US20150374472A1 - Pet and people care management system - Google Patents

Abstract

A pet or human care management system and method are provided. In one embodiment, the system includes a portable electronic device carried by a care service provider to scan a care customer bar code at the location of a care visit to indicate the start and/or end of the care visit. The portable electronic device also includes a GPS component and transmits its location at a plurality of times during the care visit, such as to indicate the path of a scheduled walk. A website is employed to administrate the care management system, including scheduling walks, licensing care providers, and creating customer and care provider accounts.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
• This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/338,021, filed Dec. 27, 2011, which in turn claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/427,779, filed Dec. 28, 2010, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated in their entireties.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
• The present invention relates generally to a pet and people care management system. Although the disclosure below is set forth in the context of pets, the care of people, including but not limited to the elderly or infirm, is also within the scope of the invention. More particularly, the invention relates to pet care providers who require access to the homes of individual clients to service and care for the clients' pets. It has particular application to pet services such as walking a client's pet dog during times when the client requests such services. Hereinafter, when mention is made of walking, it will be understood that this invention could relate generally to any service provided by a pet care company. Further, when reference is made to walking a dog, it will be understood that this invention could relate to walking any pet that a client desires.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
• When a client signs up with a pet care company or specifically a dog walking service, the client must blindly trust that the pet care company will perform the services agreed upon. Therefore, there is a need to give the client the ability to check and make sure that the pet care company is providing the services that they promise.
• Typically pet care providers come to an agreement with a client to arrive at a client's home at a specified time to walk the client's pet for a predetermined period of time or distance. Previously, there had been no way for a client to verify that the pet care provider was indeed arriving at the agreed upon time and walking the client's pet animal the contracted time or distance.
• Therefore, it is an objective of the invention to give the client the ability to review exactly what time a pet care provider arrived and departed from the client's home, as well as viewing the length and path of the walk. Another important aspect of the invention is to create a mobile system utilizing smart phones to allow a pet care provider to scan in and scan out when visiting a client's home. This allows the pet care company and client to have real-time status updates to ensure that the client's pet is being taken care of.
• Further, it is another object of the invention to simplify the process of scheduling a service appointment by allowing for electronic scheduling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
• In one aspect of the present invention, a pet and human care management system is provided. The system includes a portable electronic device including a microprocessor, a memory, a geographic location sensing mechanism, and an input mechanism. A typical example of a portable electronic device suitable for purposes of the invention is a smartphone, but the device may also take the form of a pocket PC, tablet, PDA, for example. The microprocessor is programmed with instructions to input and store data logging the details of a care visit, especially a care visit that involves travel during the visit, such as a dog walking appointment or an appointment to accompany an elderly or disabled person in a shopping trip, for example. The programming includes an instruction to send a transmission of a visit start signal initiated by a user, typically a pet caregiver, at a pet care appointment site, to mark the start of the care visit. The start signal transmission may include customer identifying information, such as a code that is input into the caregiver portable electronic device, either manually or automatically, for example by using the caregiver device to scan a bar code or other image or object located at the site of the care customer, which may typically be the care customer's home. In case scanning (or other form of automatic code entry) fails for any reason, the system preferably includes a database of customer names which a care provider can access remotely via the portable electronic device and select the appropriate customer from a list to check in, in lieu of scanning. Additionally or alternatively, an alphanumeric or similar written code may also be present at the care visit site as a backup, which may be entered manually into the portable device by the care provider. Once the code is scanned or otherwise entered, the portable device preferably automatically transmits the code to a server via a system website for verification. Input from the user to initiate the care visit start signal transmission may entail the push of a button or entering of a care visit start code. Alternatively, the care visit start signal transmission may be automatically initiated simply by scanning/entering the customer code, and the server confirming the code. The caregiver device microprocessor is also programmed to cause to be stored the time at which the visit start input is received. This may be done by recording and storing the time locally if the device includes a clock, by immediately transmitting a visit start message to the server which includes a clock. More preferably, the time is logged both locally by the portable device and remotely by the server, so that in case the portable device does not have a signal when the start input is entered, the correct start time may still be stored and transmitted to the server later. The microprocessor is also programmed to cause to be stored the sensed geographic location of the portable device at a plurality of times during the care visit. These time-sequenced geographic data points may then be constructed into the path of the walk, shopping trip, or other ambulatory service provided by the caregiver during the care visit, again either locally by the portable device, remotely by the server, or both. Finally, the caregiver device microprocessor is programmed to receive input from the user to mark the end of the care visit. Like the visit start input, the visit end input may also be the scanning/input of a customer code, some other input, or both. The time at which the visit end input is received is stored in a similar manner to the start time.
