Episode #136 The Interactive Dog Toy with Erick from PupPod

Learn about the most advanced interactive dog toy ever created. It's called the PupPod and creator Erick joins Amy on the podcast today to explain it. 

To purchase a PupPod of your own, visit our site https://www.baxterandbella.com/puppy-products

Transcript

Amy: 0:00

This is the puppy training Podcast Episode 136, the interactive dog toy with Eric from pup pod

Unknown: 0:12

This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the puppy training podcast. And I'm your host, Amy Jensen. Hey, everybody, welcome to the puppy training podcast. Thanks for being here. I appreciate you listening. I'm really excited today to have Eric from pup pod with me pup pod is one of the coolest interactive dog toys I've ever seen. On their website, they put that it's the most advanced interactive dog game ever created. It gives your dog the physical activity and mental stimulation they crave. So today, we get to dive into pup pod with Eric and learn all about this cool product and more about his business. So welcome, Eric.

Erick with PupPod: 0:59

Thanks so much for having me really appreciate it.

Amy: 1:01

Will, you tell us a little bit about you and your background.

Erick with PupPod: 1:04

Sure, my background was in building the early smartphone product category. And I kind of lived through building the smartphones back when everybody had flip phones and analog phones and pagers. And we could see that there was going to be a lot of capability that people were going to want to have in their pockets as computing was moving along. And it just wasn't in the phone. And so we started building these smartphones, back in the 90s and early 2000s. And now you can see that product category is really prevalent. I mean, it was everybody has a smartphone. And we see the same thing happening with connected pet products. So I can see that the pet products that I was giving my own dog were just pieces of plastic and stuffed animals and you know, things that didn't have any technology or software or real user experience. And it just didn't seem to me that that was the best way we can we can do for our pets, it seemed like you know, I had these experiences my dog where all of a sudden, you get surprised when you see them processing information in a way that you don't, you don't know that they can process information, because unfortunately, they can't speak English. But you observe and you observe them enough. And then you'll find, oh my gosh, they're making this connection, I need to be giving my dog more they need to really exercise their mind they need to solve problems. They like to do well a lot of them like to work and you know, when they don't work, there can be behavioral situations. And so it just seemed clear to me that there was going to be this new product category in pet products and what better thing to dedicate your life to than making better products for the dogs that we love.

Amy: 2:52

Absolutely. So you mentioned you have a dog. I'm curious what kind of dog you have. And tell us a little bit about your dog.

Erick with PupPod: 2:57

Yeah, Ali is a mini Australian shepherd. And he's real. He is a great dog to be the spokes dog for pot pot, he plays for his breakfast and his dinner and it keeps them active. And then he goes and he takes a nap. So when I'm working, I don't feel like I'm neglecting him because he needs you know, Australian shepherds, they like to work. They like a job they like to they, they're busy bodies. And he's definitely in the busy body category. And he's just a real pleasure, real fun, fun dog to have gone to this journey of building our company with.

Amy: 3:34

I love it, you're able to take your previous field of expertise, and bring it into the dog space. How cool is that?

Erick with PupPod: 3:41

It is it's lucky to have having that experience. Myself and my co founders, we all worked at Microsoft. And so we you know, think in the terms of software platforms, and the fact that there was no software platform for pet products that you know the same way that you can think of like Xbox as a gaming platform for lots of different games. There's no technology version of that for dogs. And for animals that were always I say I talked about about dogs because it's a big segment of the user base to address. But you know, the kinds of things that we're working on can apply to all kinds of animals. So cats, zoo, animals, livestock, and there's all kinds of scenarios where animals can have, you know, just a better life through more mental stimulation. And that's where the software driven products come in as part of a platform and having cottoned on to that Microsoft experience and building product categories like the smartphone platform and the Xbox that my co founder worked on and some other platforms, it became clear that there was going to be the industry needs a platform like this.

Amy: 4:51

Well, I know we've piqued people's interest now. So will you explain what PupPod is exactly?

