Handy iPhone apps that enrich your time with your pets

1. Fido Factor 1.1

Appetyte’s Fido Factor app (free, www.fidofactor.com) helps you find dog-friendly stores and restaurants with a “Yelp for dogs” approach that includes detailed listings and user reviews from the community. Fido Factor currently only serves San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Portland, but it’s an invaluable tool for dog owners looking to take their pups around those cities.

Fido Factor details each location's pet-friendliness.

2. Pet First Aid 2.0

Should you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having to deal with a sick or injured cat or dog, Jive Media’s Pet First Aid app ($3.99, jive.me) is a one-stop resource for information. Pet First Aid touches on everything from emergencies to giving pets medicine and includes narrated video tutorials. It won’t replace a vet visit, but it’ll make you more prepared.

Pet First Aid includes useful video demonstrations.

3. Dog Whistle 1.6

Traditional dog whistles have been used for decades to train dogs and teach tricks, but Augware’s Dog Whistle app ($0.99, augware.com) uses the iPhone hardware to create similar high-frequency sounds, letting you customize the frequency and pattern and even save multiple configurations.

Touch the button to emit a high-pitched squeal.

4. Off Leash 2.3

Dog parks are not only great for getting your canines some exercise, but also for letting them interact with other dogs. Eukanuba’s Off Leash app (free, www.eukanuba.com) lets you search for dog parks by location or zip code and can highlight the five nearest parks. It works well in both cities and the ‘burbs and even includes streaming training and nutrition videos.

Tap a pin and follow the arrow to read about each dog park.

5. iPet Finder 1.1

If you’re thinking about expanding your pet family, Two Bowser’s iPet Finder (free, ipetfinder.com) lets you search shelters and rescues near your location to find dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, and numerous other animals to adopt. Each pet has a profile with details and images, and you see each pet’s shelter/rescue via Google Maps and can email for further details.

iPet Finder isn't much to look at, but it does its job.

6. Pet Acoustics

Pet Acoustics is the kind of out-there oddity we just had to check out. It promises to relax your furry friend with soothing music that won’t offend their high-frequency hearing. But that consideration for pets’ superpowered senses didn’t seem to matter: My cat and her pooch sidekicks didn’t have an interest in its mellow music. One of the dogs actually trotted off when the room filled with serene piano and guitar sounds, probably because the ambient noise is exactly that--just noise. It’s designed well enough, separating each of the 29 songs into specific animal categories with different relaxing activities in mind. But since we couldn’t get an animal to pay a lick of attention to Pet Acoustics’ tunes, we’re reduced to marveling at (okay, giggling at) the diversity of the App Store.

Pet Acoustics 1.0.2
COMPANY: Pet Acoustics Inc.
CONTACT: www.petacoustics.com
PRICE: $1.99

7. Touch Pets Dogs

The virtual puppies of Touch Pets Dogs are super cute and fun to feed, play with, bathe, train, pet, and dress up. Social aspects like playdates and Facebook integration rock too. But the real world catches up quick--career advancement and extras cost Puppy Bucks, earned by keeping your dogs happy or by trading in bowls of food. And the food? That’ll cost you plenty, from 15 bowls for 99 cents to 1,000 for $39.99. Sheesh. So, yeah, don’t get too attached to your dog if you’re not willing to regularly shell out for its upkeep. Even worse are the graphical and connection issues, which we hope ngmoco will put to sleep with frequent updates.

Touch Pets Dogs 1.3
COMPANY: ngmoco Inc.
CONTACT: www.touchpets.ngmoco.com
PRICE: Free with 10 bowls of food. Paid versions preloaded with food: $1.99-$39.99.