About: My name is Eric Page. I did some woodworking in my Dad's shop when I was young but took a 25 year hiatus to pursue other interests. Back at it again and really enjoying it. I recently got engaged to an amazing…

Do you miss your dog while you are at work or on vacation? Wish you could give your dog a big warm hug and play fetch, just like if you were in person? Well, if you want that badly enough, go home! If not, here's the next best thing. It's an Instructable that will help you play fetch with your dog from anywhere in the world via your phone.

The software is designed such that you can easily integrate additional functionality such as big buttons for your dog to press or movement of different toys. But, for now, this is focused on playing fetch. The basic components are as follows

- Triggering mechanism - can be triggered from phone, laptop or Alexa

- Ball launcher controlled using ESP8266 and a 24V powered solenoid

- Ball receptacle using Arduinio Uno and an RFID reader

- (optional) Treat machine. I happened to build mine because I wanted the flexibility but you can use any programmable treat machine.

Note: ball launcher and receptacle can be combined on the same microcontroller if your physical layout allows. I kept them separate so I could hide the ugly ball launcher behind our TV.

Note 2: the screen shot of the email is an optional component, if you build a treat machine as well. It allows the sender to view the dog's activities rom the treat machine perspective