Go play with the computer, kitty!

Gizmos keep an eye on pets, feed them and let them come and go

CATS’ WHISKERS: Kittyo, above, attracts cats with bird calls and will keep the animal entertained with a laser tag, while filming the animal. An animal behaviour expert, however, warns that such devices can turn pets into ‘home entertainment’ A DOG’S life has gone hi-tech.

Amber Jordan runs A Pet’s Life, an online shop that sells apps and smart devices that help owners to keep in touch with their animals.

The biggest seller is a programmed pet door that allows a cat or small dog to come and go through a flap connected to a microchip in the animal.

The flap takes dozens of codes, so owners can give each pet a unique set of entry and exit rules and times.

Jordan said the pet-tech market was booming.

“Six years ago you couldn’t even get basic pet stuff here. Now we get queries for hi-tech objects. Often we have people searching for pet items online and then ask us if we can source them. There is more of an awareness of what is available.”

The pet market is huge and continuing to grow, according to the Global Pet Accessories Market 2015-2019 report.

It said that spending worldwide on pet items was expected to be more than $19-billion (R271-billion) by 2020, of which about $2.4-billion would be on “tech wear”.

Tracking devices, training devices and gadgets that reward, feed and entertain are hitting the market daily.

The Kittyo is a camera-equipped device that attracts a cat through sound. Bird noises are popular, as well as squeaks and the voice of the owner.

Owners can play laser-tag, take and share photos and videos and dispense food as a reward — all remotely.

Garmin’s “virtual leash”, a tracker that also works through an app, allows owners to train their dogs.

CleverPet is a game console that exercises a dog’s mind through light, touch and sound puzzles, all set at the correct levels and remotely monitored by the owner.

South Africa has a way to go before it catches up.

Jordan said there was little call for fitness trackers for pets, possibly because pet owners still have the space in which to exercise their animals.

She supplies pet cams, but only the basic one-way variety. These are used mostly to keep an eye on a pet.

“You can see your dog and you can speak to it. It’s more like a nanny cam,” she said.

Where people live in close proximity, it can be used, for example, to monitor a dog’s barking.

Jordan said food dispensers that operated on timers, or via a microchip, were popular.

So are pet fountains that provide water that is purified and oxygenated.

One of the earliest interactive toys is iFetch, an automatic ball launcher that allows a dog to exercise on its own.

Dogs need to be trained to drop the ball into the device, then wait for it to pop out again — and set off on the chase.

Lance Derbyshire is the local distributor of iFetch.

Derbyshire said there had been a great deal of interest in the neat, rechargeable product, which comes in two sizes — the original for small dogs and the iFetch Too for big dogs.

He said his brother had two golden retrievers that were obsessed with it.

“We seem to sell mostly to Joburg-based dog lovers who are mostly female. And most of our sales are through word of mouth.”

Pet behaviour consultant Pam Whyte said technology was not necessarily the answer to keeping pets happy, healthy and safe.

“The more stressed a dog is, the more behaviour problems he has.

“And therefore, the more gimmicks his owners resort to in their desperation, which do not remove the root cause of the problem,” said Whyte.

While webcams didn’t harm dogs, families were turning their dogs into “home entertainment”, she said.

“Dogs that have peace of mind are not entertaining and if a dog is in a safe environment, why track them?”