We know you see your dog as more than just a pet. They are an integral part of your family, offering unconditional love, companionship, and a wagging tail that brightens even the gloomiest day. As a responsible dog owner, you’re always looking for ways to enhance the well-being and happiness of your canine companion, especially since you can’t be with them every hour of the day.
Recent advancements in machine learning and generative AI have opened up exciting new possibilities for connected tools, toys and devices that can make your home even more dog-friendly.
Let’s explore the growing number of innovations in pet tech, and how they can help transform your home into a dog-friendly haven.
What Makes a Home “Dog-Friendly?”
At its core, a dog-friendly space is more than a protected physical space with toys and a comfy bed. It’s an environment where your dog doesn’t just live, but thrives.
A strong bond with you, your dog’s human packmate, is an essential part of this environment. Shared activities like daily walks, training sessions, and cuddle time add true enrichment to your dog’s life.
- Positive-reinforcement training using food, treats, praise, or a favorite toy as rewards teaches your dog what is expected, making life less anxious and more enjoyable.
- Thoughtful socialization with other people and pets boosts your dog’s confidence.
- A hazard-free home and secure entryways protect your dog from injury or escape.
- A few cozy resting spots, a bit of room to explore, and toys to play with, give your dog choices and a sense of being at home.
- Daily outdoor exercise, with ample time to safely sniff and explore, engages all of your dog’s senses.
- Dog-safe decor is important – because dogs will be dogs! You’ll both be happier if delicate belongings aren’t being destroyed.
- Dogs thrive on a daily routine! A consistent feeding, training, and play schedule will keep your dog’s tail wagging in anticipation.
Your dog-friendly home begins with understanding your own dog’s preferences and behaviors. Every dog is unique, and by paying attention to their cues you can tailor your home to create a space where they feel loved and secure. Tech is here to help in this process and gives us new opportunities to understand our dog’s needs.
How Pet Tech Can Help Build a Dog-Friendly Home
Let’s dive into some of the pet-friendly home innovations that can help you craft a dog-centric home for you and your pup!
1. Dinnertime! Smart Feeding Solutions for Dogs
Let’s start with one of the most crucial aspects of your dog’s day – meals. Dinnertime isn’t just about filling your dog’s belly and providing proper canine nutrition. Meals provide structure to your dog’s day, and are a recurring opportunity for training, bonding and enjoyment.
Automatic Pet Feeders: These nifty and fairly simple devices allow you to schedule and automate your dog’s meals, providing them with the routine they crave. You can control portion size and feeding time by setting a digital clock on the device, ensuring that your canine companion is correctly fed, even when you’re not at home.
Interactive Pet Feeders add mental and sensory stimulation and fun to meals!
Tech isn’t always required. Many fun and engaging interactive dog feeders don’t need tech enhancement. Rugged plastic or rubber puzzle feeders or rolling treat dispensers allow your dog to “hunt” for food as they manipulate the puzzle with their nose and paws. This transforms what might have been a few minutes of food-gobbling into a longer session that engages your dog’s brain, nose, and taste buds.
Tech enhanced feeders or treat dispensers elevate interaction to real-time! They not only allow dog parents to schedule their dog’s mealtime, food portions, or treat delivery with precision, they also have cameras and/or audio capability, so you can listen to and speak with your dog. Depending on how tech-loaded the pet-feeding or treat-dispensing device is, you can play with or even train your dog when you aren’t at home, rewarding them with treats and turning mealtime into a fun bonding activity.
2. Health and Wellness
We all want our pet children to live their happiest, healthiest, most enriching lives. While injuries and illness are sometimes unavoidable, there’s a lot we do to create the best health and wellness environments for our pets. Tech is here to help.
Smart pet cameras with two-way audio give you a window into your dog’s mental and physical health. Separation anxiety is thought to impact one out of every four to six dogs. Cameras let you see whether your dog is comfortably napping or anxiously whining and pacing for hours. Audio allows you to interact vocally, rewarding your dog with your presence or reassuring them with training games.
Wearable Health Trackers. Up to 18.2% of humans sport a wearable smart device that can monitor location, general activity, and sleep patterns, but might also keep tabs on heart rate, blood pressure, and more.
Dog activity collars or ‘smart collars’ are wearable fitness monitors for canines, allowing dog parents daily visibility into their dog’s activity. Like human fitness wearable and apps, they can also monitor and track changes over time, alerting you if your dog’s daily activity increases or slows. AI algorithms can spot changes in your dog’s behavior, which may indicate discomfort or illness. Some gather body temperature, heart rate and other health information that can be downloaded via an app and shared with your veterinarian.
Home Health Monitoring Systems: A suite of devices with AI-driven cameras and sensors can provide real-time data on your dog’s vital signs, allowing you to spot any anomalies. Some systems can even alert you to potential health issues, giving you a chance to address concerns promptly.
Pet First Aid Apps can be installed on your phone. They provide instructions on how to handle common emergencies and some can help you find the nearest veterinary clinic or animal hospital in case of an urgent situation.
3. Training and Behavior Management: A Well-Behaved Canine Companion
A well-behaved dog is happier and more content, which makes them a delight to live with. Technology offers various tools and resources to make training and behavior management easier and more effective.
