Power up your pooch with clever canine wearables, connected LED collars and social petworks, says
Tech Rosamund Urwin
MY dog Dorrit is doing her nose-nuzzle of adoration. It’s a gesture she reserves for her favourite people — me, my boyfriend, our families — and now her dog-sitter, Hazel Carey, pictured, whom she has only known for five minutes. Before we leave, Dorrit — a one-year-old lurcher, below — also demonstrates “puppy madness” where she runs in circles around our tiny flat, repeatedly jumping up on the bed and sofa; Carey, who has a labrador herself and used to run a nanny agency, seems unfazed.
I’ve summoned Careyey to our door using the Camden-basedd pet-sit-sitting app, Dogbuddy.. It’s more like a canine Airbnbnb than a BorrowMyDoggyy set-up, connecting owners who pay a booking fee with local, experienced pet-nannies, rather than volunteers. The aim of the service iss to stop owners worryingng when they leave their dogs,ogs, so the pet-nanny sendsnds a photo, video and GPSPS walk updates. Dogbuddy also provides insurance cover. Carey says she is often hired by married couples simply to sit in with the dog and watch TV, so they can leave their dog without separation anxiety (theirs, not the hound’s). The app itself is easy to use — you just fill in information about you and your dog, and then search for a local sitter.
But why, when apps such as Borrowmydoggy let you find sitters for free, would people pay? “We’re reliable and professional,” says Dogbuddy founder Richard Setterwall. “If a dog-sitter gets sick, we find an alternative. We have a lot of customers who have used family and friends in the past but now choose to pay — that way they can stipulate ‘You have to walk the dog a certain number of times a day’. You can’t really do that when someone is doing you a favour.”
The 36-year-old adds that Dogbuddy rejects the majority of those who apply to be dog nannies: “Our sitters either have to have had a dog themselves or to have taken care of dogs professionally. We also do background checks and have an online assessmentassess that they have to go thrthrough, and answer questiquestions correctly about diffedifferent scenarios.” Setterwall, who was a management consultant and then dabbled in entrepreneurship wwith an online headhhunting firm, is originnally from Sweden whwhere he had a Rottweilweiler Luca. When he moved to the UK, he had to leave LucaLuc in Stockholm: “I used kennels once — it was horrible.” This gave him the idea for Dogbuddy. He launched it in London in July 2013, and it has expanded quickly — it is now in seven countries, and covers 200 cities. Last month, Dogbuddy received a €5 million investment from Sweet Capital, the venture capital fund set up by Candy Crush creator King.com. The money will go towards expansion and improving the app.
Dog tech is a booming industry. In fact,
Dorrit has a more high-tech life than I do. Her food comes from a London-based manufacturer called Butternut Box, whose staff determine her daily calorie needs using a proprietary algorithm — intended to prevent canine obesity. Her coat — from London-based Dogsnug — is far more waterproof than mine, with a 3D mesh designed to be light yet weatherresistant. Most excitingly, we are currently trying to persuade her to wear a GoPro harness for dogs that will allow us to make videos of her movements —
YouTube superstardom awaits.
Though my own Fitbit is long lost, I’ve tried canines wearables PitPat and FitBark to monitor Dorrit’s exercise regime and health. We’d probably buy her the memory-foam dog bed, made by Casper, if she didn’t already sleep in our bed. Ahead of Guy Fawkes night, my parents also use an Adaptil pheromone collar for their greyhound, Pip, to keep him calm(ish) through the bangs.
Other doggy developments include Dyson’s grooming vacuum attachment more upset when I used the microphone to calm him down because he didn’t understand where I was. This was surprising, as we Facetime all the time when I’m working away at fashion week (yes, I am that person). Furbo does say it takes about a week for your dog (or cat) to get used to its functions, but I think some of them just aren’t suited to my particular scaredy-dog. That said, the camera and bark alerts are brilliant, and I’ll be using them a lot, although at £239 this is definitely a gadget for the more pampered of pooches.
@hannahrochell
which allows you to hoover the hound rather than brush them; LED collars like the Squeaker Poochlight for night walks and automatic ball-launchers like iFetch that let you to rest your arms (throwingrelated RSI is the dogowners’ curse). This month, Google Photos also announced that the search engine can now identify photos of pets so it will automatically group together pics of the same dog.
Tech has entered the doghouse — and life on four legs is being transformed.
@RosamundUrwin