• In one embodiment, the system includes a portable device that may be carried by the care customer. For example, when the care customer is a pet, this may be an electronic device attached to a collar worn by the pet. The pet-carried device may be programmed to be used in addition to or instead of a caregiver-carried device for any of the portable device functions, especially the location-logging function, as one of the pet owner's concerns will be whether the pet itself has actually walked the recorded route.
• In another aspect of the present invention, a method of providing managed care to a pet or human customer is provided. The method includes providing a portable electronic device substantially as described above, scanning/entering the customer code at the care visit site, inputting care visit start data, transporting the device while providing an ambulatory service to the care customer so that the device records the path traveled, and inputting care visit end data.
• In another aspect of the present invention, a pet and human care management system comprises a server and website programmed/constructed to facilitate the administration of care visits where the above-described portable devices are used. The server includes a microprocessor, a memory, and means for receiving data input. The system also includes a display that is either part of the server or configured to display information received from the server either directly or indirectly, such as the computer monitor of a customer or pet care company employee who logs into the website. The memory stores codes identifying care customers, and the microprocessor is programmed with instructions to input a received care customer code and compare the received care customer code to the stored care customer code. If the received care customer code equals the stored care customer code, the microprocessor is programmed to store a care visit start time, input a received care visit end message, store a care visit end time, input received data indicating the geographic location of a portable electronic device at a plurality of times between the care visit start time and the care visit end time, and display on the display the care visit start time, care visit end time, and input geographic locations of the portable electronic device. The microprocessor may be further programmed to automatically email a care customer a notification of the visit. A summary of the visit, including the start time, end time, and path traveled, may be either made available on the website for the customer to view or included in or attached to the email itself.
• A method of administrating a care visit to a pet or human customer is also provided. The method includes providing a system including the above described server, causing the server to receive data from a portable device carried along the path of a care visit, and causing to be displayed on a display the start time, path, and end time of the care visit.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
• It shall be understood that the drawings briefly described as follows are intended only to aid in illustrating certain embodiments of the invention, and the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown in the drawings:
• FIG. 1 represents a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a pet care management system according to the present invention, illustrating how various entities and devices relate to one another through use of the system.
• FIG. 2 represents a diagram of the home check-in system as applied to a licensor administrator.
• FIG. 3 represents a diagram of the home check-in system as applied to a licensee administrator.
• FIG. 4 represents a diagram of the home check-in system as applied to a licensee employee.
• FIG. 5 represents a diagram of the home check-in system as applied to a licensee care provider.
• FIG. 6 represents a diagram of the home check-in system as applied to a customer.
• Referring to the drawings in detail, wherein like numerals indicate like elements throughout, there is shown inFIGS. 1-6, a preferred embodiment of a home check-in system in accordance with the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
• A petcare management system10 is a complete software and mobile application system for arranging, scheduling, and verifying pet care service visits. In the example illustrated herein,system10 is configured for use between alicensor administrator20 of asoftware owner company5; alicensee administrator30, alicensee employee40, and alicensee care provider50 of apet care company15; and a customer60 having a home H where a pet care service visit takes place in an illustrated embodiment. However, the illustrated network of entities is intended merely as a non-limiting example of a particular embodiment facilitating what the inventor considers to be a typical pet care business model. Accordingly, it will be understood that the present invention does not require the participation oflicensor administrator20,licensee administrator30,licensee employee40 andlicensee care provider50 as separate entities; rather, these roles may be filled by as few as one entity, or even one person, without departing from the scope of the invention. Of course, in the case thatsoftware company5 andpet care company15 are the same entity or person, licensing the software ofsystem10 topet care company15 is not necessary, and the designations “licensor” and “licensee” referred to herein may be ignored, as well as any description ofcompany5 licensing any part ofsystem10 tocompany15 or overseeing the use ofsystem10 bycompany15.
• Turning now toFIG. 1,system10 uses anonline website70 to allow forpet care companies15 to request a license from acompany5.Website70 also allows for online scheduling of service appointments and customer billing of services. It will be understood that wherever the term “website” is used herein, whether indicating “website70” or otherwise, it may refer to a single website or as many plural websites as may be desired for the described purpose.
