People invent all sorts of weird crap all the time. Did we mention the burger-shaped USB hand-warmer recently? But this weird crap is also slightly sadistic. It's an electric-shock collar for dogs.

The idea has been about for a while, but one company who makes them Tri-Tronic has just been bought by Garmin - the big-name Swiss SatNav makers.

When GPS experts hook up with the makers of electric collars it makes me think about gps-controlled electronic tagging: you know - when there are electric shock penalties to straying beyond a certain area. Sort of "Battleship Royale" style. I've heard this idea mooted before as an extension of the current tagging of prisoners system.

In the basic concept, straying beyond the allowed parameters wouldn't just alert the police to your transgression - it could also give you an electric shock, or a pacifying injection. Pretty nasty.

Obviously we're not there yet, thank god, so back to the dog collars: I'm no expert in dog behaviour, but if you electrocute the poor thing through the collar, surely it means the pooch is going to really hate the collar, and quite probably you.

Of course you need to discipline pets, but maybe not like this.

See more: Top 5 Gadgets for your Dog..
The Wii Fit Plus is for dogs too!

[via Dogs & Gizmodo]

Wimbledon is only five days away and we're hoping Murray might make it all the way to the top this year.

To keep us entertained until we can don our 3D glasses to see all the action on centre court, we thought it would be interesting to see what tennis related gadgets are out there.

As Dyson jumps into the dog gadget arena with their Dog Groom Tool we thought we'd do a survey of Gadgets for your dog. Now you know what to get Fido for Christmas. We're not saying these are useful, we're just saying they're for your dog.

See also: Dog fur for oil spills and Five Other Surprising Things Dogs do For Us

Dyson have a knack of making boring things kind of sexy. And yes - they have managed it with a dog groom tool.

All about removing loose hair and dead skin cells from the surface of your pet, it's a little bristly brush thing that you plug on to the end of your Dyson vacuum cleaner and then rub over your dog.

As they put it: Dyson's Groom tool sucks up dog hair before it falls to the floor.

"The Dyson Groom tool's stainless steel bristles remove loose hair and dead skin. Bristles and air flow are controlled via thumb pressure on a tab. As the thumb is lifted, pressure is reduced and the bristles retract. Simultaneously, air flow is re-directed to suck hair and allergens into the clear bin - hygienically."

Suitable for medium or long-haired dogs, there are tips on the site about making your dog more comfortable with the notion of your vacuum cleaner.

Dyson Dog Groom Tool costs £40 from dyson.co.uk
compatible with most Dyson vacuum cleaners.

Worried your cat is getting her treats from next door? That your puppy is secretly spending the time you're at work with the bad dogs down the road? You're crazy. Luckily though, you're crazy and we've got the perfect product for you.

This Pets Eye View camera will take a picture every one, five or 15 minutes, giving a glimpse into just what goes on when you're not there. Alternatively, you could attach it to a particularly dim-witted but suspiciously behaving partner.

$37 here

Aren't pets fab? They offer you the type of unconditional love you haven't had since you were four, and all for the price of a Pedigree Chum. Why not try and accessorize with your favourite pooch, and give them an iPhone *ahem* iBone of their very own?

It's non electronic, fully chewable, and will give your pooch a veneer of cool that all the other pups will be jealous of.

$12 from Chimp Feet [via Nerd Approved]

See here for more Pet Stuff

The iPod is most likely to injure cats, for guinea pigs it's DVD players and remote controls, Playstations are the enemy of the rabbits and then there's Pugsley - a Jack Russel who has repeatedly injured himself by jumping at dogs appearing on his owners HDTV, only to get entangled in his owner's Playstation wireage which then falls on top of him, injuring himself in the process.

So, according to a survey carried out by Petplan, our gadgets and gizmos are hazardous to pets and their health. You'd think this would have something to do with dangerous rays or potentially dangerous slots, but nope, this has something to do with that little bit of inquisitiveness known as curiosity (and we all know what curiosity did to the cat). Animals just can't help themselves.

RFID has hit games consoles, mobile phones, the underground, and now it's causing a revolution in cat flappery. Using the RFID component of the microchip many cats are tagged with, the flap recognises your moggy and will only open for him or her.

Not being a cat owner I don't know if having random cats wander into your house is a major issue, but if so, hooray! No longer! The flap can recognise up to 32 cats, but honestly - if you've got 32 cats, do you really care about a couple of strays coming in?

It's £79.99 from your friendly neighbourhood vet.

[via Pocket-lint]

Would you believe we have a whole pet category? We do!

Now should I ever have a Fido of my own I'm sure I'd want him to be kept in the best condition possible. I'm talking doggy day care, personalized collars and of course, regular doggy spa treatments. And to finish off the pampering? Why an electric toothbrush of his very own, complete with obligatory paw prints all over it. Quite how he'll hold the Petosan Silentpower Toothbrush is unsure, but perhaps I'll make his nanny do that.

As ridiculous as it sounds, doggie ring tones really are a reality - because dogs answer phones? The bizarre service named Inu ni shika kikoenai chakushinon, or ringtones only dogs can hear, was created by Tokyo-based content provider Dwango. Dwango says their idea is absolutely groundbreaking, and they're not wrong there since it's hard to believe any other company would be crazy enough to create such a strange and unnecessary service. Would phone owners prefer their dogs to hear their mobiles ringing and most likely risk missing loads of calls? Maybe the dog will bark or fetch the phone to rescue itself from the strange noises being emitted from their owners handset.

You won't find the local stray dog going home to one of these. I'm guessing this is for seriously pampered pooches only. You know, the kind that get manicures, pedicures and a haircut and blow-dry once a week.