Erick with PupPod: 4:56

Sure. Yeah. So the first game that we've taken the market is called a pop rocker. And it's a device that wobbles around and kind of rocks back and forth and the dog touches it. So I don't know, it's maybe like six inches tall. And maybe if people go to our website, they can see it in action pod.com pu p pod.com. And though the dog interacts with a toy at the correct time, then they earn food rewards from a separate feeder. And that feeder also has a video camera. And it's so you can and it's all connected with the cloud. So you there's a mobile app, you can go into our mobile app, you can start the game, you can change the levels obviously stop the game, watch video of your dog playing from anywhere. And for the dog side and experience they hear the toy makes certain sounds. And that the sounds are basically a language you know, that are telling the dog things like the game is starting the game is ending. Here's a sound that gives you rewards. There's a sound that doesn't give you rewards that they learn, they learn the meaning of those sounds over time. And the pet parent can pick different sounds through our mobile app, so you can keep the game fresh for your dog, we have some features coming out in the future where you'll be able to near future where you'll be able to do custom sounds. And we heard a lot of requests from people for very specific sounds they want the dog to be getting rewarded for. Because what we've seen we we experimented and one of the sounds in the product is the sound of a doorbell. And it's a really common unfortunate behavior situation, when for many dogs, when they hear the doorbell, whether it's the actual doorbell in your house or a doorbell on TV or in a movie, dogs will just have a very, you can have a lot of barking, sometimes with certain dogs, and then getting them to calm down. It's kind of a stressful situation. So we added this, this doorbell sound to the game, so that dogs start to learn that they get rewards associated with the doorbell sound. And when you kind of extrapolate that there's all kinds of additional sounds like kids screaming, Jinkx, keys, jingling, door knocks, delivery guys showing up. There's all kinds of sounds that can trigger those barking episodes, depending on the dog. And so the more that we can use the room food, food rewards to re kind of reprogram the dog's perception of the sound and their reaction to the sound. Everybody can. Dogs are happy people are happy. And technology has infinite patience to kind of keep helping people work on problems like that.

Amy: 7:36

Yeah, we have several clients I know right now working on that very thing, just the doorbell. And unfortunately, that's something that gets naturally rewarded to the dog, right, the doorbell rings, and somebody exciting appears at the door and they just start to learn over time, that sound means a new person is here and then they get all of that excitement built in. So I love that there's another way that we can help you know condition the dogs to Oh, the sound means food, scattered foods, scattering is great because the dog takes the nose to the ground. They're sniffing, which is naturally relaxing, they're licking. So that's also naturally relaxing to the dog. Just a great idea.

Erick with PupPod: 8:14

We've seen great results. And we're and we'd love for the community we've asked our customers, if anyone is a customer or they want to be a customer, go on our Facebook user group just just look for pod user group in on Facebook, and give us your feedback on what sounds you want to hear in the in the game. And like I said pretty soon we'll have the ability to add custom sounds so then people can you know record their doorbell that was one of the most common things we would hear is they say oh well the doorbell it's in the game doesn't really sound like my doorbell. Can I put my doorbell sound again, because I'm realistic.

Amy: 8:52

I'm so excited for that feature, like so excited because the dogs they know, they know the difference between their doorbell and the toy doorbell. And being able to record your own will be huge. Super.

Erick with PupPod: 9:02

I think so too. Yeah, we're excited to have that capability coming out. It's been very requested along those lines.

Amy: 9:08

So the doorbell is one situation, right? I know that we can use this in a lot of different other ways. I'm thinking off the top of my head like separation anxiety. We have people who are at work all day and their dogs are maybe home alone a little more. Are there other scenarios that this pod is useful for?

