Either you own a dog yourself, you walk through the city and see them or maybe you even just scroll through TikTok and Facebook and there are dog videos shown. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they are sweet or even sad – the “Man’s best friend” is everywhere. Dogs will always stay loyal at the site of their owner (of course, if they treat them right). They are (often) even better friends than people. But why is exactly the dog considered as the best friend. King Frederick of Prussia first mentioned this phrase in 1789 while talking about his dog, an Italian Greyhound.
“The only, absolute and best friend that a man has in this selfish world, the only one that will not betray or deny him, is his DOG. “ – King Frederick of Prussia
The connection between people and dogs is very natural because both are social beings and they both benefit from each other. Mentally and physically. According to a new study, people living with dogs are living a longer life e.g., they may reduce the cardiovascular risk in their owner due to the higher physical activity and given emotional support. Dogs belong to the family and both, the dog and the owner are there for each other. On the good and the bad days.
The global leaders in the population of dogs are the United States with about 70 million, while in comparison Poland has about 7 million and Germany about 5 million dogs. Of course, there is a much higher estimated number, especially in countries like Greece and Romania due to the very high number of homeless dogs. Dogs who are either looking for food right now, that may just have been injured or even dogs who are waiting right now for their adoption.
Due to this constantly rising number, this topic is currently very present. The slogan “Adopt, Don’t Shop” is all over Instagram and tries to give people a chance about rethinking their current mindset. Instead of buying or even ordering a (over-)bred dog, people should consider adopting dogs that are currently suffering and give them the chance of a good life. Due to the Corona pandemic and the associated lockdowns, a lot of people decided to get a dog – to stay fit, to have something to do, to not be alone or even to bypass the curfew. Hopefully, they will still stay dog owners after this whole situation.
“What is my dog thinking?”, “What does he want from me?”, “Why is he doing that?” – Questions after questions considering our best friend. Often people can just guess what the dog is thinking. But Stella Jang, a dog lover from South Korea, wanted clarity. She founded the company called Petpuls, which is about an AI-powered dog collar that helps dog owners in understanding their dog and giving their dog a ‘voice’.
The Petpuls is supposed to recognize from the dog’s barking whether the dog is happy, relaxed, anxious, angry or sad. According to their research, it has an accuracy rate of more than 80% while using an algorithm and a database from more than 10,000 examples of barking dogs from a big variety of breeds.
The collar comes in 2 different sizes and 4 different colours of collars. Petpuls consists of a small advice attached to the collar, which is also eco-friendly and made from silicone. The collar from Petpuls is available for pre-order and costs around 80 euros.
The results are then available on the corresponding app, which is compatible with Android and iOS. This records the data and shows the emotional status and also the physical movement of their dog.
The idea of the CEO and founder, Stella Jang, got international attention and actually the company would have been a part of this years, CES – the trade exhibition in Nevada for all those interested in consumer electronics, which unfortunately had to be cancelled this year due to Corona. The company also won some awards like the CES Innovation Award 2021.
Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_best_friend
https://time.com/5028171/health-benefits-owning-dog/
https://www.petsecure.com.au/pet-care/a-guide-to-worldwide-pet-ownership/