There are people out there currently living in worse conditions than this. So if your pet happens to have one of these, it should count itself very *very* lucky. If you're one of those weird obsessives who likes to pamper your pooch you might want to consider housing them in the aptly named Cool Pet House. Before anyone gets offended, I'm not talking about giving it a bath and occasionally trimming its claws. I'm talking about the people who go overkill by doing the above.

Have you ever wondered just what your pet gets up to all day long? Do they take really long naps or go exploring Lady & the Tramp style? Well now your questions can be answered with this sneaky camera. Simply attach it to your pets collar and let them roam as usual, but this time you'll have images of their adventures. The camera can be set to take pictures at 1, 5, or 15 minute intervals and the memory card can hold 35 pictures. Hmm. Maybe set it on the 5 minute intervals, eh?

Now I have to say this particular fishbowl cum lightbulb looks extremely cool, but equally it does look extremely uncomfortable. Granted fish have an extremely short memory, but that normally saves them form realizing they've traversed the same bowl a zillion times; with this it would be like 'Oh, and here's the end.. again!' You have to pity them really. Thankfully it's just a prototype, so don't cry 'Fish abuse' just yet. On the plus side, it would be easy to make, is good for the environment as it recycles old bulbs, and easy to replace should it smash. We can't be responsible for the little fishies sanity though.

From Deviant Art [via Cool Buzz]

See here for more pet stuff.

At first look this is a rather standard hairdryer, one aimed at kids perhaps with the bright pink and blue metallic sheen. Then you look a little closer and realize those aren't flowers etched into the metal, no they're bones! Hmm. Well this device from Crazy Pet Gazette is actually for primping up all those pooches, not people. A lot of dogs get slightly scared by the sound a hairdryer makes (hey, I hate it as well) and it makes drying them off after a bath just that extra little bit more stressful. Dogs+water+soap=chaos. Well not anymore.

It's the nature of dogs to be adventurous (if Disney's Lady and the Tramp has taught us anything) but it does mean you experience unwanted heart palpitations when you think your beloved pooch has got lost in the big evil world. The pet GPS receiver attaches to your dogs collar and will alert you when he leaves the area you've defined as the 'safety zone', be it ten feet or ten miles. It will let you know by email or text message and then you can start running home to rescue Rex.

Alright, I know it has no power source, but it is still technically a gadget; I know, I checked the definition. Besides which, it's Friday and I think it's deeply necessary to put up a picture of a concerned and slightly manic-looking cat on a Friday... or, indeed, any day.

So what's it all about? A $25, metronome-style cat toy with a couple of your furry friend's favourite toys tied to the top and bottom so that it slowly drives them into a (perhaps catnip-fuelled) frenzy and they actually get some exercise. Or it's something you can flap at pointlessly while they curl up and go to sleep with their back to you, possibly also breaking wind in your direction. Yes, I am a crazy cat lady.

Tick Tock Teaser Cat Toy [via Gizmodiva]

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I can't help thinking this sounds a little cruel, but it must have passed SOME test or other, so I'm going to assume this is absolutely fine, safe and dandy for your pooch. And not at all a way to confuse and bewilder them for amusing results and / or a handy tool for shutting up a guard dog.

Basically, these little boxes emit a pulse only a dog can hear. Whenever a dog barks, the box will kick into gear, disorientating the dog and leading to it to associate barking with aural discomfort. In theory that'll make them stop, but we feed them dog food and they don't go on hunger strike, so maybe they just have a highly evolved threshold for unpleasantness. $29.99.

PetSafe Bark Control System [via SuperCoolPets]

Like that? Read this: Petcell: A Cellphone for Your Dog | DOGMOB: Download an adopted dog from Battersea Dog and Cats Home | Goodbye Kitty magnets for the dog lovers of the world

Perhaps it's because I don't have a pet that I find this idea faintly repulsive, or it might be that I don't come from Japan (where this is available). The idea is that you take your beloved moggy and somehow get them to cooperate with a fairly simple paw printing process. Perhaps you can bribe them with dead mice or suchlike? Once you've traumatised your kitty by forcing it to get gloopy with something that resembles blu tack, you then cast it into a memento to hang from your mobile. This all looks horribly Blue Peterish and the results look like something you'd find at the bottom of a Frosties packet. But don't let me put you off...

We're all for recycling, which is why we enjoy a daily dose of Hippyshopper. This week our favourite eco-blog showed us how to make our cat comfy, use up our old tech and perhaps set the stage for a real life LOL cat show.

Oh, come on, am I the only one imagining sticking LOL cat labels to the outside of this catbed*? Mind you, I'd probably rather make my own - if I didn't have all flatscreens - than shell out the $110 charged by enterprising Etsy manufacturer Alpine, despite the custom-fitted pillows.

*Please allow room for the cat to get in and out. Or get a fake cat.

Cat monitor catbeds @ Etsy

Like that? Read this: Meowlingual supposedly understands your cat | The Mr. Lee CatCam: make your cat a photographer | Hello Kitty cat transformation set

It's a cat toy. Cat + whack of paw = flashing red or blue. It's also spiky and looks a bit weird. I'm pretty sure - in fact, I'm certain - that you will spend more time trying to make Fluffy Mieowington play with this than she will actually spend looking at it with disdain (the rest of the time she'll juts avoiding looking at it or you). This will keep you entertained and threaten to make you exercise over the season of goodwill and lard to all people. So really, it's a human toy.

Discuss.

Bright Flash Kitty Ball [via SuperCoolPets]