Want to be the best pet parent possible? There's one simple solution, and it's more obvious than you think: your smartphone. From booking a pet sitter to assisting you in training your cat, there are tons of apps to help you out.
When it comes to caring for your animal, your phone can surprisingly be one of your best pet-parenting tools. From booking a dog sitter to tracking the amount you spend on your pet each month, there are a variety of apps that can assist you in numerous pet parenting tasks.
Many of these apps also focus on connecting pet owners, providing a space where you can share pet care tips and favorite pet brands and products, and even show off your cutest photos of your animals.
When it comes to caring for your animal, your phone can surprisingly be one of your best pet-parenting tools. From booking a dog sitter to tracking the amount you spend on your pet each month, there are a variety of apps that can assist you in numerous pet parenting tasks.
Many of these apps also focus on connecting pet owners, providing a space where you can share pet care tips and favorite pet brands and products, and even show off your cutest photos of your animals.
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Pet Sitting and Walking
Rover
is your personal assistant when it comes to finding and booking trusted
pet sitters, dog walkers, and doggy day cares in your area. To give you
added peace of mind, all sitters are required to pass background
checks, fill out a detailed personal profile and be approved by Rover’s
specialists. To make things even easier, you can book and pay for
services directly through the Rover app. Pet care services are currently
only available for cats and dogs.
Pet
Minder is another option if you’re looking for a dog or cat sitter
while you’re away. You can also sign up to be a pet sitter on the app,
if you want to make some extra cash while playing with cute animals.
Both the owner and sitter plans cost $119 per year.
Get a TrustedHousesitters membership for $119 per year.
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Pet Entertainment
You
can give your cat his own personal soundtrack with this app. Relax My
Cat features music that’s specially recorded to appeal to your pet. The
songs are based on both feline vocal communication and the sounds a cat
would be exposed to in their home or outside. They’re even designed for
specific moments — including music to help your cat sleep, ease their
separation anxiety and relax pregnant cats.
Give
your cat a serious challenge with Friskies Cat Fishing 2, a game
designed to capture your cats attention and hopefully help heravoid any
moments of boredom. The game is simple to set up — just place your
device on a flat surface close to your cat, press the start button and step back as your cat tries to capture the fish and score points.
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Pet Products
BarkHappy
will fill your life with all the details on lots of dog-friendly
restaurants, retailers, hotels, and parks — it’s like Yelp for dogs. It
also gives you the details on nearby dog-friendly events, and even lets
you connect with dogs and dog owners in your area. Along with connecting
you with your local dog-lover community, the app has a feature you can
use to create lost or found alerts for missing pups. Plus, BarkHappy
users have access to a range of exclusive deals on pet products that can
be claimed through the app.
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Pet Adoption
If
you’re looking to learn more about dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds,
and other animals available for adoption in your area, take a swipe
through WeRescue. The app features full-screen images of local pets and
lets you contact shelters directly through the app. You can also filter
results by breed, size, age, gender and other details. The animals’
information is sourced from both shelters and foster-based rescues, with
your results displaying animals closest to your search location. And
the information from the shelters is updated whenever the organizations
make any changes to an animal’s adoption status. This means you’ll be
up-to-date on the status of any animal you’re considering welcoming into
your home.
Get it from the App Store for free.
BarkBuddy — which was created by the founders of BarkBox
— is another great option if you are searching for a new addition to
your family. To use the service, just download the app and start swiping
through the profiles of dogs in your area. When you find a pet you’re
interested in adopting, you can organize a meeting with the rescue or
shelter directly through the app.
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Pet Training
Cat
Training is a great resource for — you guessed it — training your cat.
The app includes training tutorials that’ll help you teach your cat new
skills and tricks. The topics covered on the app include training your
cat to accept medication, perfecting his litter box skills and teaching
him to use a cat flap.
Get it from Google Play for free.
This
app is pretty straightforward. It’s literally a clicker you can use for
training your cat (or other pets). It saves you a trip to the pet store
to buy a clicker, or can serve as a substitute if you misplace or
forget your physical one.
Get it from the App Store for free.
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Pet Travel
This highly-rated app is basically a pet travel concierge right in the palm of your hand. The app pulls information from BringFido.com
to let you discover restaurants, hotels, and attractions that are
pet-friendly. You’re also able to book pet-friendly hotels straight
through the app, as well as learn about pet events in your area.
