Bored already with summer heat? If you’re spending another long day indoors trying to figure out what to do, you may want to look into some mobile apps for the kids to play with your dog. Most of these work best on a tablet, so your pet can make choices with the touch of a paw, but some adapt to a mobile phone as well.
It’s kind of a stretch of the imagination, but Jolly Dog through the Apple App Store, or Google Play’s Jolly Pet are game apps designed to bring out the hunting skills in your dog. Just let your pet tap one of several tiles to choose a lizard, bird and some other critter, and enjoy the chase. Each animal moves differently, so you may learn that your pup has favorites. The creators note, “The color scheme is carefully selected to meet cats’ and dogs’ vision spectrums.” Toddlers will enjoy this one, too.
Google Play’s Lonely Dog Toy seems to be a step up in chasing games, with six different, noisy animals that scurry or swim in more interesting and colorful animations, plus there is a ball to bounce. Puppy Tapper is the Apple equivalent.
App for Dog in the Apple App Store is remarkably different. Your dog can paw or nose the screen to make colorful abstract art. All the fun, none of the mess, and you can save their works to a gallery, to your phone, or print copies to put on the fridge. It comes with several color palettes, squeaky noises and a ball. You can even train your dog to answer questions using ‘dog-vision colored’ Yes and No buttons with sound.
Dog Translator advertises that it turns what you say into canine language. Does it actually translate? Who knows. Will the barking get really annoying? Definitely, but it may be fun to try the app for a short time and see what your dog thinks.
For teens, Apple’s Dog Snap is also a language translator, but there’s much more. Take a photo of your dog and it can tell you your dog’s breed, or what emotions she is feeling. This one comes with dog training as ‘game challenges’ that connect you and your dog with a community of other teams. Play against each other in specific challenges and upload the scores to determine the winner.
When your dog is tired of interacting, the kids can still choose from several different dog sim games such as Apple’s Dog Cafe Tycoon. Or they can learn how to take care of a virtual puppy through adorably cute augmented reality apps such as with My DOG or Tamadog.
Heron’s Crossing provides end-of-life care for pets in the Metro Atlanta area. In-home appointments with compassionate vets are available. If you’d prefer a home-like setting away from your home, our Decatur office is also available by appointment.