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| Phil, as captured on "Philcam" aka The Eyenimal. |
Do you know what your pets
get up to when you leave the house? You can think
you know, but unless you can observe them somehow it’s all a bit of an
educated guess. Phil and I are participating in a study (although of course he doesn’t
know it and cannot consent to it) about separation anxiety in dogs (you can
read more and get involved here).
As part of that study I’ve
been allowed to borrow a camera called the Eyenimal – designed specifically for
remote pet monitoring but also used for security and baby monitoring – which enables
me to leave the house and observe what Phil is getting up to.
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| Hero with the Eyenimal. |
I’ve had clients film their
pets before. Usually these are clients who come home to find bizarre changes in
the house – like all the stuffing removed from their cushions, or parts of
doors chewed off. They want to know for how long their dogs are distressed, and
what times of day are the times that interventions (like sending in a
dog-walker) will be more effective. Their pets won’t behave badly when they’re
home, so the camera means they can observe their pet from afar without
influencing the behaviour.
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| The camera resembles a ye olde school diving helmet. |
The Eyenimal camera itself
reminds me of a diving helmet from an old, deep-sea diver (you know the ones that
look like astronaut helmets) but I can pan it in any direction. Not that I
really need to. At this very moment, as I sit outside and blog, Phil is where I
left him – on the doormat near the door. Michael, my eldest cat, is sitting
near him. It’s hard to tell, as I can only see her from the rear, whether she
is intimidating him and trapping him near the front door, or whether she too is
waiting.
In fact I was surprised last
night to learn that she is the most active of the non-humans in the household,
walking past the camera and occasionally sitting right in front of it, taking a
“selfie” of her chest and blocking the view of anything else.
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| Michael sits practically on top of the camera, blocking the view of everything else in the entire room. |
Unfortunately Hero, my
youngest cat, is onto me this morning and is has managed to open the blinds and
spot me sitting outside. He is meowing his head off. The other two haven’t
twigged that I am outside.
The striking thing I found
is that there is a difference in Phil’s behaviour when I leave at night as
opposed to when I leave during the day. At night, he toddles off and puts
himself to bed. When it’s daytime, he waits. So if I am going to invest in
pet-sitting, daytime seems the better time.
One thing’s for sure. His
behaviour isn’t quite what I expected and this technology is offering a
fascinating insight. It’s more gripping than watching Home and Away.
Have you ever filmed your
pets when you’re out?
In other news, Rosie
Allister who volunteers for Vetlife wrote this interesting post which gives
some insights into working on a veterinary helpline, and the fact that
veterinarians often call late – not so much late in the day as late in trying
to cope with a problem or two (hundred). Read here.
And for those with a
religious bent, Pope Francis was overheard reassuring a little boy that his dog
would go to heaven. Its kind of a big deal, although the comment is being played down. Read more here.
