Dogs live a long time, but not as long as humans do. Who wouldn’t want more time with their best furry companion? The Internet of Things (IoT) wants to help.

If you are a dog, and you use Actijoy devices, you get two more years to live. Or that's the claim, at least. Actijoy creates smart devices that link digitally to give a clearer sense of their wellbeing, often leading to earlier diagnosis of health issues, which increases lifespan. This exciting pet tech start-up has received lots of positive, pet-loving attention for it in 2019.

Tech and web content leader, The Next Web, recognised the promising Czech company as one of the “Hottest Young Companies” near the start of the year.  It was then a “Best in Show” finalist at the Pets and Money conference in London, and they’re included in the TechRound 100, a list of the top start-ups, businesses and tech companies in the UK and elsewhere.

The disruptive company was founded by life partners and dog lovers Jana Rosenfelder and Robert Hasek.

“In 2016… I took my dog Darwin for a run,” co-founder Robert tells Newline.Tech, “and I noticed he wasn’t able to keep up with [me so] I started looking for some solution to get a complete overview of his physical condition and health, and there was no such product on the market. That was the first time when the idea of Actijoy crossed my mind.”

This is not just a device or an app, but a whole system for logging activity and evaluating food and water intake for dogs. It stands out from other pet tech and wearables because it combines data that others like Whistle and Tractive can’t.

“The most significant benefit of such information about your dog,” he continues, “is that you can quickly detect if there is some deviation from normal behaviour and prevent severe health issues at an early stage.”

 

First came the collar

Like a Fitbit for dogs, the health and activity tracker is a wearable device that records activity, action/anxiety levels and quality of sleep. The dog device takes the form of a collar around the neck.

 

Then some smart bowls

Wi-Fi water and food bowls, to be exact. They measure the volume of water and food that a dog consumes.

 

Finally, an app to connect them

The real-time data that the collar and bowls collect is collated in the dedicated app. It alerts the owner of any unusual signs.

Together the devices measure signals that we often miss, like symptoms of illness, eating problems, and whether your dog has moved enough today.

 

Did you say “finally”?

Oops. Considering the co-founder has a long history of successful small business ventures, this is probably just the start of a pet tech empire that brings greater quality of life to our furry friends.

Actijoy shows no signs of slowing down since they began shipping products to customers and widening their marketing and networking efforts across the world.

Having been awarded seed funding in 2017, Actijoy spent 2019 spreading the gospel of good tech device systems and is actively courting the venture capital world to secure further funding for their next round of development and production. We’re thinking it’d be great to have a whole suite of dedicated doggie devices in the near future. A smart dog bed that monitors sleep patterns and compares them to how much Poopsie ate, maybe?

We’d love to hear your clever ideas for ways to connect pet tech devices that tell you more about your dog. Drop us your ideas on our Facebook pet page here.

 

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