k9mania
06-23-2009, 02:45 PM
A world of gadgets for your pet
What's truly useful technology, and what's just a gimmick?
By Christie Keith, Special to SF Gate (feedback@sfgate.com)
From automated self-cleaning litter boxes to GPS technology that lets pet owners know where, oh where, has their little dog gone, the market is crowded with electronic gadgets and devices aimed at helping people and their pets.
Do any of them offer real benefits for our animals, or are they just expensive toys for us?
GPS collars
Global positioning technology to keep track of your dog certainly sounds like it falls into the "toys for people" category. It's high tech. It's expensive. And other than hunters and hikers who may be out in the wilderness with their dogs, it's not obvious at first glance how useful this might be to average pet owners.
After all, anyone who loves his dog enough to fork over the bucks for a GPS collar isn't likely to let her run loose in the neighborhood in the first place.
At least, that's how I always saw it. Then I remembered the day when my mom came home early from an appointment with her lawyer. The meeting had been interrupted when a neighbor called to say he'd seen the lawyer's dogs, two Alaskan Malamutes, running down the street together.
"But I left them tethered to the picnic table in the yard," the lawyer said. "Behind a six-foot wooden fence."
The neighbor told her the dogs were still attached to the picnic table, which was dragging along behind them as they headed off for destinations unknown.
Not everyone owns a force of nature like a Malamute, but plenty of people have dogs that thwart their best efforts at safe confinement.
Small dogs like Jack Russell terriers -- world-class diggers all -- and beagles, whose tendency to go haring off after any interesting scent is legendary, are among the Houdinis of the dog world. Anyone who has ever owned an escape artist dog might well consider GPS tracking devices in a dog's collar to be a necessity rather than a high-tech luxury.
Chris Newton, CEO of Positioning Animals Worldwide, Inc. (PAW), said his company had dogs like beagles in mind when it developed the SpotLight locator, the latest entry in the GPS pet tracking market.
"It's one of the reasons we pushed to get the unit down to the size it is, so it can be used on the smaller dogs," he said.
GPS collar devices have been getting smaller every year, and the waterproof SpotLight is only two and a half ounces, thanks to a replaceable, rechargeable battery that can be changed without removing the pet's collar.
"It's very difficult to create a battery with enough life in it to be functional for pet owners, and still have it be small enough for a pet who weighs under 10 pounds," Newton said. "I think we're almost there, but right now, that's the limit."
Basic GPS collars allow owners to track their pets' whereabouts using their computers or cell phones. A dog owner uses his computer to set up "safe zones" for his pet -- the house and yard, the local park, the beach -- and he'll get a text message, e-mail and phone call if the dog travels outside those zones.
The SpotLight can also monitor how fast the pet is traveling, which can indicate if he's been taken in a car instead of wandering off on his own. It even has a LED light that's visible for more than 100 yards and can be activated by the pet owner with a text message, making nighttime searches a little easier.
Some GPS systems go a step beyond and offer a subscription service that will help track your pet from a central location. SpotLight teamed up with the American Kennel Club's Companion Animal Recovery service (AKC CAR) to provide minute-by-minute tracking of pets' locations, along with turn-by-turn directions to help their owners find them if they go missing. Staff at CAR will stay on the phone with you until your pet is found, and can also activate the collar's LED light if you're not able to do so.
The SpotLight and one rechargeable battery runs around $250. Additional batteries are extra. Service plans range from $7.99 to $14.99 a month, and include round-the-clock, 365-day-a-year monitoring by AKC CAR staff, complete with advice and handholding for distraught owners. For more information, click here (http://www.spotlightgps.com/home.aspx).
Petcams
My first exposure to a "petcam" occurred when I started following the story of a Scottish Deerhound named Nero, who was battling bone cancer. Nero had friends and fans pulling for him all over the world, thanks to that little Nero-cam (http://www.nerocam.com/NeroCancer/). He ultimately lost that fight, but the site became a major destination for people hoping to understand this terrible canine disease.
Webcam technology is everywhere these days. We use it to chat with friends and family, keep up with loved ones overseas and for things that should probably go unmentioned in a pet column. And dog and cat owners use it to figure out just which cat it is that keeps peeing on your bedroom pillow or vomiting in your shoes, or which one of the Border collies figured out how to bust the kid-proof latch on the trash can.
Petcams are also useful if you have a sick pet that needs supervision, and you work for a company that doesn't provide for paid pet-care leave. The peace of mind that comes from seeing your dog resting quietly on his first day home from the vet while still earning the paycheck that pays for his surgery in the first place is priceless.
And the technology that makes it possible is cheap and easy: the cameras themselves are sold everywhere and start under $50.
