Alexa may be notorious for helping you control things around the house remotely, but dog owners can have better use for it. Amazon’s home virtual assistant can be a great tool to assist you with its various skills and functions to benefit you and your dog.
Use your Alexa devices to let your dog feel more relaxed, learn basic commands, enjoy some music, and interact with you remotely–among other things!
Here are five Alexa skills that can help your pooch, whether you’re home or not!
1. Puppy Jams
Does your dog love music? Then you may want to play them some tunes while you’re out of the house with Puppy Jams. If you want to play some jams for your pup, just say “Alexa, open Puppy Jams” to any device loaded with the software.
Puppy Jams tailors its choice of music to your dog’s mood. When you open this Alexa skill, don’t forget to tell Puppy Jams how your dog is feeling. According to Mashable, this is so it can churn out the appropriate tunes via an iHeartRadio playlist made specifically for dogs.
You can find Puppy Jams on Amazon here!
2. Furbo Dog Camera With Alexa
Do you frequently go to work or run errands on a daily basis? Are you hesitant to leave your dog alone in the house?
Alexa now has a skill for pet owners who also have Furbo tech at home. Furbo, creator of a dog camera and treat dispenser, partnered with Amazon to enable a skill to use its innovation.
The partnership now enables commands to schedule treat-giving for pups. According to the company, this not only alleviates your dog’s anxiety when you are away, but it can also be used for training them to avoid barking when alone.
“This integration with Alexa is meaningful for decreasing anxiety for both the puppy and the parent who worries about leaving their dog at home alone,” says Victor Chang, CEO of Tomofun, in charge of Furbo.
Furbo’s Alexa skill is among the first to integrate pet tech with Alexa commands. Among the commands that owners can program include dictating treat-giving based on time or based on break intervals. Best of all, this uses a positive reinforcement technique, which is known to be one of the better training techniques.
You can find the Furbo Dog Camera skill on Amazon here!
3. Calm My Dog
If Puppy Jams is a bit too much for your pup, maybe they’d appreciate some more relaxing sounds.
Music calms and soothes the nerves in people. Dogs can have the same experience when they hear music. If you have an Alexa device at home that can play soothing tunes, downloading the Calm My Dog skill might help the next time you need your pup to relax.
This skill is a different take from Puppy Jams. While the former is dedicated towards music that matches your dog’s mood, this skill plays soothing lyrics-free tunes.
While it does not allow for skipping, Calm My Dog presents a vast array of classical tunes that can help make your dog relax. Its easy controls make it user-friendly, too, so you can stop or start the app with simple commands.
You can find Calm My Dog on Amazon here!
4. Audible For Dogs
Have you ever enjoyed a good audiobook during a job or commute? Apparently dogs enjoy hearing stories through audiobooks, as well. If you don’t have time to read your dog a book but still want to them to enjoy the benefits, Alexa has a great skill called Audible for Dogs.
Dog behaviorist expert and Dog Whisperer host Cesar Millan partnered with Audible to bring a series of audiobooks to help relax dogs. Almost 76 percent of the users who tried the audiobooks reported seeing their pets become calmer and more relaxed.
A pro tip for future users: Try to get an audiobook that has a similar voice to your own because dogs respond better to voices that are of the same gender as their owners.
You can check out Audible for Dogs on Amazon here!
5. Al The Dog Trainer
How does having a personal dog trainer sound? If you think this is an expensive feat, try downloading Al the Dog Trainer, which is supposedly your virtual dog trainer.
Made more for dog owners than the dogs themselves, this Alexa skill helps humans understand their pooches. They can submit a question about training their dogs and have it answered.
“You can use your Alexa enabled device to directly ask me any dog training question. When you do that, my team and I will then create content around your question to help you,” says Al Longoria in his website, Longoriahaus Dog Training.
The creator usually tailors the answer on the question. Every Wednesday night, their live show on Facebook showcases the question. Think of it as an easy phone line to a helpful trainer at your fingertips!
You can find Al the Dog Trainer on Amazon here!
What do you think of these helpful Alexa skills? Is there one you’re looking forward to trying? Any others that we should check out? Let us know in the comments below!
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