• System10 also usessmartphones25 with a customized mobile application that works on a variety of smartphone platforms. As depicted inFIG. 1, this mobile application allows alicensee care provider50 to check in and out of customer home60 using a photographic scanner, laser scanner, or other suitable bar code input device onsmartphone25 and abarcode80 placed inside customer home60. It will be understood that any suitable code input mechanism and corresponding code format are also within the scope of the invention, including but not limited to an RFID reader and emitter; a manual keypad and a printed code; and a magnetic strip reader and a magnetic strip; to name but a few possible pairings. In the situation where the walking of a pet is requested, an internal GPS (or other suitable location sensing mechanism, such as one that triangulates the position ofsmartphone25 using cellular towers as opposed to GPS satellites) ofsmartphone25 is used to track the time, distance and path that acare provider50 has taken a pet during their walk. Alternatively or in addition to usingsmartphone25 to track the details of the walk, a separatelocation sensing device90, worn or carried by a pet P to be walked as shown inFIG. 1, may record the walk data, as an added safeguard againstcare provider50 staging a fake walk without actually taking pet P, for example. Simultaneously using separate location sensing devices carried bycare provider50 and pet P may have the added benefit of confirming whethercare provider50 has remained with pet P during the walk as opposed to, for example, leaving pet P unattended for a significant amount of time while shopping in a store. As desired,device90 may transmit the walk data towebsite70, as the data is generated in real time or at the end of the walk, or it may simply store the data for later retrieval or viewing by customer60.
• Licensor administrator20 is defined as an employee forcompany5, which owns the software ofsystem10 and licenses the software out to individualpet care companies15.Licensor administrator20 has rights overwebsite70 ofsystem10 and end users who are registered withwebsite70. The use ofsystem10 bylicensor administrator20 is illustrated as a flowchart inFIG. 2.
• Licensee administrator30 is defined as the owner or senior manager of apet care company15 who has licensedsystem10.Licensee administrator30 has administrative rights to schedule pet care services, manage customers60, maintain accounts oflicensee care provider50, utilize the licensor billing system for their customers and managecompany15 onsystem10. The use ofsystem10 bylicensee administrator30 is illustrated as a flowchart inFIG. 3.
• Licensee employee40 is defined as an employee forpet care company15.Licensee employee40 has administrative rights to schedule walks, manage customers60 and accounts oflicensee care provider50, and managecompany15 onsystem10.Licensee employee40 can add additionallicensee care providers50 and customers60 but cannot addother licensee administrators30. The use ofsystem10 bylicensee employee40 is illustrated as a flowchart inFIG. 4.
• Licensee care provider50 is defined as a care provider or walker for apet care company15.Care provider50 has access to specific rights related to pet care services and the mobile application.Care provider50 also has access to an online calendar which displays their assigned customer walks. This calendar display can show either a daily, weekly or monthly overview of their scheduled appointments. The use ofsystem10 bylicensee care provider50 is illustrated as a flowchart inFIG. 5.
• Customer60 is defined as any customer forpet care company15. Customer60 has access to a particular webpage withinwebsite70 ofsystem10 that is dedicated only to theirpet care company15. Customer60 has the ability to access this pet care company's webpage to verify certain information provided to customer60 once they log on. On this webpage, customer60 can see information pertaining to customer60, including, for example, a calendar displaying all of their scheduled pet care appointments, their address, phone number, and/or their pet information. Customer60 can use the system to make scheduling requests for the service of their choice. The calendar can display either a daily, weekly or monthly overview. The use ofsystem10 by customer60 is illustrated as a flowchart inFIG. 6.
• Licensee administrator30 andlicensee employee40 are typically the senior decision makers withinpet care company15. They are typically tasked with the authority to manage dog walking operations and scheduling customers60 online. Withinsystem10,licensee administrators30 andlicensee employees40 will typically see the same webpage screens and have most of the same user permissions when they log on. However, onlylicensee administrator30 has the authority to add, edit or archivelicensee employees40 and view or edit company account information.
• Administrator30 oremployee40 can also add or edit acare provider50 or customer60. They also have the ability to view schedules of alllicensee care providers50 and can run various reports containing details of each scheduled pet care appointment.System10 also gives these users the ability to manage account settings. However, onlylicensee administrator30 is given this user privilege.Licensee administrator30 alone has the authority to manage their business account withinsystem10. From the main control panel,administrator30 can click an “Account Manager” link which will allow them to do the following, for example: add or change their company logo, add or edit company contact information and hours of operation, change password information, view monthly billing statements fromcompany5, edit customer payment information, edit pet walk length, set up alerts for missed appointments, or order additional equipment.
• In the illustrated embodiment, in order to usesystem10, apet care company15 mustfirst contact company5 for a license to usesystem10. This can be accomplished throughwebsite70 ofcompany5 which has a specific page dedicated to allowing apet care company15 to apply for a license.Licensor administrator20 is in charge of accepting or denying a licensee request and setting up a new licensee account.
• A licensee request form asks a pet care company to leave contact information and set up their billing type to be either credit based on transaction based. A credit based billing type sets up a defined quantity of pet care service appointments up front and allows the licensee the option to obtain bulk discounts. A transaction based billing type will billlicensee15 and customer60 every week and clients are billed based on actual walks completed. There is also the option to include additional services such as walking a second pet, feeding the pet, watering plants, house sitting, transportation of pets, giving pets medication and working during off hours such as weekends and holidays.
