Tech – It’s for Pets Too!

If you currently own pets or have owned pets in the past — whether it’s multiple dogs, cats, or an aquarium full of fish — then you understand the most common concerns: is my pet comfortable? Are they healthy? Have they eaten enough? The ever-growing IoT industry can provide answers.

How the IoT industry is helping pet owners

Just like every other high-potential market, the IoT industry has identified areas in which they can help pet owners while also getting a cut of the profit. The two biggest concerns that pet owners have are their pet’s health and their security.

Pet’s health & security

Animal health is a crucial factor driving the market and what pet owners seek when it comes to products that help them. In order to see health data for pets, the IoT industry has found solutions that are similar to the way that humans track health data. Just like humans can track their activity and biometric statuses with a Fitbit, Apple Watch, or other wearables, pets can also have wearables on them.

FitBark is one of the more well-known smart collars for dogs that monitor activity levels, quality of sleep, distance traveled, calories burned, and overall health and behavior at all times. This device can notify you of mobility, anxiety, and skin diseases through changes in behavior and sleep habits. It can even link to your Fitbit, Apple HealthKit, or Google Fit device to review progress side by side. The data that is captured can be shown to veterinarians, who can monitor orthopedic rehabilitation, osteoarthritis, or changes in mobility.

Other pet applications

While most IoT products focus on health and security for pets, there have been other applications in which the IoT can be helpful for pet owners, such as feeders. Feeders can help automate the correct portion that a pet should eat while also dispensing food if no one is around.

One popular IoT feeder is the Petnet Smartfeeder. This device can be set up to have automatic feedings that can be personalized based on the pet. The food portion can be tailored to the pet by their age, weight, and activity. It can take care of calorie goals and notify you when the pet has been fed and is compatible with any smart home device such as Alexa, Nest Cam, or Google Home. Manual feeding can be done from a smartphone, even if you’re away from the house.

There are even IoT products that combine both feeders and toys into one, like the CleverPet. The CleverPet is a gaming hub for dogs that keeps them busy while also rewarding and teaching them. It offers commands to the dog and responds via the sensors that hear barks or the touchpad on the front of the device.

If done correctly, a treat is dispensed. The games that it provides were designed by animal-loving cognitive scientists and can keep a dog entertained. The CleverPet can track and limit how much your dog eats and track the progress of the games to see how they improve over the days and weeks.