My pug Gus is a lazy sack. No disrespect, but it’s true. Which is why I’m not at all opposed to putting him to work and/or keeping more rigorous tabs on his extreme indolence so that I can hold it over his head. Enter the SNIF system, an accelerometer built into an RFID tag that logs and transmits motion data to an Ethernet base station that plugs into your router. In addition to streaming real-time, online status updates (sleeping, sitting, walking, etc.), the SNIF web site creates a browse-able history of your pets activity or, in Gus’ case, inactivity. Check out my pug’s data, and observations after the jump… This post is part of a Theme Day: BBG on Dogs . Quantifying your life , a variety of health data points, experiences, food consumed, etc. makes sense. But doing it on behalf of your dog ? Well, I just don’t know. The SNIF Tag system is simple to set up, easy to use, and $150, which is about as expensive as a no-frills, wristwatch heart rate monitor you could use to track your own activity level. However, what’s important to realize, is the SNIF doesn’t actually provide any hard and fast health data. It doesn’t measure calories burned or heart rate or even GSR . So what does it track? “Average Power Correlate” (APC), which the company claims is a “correlation based on empirical measurement.” In other words, a relative measure of the amount of energy that accumulates in the tag’s accelerometer. Thus, the charted numbers themselves are rather meaningless, which was a bummer in that I was unable to make any comparison(s) to my own level of fitness, distance traveled, etc. Still, the visual cues are interesting and do provide a clear picture. Days can be broken down by the hour: Then into 5-minute chunks: Potentially helpful if you have a sick animal (sad!) and want to determine whether he/she consistently loses energy after meals &mdash or anytime you’re not home. You can also call up historical data and “Compare” your dog to other animals registered for SNIF, including by breed, zip code, and general classification (Gus is a “Toy”): Of course, this data is potentially meaningless for a variety of reasons, least of which is the fact the data are only as good as the people submitting it. If I forget to put the tag on until after Gus’ morning walk, or neglect to charge the battery every night, then I’m submitting only a portion of his actual activity, which skews the results others might be comparing their animals to. It’s also worth considering the Hawthorne Effect , which suggests people don’t behave naturally in situations where they know they’re being monitored. Hence, some SNIF users might be taking their dogs on longer or more frequent walks than normal. And that, right there, seems to be about the only real reason I could see someone buying this device. It’s a reminder to take care of your dog, to dedicate extra time and energy towards his/her health. The real-time monitoring &mdash perhaps by virtue of the fact Gus isn’t a sporty little pugger &mdash was fun at first, but got old real quick: From a technical perspective, too, the system could be improved. I really wish the base station was wireless. Having to plug directly into my router was a pain in the ass &mdash and if I wanted to upload data via USB (instead of wirelessly via the tag, which only works up to 50 ft.*), I would’ve had to lug my laptop across the room to the router. It’s worth noting this was a non-issue for me, because the SNIF USB software isn’t yet Mac-compatible (another complaint). Lastly, SNIF offers all the familiar social networking tools and features: friend invites/accepts, messaging, wall posts, etc. To be honest, I found these all useless. There simply isn’t a critical mass of users: Total number of dogs in SNIF network: 212 Registered pugs: 7 (including Gus) Dogs in my zip code: a 9-year-old female Coton De Tulear (huh-wha?) One suggestion that could be kinda fun for some dog owners: Add in a customizable status update a la Critter . SNIF could let you program in a range of phrases for specific APCs, and then broadcast those 140-character messages to your mobile: “Dad, I’m totally bored right now,” “Your socks are delicious!”, “Am I kidding about the socks? Guess you’ll have to come home to find out, dude!” Then again, do I need or want to receive regular, sarcastic Tweets from my dog? …probably not. *you can purchase extra base stations for $75 Previously: The Pet's Eye View Camera lets you experience your dog's foulness … Zoombak tracks dogs (or anything else) with aGPS - Boing Boing Gadgets Putin's satellite-tracked dog not a harbinger for anything - Boing … Garmin Astro DC 30 GPS collar for hunting dogs - Boing Boing Gadgets

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Review: A Few Days with a SNIF Tag

I’ve yet to see Up , but I keep hearing about this hilarious dog in the film, which speaks its mind through a telepathic thought-to-speech collar. While it sounds like science fiction, that technology is closer than you might think! Researchers at places where things are considered to exist estimate that similar collars could be around the neck of your beloved dog as soon as telepathy is a real thing. Until then, there’s ” Hound Bytes “, an x-rated clip-on speaker that barks theoretically humorous quips when triggered by remote control. It’s only $13 plus shipping, far cheaper than a dog costume, the traditional way to embarrass a dog and its owner at the same time. [via John Biggs ] This post is part of a Theme Day: BBG on Dogs . I mean, not on .

