This Treat-Dispensing Mobile Camera Follows Your Pets Around Like a Personal Videographer

Move over, Roomba. There’s a new way to terrorize, I mean, follow your furry friend’s every move when you’re not home. It’s the world’s first mobile pet camera—complete with a built-in treat dispenser.

The VAVA Mobile Pet Camera claims to give pet owners increased peace of mind while helping to “end pet boredom and separation anxiety.” It has features like two-way audio, a treat dispenser, 360-degree mobility, a rechargeable battery, paw-proof durability, and a built-in laser pointer and feather teaser (with attachments) that allow you to “see, play, treat, and talk to your pets no matter where they are, even if they’re under the bed,” according to the company’s crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

The treat dispenser combined with a training clicker seems like a genius idea, possibly conforming to positive-reinforcement (R+) dog training methodology by rewarding your dog for doing the actions you ask them to do. The team at VAVA claims to have worked with several professional dog trainers in their beta testing phase, but we’d be curious to see what our own dog trainers think before installing one. (Especially if we could get the VAVA connected to a dog door and/or an iFetch.)

These devices can be more than companions and nanny cams for your pets. In reviews from several customers who use existing pet camera models, like the similarly treat-dispensing yet stationary Furbo and Petcube, people have claimed the technology has saved their animals’ lives—one by being alerted to excessive barking when their house was on fire; another, by receiving a video still alert that showed the dog had gotten into the trash that contained dark chocolate.

Early bird Indiegogo campaign backers for the VAVA Mobile Pet Cam can pre-order one device for $149 ($169 with the companion digital pet bowl) or two for $279 ($319 with pet bowls), which is about $75 cheaper than existing models of treat-dispensing pet cameras.