A new smartphone app designed to help dog owners find dog-friendly walks, parks, activities, groomers, hotels and B&Bs, and entertainment is now available in France.
PlayDogs is available in 15 countries, and is free to download on Apple and Android. It was developed by Paris-based entrepreneur Jennifer Boulaud, and Switzerland-based cyber-security expert Michael A. Jennifer owns a black cocker spaniel named Ribella, and Mike has a large, white herding dog called Hiro.
Mike began working in the ‘pet tech’ space after noticing that there were few useful tools for dog owners in rural areas. The two first met at an event for pet start-ups in January 2023, and decided to collaborate.
“We want to improve the well-being of dogs and humans on a daily basis,” the duo explains on the PlayDogs website.
The app is intended to be particularly helpful for dog owners looking for new walks or dog-friendly activities and locations in their area, or when they are travelling with their dog and need a quick reference guide to what is available in their new surroundings.
It includes practical information as well as locations, such as opening times, whether dogs must be on a lead or not, and details such as whether there are any benches for owners to sit on, or any dog-friendly spaces like trees or open spaces.
It includes details of around 20,000 sites.
The app lets you filter by type of site, on an interactive mapPlayDogs
User-led community
Users can also add their own recommended walks and activities as well as those already shown, photos, notes, and reviews of their experience of a site. Users who register can also build up a list of ‘favourites’, and export the GPS coordinates of a walk or activity to make it easy to track.
Users can also use the app to organise their own dog-walking meet-ups or group play dates, specifying location, the maximum number of participants allowed, the time, and details of the organiser.
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There is also a feature in which owners can signal any potential dangers for dogs, such as chenille caterpillars, patou (Great Pyrenees) herding dogs, cliffs, or a hunting zone.
