High-Tech Pet Help

People already buy high-tech gadgets to get food, track their location and clean their mess. Why should Fido be deprived? The $43 billion pet industry has unleashed a kennelful of new devices to help the nation’s 71 million pet owners care for their pride and joy. A sampling:

Self-watering systems like Drinkwell Pet Fountains ($50 to $75) and Always-Fresh Dog Drinking Fountain ($135) clean and aerate water, using filters that should be rinsed or changed every one to four weeks. And automatic feeders, which typically cost $30 to $150, release food at preset times and may even play a message from you to reassure a lonely critter. But devices can’t replace humans. Owners who rely too heavily on them won’t see how much and how regularly their pets eat, which are important health indicators, says Mychelle Blake, of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.

Each year more than 10 million pets get lost or stolen. And while 17 percent of dog owners have implanted an electronic tracking device in their pooch, there are less invasive alternatives. For around $100, plus a $10 to $20 monthly fee, a GPS attached to a collar e-mails or texts you when an animal wanders out of a specified zone; some tell you Spot’s spot every five minutes, while others require going online for the location. There’s an extra service with the SpotLight GPS Pet Locator ($250, plus $12 to $15 a month and a $15 activation fee): phone access to folks at the American Kennel Club, who provide step-by-step directions to find a missing four-legged friend.

Of the nearly 183,000 products found at Amazon.com’s pet-supplies store, automated devices like self-cleaning litter boxes are among the most popular, the retailer says. Certain models, like LitterMaids ($110 to $200) and Litter-Robots ($330 to $350), power a rake or screen and sift waste into a drawer or disposable bin. Some consumers have complained that the rakes in LitterMaids can jam up with waste and require special cleaning, but a spokesperson for Applica, the maker, says the issue isn’t common. Stepping it up a notch are flushable cat toilets, such as the CatGenie ($330 to $400), but they require some do-it-yourself hooking up to a water pipe.