Pet Tech: All About the Smart Dog Collar
Picture this: You’re sitting at your desk at work when you hear the familiar ping of a notification on your smartphone. The message has been sent by your dog’s collar, letting you know that she has gotten out again. Time to track her down using the collar’s built-in GPS, which is accessible on your phone.
By the time you reach the area where she is located, evening is setting in, so you remotely switch on the collar’s LED light to help you in your search. There she is, investigating the contents of a gopher hole in some bushes five blocks from home!
Before returning home, you have the collar take and post pictures of your dog’s escapades to your social media accounts, just for fun.
Sound far-fetched? Not anymore. There are varieties of “smart dog collars” on the market today that do everything from tracking your pet’s daily activity levels to creating online scrapbooks of your pet at the touch of a button.
Wearables Are Where It’s At
Pet parents want to give their pets the best lives possible, and their spending shows it. A new report released by Transparency Market Research estimates that overall pet spending will increase 50% by 2020, and the “pet tech wearable market” may be worth up to 2.5 billion dollars in the next 10 years. Check out these fascinating pieces of pet technology.
Fit as a Fiddle
Activity trackers like FitBark led the way for smart collars, such as the Australian-based Buddy collar, which keeps you up-to-date on literally everything you could possibly want to know about your best pal’s daily activities. Besides monitoring your dog’s exercise levels, whereabouts, and daily food intake, you can even connect the Buddy collar to your home thermostat so that it will automatically adjust when your pet becomes too hot or too cold!
Pampered Pooches
Pet owners wanting a more stylish look to Fido’s smart collar might consider the Link AKC. For $6.95 per month, plus the cost of the collar, owners will get GPS tracking, activity monitoring, remote controlled lighting, photo and scrapbooking capabilities, and temperature alerts, all in attractive, durable leather.
Cutting Edge
Perhaps one of the most exciting uses of monitoring technology is to help veterinarians and pet owners provide custom care for pets with ongoing health issues, such as arthritis or obesity. The new Vetrax smart collar aims to do just that by measuring behaviors such as resting, walking, running, water consumption, shaking, and scratching. Collected data is analyzed and the animal’s veterinary staff is alerted if Vetrax identifies out-of-the-ordinary behavior.
The Smart Collar End Goal
Technology has revolutionized our lives; it only makes sense that it should revolutionize our pets’ lives as well. Not only do smart collars and other pet tech gadgets give us the chance to fine-tune our responses to our pet’s ever-changing needs, they help us to understand them better and thus to connect more deeply with them.
As useful and life-changing as it is, technology will never replace the necessary bonding and attachment that our pets can only get from a relationship with us! If you have any questions or concerns about your pet, don’t hesitate to contact us at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services.