• Whetherlicensor administrator20 accepts or rejects a request for license, an account is set up regardless forpotential customer15 and a custom URL website is created onwebsite70 ofsystem10. However, whetherlicensor administrator20 actually accepts or rejects a request will determine whether the URL and account are marked active or inactive respectively. Ifadministrator20 rejects the request for license, then the account will be held inactive indefinitely until it is changed to an active state.Administrator20 has the authority to edit the status of the account along with several other fields. The only field thatadministrator20 cannot edit on an account is the transaction based billing type information. This is not editable and a new account must be set up to change this setting.
• Iflicensor administrator20 accepts the license request, thenpet care company15 can begin using system and setting up appointments onsystem10. In order to schedule an appointment with alicensee care provider50, eitherlicensee administrator30 orlicensee employee40 must login with their own user identification name and password to gain access towebsite70 ofsystem10. After enteringwebsite70,licensee administrator30 andemployee40 have the ability to schedule an appointment with alicensee care provider50.
• To schedule an appointment, the user must input the date of service, the name oflicensee care provider50 and the services desired by customer60. In this particular embodiment,administrator30 oremployee40 would input the length of time or distance that customer60 desired for their pet to be walked. Also, the date of service field will be pre-populated with the current day's date. However, this date can be altered and additional days can be added using check boxes corresponding to each day of the week.
• Administrator30 oremployee40 would then assign the appointment to the desired customer60. If the desired customer60 is a preexisting client, thenadministrator30 oremployee40 can search for that customer60 by name and select the appropriate customer60 that appears in the search results. However, if customer60 is a new client, the user is given an option to create a new customer and they can manually enter information pertaining to customer60 on a separate screen. This information could include a full name, address, phone number, email, emergency contact information, pet information, house alarm code, preferred length of time or distance for walk, veterinary contact information, pet medical information, pet birthday, the date the customer signed up, days of service, referral information, credit card information and any additional necessary notes relating to customer60.
• If desired,administrator30 oremployee40 could also edit or archive an existing customer60. Archiving an existing customer60 is defined as deactivating an account that can later be reactivated. Editing or archiving customer60 information is accomplished from the main control panel where auser30,40 can click on a button labeled “manage customers”. There, auser30,40 can manually edit any information about customer60. In order to archive or disable a customer account, auser30,40 would simply change their status from active to inactive.
• Licensee administrator30 orlicensee employee40 also has the option of managinglicensee care providers50. During the scheduling of an appointment, auser30,40 has the option to either select apreexisting care provider50 or creating anew care provider50 for the particular appointment. If anew care provider50 is desired, the user can input information such as the care provider's full name, hiring date, date of birth, photograph, biography, work username, home address, phone number, email address, type of transportation, license plate number, emergency contact information, and any additional necessary notes. Further, this information can be edited at any time byadministrator30 oremployee40.
• Once this information is input,administrator30 oremployee40 clicks a button on the computer screen labeled “Save” to save the appointment. This automatically saves the appointment to the calendars of bothcare provider50 and customer60. An alert email can also be automatically sent to bothcare provider50 and customer60 detailing the scheduled appointment and particular details about the job. Forcare provider50, they will be sent details about the name of customer60, pet's name, address, walk time, walk length or any special notes concerning this account. For customer60, they will be sent details about the name ofcare provider50, walk start time, and generic cancellation information and contact phone number should they need to cancel the appointment.
• Once an appointment has been scheduled, the designatedlicensee care provider50 can log into their computer or portable device/smartphone25 to view their calendar work week online. This information includes items such as a daily and weekly calendar views, walks presently scheduled with details such as customer name and address, pet name, walk start time, walk window or walk distance, and walks previously completed with information such as customer name and address, pet name, length of scheduled walk, length of actual recorded walk, link to recorded Global Positioning System (“GPS”) path, and any additional notes.
• Once the time for a scheduled appointment arrives,care provider50 goes to home H of customer60. In one embodiment, in order for a customer60 to usesystem10, they must use a proprietary system which uses barcode technology,mobile devices25 and an online scheduling tool. When a customer60 signs up to usesystem10, aunique barcode80 will be created and printed for the residence of customer60.Barcode80 will contain a unique identification code and will be printed on magnet strips or a sticker, for example, so that they can be placed on a refrigerator R or other convenient location that can be easily accessed by acare provider50.
