There's Now a Games Console for Dogs

A Games Console to Keep Pets Busy

A game console to keep your pet dog busy has been developed in the form of CleverPet. CleverPet essentially, is an interactive treat dispenser with your pet having to hit light up panel to release the tasty snack in it. Head Trainer, Graham Bloem has explained that `a dog with a job is a happy dog and so when first introduced to CleverPet, there was something for these problems, keeping the dogs engaged and busy when no one is at home’.

The game console features many games like `Catch the Squirrel’, which seems to be a light chasing game that asks your pet to put a paw on the flashing light in time with the movements. There is also `Pattern Plan’, which evidently challenges them to learn progressively complex patterns.

Another game is the `Word Learn’ where for instance, one could record the voice saying `left’ and your dog will have to press the left pad. Besides this, there is also an accompanying app which enables you to see the live updates, schedule when CleverPet tend to turn on or off and track the amount of treats your pet had gobbled up

A Dog with a Job is a Happy Dog

Co-founder of CleverPet, Leo Trottier, who has a PhD in cognitive science from University of California, San Diego, has explained during a start-up pitch session at CES 2016 that `most of us would never leave a family member at home all day and ask them to sleep the whole time. From a dozen or so start-ups to take the stage, CleverPet seemed to be the only one drawing whoops and cheers from a generally passive crowd and the judges also seems to agree, and awarded it the first place in the start-up pitch battle.

But it was the only product that had been designed for dogs. Trottier had commented that `right now, people tend to cope by leaving the TV or radio on and crossing their fingers, a dog with a job is a happy dog’. The CleverPet Hub is considered to be a plastic dome having flashing lights, speakers and a dispenser which tends to give out dry dog food when a task has been successfully completed. Trottier describes the system as an `automatic, all day interaction at scale, which is powered by software.

Compatible with any Kind of Dry Dog Food

Trottier states that it is compatible with any kind of dry dog food and one can open the hatch put in the food and setup the game to entertain the pet for hours. The system tends to give pet owners, a controlled option of providing food for their pet throughout the day while keeping a tab on what their pet is up to through the mobile app.

He comments that the system seems to be an appropriate replacement for `doggy day care’ or a less extreme option for people who tend to worry about their dogs getting bored when they are alone at home. The idea had debuted on Kickstarter in 2014, raising $180,000, $80,000 more than its goal.

Two years thereafter together with more than 1,000 happy Kickstarter customers, it is ready for pre-order for the public. The CleverPet Hub will be offered at a price of $299 with the company planning to ship the first units in the next couple of months.