Dog-walking service keeps owners updated via maps and GPS

Swifto is a dog-walking service in Manhattan that relies on GPS and a mobile app to track a dog's walk.

Humans and dogs have been walking together for millennia, but it’s only in the last few years that technology began to enter the picture. Back in 2008 we featured the RFID-enabled SNIF Tag and recently we came across a like-minded dog-walking service in Manhattan that relies on GPS and a mobile app. Swifto‘s team of experienced dog walkers is available to take canines for exercise at any time of the day or night in Manhattan. Whereas with a traditional dog-walking service pet owners typically have to take it more or less on faith that their dogs are getting the walks that were agreed upon, Swifto clients can follow along virtually as each walk progresses. Using a GPS-enabled mobile app, Swifto walkers begin by sending the dog’s owner a text message as the walk begins. Then, over the course of the walk, owners can watch the walker’s route live on Swifto’s map and call up details on the walk’s duration, distance covered and current location. Walkers even indicate when dogs relieve themselves, and that gets marked on the map as well. Finally, once the walk is over walkers send one more text message with the details of all that occurred. Pricing begins at USD 20 per walk, with discounts for packages of 20 or more. Mobile technologies have already been shedding new light on the details of just about every other aspect of our lives — why not our pets’ lives as well? Canine-loving entrepreneurs around the globe: one to emulate in your neck of the woods? Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann