The Associated Press
Whether you take your dog on the road or leave it behind when you travel, some iPhone apps will paw-sitively make your life easier.
For dogs that get hot under the collar if they can’t go with you, PawTrotter is a $2.99 app that includes more than 130,000 pet-friendly sites in the United States, including parks, beaches, hotels, grooming, vets, boarding and pet stores.
Like many apps, it can either pinpoint your location or allow you to enter one. Another convenience: Rather than burying the information, searches can be narrowed by category, distance, price, and dog-bone rating, which is based on feedback from registered users. (At this point, many entries aren’t yet rated).
I managed to sniff out one issue. I tested it by searching for dog-friendly hotels in Denver, and although it came up with 35, I know of at least two famous downtown hotels not on the list. But the app includes a feedback page if the omissions really get your hackles up.
The developers of PawTrotter are donating 5 per cent of all profits to the American Humane Association.
A similar app, Mo’s Nose, named for a children’s book series, is free and promises listings for pet-friendly hotels, pet psychics, shelters, dog parks and more. It has some useful information, but PawTrotters offers more and is better organized.
For dogs who prefer playing in packs to packing, Camp Bow Wow, a nationwide dog boarding and daycare centre, has a $1.99 app that lets users view their dogs as they romp in common play rooms. The webcams can be viewed for free from the Bow Wow website on most computers. In fact, the website even lets users zoom in and out to take a snapshot, but the Java software required to run it doesn’t work on iPhones, iPod Touches or iPads, so if you want to i-watch your dog, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
The image quality on the app isn’t great, and with several different play areas and webcams, it might be hard to locate your dog right away, but it’s always reassuring to see a familiar wag when you’ve been away for a few days.
