5 Smart Pet Tech Products We Actually Tested

We get pitched a lot of "revolutionary" pet tech. Most of it isn't. Over the past six months, our team tested every smart feeder, GPS tracker, and automated toy that crossed our desks — here's the honest breakdown.

1. Automatic feeders: the good ones solve a real problem

The best automatic feeders do one thing exceptionally well: they dispense the right amount of food at the right time, reliably, without jamming. The ones that fail are usually underpowered motors or hoppers with awkward angles that cause kibble to bridge and block.

What to look for: stainless steel or BPA-free bowls (plastic scratches and harbours bacteria), a backup battery for power outages, portion control in grams not just "cups," and an app that actually works offline. If the feeder only functions when connected to Wi-Fi, it will let your pet down exactly when you need it most.

2. GPS trackers: battery life is the real differentiator

We tested six GPS trackers across three months, attaching them to dogs of different sizes and activity levels. Accuracy between the top trackers was largely comparable in open areas. Where they diverged dramatically was battery life and coverage.

The trackers that relied solely on cellular networks had dead zones in rural areas and drained within 2–3 days. The best performer used a hybrid GPS/Bluetooth/Wi-Fi triangulation approach and lasted nearly a week between charges. Worth the premium if your dog is a known escape artist.

3. Interactive cameras: your pet probably doesn't care, but you will

Treat-dispensing cameras are primarily for the owner's peace of mind — and that's fine. The ones worth buying have two-way audio with low latency (high latency means your voice sounds robotic and confuses the pet), wide-angle lenses that don't distort, and treat mechanisms that don't jam with standard kibble.

4. Automated laser toys: cats are smarter than these

Most cats figure out an automated laser pattern within two sessions and stop engaging entirely. The exception: toys with genuinely randomised, unpredictable movement and variable speeds. If the pattern is predictable, your cat will simply wait at the endpoint. We returned two out of three we tested for exactly this reason.

5. Smart water fountains: worth every penny for cats

Cats are notoriously poor drinkers. A circulating water fountain increases water intake in most cats, which directly supports kidney health — the leading cause of death in older cats. The key differentiators are filter quality and motor noise. Loud motors stress cats and cause avoidance. The best units run near-silently and use multi-stage filtration that you'll only need to replace every 4–6 weeks.

The one we returned

A popular "smart collar" that promised activity tracking, sleep monitoring, and bark detection. In practice: the activity data was wildly inaccurate (it counted car rides as running), the app crashed repeatedly, and the bark detection triggered on background TV noise. The hardware felt premium. The software let it down completely. We'll revisit it if they release a significant firmware update.