***originally aired April 19, 2017***
Alicia Doyle loves her dogs, but she can't always spend as much time with them as she wants. Most of her days are spent in the CTV Vancouver newsroom, where she works as a producer.
But she can still stay in touch with her dogs, with an app called Furbo.
The Furbo has a camera, microphoneand speaker and connects to the internet. And the best part? It spits out treats on demand.
The McLaughlin on Your Side team asked Doyle to test it out for us.
From the CTV newsdesk, Doyle can talk to her dogs, feed them treats and even save and post the video to share with her friends online.
She also gets notified if they're barking or misbehaving, and while the device can see them it makes her a bit nervous when she’s at home.
"I am a little paranoid because it's a Wi-Fi device and there's a camera and a microphone."
Which is why she turns it around or off when she's home in case it gets hacked.
After using the product for a couple of weeks, Doyle had a mixed reaction. She said it scared her dog Roxy a little bit, sending her into a howling frenzy.
But overall, she enjoyed using the device, which costs about $300.
"In the beginning I used it quite a lot. Now I’m just checking in every now and again or when there's a notification that they've been barking,” she said.
There are other similar devices out there like the Petzi Treat Cam and Petchatz, which cost more but also do more things, like dispensing calming scents.
