Taking selfies with your dog can be challenging. He never looks at the camera when you want him to and just when you think you got him, he looks away as soon as you snap the picture. There are multiple items on the market to attract a baby’s attention to the camera, so why not create a device that will make your pet look at your camera? That’s what one entrepreneur is trying to do with the help of the crowdfunding site Kickstarter.
It’s so simple you won’t believe that you didn’t think of it yourself. It’s just a simple plastic device that fastens to the top of your smartphone that allows you to attach a tennis ball to attract your pet’s attention. Clever Dog Products, based in San Diego, California, has developed the product and are hoping to raise the funds they need to bring it to the pet product market.
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Pooch Selfie, as the device is being called, takes advantage of your dog’s natural draw and focus to a tennis ball and uses it to hold his gaze as you snap a quick picture or an adorable selfie. Each Pooch Selfie kit comes with a custom smartphone attachment that will be compatible with most mobile devices and a squeaky Pooch Selfie tennis ball. If you’re trying to get just the right angle and your dog looks away, you can simply unclip the ball, give it a few good squeaks to get your Fido’s attention and then stick it back in the holder.
The Kickstarter campaign has already succeeded. With just over two weeks to go Pooch Selfie has crushed their goal of $7,000 with nearly 800 backers ponying up over $18,500 so far. A pledge of just $13 will earn you one of the first Pooch Selfies to hit the market when the company launches in December of this year. The company says that the device was specifically designed to be used with Galaxy’s and iPhones, but it will work universally with almost any smartphone or tablet.
After a year of designing, developing and prototyping, the company is finally ready to go to market. Following the Kickstarter campaign they plan to kick off tooling with their suppliers and proceed to first article inspection and production sample qualification. They believe that will take about a month to complete.
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Once all the parts have passed a quality assurance review, they will initiate production orders for all the components and establish a doc date to their warehouse in San Diego. They estimate that this phase will take about another month. Once all the parts are received, final assembly will commence and they will package and ship the first batch of smartphone attachments to their backers.
This is one of those products that you see on store shelves and think to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” It is so simple, yet will probably be extremely popular with pet parents. Our family recently got a Selfie Stick to take group photos while out on adventures, so I really would not be surprised if we end up with a Pooch Selfie after they hit store shelves. Clearly, with the amount of backers and funding they have received in such a short time, there are a lot of dog owners out there who would agree with me.
