CleverPet
Adaptive game console that keeps dogs mentally stimulated with light-and-touch puzzles, dispensing food as reward.
About
The CleverPet Hub is a Wi-Fi connected console with three light-up touch pads, speakers, and a food dispenser. Dogs nose or paw the pads in response to light and sound sequences, earning portions of their daily food as they solve puzzles. Adaptive algorithms adjust game difficulty to each dog's responses and progress, and owners track engagement and add challenges through the companion app. The company was founded in 2014 by neuroscientists Dan Knudsen and Leo Trottier, raised $180,000 on Kickstarter, and won the CES 2016 LaunchIt startup competition.
Buyers should know the product's current status: as of 2026 the company store sells refurbished Hubs at $249, and the refurbished units have shown as out of stock, with no new units currently offered. Reviews from owners praise long-term engagement for food-motivated dogs left home alone, while noting the device is a poor fit for dogs that are rarely alone or not food-driven. Cognitive benefits beyond engagement are vendor-asserted, not independently studied.
What it can do
- Adaptive puzzle games with light-up touch pads
- Automatic difficulty adjustment
- Food dispensing as reward
- Progress tracking in companion app
- Voice command integration
- Wi-Fi connected with automatic updates
Setup
Place the Hub on the floor, connect it to Wi-Fi, load it with kibble, and guide the dog through the onboarding games.
Prerequisites
CleverPet Hub (currently refurbished units only); Wi-Fi; food-motivated dog; companion app for progress tracking.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 5/10
Scored 5/10 (TIER metrics, metrics-v1). Evidence: official store page confirms refurbished-only availability at $249 with units out of stock; GamesBeat, Digital Trends, and Fast Company document the adaptive-game mechanics and Kickstarter origins; CES 2016 LaunchIt win per PR records. Strengths: genuinely novel adaptive-enrichment concept, credible neuroscience founders, positive long-term owner reviews. Docked for: (1) the company appears to be in maintenance mode with no new units for sale; (2) cognitive-benefit claims are vendor-asserted without independent study. License: proprietary hardware.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 5.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 4.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 4.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 6.0/10
- · Founded 2014 by neuroscientists Dan Knudsen and Leo Trottier; $180k Kickstarter
- · CES 2016 LaunchIt winner
- · Company appears in maintenance mode; no new units for sale as of 2026
- · Cognitive-benefit claims vendor-asserted without independent study
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.