{"id":4485,"date":"2019-11-21T11:55:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T09:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/?p=4485"},"modified":"2019-11-21T11:55:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T09:55:36","slug":"holiday-time-five-toys-and-tools-that-make-going-away-easy-for-you-and-your-pet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/holiday-time-five-toys-and-tools-that-make-going-away-easy-for-you-and-your-pet\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday time? Five toys and tools that make going away easy for you and your pet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we near the end of the year, you\u2019re likely dreaming of getting out of town just like the rest of us. For those with fur babies, the process is, perhaps, not so simple. Who will take care of your precious pooch or pussycat? Will they be happy with a sitter or pine for you too much? How are you to know?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Luckily, we are living in a digital world, and the 21<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">st<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> century has brought with it some nifty inventions for ensuring your best furry friend gets taken care of while you\u2019re away<\/span><b>. <\/b><b>Founder and Owner of PETport <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and self-confessed pet lover,<\/span><b> Hazel Imrie<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has rounded up some of the savviest SA technology for keeping your pet safe and happy while you\u2019re on the move. Now, who wants to go to the beach?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Feeding Fido\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Feeding is a huge concern for animal owners when going away. If you have your beloved on a strict feeding schedule or specific foods, for example, it can be disheartening to come home and find the sitter\u2019s been feeding them incorrectly, too often or unhealthily. Luckily, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">automatic pet feeders can give out dry pellets in the right quantity and at the right time of day, as set by your preferences. Many even have sensors to tell you when food is running low.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These have gotten more advanced (and admittedly wackier) in recent years. USA company, Furbo even has a camera linked to your smartphone, which tosses your dog treats at the click of a button. This is not an app to leave open accidentally\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>A paw in the door<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This one is mostly for the kitties \u2013 although all pets can benefit from free access to come and go. Microchip pet doors are all the rage here in SA, with larger ones retailing for about R3 500. Considering how many pets have microchips installed, these smart doors act as cat (or dog) flaps but are opened by your pet\u2019s microchip \u2013 meaning that nasty grey cat from 5B can\u2019t get in and eat your baby\u2019s food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Track time<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every animal owner\u2019s worst nightmare is your pet running away in distress while you\u2019re on holiday and not even knowing about it until it\u2019s too late. That\u2019s why collars fitted with GPS trackers have become indispensable for many an owner. Most pair to an app on your smartphone and send alerts or alarms when your pet may be making a run for it, but others have the additional niftiness of lighting up in the dark, making them visible when they decide to gap it during an evening walk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Smile for the camera<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once as grainy and unhelpful as convenience store cams, pet cameras have advanced in leaps and bounds during recent years. You can now keep an eye on your animal with cameras that include day-night view, camera movement control and high resolution. For those willing to shell out more, you can even commune with your canine while away too, thanks to genuine two-way audio-visual communication, and you can record and share clips with your pet. This is especially helpful for more sensitive pets who pine without hearing their owner\u2019s voice for a while.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Toy zone\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What many sitters don\u2019t get is that it\u2019s not just about food and water. Your pet needs play time too \u2013 especially if they\u2019re younger or one of the more energetic dog breeds, like Collies. And if certain breeds, those that tend to pile on the pounds, are left unattended, like Labradors, it\u2019s even more important.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Boost playtime fun even when you\u2019re in another province (or country) with automated <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ball launchers, treat dispensers and self-rolling toys. The higher-end ones here, too, have the ability for you to record yourself saying something like \u2018Where\u2019s the ball?\u2019 and \u2018Go get it\u2019, probably in your plane seat with a fair amount of strange looks from fellow passengers, but it&#8217;s worth it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we near the end of the year, you\u2019re likely dreaming of getting out of town just like the rest of us. For those with fur babies, the process is, perhaps, not so simple. Who will take care of your precious pooch or pussycat? Will they be happy with a sitter or pine for you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petport.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}