Ask Alexa: Get top pet care tips for your furry companion
From calming your pet with therapeutic anti-anxiety music, to tips on dog training and advice from Hills Nutrition, and reminding you to feed your four legged friend, AI assistant Alexa developed by Amazon comes to the rescue.
Worried about your furry best friends when you're busy all day? Not sure about your pet’s nutritional needs or struggling to train them?
Why not have a smart speaker or a virtual assistant help you entertain them, provide insightful tips or even calm them while you catch a quick break?
Amazon's AI assistant Alexa.
Alexa, a virtual assistant AI technology developed by Amazon has skills that can help in your pet's care, health, training and entertainment!
YS Weekender brings you a roundup of some of the top Alexa skills that can help you and your pet...
Calm my pet
That’s exactly what Calm my pet Alexa Skill does. It plays calming music and can be very helpful if you are dealing with hyper or anxious pets.
Try calming your pet with melodic and therapeutic tunes.
All you have to do is to enable the skill and say, “Alexa, open Calm My Pet” and it will play soothing music to calm your furry companion.
The skill has a series of classical instrumental songs at the right tempo based on extensive research on pets that are pleasing and have a deep calming influence on them.
So, sit back and relax while this skill gives company to your pets.
Pet nutrition
Hill's is a well-known food brand that offers prescribed, as well as regular food for dogs and cats.
Being a leading food company, Hill’s Alexa skill offers you with facts and helps you understand health related queries. It also offers guidance on nutrition and dietary requirements for your pets.
Learn all there is about pet nutrition and feeding for specific breeds.
The skill tells you about your four-legged companions and shares bite-sized nuggets that might surprise you and help you understand their daily habits and behaviour better.
You can launch the skill by saying, “Alexa, ask Hills” and learn more about your pet by asking “Alexa, ask Hills about Dogs” or “Alexa, ask Hills about Cats” and enhance your understanding of your favourite household companion.
Dog training tips
If you are looking for a trainer for your dog, this is the perfect Alexa skill for you! Al Longoria is a reputed dog trainer who offers tips and techniques on how to train your dog(s).
You can enable the skill to get techniques and simple ways to train dogs, whether puppy or adults.
Puppy training is crucial in a dog's early years.
Additionally, it offers insight into the behaviour of your pet too. You can enable the skill by saying “Alexa, open Al’s Dog Training Tips ”. This skill is especially useful if you are a first-time dog owner.
The dog feeder
The Dog Feeder is a very useful skill if your household contains several people that have different schedules and you want to make sure that at least somebody fed the dog before you left the house.
Forgot to feed your pet? Ask your friendly AI assistant Alexa to remind you to keep feeding times in check.
Enable the skill and ask, “Alexa, ask the dog if we fed her?” The skill is very simple to use.
Every time you ask Alexa if you fed the dog, she will tell you the last time he/she was fed. Depending on your question and how long ago it was, Alexa will follow up with a question of if you plan on feeding the dog now.
If you say yes, that is the new current time the dog has been fed. The skill assumes that the dog is hungry and your pet has not been fed in 6 hours.
Calm my cat
Cats are generally more anxious than dogs by nature and they can get stressed out too ‘Calm my cat ’ Alexa skill is specifically designed to help you to tackle this situation.
This Alexa skill for cats which offers calming music will help your feline feel more relaxed, less anxious, sleep more and be generally calmer.
All you have to do is enable the skill and say, “Alexa, open Relax My Cat” and Alexa will start playing soothing music to make your cat relaxed.
There are special tips for cat owners and for those who own Beagle and German Shepherd breeds as well.
Cat facts: Fun app for all cat lovers
Cats are very mysterious pets and unlike dogs, they are shy and reserved.
This Alexa skill is perfect for you to ask for facts and to get interesting information and know something new every time about cats.
If you are a cat owner and you are looking for some extra information on your pet, then just say, “Alexa, ask Cat Fact to tell me a cat fact” or “Alexa, ask Cat Fact to give me some cat information”.
Beagle Facts
If you are a Beagle owner, you might know that they have specific requirements and showcase a different behaviour. This Alexa skill is perfect for you as it offers interesting facts specific to the breed.
With this skill, you can get random beagle facts whenever you want or you learn more about your beagle, or the breed in general, beagle history, their personalities, and how to take care of them.
Just start by saying, “Alexa, ask Beagle Fact to tell me a fact.” or “Alexa, ask Beagle facts to tell me some trivia”
Learn interesting facts about specific dog and cat breeds.
P.S. If you are a German Shepherd parent, there is a skill specifically for that too. You can enable the German Shepherd skill on facts and ask, “Alexa, start German Shepherd facts” to get interesting information about the breed.
The Dog Translator
Curious about what your dog tries to converse by barking? Enable the Dog Translator skill and you can try and make out what your dog is saying.
Just ask, “Alexa, open Dog translator” and follow the instructions.
(Inputs from Amazon India)
(Image Credits: - Shutterstock)
Edited by Asha Chowdary