10 High-Tech Gadgets Or Toys You & Your Pets Will Love

Whether it's feeding them, entertaining them, or keeping them clean, there's a lot to think about when it comes to owning a pet. And while buying the right gadgets can help take the stress out of the less fun parts of pet ownership, it can also make spending quality time with your furry, fluffy, or scaly companion more enjoyable than before. Of course, in order to make the most of these pet-friendly gadgets, you need to know that they're out there in the first place.

These 10 gadgets and accessories all offer innovative ways to solve common pet problems. Among other things, they can help keep your pet entertained when you're not around, help locate them if they get lost, or even let you see the world from their perspective. Many offer smartphone connectivity for convenience, or allow you to set up routines to keep pets in check throughout the day. Most of these gadgets are aimed at dog or cat owners, but we've included some aquarium tech too that fish owners might want to consider.

To be in peak health, pets need to be fed at regular times, but many owners live busy lives, so keeping feeding times and portions regular can be easier said than done. Old-school timed feeders are prone to jamming and aren't always accurate, but a new breed of smart pet feeders aim to solve the problems of their predecessors. The Whisker Feeder-Robot is one such smart feeder, and retails for $299.

It can dispense a set amount of food at predetermined times to feed cats or small dogs, but owners also have the option to give their pets an extra snack remotely via the Whisker smartphone app. The timer can be set to dispense food up to eight times per day, with the kibble hopper able to hold up to 32 cups of food. An anti-jam system helps ensure that the feed delivers food more reliably than traditional timed feeders, and for extra peace of mind, you can check the schedule and feeding history through the app.

Traditional pet doors are useful, but they're also a potential security risk, since they can be exploited by criminals looking to gain entry to your home. The High Tech Pet Electronic Pet Door reduces that risk by only opening when it detects that a pet's collar-worn transponder is nearby. It's designed to detect pets even if they approach the door from an angle, and its detection range can be adjusted through dials on the control panel. The door is available in multiple sizes to cater to all common breeds of cats and dogs. When it's shut, it locks airtight, unlike a traditional pet door.

It can be configured in four different modes to allow access from both directions, only the inside of the door, only the outside, or no access at all. Again, this is configurable via a control panel on the door — unlike many of the gadgets here, it can't be controlled via a smartphone. The price of the door varies depending upon its size, with the medium size door costing $419. A large door costs $479. It can be powered either via an AC outlet or via High Tech Pet's 12V batteries, but the latter will need to be bought separately.

Fish are the third most popular pets after dogs and cats, with almost 3% of American households owning them, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). While fish owners might not benefit from quite as wide an array of available smart gadgets as dog or cat owners, there's still plenty of cutting-edge aquarium tech out there that's worth considering. For example, the Hygger Wi-Fi Automatic Fish Feeder is a fresh take on the automatic fish feeder, with a built-in camera and a Wi-Fi connection so you can watch your fish eat their food on a live feed via your smartphone.

The feeder retails for $110, and it offers several other potentially useful features as well as the live camera. It features dual dispensing holes to dole out two sizes of fish food as accurately as possible, with that dispensing schedule being customizable via the app. As well as watching the fish live, users can also capture still images or short videos via the camera feed. However, capturing the perfect image might take some trial and error — one reviewer reported that they had to add an extra filter to the lens to ensure the color balance of the camera was correct.

As any dog or cat owner will be well aware, keeping them clean can be a challenge. Washing them is one thing, but drying them off is a separate chore in itself. Rather than chasing them around the house with a towel, the HomeRunPet Drybo Plus Automatic Pet Dryer Box offers a more dignified solution. It's designed to dry cats and other small pets off quickly and easily, and runs quietly enough that it shouldn't scare most pets.

One reviewer noted that it took a little effort to get their cat to enter the dryer, but once they did, the integrated fans made drying them a considerably easier task. The air current can be adjusted to your pet's liking, as can the drying temperature. Drying time varies by pet, but the brand estimates that a short-haired cat can take as little as 15 minutes to dry. A long-haired cat, in contrast, might take as long as 90 minutes. At a retail price of $499, the HomeRunPet dryer is no small investment, but it might just be worthwhile for cat owners for whom bath time is a particularly stressful occurrence.

The Furbo 360-degree Dog Camera lets dog owners keep an eye on their pets while they're not there, and as a bonus, it lets them reward said pets for good behavior too. It first appeared on the market in 2016, and since then, it has become one of the most popular gadgets in its segment, racking up thousands of happy buyers on leading platforms like Amazon. Accessing the camera feed is done via Furbo's app. You can also save video in the app, as well as setting up notifications to let you know if your dog is barking or the camera detects a smoke alarm or smashing window.