• Oncecare provider50 enters home H of customer60, they check in using theirsmartphone25 which has been equipped with a barcode scanner. This barcode scanner may either be integral tosmartphone25, as in a mobile scanning application that is loaded onsmartphone25, using a camera component ofsmartphone25 to capture and scan an image ofbarcode80 as depicted inFIG. 1, or the scanning equipment may be an external attachment.Care provider50 opens a mobile application program on their phone which is part ofsystem10. The mobile application will request that the user login with a username and password. The login information is sent towebsite70 ofsystem10 and checks user credentials in the database as well as user rights. If the user is recognized, the mobile application will allow the user access. While in the application, the user will never be logged out of the program. In other words, the user login will never time out.
• Once in the mobile application program,care provider50 locates and scansbarcode80 located inside home H of customer60. As depicted inFIG. 1, one suitable type of scanning mechanism for this purpose is a mobile smartphone application of the type that uses a photographic image ofbar code80 captured by a camera device ofsmartphone25. If there is no mobile signal at the time of the scan, the mobile application will recognize this and a message will appear asking the care provider if they wish to store the scan to be resubmitted when mobile signal is restored. Once mobile signal is restored, the care provider will receive a message to resubmit the scan where it is treated as a successful scan and recognizes the scan at its original scan time rather than when the stored scan was resubmitted. Ifcare provider50 cannot find a barcode or ifbarcode80 is damaged,care provider50 can use the mobile application to look up and choose the appropriate customer in order to check in, which would replace the need to scanbarcode80. Alternatively, an alphanumeric code corresponding to customer60 may be present at home H of customer60 as a backup forcare provider50 to enter manually intosmartphone25.
• However, ifcare provider50 is able to successfully locatebarcode80 and the scan is successful, the name of customer60 will display on the screen ofsmartphone25. A prompt will appear and askcare provider50 to verify that customer60 name displayed is correct customer60. If the scan is not successful, an error message will display on the screen ofsmartphone25 stating the number of attempts made and further requesting that the user please try again or look up customer60.
• However if the scan is successful and the correct customer60 is shown, then careprovider50 selects “Yes” to the on-screen prompt. At this point, information such as account information of customer60, identification ofcare provider50 and scan date and scan time is preferably sent towebsite70 ofsystem10 to check the database ofsystem10 for proper verification. Ifcare provider50 selects “No” because the wrong customer60 account information is shown, then a message will display on the screen ofsmartphone25 requesting that the user attempt to rescanbarcode80 or contact anadministrator30 for assistance.
• If this information is verified, then further information such as the status of the walk and the start time and date are posted on the calendar for this particular appointment. An email is also sent to customer60 to let them know that the walk has started. However, if the database cannot verify the information such as in a circumstance where a customer60 requested a last minute service appointment and the appointment was not entered intosystem10, then the mobile application will display a message that the current walk is unscheduled and ask thecare provider50 to verify that this is correct. Ifcare provider50 verifies this, thensystem10 will alert eitherlicense administrator30 oremployee40 or both that an unscheduled walk is occurring with the name of customer60, the name ofcare provider50, date and time recorded. The mobile application will also continue to make a record of the unscheduled walk with information similar to a scheduled walk.
• Whether the walk is scheduled or unscheduled, once the walk begins,smartphone25 will preferably begin sending GPS coordinates in real time at regular intervals to the database ofsystem10 for mapping and tracking purposes. The display onsmartphone25 ofcare provider50 will show information such as a running time, a radio button to show the calendar of work ofcare provider50, and a radio button which careprovider50 can activate to show that the service appointment is completed.
• Oncecare provider50 has finished with their service appointment, they re-enter customer home60 and activate the radio button which signals that the service appointment is complete. For example this radio button can be labeled “End Service Appointment” or “End Walk”. Preferably, once this button is clicked, the scanner ofsmartphone25 is again activated andcare provider50 scans the bar code at customer home60. If the scan is successful, information such as, for example, the name of customer60, a visual map of the geographic coordinates of the walk, total time and distance walked will appear on the screen ofsmartphone25. If there is no mobile signal at the time of the scan, the mobile application will recognize this and a message will appear asking the care provider if they wish to store the scan to be resubmitted when mobile signal is restored. Once mobile signal is restored, the care provider will receive a message to resubmit the scan where it is treated as a successful scan and recognizes the scan at its original scan time rather than when the stored scan was resubmitted. A text field is also available on the screen to allowcare provider50 to enter any notes about the walk.
• A button will also appear after a successful scan which allows the user to submit their completed service appointment. Clicking on this button sends user information back to the database ofsystem10 for verification. Ifsystem10 verifies the information, the status of the service appointment or walk is posted to the calendar including an update to the status stating that the appointment is complete, and sending the date and start and end time of the service appointment. An email is also sent to customer60 to let them know that the walk has ended. At that time,smartphone25 also stops sending GPS coordinates tosystem10 and a final map displaying the walk path is displayed onwebsite70 ofsystem10 for the specific customer60 to review.
• While the invention has been described with respect to certain embodiments, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, it is to be understood that the invention is capable of numerous changes, modifications and rearrangements, and such changes, modifications and rearrangements are intended to be covered by the following claims.