Erick with PupPod: 9:25

Well, there's a lot of working with dogs that just like to work. We've seen videos from customers where there'll be a bowl of food on the floor and the dogs playing pot pot because they'd rather play the game to earn the rewards and just eat out of a bowl. It's just fun. So for working breed dogs, that's a really common scenario. And a lot of customers have all kinds of working grades or high energy dogs. We find with puppies you know being able to give your puppy an experience is going to tire them out so that you don't have to keep telling them no, because they're chewing up the carpet or your furniture, your shoes, I mean, they, they sleep a lot, and they need a lot of activity when they're not sleeping. And so we found that that was a really good scenario with, with puppies, and I'm sure with your puppy school, you're working with a lot of people who have puppies, there's probably a lot of overlap there. There's the separation anxiety scenario is, is a is a really big one, because it's such a painful thing to see your dog going through. And one way we try to recommend to people is like, if you're gonna, if your dog, you know, feels has separations, when you leave for work in the morning, let them play the game to earn their meal. So that they're, you know, 15-20 minutes into playing the game when you walk out the door. Because a they're going to be like in mode to eat, and they're gonna start getting mentally tired. And so they might be more relaxed, there's a higher chance that they're just going to sleep once you go. So that's a good scenario, we also see, we hear people, you know, when their dogs have been home all day sleeping, they get home from work. And there's this imbalance where people like I need to rest, I just got home from work, or I need to be making dinner for the family, and the dog wants attention. And a really common scenario is people let their dog earn their meal or a portion of their meal, while they're preparing food for the rest of the family. And that that's really popular. There's, I've heard from some folks with dogs of cryptically like rescue dogs that may have confidence issues, that playing the game gives them a lot of confidence, because they learned that they're in control as they learn the game. And that just is this self fulfilling reward system where they experiment the toy, they get rewards they're doing on their own, and then their their confidence starts to improve. So there's just a number of these behavior scenarios where potpie can be used. And what one of the main reasons why I mean, you and I have talked about this a lot of fear for your listeners, one of the main reasons we are engaging so deeply with Baxter & Bella is because the it's really a tool, and all these dogs, every dog is a little bit different. And being able to work with a trainer who knows how to use this tool really well is like the perfect combination to give pet parents the most value out of the product and hopefully, you know, have a real positive impact on on their lives in the lives of their pets.

Amy: 12:32

Yeah, we love working with you guys. It's fun to coach people on, you know, the mental aspect of exercising a dog, a lot of times, you know, people think I just need to walk them or I need to run them more. And we give them that scenario of well, what kind of dog are you trying to raise? Do you want a marathon runner dog? You know, and that mental exercise is something that a lot of people don't think about or consider. But it's huge. Like you said, giving that dog a job is important.

Erick with PupPod: 12:59

Yeah, the rule of thumb that we hear from behaviorists, veterinary behaviorist and other animal behaviors, is it's about 15 minutes. And mental stimulation is around the has the benefit of like an hour long walk, pretty, pretty active walk, either with lots of sniffing or a lot of activity. And so it's from a time standpoint, you can have such a big impact quickly, to get your dog relaxed to get a dog that wants to just rest to sleep. You know, my you asked about Ali, he'll play for between one to two hours usually to earn a normal meal, which is somewhere between one to two cups of kibble. And then he'll sleep for at least two hours after that. And so that I you know, it gives me as a pet parent this window where he's occupied and he's resting. And then you know, I can take a break, and we go out for a walk or play ball. And so it's not like it's a substitute for spending time with your dog. It's just that when you life gets in the way and unfortunately, we all can't just play with our dogs all day, I wish we could at least give them something better than just being bored and waiting for you to to free up or finding a way to keep themselves busy, that's undesirable.

Amy: 14:13

That's a big deal that people is they're teaching their dog to entertain themselves. You know, instead of, oh, I have to interact with you constantly when I'm home. I think this is a great way to just bridge that gap where the dog can entertain themselves a little bit.

Erick with PupPod: 14:28

Exactly. We've heard, you know, so many customers that talk about that being a real big benefit.

Amy: 14:34

Well, I know the game is cool in and of itself. Because there's not just one level, there's several levels. Will you just briefly tell us the different levels of the game because I think a lot of people maybe are thinking oh, it's just this simple game, but it actually has some pretty cool dynamics do it.

