit. If the ball launcher is not suitable for your furry kid, you can exchange the device within the legal return period for something else that might be more suitable.
GPS tracker for dogs and cats: Tractive
Right at the very beginning, we would like to say this: With this GPS tracker for your furry kids, you are required to sign up for a monthly subscription. The SIM card will arrive integrated into the device itself. On Amazon, you can purchase the GPS tracker for a wide range of prices between about £30 and £50. In return, dog and cat owners will be able to keep track of the position of their dog or cat with the assistance of live GPS tracking.
Every two to three seconds, the GPS tracker will update the location data of your pet. The tracker also offers a "virtual fence" and notifies the owner whenever your four-legged buddy leaves a pre-defined zone. The GPS tracker is waterproof, comes with an integrated fitness tracker and app, enabling it to work in over 150 countries worldwide. According to the manufacturer, the battery is able to last anywhere from two to five days before requiring a quick recharge. Something tells me that this might be a budget toddler tracker for some enterprising parents who are on a tight budget!
Petkit: smart feeder that works with an app
There is really nothing in the pet world that cannot be brought into the realm of IoT (Internet of Things) once you begin to do some research. In the meantime, there are several manufacturers who offer smart food solutions, ensuring that especially mistresses and masters of pets have a more relaxed life. When it comes to automatic feeding solutions, it is important to take note of the freshness of the food in the device. Manufacturer Petkit has developed a solution that does more than just dispense dry food automatically. This automatic feeder that is powered by an app comes with a cooling system inside, that could then be used to keep wet food cold and hence, prolong the freshness of it.
Those who feed dry food to his/her four-legged friends are able to automate the process easily. Petkit's solution enables you to determine exactly how often and how much food per day should end up in the bowl. You can define the time period via the app for Android and iOS and keep track of exactly how much your pet eats. In the meantime, the smart bowl from Petkit is available for $70.
Automatic cat flap: It knows who goes in and out
The main advantage of having a cat flap is probably this: the incessant meowing in front of the house or balcony door will come to an end! The disadvantage? Your cat's mates and other small animals would have unrestricted access to the apartment or house. There has long been a solution for this - and it often comes at the expense of an app. Cat owners can use a so-called microchip cat flap to determine that the flap will only open up when registered chips are detected, ensuring that uninvited guests cannot enter at all.
Another advantage of automatic cat flaps: One is able to know whenever your furry kids leave or enter the house, simply because most of these automatic cat flaps come with an accompanying app. We have narrowed it down to two choices of automatic cat flaps that come accompanied by an application for use with smartphones, and another without, here.
Drinking fountain with filter change alarm
Those who already use a drinking fountain instead of a water bowl for dogs or cats are well acquainted with the advantages. Animals tend to be drawn to the sound and movement of flowing water in order to drink more. Apart from that, flowing water ensures that it remains fresh for a longer period of time, and hence, tastier. This attributed to the integrated water filter that is located inside the drinking fountain. If you want to go one step further, you can buy a drinking fountain that has app control, where you would be conveniently reminded by your smartphone to change the water filter when the right time comes.
The Petoneer drinking fountain will retail for a relatively high €90, where it is able to clean the water of bacteria using UV light while keeping track of the water quality to make sure that your pet enjoys the very best in life. In addition to the filter change alarm, you can also be alerted whenever the water level starts to run low, so that you can take action and top it up to a maximum of two litres as soon as possible.
Which smart solutions do you use in everyday life for your furry friends? Leave us a comment here, we look forward to your banter!
the dog is just great!))