See more gadgets at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/06/23/petscol062309.DTL
What's truly useful technology, and what's just a gimmick?
By Christie Keith, Special to SF Gate (feedback@sfgate.com)
From automated self-cleaning litter boxes to GPS technology that lets pet owners know where, oh where, has their little dog gone, the market is crowded with electronic gadgets and devices aimed at helping people and their pets.
Do any of them offer real benefits for our animals, or are they just expensive toys for us?
GPS collars
Global positioning technology to keep track of your dog certainly sounds like it falls into the "toys for people" category. It's high tech. It's expensive. And other than hunters and hikers who may be out in the wilderness with their dogs, it's not obvious at first glance how useful this might be to average pet owners.
After all, anyone who loves his dog enough to fork over the bucks for a GPS collar isn't likely to let her run loose in the neighborhood in the first place.
At least, that's how I always saw it. Then I remembered the day when my mom came home early from an appointment with her lawyer. The meeting had been interrupted when a neighbor called to say he'd seen the lawyer's dogs, two Alaskan Malamutes, running down the street together.
"But I left them tethered to the picnic table in the yard," the lawyer said. "Behind a six-foot wooden fence."
The neighbor told her the dogs were still attached to the picnic table, which was dragging along behind them as they headed off for destinations unknown.
Not everyone owns a force of nature like a Malamute, but plenty of people have dogs that thwart their best efforts at safe confinement.
Small dogs like Jack Russell terriers -- world-class diggers all -- and beagles, whose tendency to go haring off after any interesting scent is legendary, are among the Houdinis of the dog world. Anyone who has ever owned an escape artist dog might well consider GPS tracking devices in a dog's collar to be a necessity rather than a high-tech luxury.
Chris Newton, CEO of Positioning Animals Worldwide, Inc. (PAW), said his company had dogs like beagles in mind when it developed the SpotLight locator, the latest entry in the GPS pet tracking market.
"It's one of the reasons we pushed to get the unit down to the size it is, so it can be used on the smaller dogs," he said.
GPS collar devices have been getting smaller every year, and the waterproof SpotLight is only two and a half ounces, thanks to a replaceable, rechargeable battery that can be changed without removing the pet's collar.
"It's very difficult to create a battery with enough life in it to be functional for pet owners, and still have it be small enough for a pet who weighs under 10 pounds," Newton said. "I think we're almost there, but right now, that's the limit."
Basic GPS collars allow owners to track their pets' whereabouts using their computers or cell phones. A dog owner uses his computer to set up "safe zones" for his pet -- the house and yard, the local park, the beach -- and he'll get a text message, e-mail and phone call if the dog travels outside those zones.
The SpotLight can also monitor how fast the pet is traveling, which can indicate if he's been taken in a car instead of wandering off on his own. It even has a LED light that's visible for more than 100 yards and can be activated by the pet owner with a text message, making nighttime searches a little easier.
Some GPS systems go a step beyond and offer a subscription service that will help track your pet from a central location. SpotLight teamed up with the American Kennel Club's Companion Animal Recovery service (AKC CAR) to provide minute-by-minute tracking of pets' locations, along with turn-by-turn directions to help their owners find them if they go missing. Staff at CAR will stay on the phone with you until your pet is found, and can also activate the collar's LED light if you're not able to do so.
The SpotLight and one rechargeable battery runs around $250. Additional batteries are extra. Service plans range from $7.99 to $14.99 a month, and include round-the-clock, 365-day-a-year monitoring by AKC CAR staff, complete with advice and handholding for distraught owners. For more information, click here (http://www.spotlightgps.com/home.aspx).
Petcams
My first exposure to a "petcam" occurred when I started following the story of a Scottish Deerhound named Nero, who was battling bone cancer. Nero had friends and fans pulling for him all over the world, thanks to that little Nero-cam (http://www.nerocam.com/NeroCancer/). He ultimately lost that fight, but the site became a major destination for people hoping to understand this terrible canine disease.
Webcam technology is everywhere these days. We use it to chat with friends and family, keep up with loved ones overseas and for things that should probably go unmentioned in a pet column. And dog and cat owners use it to figure out just which cat it is that keeps peeing on your bedroom pillow or vomiting in your shoes, or which one of the Border collies figured out how to bust the kid-proof latch on the trash can.
Petcams are also useful if you have a sick pet that needs supervision, and you work for a company that doesn't provide for paid pet-care leave. The peace of mind that comes from seeing your dog resting quietly on his first day home from the vet while still earning the paycheck that pays for his surgery in the first place is priceless.
And the technology that makes it possible is cheap and easy: the cameras themselves are sold everywhere and start under $50.
See more gadgets at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/06/23/petscol062309.DTL