Tech it Out! – Pet Business Magazine

[ad_1]

Electronic wizardry is redesigning the connection between other folks and their pets.

By Richard Turcsik

Published:

 



 


Pat Brown can in my view attest to how era is converting lifestyles for the puppy guardian—and the puppy—for the easier.


 


On March 26, Brown followed Barkley, a 10-week outdated Miniature Dachshund. While he were given alongside fantastic with Elijah, her different Dachshund, and Bella, Elijah’s visiting female friend, bother began when he was once installed his crate for the night time to fall asleep.


 


“He would start crying and he would cry until he fell asleep. I felt really bad,” the Toms River, N.J. resident recollects.


 


So, Brown did a little analysis and invested in a Smart Pet Love Snuggle Puppy—a crammed canine with a battery operated “heart” that includes a “real-feel” pulsing heartbeat and a warmth supply to imitate being a part of a pack.


 


“It has really been a godsend,” she says. “He now goes right in at night, snuggles up to it and I don’t hear a peep out of him until the morning.”


 


This is only one instance of the way era is eternally converting how Americans are taking good care of their pets. Other developments come with prime-tech leashes, collars, feeding bowls, water fountains, doorways, beds and a telephone stuffed with apps. They don’t seem to be handiest reshaping shoppers’ houses, conduct and routines—however the country’s puppy retail outlets as neatly.


 



 


The new line of beds from Petrics, Inc., as an example, be offering way more bells and whistles to canine than their grasp’s Craftmatic or Sleep Number opposite numbers.


 


To lend a hand pets are living longer and more healthy lives, Petrics introduced what it expenses as the sector’s first Smart Pet Bed, Activity Tracker and puppy Health and Nutrition app at January’s Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. Available in small, medium and massive variations with a cleanable and replaceable quilt, the Petrics Smart Pet Bed tracks a puppy’s weight, leisure and job. It features a constructed-in scale, and is the primary mattress to provide thermostatic heating and cooling, permitting the person to routinely or manually regulate to the best temperature for each and every puppy in accordance with breed, setting and geographic location.


 


“We are really trying to improve the pet obesity problem,” says Kristopher Johnson, director of selling at Wilmington, N.C.-based Petrics, Inc. “With over 53 percent of pets in the U.S. being obese, statistics show that at least 2.5 years are cut off their lives because of obesity and certain related medical conditions.”


 


Petrics will also be tied in with Google’s Alexa and different hooked up house applied sciences. The Smart Pet Bed and Activity Tracker be in contact with the Petrics Health and Nutrition app, making a puppy well being ecosystem that permits puppy oldsters to watch and observe pets’ well being and vitamin information, get meals and nutrition suggestions, and proportion findings with different members of the family, puppy sitters and veterinarians.


 


“Our connected product can help identify issues by raising a red flag to veterinarians with the information that we pull,” Johnson says.


 



 


Knoxville, Tenn.-based PetSecure may be bettering the lives of pets with a number of prime-tech units, together with electrical water fountains in plastic, stainless-steel and ceramic diversifications; self-cleansing muddle containers and digital fences.


 


“Pets love fresh, clean water and need one ounce of water per pound of body weight each day,” says Justin Young, advertising and marketing specialist at PetSecure. “PetSafe pet fountains help pet parents keep their dogs and cats healthy and hydrated by enticing pets to drink more, and keeping their water fresh by constantly filtering and circulating it to keep out hair and debris and inhibit bacteria growth.”


 


The corporate additionally provides filters and different equipment to stay the fountains in superb situation, he provides.


 


PetSecure’s computerized muddle containers get rid of the grimy activity of cleansing the muddle field, whilst providing cats a continuing provide of fresh, contemporary muddle. “Our PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box line uses disposable litter trays, and rake away waste after cats use the box,” Young says. “Cat homeowners can throw out the muddle tray and change it with a brand new one each and every few weeks, so that they by no means must scoop, contact or scent messy waste once more.


 


“Our Simply Clean Automatic Litter Box continuously cleans by constantly, but slowly, rotating. Making one full rotation per hour, it moves clumps of litter and waste up a ramp and conveyor belt into a waste bin for easy disposal.”


 



 


Cat and Mousr


After the cat is completed the use of her self-cleansing muddle field, she might want to move play with a Mousr by way of Petronics—a robot mouse with synthetic intelligence so just right at taking part in cat-and-mouse, it gained the Best New Cat Product award at Global Pet Expo.


 


“One of the neat things about Mousr is his tail,” says David Cohen, co-founding father of Petronics, founded in Champagne, Ill. “When cats play with Mousr, they almost always and exclusively chase after his tail. His tail is motorized, so it can flip and move on its own, and it is interchangeable. We have several different types, including springy tails, string tails and attachments like fur, feathers and catnip.”


 


Pet oldsters can attach Mousr to their smartphone by the use of a loose app and arrange an auto mode in order that cats can play with Mousr whilst house on my own, or shoppers can use the app to force the Mousr themselves. “You can create new ways to engage your cat than the standard stick and string,” Cohen says. “Cats have an instinct to hunt, but with most of their toys, either a person has to play it with them, or they are automated but not reactive. The ability to sense and react is really important to a cat. It makes them feel like they are hunting something.”


