Pet Peeves: Handi-Drink and PlexiDor Are Useful Pooch Products
Pet lovers are-n’t discouraged easily from caring for their furry friends, and often will go to great lengths to keep them comfortable and happy. However, certain situations can become difficult for dogs owners—primarily, having to leave a party early to let their dog out, or getting up in the middle of the night to do the same. Traveling with dogs also can present a challenge—toting their supplies on a road trip can take up valuable space, and a water bowl, once placed outside on the dirt, can become a grimy mess.
Two new products take aim at both concerns.
The first is called Handi-Drink, developed by Petcrew. Instead of lugging around a dog bowl and a jug of water, Handi-Drink is a single mechanism, consisting of a bottle and an attached water pan that doesn’t have to be set on the ground. Besides its all-in-one convenience and compact size, the product is safer for your pets than other clip-on water pans.
Anthony O’Rourke, President of Petcrew and founder of Booda Products, says, “The Handi-Drink water bottle is made from low-density polyethylene, which is absolutely not harmful, unlike the plastics which are present in many of the disposable drinking bottles.”
Handi-Drink is more durable, and doesn’t crack like other reusable bottles. Its unique design, including a special pressure-sensitive valve, also lets you carry less water for your pet, because waste is less.
O’Rourke explains, “[With a bowl], you pour the water into it, and the dog isn’t going to drink all of it, so half the water is going to get wasted or spilled. With Handi-Drink, there’s no waste, because you squeeze out the amount of water your dog wants to drink, and they lap it up as it flows into the pan.”
Handi-Drink, which comes in various sizes, can be found at almost any pet store at under $10.
If keeping your pooch properly hydrated is less of an issue than letting it go outside when it needs to, PlexiDor from Pet Doors USA presents an ideal solution.
PlexiDor Marketing Manager Deidre Ambrose notes, “Some of the other electronic pet doors out there—because they’re magnetic or infrared, the security’s not that great on them, and the interior locking mechanism is sealed with plastic, so enough force would break it.”
Pet Doors USA solved the security issue with a steel interlocking bar. The actual door is made of a thick panel of ABS plastic—the same football helmets are made of.
“Any window of your house certainly would be easier to break,” Ambrose adds.
PlexiDor is also more dependable, using the same Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) found in garage doors.
“It’s extremely reliable, and you can program thousands and thousands of codes, so not every person uses the same code you do,” Ambrose points out.
In essence, all your pet has to do is get within 12 to 18 inches of the door for the sensor to activate the door’s mechanism. It slides open for your pet, hovers open for a brief period, and then shuts gently. If anything should get stuck in the door, it will beep, but will not shut further to cause injury to your pet.
PlexiDor, priced at $697, is easy to install in a wall or door. However, if you don’t want to do the work yourself, the company will find a local installer who can do the job for you. If that sounds expensive, investing in PlexiDor actually can bring significant financial rewards in the long term.
As Ambrose remarks, “A very common scenario, especially up North, is people leaving the door from the house into the garage open, and the pet is trained to go into the garage. My air conditioning bill would be astronomical! Because this door closes completely, and has weather sealing around the edges, when it’s closed, there’s minimal draft. So, if you’re spending an extra $100 on air conditioning or heating in a month, in seven months, you’ve paid for it.”
Handi-Drink
<www.handi-drink.com>
PlexiDor
<www.dogdoors.com>
