😲 Would you buy these "best" new pet products from CES?

An Honest Review Of The "Best New Pet Tech” From CES 2024

Every year Las Vegas hosts CES, the most powerful tech trade show in the world, where the most innovative companies gather to show off their cutting edge products and services that are about to hit the consumer market.

This year’s event didn’t just have products that make human lives easier, there were also some products geared at making our pets’ lives easier as well. Or so these “Best Pet Tech at CES” articles would have us think. I took a look at a bunch of these articles to give a critical (and admittedly judgmental) review of some new pet tech that you may or may not need.

Really quickly: Why am I so critical? There are a lot of pet products out there that aren’t useful or don’t solve a problem. I know because I’ve bought and/or used a lot of them. Like most pet parents, I like buying things that purport to make my life (as a pet parent) easier or improve the life of my pet. And the unfortunate truth is that a lot of this stuff is (for lack of a better term), useless crap. We don’t need it, we just think we do.

So here are some of the products hailed as the most innovative new pet tech from CES this year, and my honest (and admittedly oftentimes skeptical) take on which of these products will actually solve a problem in our lives, and which ones probably won’t.

We’ll start off on a high note with what I think is a truly innovative product that solves a problem.

The Pawport Smart Pet Door

Here’s a product that solves a problem.

Dog doors let in bugs, let out heating or cooling, and are a major security risk. The Pawport is a smart, digital pet door that can slide over your existing pet flap. It comes with a pet tag that you put on your dog’s collar so the Pawport, upon detecting your dog’s proximity to the door, can automatically open and/or close. It has some nifty LED lights and comes with an app where you can set an auto open/close schedule, set curfew times, and control the color of the LED lights. There are smart doggy doors that exist, but a lot of them are aesthetically undesirable (that’s a nice way of saying they’re just ugly) and I like the sleek design of this.

The only downside is when you go to pre-order the device on their site, it’s incentivizing pre-orders by offering $150 off the price tag which makes me thing “Geez, how expensive is this gonna be?!”

The Oro Ai-Powered Pet Robot

For $800, you can have a robot that plays with your dog when you’re not at home. Not only can it feed and allow you to monitor your pet (tech which has existed for years), but it uses Ai to play soothing music or initiative games when it senses anxiety or restlessness in 10 of the most popular dog breeds. That last part is important because there are a lot of people who won’t be able to actually experience the true benefits of these devices because the technology won’t recognize their breed.

The device also keeps track of your dog’s health records. The author of the CNET review noted that “the pet companion robot was present but not in action at the big consumer tech show” which isn’t a good sign. That means the software isn’t ready or doesn’t work as advertised yet.

I’ve actually tested several of these Ai powered dog-watching devices; the on-boarding is a big pain, and the technology isn’t advanced enough to truly be an all-in-one enrichment solution for your pet in the absence of a human. Also the price tag? Woof.

The Invoxia Smart Dog Collar

This is a $150 smart dog collar with required monthly subscription starting at $8/month. Here are the features of the collar:

• Monitor your dog’s heart and respiratory rate.

  • Useful for aging dogs, dogs with heart disease, or post-operation monitoring.

• Monitor your dog’s activity levels

• GPS monitoring

• Apparently you can use these diagnostics to send to your vet but it’s unclear how useful that is.

I know these smart dog collars are very popular and people love them. I’ve used one before from another company (with a much better looking product) and while I found the tech cool (and genuinely innovative), it wasn’t something that was a real need…at least not yet. The monthly subscription was the deal-breaker for me.

In terms of the health diagnostics and this product’s alleged ability to be an early predictor of certain diseases (according to the company that made this product), if your dog has heart or lung issues, or your dog’s breed is pre-disposed to issues of that variety, I can see this device offering some real peace of mind by monitoring your pet’s breathing 24/7. As a very lucky pet parent of a currently healthy little chonk, if my vet told me these diagnostics were beneficial to me at this current point in time, then that might change my mind — especially as Maxine gets older. But for now, it’s a “no” for me, dawg.

This article is starting to feel really negative. I don’t like being a negative Nancy, but if I’m not gonna shoot you straight, who will?

Birdfy’s Ai-Powered Bird Feeder

For $170, this Ai-powered bird feeder will show you a video of the bird currently eating your tasty treats, and then tell you what kind of bird it is.

Love it. My wife and I actually bought one of these for my in-laws as a gift. Not this exact product, but another Ai-powered bird feeder. They’re obsessed.

Inupathy Smart Dog Harness

Finally, we saved the best for last. This one takes the cake as the most absurd of all the pet products hailed as the “Best” pet tech from CES.

First off, interesting choice of facial expression on the dog in that picture. Looks like the dog is saying “wtf am I wearing??” And once you find out what this little gadget does, this picture will be funnier.

So this one’s a bit odd in my opinion. According to Tech Crunch, this is “a dog-worn backpack that the company claims can detect a variety of psychological conditions” simply using the backpack’s heart rate monitor. The company behind the device claims, “Through our independent research, we have found that it is possible to estimate the dogs’ mental state in more detail by analyzing the heart rate variability in depth.” Hmm…kinda seems obvious to assume a dog’s emotional state based on it’s heart rate. Am I being stupid? I went to the product website because I thought I was missing something. Is the tech more complexed? Or is the use-case different than just like, a heart-rate monitor? Here’s a screenshot of the description on the site:

So it’s like a mood ring for your dog, but instead it’s a vest that just uses a heart rate monitor to tell you how your dog is “feeling?”

Now go back to the picture of the dog up top. We don’t need the heart rate monitor to know this dog is really annoyed. Just look at his face. The irony.

This one might be the most unnecessary, ridiculous pet product I’ve ever seen. If there’s any pet parent out there who needs to put their dog in a wearable heart-rate-monitoring mood ring vest so you can, for the first time ever, understand when your dog is relaxed or happy, can you please let me know?

Ugh. Now I might need to buy it just to see if this thing is really that pointless IRL. This product is the exact reason why I wrote this article. Nobody needs this stuff. Good grief.

In Conclusion

While there are a lot of pet products nobody really needs, the good thing is that there are a lot of innovative companies working really hard to positively disrupt the industry and solve some big problems in pet care. From veterinary healthcare to pet food, HERE is a list of some folks doing some good for our pets.

“The Squeeze” aka Dog News In 60 Seconds

• 🚫 The world’s oldest dog is a fraud?!!

• 🇦🇺 Australia conducted their first-ever pet census. And the most popular dog name down under is…

• 🇰🇷 South Korea votes unanimously to ban dog meat industry.

• 🎥 This dog looks EXACTLY like Will Ferrell

• 🐱Squish your cat. Because science.

• 🫡 Royal Caribbean Cruises hires its first Chief Dog Officer.

• 🐶 Fallout 4 gets talking dogs thanks to a hilarious bug in the code.

• 😡Wait…more pointless pet products? This one actually sparked an outrage…

Today’s Last Laugh:

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@haylsthom_

Poor boy shit himself 😂😂😂 #ithinkilikethislittlelife #thislittlelife #fyp #frenchie #frenchbulldogs