Training Apps are available that guide you through teaching your dog commands and tricks. These often come with step-by-step tutorials and progress tracking, making it easier for you to train your pup effectively.
Virtual Dog Trainers are real-life trainers available for remote consultations via video calls. They can help address specific behavioral issues or provide general training advice, tailoring their guidance to your dog’s unique needs.
Smart Pet Cameras are more than just surveillance devices. Many of them come with features like two-way audio and treat dispensers, allowing you to interact with your dog and reward them for good behavior, even when you’re away from home.
Porter Labs’ PupStation integrates many of the individual pet tech capabilities we’ve talked about into an interactive training and play suite for you and your dog. The PupStation smart collar uses advanced sensors to track your dog’s movements. AI assesses them with machine-learning algorithms, and the PupStation feeder dispenses food when your dog makes the expected choices. PupStation even has satellite models that turn your entire home and yard into a large interactive play zone for your dog. You can see PupStation in action here.
4. Fun and Mental Stimulation
Dogs, like humans, need mental stimulation – called “enrichment” in animal circles. Boredom can lead to destructive behavior and anxiety, so providing your dog with engaging activities is essential in a dog-friendly home. Pet tech can help make this easy and enjoyable for both you and your pup.
Interactive Toys like treat-dispensing puzzles, and an interactive training and play suite like PupStation, can keep your dog engaged and active. Some toys automatically activate when they sense your dog nearby. Some can be controlled via smartphone apps, enabling you to initiate playtime even when you’re not at home.
TV for Dogs. There are even television channels and streaming services specifically designed for dogs. These channels feature engaging visuals and sounds that can capture your dog’s attention and keep them entertained.
5. Home Security and Comfort
Creating a dog-friendly home is about catering to your pet’s needs and ensuring their safety and comfort. Here’s how AI-driven technology can help.
Smart Homes Go to the Dogs. Integrating your dog’s comfort with your existing smart home devices can be a game-changer. You can program your smart thermostat to maintain a comfortable temperature for your dog when you’re not home. Smart locks can provide access to dog walkers or pet sitters as needed. Smart lighting can brighten your home at dusk, so your dog isn’t left sitting in unexpected darkness if you won’t be home until late.
Smart Home Security. Home security systems with motion detection can provide an extra layer of safety for your dog. These systems alert you if someone enters your home, giving you peace of mind when you’re away. Your video doorbell camera can let you know when someone is at your door, which is especially important if your dog becomes anxious when strangers are nearby.
Automatic Pet Doors. While it’s unsafe to allow unattended pet access to the outdoors, an automatic pet door that unlatches only in proximity to a connected tag on your dog’s collar, and opens into a secure outdoor area can give your dog access to fresh air and natural enrichment. It also enables them to exit the building in a smoke or fire emergency.
6. Dog-Safe Outings and Travel
For a lot of dog parents, adventuring away from home is an exciting part of life with your dog. Unfortunately, it’s estimated that one out of three pets will become lost during their lifetime. Pet tech can make every outing – home or away – a lot safer and more relaxing. Here’s some canine safety tech that can help keep your dog safe at home or while traveling.
Microchips are tiny devices that are implanted under the skin and have a unique scannable ID number that can be tracked via microchip registries. Remember – register that chip so your lost dog can be returned to you, and keep your registration info updated!! Only about 6 in 10 microchips are properly registered.
Smart tags have a QR code that anyone with a smartphone can scan to open an in-depth online profile for your pet. This can get your pet home more quickly if they are lost, since the profile can store multiple phone numbers and extended contact information, and can also share vital health info.
GPS trackers or a bluetooth-enhanced tag can provide added security by helping you locate your pup if they wander too far or get lost. Bluetooth enabled devices provide short-range tracking if your dog has a tendency to avoid your calls (or is actually deaf), and GPS connected pet devices provide longer-range tracking and accuracy if your pet becomes truly lost.
Digital Pet Collar Cams show you the world from your dog’s point of view, providing insight into what your dog actually experiences down there closer to the ground, nose-to-nose with the world.
Vehicle temperature monitors alert you via a smartphone app if the temperature in your RV, camper, or car rises above a safe level.
Dog-Friendly Apps can help you find dog-friendly parks, hotels, and restaurants. Some even provide reviews and ratings from other dog owners, making it easier to plan outings with your pup.
A Dog-Friendly Home Will Fit Your Own Dog’s Unique Needs
You don’t have to own every pet tech device we’ve outlined here in order to consider your home dog-friendly. Take a look at your dog’s daily life to identify both the enrichment gaps – like the number of hours your dog is home alone – and their unique activities, like regular travel. Embrace the technological advancements that fit the life you and your dog share.
A suite like PupStation will enhance the well-being and happiness of your canine companion while making your life as a pet parent more enjoyable, no matter how many hours you spend with or away from your dog. It comfortably fills the enrichment and safety gaps that might exist when other obligations keep you from dedicating the time you would like to your dog’s enrichment, training, and health. And even when you are home with your dog, PupStation provides fun, enrichment, and training opportunities for both of you!
From mealtime to health monitoring, training to entertainment, and even safety and emergency preparedness, pet tech is at the heart of creating a dog-friendly home. Embrace these technological advancements as a way to strengthen your bond with your furry best friend and make your home a place of joy, comfort, and tail-wagging delight.
