A dog has been a man's best friend for centuries. Yet, most of us humans appear to be taking the canine friend for granted, always expecting them to react to our moods and seldom concerned about how they feel about having to wag their tails and shower their affection on their masters. 

In fact, the human race has gone to the extent of considering the dog to be leading a life that's not worth replicating for our own selves. Hence, the famous idiom "It's a Dog's Life" - which denotes that it's a life not really worthwhile. Well! All that's changed some time ago with the launch of the CleverPet Hub - a gaming console that doubles up as a food tray and keeps the canine engaged through the day.

It seems that CleverPet, the company behind the ‘Hub’ recently surveyed 300 adult Americans to understand popular beliefs about color vision. While 64% of Americans understand that dogs are effectively colorblind when compared to humans, 57% believe that this means dogs can only see in shades of gray.

“Dogs - and cats too - definitely see the world in color.” said Dr. Daniel Knudsen, CleverPet co-founder and Chief Science Officer.  He further adds, “When people say they’re ‘colorblind’, they mean it in the same way that some humans are colorblind - millions of humans and probably all dogs have trouble distinguishing between red and green hues. While most humans have three types of color-sensing cells, or cones, in their retinas, dogs have only two, limiting their color perception to a blue-yellow spectrum.”

The CleverPet Hub brings unlimited challenges to engage your pet’s mind. It allows dogs to learn that touching on any of the touchpad can lead to food, while they can further master touching the lit touchpad only. If the dog touches the wrong one, she will have to wait before she can get another chance. This works on a simple formula — ‘When a dog, cat, or any animal is rewarded for taking an action, they are more likely to perform that action again'.

To make this more interesting for us humans, enabling us to interact better with the Hub and our pet, CleverPet has brought in a smartphone app. While the app allows you to get live updates and track your dog's progress, it also allows you to change the game by adjusting the challenge your dog is playing.

Dogs can also learn longer sequences which requires matching a pattern in the correct order. And now, to make this more interesting and engaging for your pet, the company is launching a new puzzle game for the CleverPet Hub, known as ‘Color Match’, tomorrow, i.e., July 25, in the United States.

According to the company, the new puzzle takes advantage of the fact that dogs can see yellow and blue colors, and puts their intelligence to the test. The goal of Color Match is to match the colors on the device’s three lit touchpads. Dogs do this by pressing the touchpads and cycling through the colors until they’re all the same. Once the colors match, the Hub provides a treat to the dog as a reward for correctly solving the puzzle. Over time, Color Match gets more challenging as each dog gets better at solving the puzzle.

“There are dozens of ways to solve each challenge, so it’s been a lot of fun to watch dogs as they discover and develop their own unique strategies,” said CEO and co-founder Leo Trottier. He further added, “One of the goals of Color Match is to let customers and the public see dogs exploring and problem solving. As a mission-based company grounded in science, we’re excited every time we have an opportunity to demonstrate that animals can do more than people previously thought.”

Tags : CleverPet