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Hound Bytes is a bargain basement Dug the Dog

This video has nothing to do with click training (that I know of). But I’ll go out on a limb and say it had to have taken some deep, deep discipline to shoot that thing. Personally, I’m all about affirmative verbal cues and occasional treats. Other dog owners prefer the non-verbal conditioned reinforcements of a handheld clicker. So which is more effective? According to one study, recent study the use of a clicker resulted in a “decrease of over 1/3 in training time and number of required reinforcements” when compared to verbal conditioning. Plus, click training also promoted the superior acquisition of complex behaviors (on a limb again, but just look at that video!). Most of Clickertraining.com’s 15 Tips seem pretty straightforward and helpful: Click for voluntary (or accidental) movements toward your goal. You may coax or lure the animal into a movement or position, but don’t push, pull, or hold it. Let the animal discover how to do the behavior on its own. If you need a leash for safety’s sake, loop it over your shoulder or tie it to your belt. A clicker costs $1.50 . How hard could this technique be, really? If you’ve used a great book, web site or video, or just want to share your experience, please write us in the comments… This post is part of a Theme Day: BBG on Dogs .

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HOWTO Click Train Your Dog

Sometimes, my dogs puke. This is because they eat everything from grass to flip flops to sheets of paper towel soiled with grease. Twice, Ruby got into a huge bag of dark green iron pills and had to get her stomach pumped. Several weeks ago, Malcolm puked out a grass-and-kibble stew, which I didn’t discover until I got home hours later. All of these incidents had left seemingly indelible stains on my carpets and couch. Enter SpotBot Pet, a not-so-little cleaning robot that claims to work any stubborn pet stain &mdash be it puke, pee, or butt juice &mdash out of carpets and upholstery. It has three modes &mdash one for surface stains, one for deeper stains, and a manual mode for use with the attached hose. The SpotBot Pet has two fluid tanks–one for a cleaner-water mix and another that dirty water gets sucked back into. Below the dirty water tank is a pair of nylon bristle brushes and little vacuum cleaner heads that simultaneously scrub stains out and suck dirt in. Its diameter is 8 inches, so any stain bigger than that might require two treatments. The SpotBot came with a trial size of Bissell’s Pet Stain & Odor advanced formula cleaner, which supposedly works for pee, puke, and butt juice. Perfect. A full cycle of the set-in stain takes about five minutes and is deafeningly loud. It didn’t bother me that much, though &mdash after spending days trying to scrub canine vomit out with soap and water and Nature’s Miracle, I was beginning to think the couch would just have to sport a puke stain motif forever. I was willing to listen to this Bot do its deed. Five minutes later: The couch was soaking wet, but the stain? Gone! It was awesome. I tried it on an area of carpet stained with pee, too, and it worked great. At $140, it’s a tad pricey and it’s heavy and loud, but it works, and it doesn’t require any manual labor other than picking the thing up and placing it on top of the stain. Product Page (Bissell) This post is part of a Theme Day: BBG on Dogs .

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Review: A puke stain with the Bissell SpotBot Pet

If you’re too lazy to walk your dog every day, you could always dish out $3000 for a Jog a Dog treadmill. Product page This post is part of a Theme Day: BBG on Dogs .