 


While lately’s tech savvy cats are going for Mousrs, their dog compatriots are busy taking part in iFetch—an automated ball launcher for small and medium canine, and the iFetch Too model for higher breeds. There may be an iFetch Frenzy mind sport for small to medium-sized canine. Dogs temporarily discover ways to take the blue iFetch tennis-genre balls and drop them into the hopper for a non-forestall sport of fetch. The battery-operated devices are moveable so they may be able to be performed with nearly any place.


 


“All of our iFetch products can be used both indoors and outdoors,” says Denny Hamill, CEO of Austin, Texas-based iFetch. “The iFetch Too ball launcher for larger dogs launches up to 40 feet, perfect for the park or backyard. We see videos of dog owners setting the iFetch launchers up in their hallway, basement, on their porch—everywhere, really.”


 


Some shops have discovered luck development an in-retailer show of iFetch merchandise to demo within the entrance of the shop, growing retail theater, Hamill notes. “If retailers purchase an iFetch intro pack containing an assortment of all three products, we include a free demo product, and a free video player containing a loop of iFetch videos, which is a key selling tactic in-store and online,” he says.


 


Thanks to Michelle Winowich, pets can now “talk” to their homeowners and different passersby. She is the founding father of G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) Pet Speakers—a small Bluetooth speaker in a canine, cat or fowl design that may connect with a collar, leash, lanyard or birdcage, and by way of the use of a similar app permits puppy oldsters to offer their puppy a voice. It is so novel it were given an funding deal on Shark Tank.


 


The voices are available in male or feminine Siri-style robot voices, or will also be custom designed with the puppy guardian’s personal voice. Several languages or accents also are to be had, French for a French Bulldog, as an example.


 


“If you are at the dog park, your dog can greet his friends by name,” Winowich says. “Some of the younger single guys think it is a great way to pick up chicks. The dog can walk up to a girl and say, ‘Hey, my friend thinks you’re cute.’ The dog can also walk up to you when you are in the house and say, ‘It is time for me to go out.’”


 



 


four Paws Tech, A Man’s Best Friend Technologies Company, founded in Glen Head, N.Y., is lights up the night time with its line of NightLight LED collars and leashes.


 


“Our NightLight LED collar and leash are the brightest and most secure on the market today,” says Len Horowitz, founder/CEO. They characteristic a USB rechargeable battery, have waterproof homes and will also be lit at night time with the rush of a button. “Our new Series II is launching at SuperZoo and is super charged with so many features and benefits it will be a must-have,” he says.


 


Those advantages come with a crimson, inexperienced and blue LED, providing 3 colours in a single collar.


 


“We have increased our USB battery charge to last for 15 hours, almost twice as long as our Series I, and we have made our product completely waterproof. Now a dog can go swim in a pool or lake at night and make their own light show as they frolic in the water,” Horowitz says, including that the brand new model may even simplify lifestyles for shops. “By creating our RGB (red, green, blue) LED collar, we reduced the number of SKUs from 16 down to three and only one SKU for the leash. This will allow for greater turns on inventory and eliminate the impossible task of choosing the correct color and size to carry.”


 



 


Smart Connected Home System


Wagz, Inc. began with the speculation of a wise canine collar, however has developed into a wise-hooked up house machine that works inside one app.


 


“Our Smart Dog Collar is a location tracker, so it tracks your dog’s GPS location, but it is so much more,” says Colleen Daigle, leader advertising and marketing officer of the Portsmouth, N.H.-based Wagz, Inc. “We use geo fencing technology with humane determents, so it works as an invisible fence as well. It is also an invisible leash that is ideal for hiking in safe areas.”


 


Other neat options of the Smart Dog Collar come with a are living video digital camera possibility permitting the landlord to peer in the course of the app from the canine’s standpoint, in addition to “barking alerts” that display up at the smartphone to alert a client to peer what the canine is barking at when they aren’t house.


 


Wagz’s newest addition is an automated feeder that guarantees the canine is getting the correct quantity of vitamin whether or not or no longer any person is house.


 


“When you pair the feeder with the collar, it brings in activity levels of what your dog has done throughout the day. We track activity levels and calories burned, so you can make sure you are feeding your dog the right amount of food based on what they have done that day,” Daigle says.


 


Wagz is now launching its personal line of meals underneath the Whello emblem. “This is the first food that works with the automated feeder,” Daigle says. “It is packaged in a box, similar to a K-Cup, that the consumer pops into the feeder and the food is dispensed. It also features a hopper attachment, so you can use your favorite brand of kibble. Our food is made in America, is soy-, grain- and dairy-free, and allows the consumer to no longer have to lug around huge bags.”


 


With their prime-tech elements, lots of the newest puppy units are being offered in uniqueness shops like Brookstone, in addition to Best Buy and different electronics large field retail outlets. Pet retail outlets that inventory them can lend a hand win again a few of the ones gross sales being misplaced to new channels, producers say. PB


 



[ad_2]

About Jake Schen

Check Also

How Much Exercise Does a Rhodesian Ridgeback Need?

[ad_1] The Rhodesian Ridgeback is a powerful and energetic breed, at first bred to seek …