How Is Technology Changing Pet Care?

Over the last number of years millennials have caught up and overtook baby boomers as being the main group of pet owners and they are changing the rules of pet care! Did I mention that 79% of millennials are more willing to spend on their pets rather than themselves?

Petcams

More and more pet owners are investing in webcams to keep an eye on their pet while they are at home alone. There are models which allow a 2 way conversation and allow you to dispense treats to keep your pet engaged during the day. These webcams keep us owners at ease while at work or out doing the shopping, so benefit both our pets and us!

“Smart” toys

Many smart toys have came onto the market recently to help entertain and engage pets whilst they are home alone. Cats for instance have automatic laser pointers and dogs a ball that rolls itself around encouraging your dog to catch it. These toys can be super useful as they can be very mentally stimulating. They can also keep them entertained during the day and reduce destructive behaviours.

The other added secret, most of these are adjustable in terms of difficulty. If your pet gets too good, just move it up a level. You can see a full list HERE.

Activity trackers

We humans have our Apple Watches and our Fitbits. Our pets our now getting their version of these, that come in the form of location trackers and activity trackers. Dogs can suffer the same health-related problems as people such as putting on a little too much weight, or just not getting enough exercise. There is now the option to approach this problem in the same way we do for ourselves. A range of dog trackers, (both location and activity) have came onto the market. These are helping keep our dogs healthy and safe. This data can also help vets decide on treatment plans for certain conditions and can advise owners if their pet is active enough. Check out Pitpat HERE.

Automatic food dispensers and pet doors

A range of automatic food dispensers are available. These help ensure you keep your pet in a routine and it gets fed as often as required. You can customise the timings of feeds and the amount your pet gets fed. Very useful for lunch time feeds if you’re at work or out. One of the main benefits is routine, this pettech can ensure your pet is fed at the same time every day.

There is another cool tool by Sure Petcare, they have created a smart doggy door that only opens when it senses your pet’s implanted RFID microchip. Amazing if your pet likes to wonder in and out at their leisure from the garden.

What do these changes mean for pet care businesses?

As more and more tech savvy people become pet owners, they increasingly expect that the businesses they deal with are integrated into their smart phone and plugged in digitally. Pet care is one of the few industries that hasn’t seen a tidal wave of change through technology over the last decade. You think food delivery, you no longer think “Let’s ring the Chip shop or the Chinese.” You go straight onto Just Eat, Deliveroo or Uber eats. When you’re ordering a cab you order through Uber or Lyft. Looking for a hotel or place to stay, no more travel agents, We all use Booking.com, Airbnb etc. There are tons more examples but I’m sure you get it by now!

People want things as quickly as possible with as little friction as possible, people want to book appointments, holidays and shop at any point throughout their week. Yes that includes 4am on a Tuesday morning.

Here at MyPet we are building a platform that will allow pet care businesses to manage their business and connect with their customers in an easy and frictionless way. With MyPet integrated into a business pet owners will be able to:

• Communicate with the pet care businesses, while giving all the required information about their pet seamlessly
• Book appointments with pet care businesses directly through the app in seconds
• Check upcoming and previous appointments
• Amend or cancel appointments
• Pay for appointments to save the added hassle while dropping off or collecting their pet
• and much more….

The world is changing and pet care businesses will need to change with it to ensure they keep up with customer expectations. For more information on what we can do for pet care businesses see our article HERE or email me — conor@mypethq.io

P.S You sign up for early access to the MyPet for business platform on our website HERE.

Originally published at https://mypethq.io on March 4, 2020.