Are you willing to let Rufus use your iPad? According to The Wall Street Journal, there are now classes in New York City that aim to instruct dogs on how to use Apple tablets. Dog trainer Anna Jane Grossman started giving these lessons to dogs last year where dogs will learn how to apply their nose to the screen to activate certain apps. Worried about a break from these lessons? There's a solution, as iResQ is there for any screen breaks or iPad repair needs resulting from an exuberant amount of slobber from your pup.
Grossman said clients will often ask if their dogs can do online banking or other useful things, but she doesn't think there are many great or useful tasks that can come from a dog using an iPad. However, she doesn't necessarily believe she does useful things on the device either, aside from entertainment, which is exactly the aim she has for these dogs. Valuable motor skills, promotion of social behavior and an alleviation of boredom can all be benefits of training a dog on how to properly utilize an iPad, she told the news source.
Cat people are seeming a bit more iffy about this training than the dog folks, as Pam Johnson-Bennett, an expert on cat behavior, told the Journal that some of these apps make cats “endlessly chase a critter” without a successful capture, something that can be very frustrating. Brooklyn cat owner David Snetman said his cat's interest was up the whole time Pickle was using the app, but the activity seemed “very frustrating” for the feline as well. App developers, such as T.J. Fuller, who helped develop the popular app “Game for Cats,” said these pet owners have negative connotations of people sitting in front of TVs for hours endlessly, but these games actually challenge the cats physically and mentally.
Dogs can learn tricks from the iPad
Grossman wrote a column for Kinja's dog blog and said use of the iPad can help teach pups “silly stuff” that will allow them to be more responsive to owners who later want to teach them serious tasks. “Touch” is one of the first tricks that is taught in the iPad class, accomplished by communicating to the dog that touching something on the screen with its nose will cause something good to happen.
“Teaching a dog that he can affect the outcome of his environment simply by touching something with his nose is a way to build confidence and a way to clue him into the fact that he can get good things out of humans without having to resort to jumping or barking,” she wrote.
Pet owners who are intrigued yet concerned about teaching their pet how to use a tablet should know that iPad repair is easily accessible in case of a break caused by man's best friend.