Top apps for pet owners

Apps To Help You Connect With Your Pet

There’s a lot you can learn from a brief glance at a phone app, such as how to perform CPR on your pet, or whether music can actually help to reduce your pet's anxiety! With these great apps for pet owners, you can skip past Google and have all the answers on hand.

Pet First Aid, by Jive Media LLC

If your precious pooch or beloved kitty needed it, would you be able to perform CPR? Odds are, you wouldn’t know where to start -- unless you have the Pet First Aid app, that is. For the price of a large cup of coffee, the Pet First Aid app ($4.49) has been designed to prepare you for worst-case scenarios, with loads of useful medical information, detailed videos and guided "how to" illustrations to help you cope with a range of emergency situations. “My dog was acting strange after a day of relaxing and I referred to this app for help. Within minutes, I had figured out what was wrong and rushed him to the emergency animal hospital,” one user wrote. “The doctor told me if I had waited 'til the next morning, he would not have survived. This is the best money I ever spent on an app."

PetRescue, by Crazy Dog Apps

Looking for a companion for Fido? Developed by teenager Brandon Cowan, 18 -- he created iParkedHere, which became the number one top grossing app in the Lifestyle category -- the PetRescue app helps to find new homes for lost and abandoned pets. Utilising the PetRescue database of over 6,500 pets from shelters Australia-wide, the app automatically detects your state and displays listings accordingly. “Over 250,000 pets get killed each year, simply because they don't have homes,” Cowan says. “We have taken a step to reduce this number by developing the PetRescue app entirely for free.” You can download it for free, too.

Pet Acoustics, by Pet Acoustics

Just as music can have a profound impact on your mood, the makers of the Pet Acoustics app believe animals can be influenced by music as well. “Pet Acoustics music has been specifically designed for the hearing sensitivities of your pet, both in frequency, volume and rhythm, to calm and soothe your pet anytime, anywhere,” the developer proclaims. A must-have app for pets who suffer from separation anxiety -- or puppies with high energy levels -- Pet Acoustics can transform your four-legged friend’s mood from restless to relaxed, by tapping into your cat’s, dog’s or horse’s sensitive hearing with comforting music that promotes a peaceful environment. All of this, for a tiny investment of just $1.99.

iKibble Free, by Llamaface

Onions, chocolate, tomatoes, avocado… there are loads of foods we’ve heard that we shouldn’t feed to our pets, but without a vet on standby, how can we find out which ones are actually dangerous for dogs? With iKibble Free, you can quickly scroll through some common foods so you never make the mistake of feeding your dog potentially toxic foods. You can browse by category or health rating or search for a specific food from the list, which includes meat, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grains -- and there’s even a little advice provided on how to prepare certain foods for your pooch!