Erick with PupPod: 14:50

It does. Yes, thanks for bringing that up. So in the beginning the dogs just learning the connection between the toy and the feeder that you touch the toy and then treat to come out of the feeder at the right time, firstly just have to learn that connection because you can't explain it to them, they just have to, you know, experiment and do trial and error like operant conditioning, they'll make that light bulb will go off at some point. And they're like, wait a second, I was just over there with this toy and food came out, let me go over and explore this toy. Again, they touch it and they get food. So that's really easy. And usually dogs can get through that first level and anywhere from, you know, maybe a couple minutes to a couple of play sessions just depends on the number of distractions, and you know how the dogs kind of experience with puzzle games. And then they when the sound plays at level two, now the dog only gets a reward if they touch the toy within two seconds of the sound playing. And through our mobile app, you can control the time between sounds so that you can, as you need to make the game more difficult for the dog, you can introduce more time between sounds, they have to concentrate for longer. So your dog trainer should refer to that as like touch on cue. And concentration does, it looks like a game but there's actually these cognition skills that dogs are getting better at. And then at level three, we introduce a second sound that doesn't give the dog a reward. But again, you can't explain to them they have to just experience it through trial and error. And over time, we can quantitatively see a dog's behavior shaping to ignore the sound that doesn't give them a reward, because why would they touch it if they don't get a reward. And then they still are touching the set the toy when the reward sound that the pet parent picks plays, and they can change that up to keep it fresh. And there's also lights are an option. So for hearing impaired dogs or deaf dogs, they can play the game off of the lights for them. A lot of customers have blind dogs who need activities for blind dogs. And this will truly well for them because they can hear the sounds. And they can hear the kibble getting coming out the feeder. And then And then so that kind of went off on a bit of a tangent there. But going back to the levels at level four, they know treat sound will keep playing until the dog doesn't touch the toy on the sound that doesn't give them the reward. And then it'll cycle back to the sound give them an opportunity to get a reward. And that is basically impulse control. So and you can change the game from patterns to being random. So you can make the time between sounds random, you can also make the sequence of sounds random. And that's that's pretty, that's a pretty advanced concept. Most, most players don't actually even get that far in the game. So with pup pod, we just wanted to add enough options to give pet parents ways to make the game more challenging. But not every dog is going to make it that far to the game. And not every meal needs to be hard. Most of the time I feed my dog on level two or level three even though he can play every feature in the game. It just because it will just drag his mealtime out too long. And then one of the other real cool benefits is you can spread the toy away from the theater and use your environment to also create difficulty. So

Amy: 18:39

I love it. There's a camera also, because then, as you the feeder can be in one room, the toy can be down the hall or mentioned, if you're away from home, you can tune in and watch your dog play.

Erick with PupPod: 18:45

Exactly. And you know, you want to see oh, I down in another room, you can put the feeder and toy at just turned the game on. Let me watch them play over time, we're going to do more things with videos so that pet parents get opposite ends of a staircase or partially, you know, part of a you know, fun videos of their dog either to share on social staircase like a landing. There's ways that you can media or there's some the dogs like playing the game. But a lot of humans are very competitive. And you know, even if it's kind leverage the environment to add more physical activity and more of fun competition, you can see how, you know, see videos of mental stimulation. It's so awesome. different dogs playing the game and see how they are, you know how your best friend's dog compared to your dog or communities, you know, within a community how the dog is playing. And that's just all for fun. But yeah, so there's a lot that we plan on doing with video. And even today, like you said, you can you can always just turn on the video and check on your dog and give a treat, which is kind of like the there's some competitive products out there that we you know, treat camera type products. So we have that functionality, but then they don't have the game. So that's the big that's the big, you know, innovation for papon.

Amy: 19:49

Yeah, well thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate you coming on and explaining the product and introducing your company to us. Tell us where we can find you

Erick with PupPod: 20:00

So if you go to pod pod.com, and it's a little bit of a tongue twister when you say pod, but it's spelled PupPod. And then we're also on Amazon and chewy and Walmart.

Amy: 20:14

I appreciate you mentioning that. And Eric's been so kind to give us a discount code. So if you go to our website and click on Products, PupPod is right there at the top. And if you use code BaxterandBella, it's all spelled out. So be a BAXTERANDBELLA, you'll get a discount. So I encourage you guys to go check it out. It is an awesome interactive dog toy. Again, we use it for lots of different training things. The dogs enjoy it. It's a great way to get them some mental and physical exercise. So again, thanks, Eric, for being here.

Erick with PupPod: 20:48

Thank you for having me.

Unknown: 20:51

If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other Puppy Training question, visit my site Baxter & bella.com to contact me