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$3000 doggie treadmill

Sony’s four-legged entertainment bot AIBO launched a decade ago. At left is a figure from patent #6458011 , which was filed in 2001 by inventors Makoto Inoue and Emi Kato: A walking-on-four-legs type robot whose body is connected at the front right, front left, rear right, and rear left with legs is adapted so that its action saves the user trouble and increases the user’s affection for, and curiosity about, the robot. I find the evolution of the artificial dog fascinating. Check out more patented pooches — from analog to animatronic, including more iterations from Sony — after the jump… [top right image via Sony ] This post is part of a Theme Day: BBG on Dogs . Patent #: D51470 Filing date: Sep 13, 1917 Issue date: Nov 1917 Inventor: CLAUDE S. HAMMOCK Assignee: NOBBYTOY COMPANY What Was New: ornamental design for a toy, substantially as shown Patent #: D72237 Filing date: Aug 6, 1926 Issue date: Mar 1927 Inventor: NEAL W. PLOOSTER What Was New: ornamental design for a toy dog, as shown Patent #: 2385914 Filing date: Apr 24, 1945 Issue date: Oct 1945 Inventor: Generale What Was New: pull toy comprising a “dog-simulating member” Patent #: D179949 Filing date: Feb 28, 1956 Issue date: Mar 1957 Inventor: Helen H. Malsed What Was New: ornamental design for an expanding/contracting toy Patent #: D186323 Filing date: Mar 27, 1959 Issue date: Oct 1959 Inventor: David M. Kinniburgh What Was New: ornamental design for an animal figure Patent #: 2909001 Filing date: Mar 12, 1956 Issue date: Oct 20, 1959 Inventor: M. I. GLASS What Was New: electrically-driven wheeled figure toy Note : design was eventually refined Patent #: D373801 Filing date: Apr 28, 1995 Issue date: Sep 17, 1996 Inventors: Keiko Doi, Masatsune Sasaki Assignees: Tomy Company, Ltd. What Was New: ornamental design for a toy figurine, as shown Patent #: D382029 Filing date: Feb 9, 1996 Issue date: Aug 5, 1997 Inventor: Simon Kat Hong Cheng Assignees: James Industries, Inc. What Was New: SLINKY dog pull toy Patent #: 6337552 Filing date: Dec 8, 1999 Issue date: Jan 8, 2002 Inventors: Makoto Inoue, Taku Yokoyama Assignee: Sony Corporation What Was New: robot apparatus capable of autonomously performing actions in natural ways Patent #: D457203 Filing date: Oct 17, 2000 Issue date: May 14, 2002 Inventors: Tomohiko Onishi, Nobata Fujio Assignees: Sega Toys, Ltd. What Was New: ornamental design for a robotic dog, as shown and described Patent #: D445849 Filing date: Jan 10, 2001 Issue date: Jul 31, 2001 Inventor: Shinya Saito Assignees: Tomy Company, Ltd. What Was New: ornamental design for the dog robot toy, as shown Patent #: 6736694 Filing date: Feb 5, 2001 Issue date: May 18, 2004 Inventors: James R. Hornsby, Marcellus R. Benson, Joseph L. McGowan, Arne A. Schmidt, William H. Bronson, Jr. Assignees: All Season Toys, Inc. What Was New: an interactive amusement device and system encompassing a primary robotic unit which performs actions communicated by a remote wireless transmitter and at least one secondary robotic unit which interacts through wireless communication with the primary robotic unit Patent #: D448433 Filing date: May 1, 2000 Issue date: Sep 25, 2001 Inventors: Mie Ueda, Tomohiko Onishi, Nobata Fujio Assignee: Sega Toys Ltd. What Was New: ornamental design for a robotic dog, as shown and described Patent #: D468375 Filing date: Apr 30, 2002 Issue date: Jan 7, 2003 Inventor: Moon-Lam So Assignee: May Cheong Toy Products Factory Limited What Was New: ornamental design for a toy dog, as shown and described Patent #: D467983 Filing date: May 8, 2002 Issue date: Dec 31, 2002 Inventor: Junko Yamazaki Assignees: Tomy Company, Ltd. What Was New: ornamental design for a dog toy, as shown and described Patent #: 7118443 Filing date: Sep 25, 2003 Issue date: Oct 10, 2006 Inventors: Jon C. Marine, Tara McGrath, Joyce Mesch, Kevin W. Gray, Ok-Soo Choi Assignees: Mattel, Inc. What Was New: animated toys adapted to imitate multiple personas Patent #: D511188 Filing date: Nov 4, 2003 Issue date: Nov 1, 2005 Inventors: Yuka Takeda, Jun Uchiyama, Kozo Kawakita, Hironari Hoshino, Daisuke Ishii, Nobuhiko Oguchi, Taku Sugawara Assignee: Sony Corporation What Was New: ornamental design for a robot, as shown (ERS- 111 , 210 , 311 ) Patent #: D537891 Filing date: Jul 15, 2005 Issue date: Mar 6, 2007 Inventors: Daniel Judkins, Endo Yoshiyuki, Fujio Nobata Assignees: Hasbro, Inc. What Was New: ornamental design for a robotic dog, as shown and described Patent #: D572319 Filing date: Jan 19, 2007 Issue date: Jul 1, 2008 Inventor: Shiu Hang Yuen Assignee: Golden Bright Manufacturer Ltd. What Was New: ornamental design for toy robot dog, as shown and described Patent #: D566794 Filing date: Sep 11, 2007 Issue date: Apr 15, 2008 Inventors: Daniel Judkins, Ceileidh Siegel Assignees: Hasbro, Inc. What Was New: ornamental design for a robotic dog, as shown and described.

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Gallery: A Visual History of The Artificial Dog

Clockwise from top left: Porter Johnson, Malcolm Keilana, Ruby Keilana, Gus Leckart, Mocha Beschizza, Tricksy Beschizza, Black Jack Putney Perhaps the most important prerequisite for being part of the BBG team is to have a puppy or two. Because we love our doggies so much, we dedicate today to stories about dogs: gadgets for dogs, robotic dogs, pictures taken by dogs, a robot that cleans puke stains, geeky dog toys, a dog tag with a motion sensor in it, advice on how to carry a lap dog and a laptop at the same time, and more. Woof! (Or, as they say in Japan, wan wan!)

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BBG on… Dogs