How smart pet technology is evolving
Published 5 October 2026. General information for dog owners, not veterinary or behavioural advice.
Pet technology has grown from a niche into an industry that analysts value in the billions of dollars and expect to keep growing at more than 10% a year. It has arrived in waves, each answering a different worry.
Wave one: identity
The first widely adopted pet technology was the microchip: a passive tag that says who an animal belongs to. It does one thing, needs no battery, and set the expectation that technology could make pet ownership safer.
Wave two: location and activity
Cheaper GPS and mobile data made live tracking possible. Collars could show where a dog was and, borrowing from human fitness trackers, how active it had been. The worry being answered was "where is my pet, and is it getting enough exercise?"
Wave three: presence
As more owners worked away from home, cameras, treat dispensers and automatic feeders let them check in and interact remotely. The worry here was guilt and reassurance: "is my pet all right without me?"
Wave four: behaviour and health insight
The current wave tries to interpret. Trackers have begun to report changes in barking, sleep or scratching. Cameras flag particular events. The worry is subtler: "is something changing that I have not noticed?"
This wave is harder than the others because it involves judgement. A location is right or wrong. An interpretation of behaviour can be plausible and still mistaken.
What is driving it
- Pets as family. Owners increasingly spend on wellbeing, not just necessities.
- Cheaper sensors and chips. Microphones, motion sensors and small processors now cost very little.
- Better software. Models developed for human speech and health are being adapted for animals.
- Subscription models. Ongoing services give companies a reason to keep improving a product after it is sold.
What owners are starting to push back on
Not everything about this is welcome. Subscriptions add up. Apps multiply. Devices that depend on a company's servers stop working when the company does. There is growing interest in products that do a single job well, work offline and do not require an account.
What comes next
The likely direction is quieter technology: devices that sit in the background, process more locally, and surface something only when it matters. The winners will probably be the ones that combine good engineering with a real understanding of animal behaviour, because the second is much harder to copy than the first.
Read next: what pet behaviour technology means.
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