The camera can rotate 360 degrees, so when it's placed in the middle of a room, it should always be able to give you a good view of your pet. Even when you're not watching, the camera is, and the Nanny feature can give you a daily summary of things like your dog's activity level and time spent barking. It's available for an upfront cost of $99 but, like many connected gadgets of its ilk, it will require a monthly subscription to access all of the available features.

While nobody wants to think about the possibility of their beloved pet getting lost, it happens more frequently than many you might think. A 2012 study published in the "Animals" journal reported that 14% of surveyed dog owners in the U.S. lost their pets at least once over a five year period. Luckily, there are many precautions that you can take to ensure that if your dog does get lost, you have the maximum chance of finding them safely. One such precaution is to purchase a smart dog collar which incorporates a GPS tracking system.

The Fi Series 3 Smart Dog Collar not only has built-in GPS that can be viewed via the smartphone companion app, but can also track metrics like sleep and activity levels to give a better overview of a dog's health. Its battery can last up to three months on a charge, and when it's flat, it can be recharged wirelessly. Any good dog collar needs to be able to withstand the wide variety of weather conditions that any dog walker will be all too familiar with, and so the collar is IP68 rated against water and dust ingress.

The collar's $212 list price includes the collar itself, a charging base, and a year's subscription to the Fi tracking service. It's worth noting that, when that initial subscription runs out, users will need to pay a monthly fee to keep accessing the full features of the collar.

Smart pet collars are a great way to keep tabs on wandering pets, but they're highly pricey purchases. Not only are top-rated collars like the Fi Series 3 expensive to buy upfront, they'll also require an additional monthly subscription to keep them active. Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company, offers a much cheaper alternative in the form of a $10 pet tag, which can be used to help locate a cat or dog should it go missing.

The simple tag features a QR code which can be scanned by anyone who finds a stray pet. Once scanned, the owner of the Ring Pet Tag will then receive an alert to tell them that their pet has been located, while the person who scanned the tag will be taken to a pet profile that tells them about the pet's name, medical needs, and any other information the owner chooses to include. The profile can also be used to upload images to Petco Love Lost, which can scan images of recently found animals at nearby shelters to see if it can find a match.

There are no GPS trackers, health monitoring features, or suchlike to be found here, and since the tag itself has no electronic components, there's no battery to recharge either. It might not offer the same range of functionality as a smart collar, but the pet tag is a much more affordable alternative that's a step above a simple tag with a phone number.

Keeping your dog entertained when you're not around isn't easy, but the PetDroid Interactive Dog Ball doesn't need pet owners to be home to be entertaining. It's designed to be motion sensitive, and so when your dog pushes it, it will activate and bounce or roll around the floor. Each nudge generates a one minute bounce routine, or a two minute roll routine. It comes with a soft cover that imitates a tennis ball, but it can also be used without the cover.

The brand notes that the ball works best on hard floors, and reviewers have found that even hard outdoor surfaces see the ball's capabilities significantly reduced. So, this is best suited to being an indoor toy for a dog that prefers to play with a ball rather than bite or chew it. It's not the most versatile toy on the market, then, but it's arguably still worth taking a chance on since it only costs $25. According to PetDroid, the ball has a runtime of up to four hours, although whether's a limitation or simply a feature will depend on exactly how enamored your dog is with their new toy.

Another piece of smartphone connected aquarium tech from Hygger, the Hygger 25W Smart Aquarium Light can be adjusted via a Bluetooth connection to emulate sunrises, moonlight, or custom lighting scenes. A 24-hour cycle can also be set up to automatically change lighting conditions over the course of a day. Each unit features LED lights capable of displaying more than 300 colors according to the manufacturer, helping the smart light to mimic natural lighting patterns in a way that traditional lighting cannot.

The light is available in several sizes. The smallest size is suitable for tanks between 12 and 18 inches and retails for $56, while the largest size will cover tanks between 48 and 55 inches, retailing for $146. Reviewers have reported that using multiple smaller lights across one large tank is also effective. And you won't have to worry if the light falls in the tank — according to the brand, it's fully waterproof.

While it's been around for many years now, the GoPro Fetch Dog Harness still remains just as appealing for dog owners looking to get a glimpse into how their dog sees the world. As its name suggests, this is a harness that straps to your dog, enabling you to fit up to two GoPro cameras to them. One mount sits on their back, while the other sits on their chest, although the latter can be removed to ensure that it doesn't become uncomfortable for smaller dogs.

The harness is designed to fit a wide range of dogs, from 15 to 120 pounds. It's also washable, and designed to withstand all the same environments that a GoPro is — so mud, water, and sand won't be a problem. The $40 retail price makes the harness one of the most affordable items here, although it will require owners to already have a suitable GoPro or two to hand.