Pets

Installing a pet door can be a great way to allow your furry friend to come and go as they please, but sometimes leads to unwanted visitors too. Petvation is looking to change that with the help of AI facial recognition and a mobile app.

There’s no question cats are cute and cuddly – just ask the internet. But viral cat videos don’t tend to highlight the messy business of dealing with your cat's messy business. Tokyo-based Popur thinks its new system lays waste to the competition.

Just like our fingerprints, the shape and pattern of each dog's nose is unique to that animal. Bearing this in mind, pet food company Iams has launched a "nose-centric" app for identifying lost dogs – appropriately enough, it's called NOSEiD.

Earlier this year, we heard about a pet-entertaining/treat-dispensing robot known as Pumpkii. Although its crowdfunding campaign was cancelled, the similar Rocki is now available for purchase.

A new prototype Companion Collar smart collar is being developed by the CSIRO's digital specialist arm, Data61, and agtech company Ceres Tag that will allow pet owners to track their animal across both long and short distances.

While some dog owners feed their pooches raw food instead of kibble, others have switched to dehydrated dog food. The Spanish-designed Kibus device works with the latter, automatically rehydrating it with hot water and serving it at meal times.

Most futurists probably never saw it coming, but there are now several commercially available robots designed to entertain pets while their owners are at work. One of the latest, known as Pumpkii, features a unique modular design.

A new study has explored how pheromones could lead to more harmonious relationships between cats and dogs, and found that a couple of currently available examples can have a calming effect for pairs of pets living in the same household.

KittySpring is a more sophisticated solution for cat owners with thirsty and clumsy pets, consisting of a gravity-fed fountain that keeps the water supply fresh and uses a stable base to avoid spillage and puddles.

If you're walking your dog at night, in hot weather or for long distances, you sometimes need more than just a leash. That's where the GoGoLeash comes in, as it combines several functions in one device – or more accurately, in two.

Coming home to see your cat still lying in the same spot it was when you left that morning, it’s easy to assume they’re pretty happy with nothing to do. But they do get bored and need exercise. Enter Ebo, a new cat companion robot now on Kickstarter.

​Yes, you're right. GoPro does already make an actioncam harness-mount for dogs (as does Sony, for that matter). The currently-crowdfunding PetNow system, however, offers a few additional features for people wishing to see the world from their canine's perspective.