h a l f b a k e r yIf ever there was a time we needed a bowlologist, it's now.
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Dogs, especaily ones fed on dried food, need a constant supply of fresh drinking water. When travelling, they can also get hot and lose a lot of water though panting.
If you just give them a bowl of water, it just slops everywhere and makes a mess.
The CarBowl solves this problem. It's a box
surrounding an inner, rougly conical conatiner (open end up), suspended on gimball-type tilitng mountings. The cone is of light construction, but with a heavy weight at the point. Thus, it tilts to follow the incident gravitational field; when cornering, the water doesn't slop out.
The cone is profiled and sized for different breeds of dog with different sizes of head and lenghts of muzzle.
The tip of the cone contains just enough water for the dog to lap. The water is replenished from a tank by a small pump as it is depleted. An alarm sounds when the tank is getting empty. A Peltier-effect cooler embedded in the wall of the cone keeps the water cool and fresh.
The De Luxe version has stepper motors driving the gimbal system, triggered by accelerometers and servo-feedback control to keep the inner container at the best orientation during more extreme manouvers. If the system detects that it is geting near its "coping" limit, the water is pumped back into the feed tank until the excessive motion subsides.
[link]
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I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to rig up one of those bladders that biciclists wear on their backs. Strap the bladder to the dog, run the tube to its mouth...but then how would you control the flow? I don't know. Maybe you could periodically squirt a dose into the dog's mouth, or maybe the tube would fill a miniature doggy bowl hanging around the dog's neck. |
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It's insane, but it's sincere. |
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mrs. jester: "Honey, where'd the kid go?"
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mr. jester: "Oh, she's back there with Fido in the Dog Water Bowl trailer" <jerks thumb toward massive Rube Goldberg device being towed by car> |
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Dog panting = give dog water. |
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That system worked pretty well for us. |
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