Claims (12)

What is claimed is:

1. An appointment management system for a pet care visit including a walk for a pet care customer's pet, comprising:

a pet caregiver portable electronic device including a portable electronic device microprocessor, a portable electronic device memory, and a geographic location sensing mechanism, wherein the pet caregiver portable electronic device is configured to receive data input and to determine its geographic location;

a pet care customer electronic device including a pet care customer electronic device microprocessor, a pet care customer electronic device display, and a pet care customer electronic device memory; and

a server including a server processor and a server memory, the server being configured to receive data input, the server storing user accounts for the pet care customer and the pet caregiver, permitting the pet caregiver and the pet care customer to arrange a pet care appointment by transmitting appointment information to the server, and automatically storing the appointment information and making the appointment information accessible for viewing on the pet caregiver personal electronic device and an electronic device of the pet care customer, the appointment information indicating at least one of a distance, a duration, and a route of the walk;

the server memory storing information identifying the pet care customer linked to information stored in the server memory identifying the customer's pet and the location of a pet care appointment site at which the pet is located, and providing the caregiver access to the pet identifying information and the location of the pet care appointment site, as the pet caregiver logs into a user account of the pet caregiver on the server, and;

the server programmed with instructions for the server processor to

receive a start signal transmission initiated by input to the pet caregiver device at the pet care appointment site, the signal including pet care customer information and marking a beginning of the pet care visit,

compare the received pet care customer information to the information identifying the pet care customer in the server memory,

subject to at least one precondition coded into the instructions, said at least one precondition including that the received pet care customer information equal the information identifying the pet care customer in the server memory, perform a storing and displaying subroutine including instructions to:

store a pet care visit start time corresponding to the start signal transmission from the pet caregiver portable electronic device,

store a pet care visit end time corresponding to a pet care visit end signal received from the pet caregiver portable electronic device, the end signal transmitted at the pet care visit end time from the pet care appointment site,

store data received from the pet caregiver portable electronic device indicating time-sequenced geographic locations of the portable electronic device at a plurality of times, separated by regular intervals, between the pet care visit start time and the pet care visit end time, and

in response to the end signal from the pet caregiver portable electronic device, transmit data to the electronic device of the pet care customer to permit display on a display of the pet care customer electronic device the pet care visit start time, the pet care visit end time, and a visual map of a walk path constructed from said time-sequenced geographic locations of the pet caregiver portable electronic device at each of said plurality of times, to permit the pet care customer to confirm a route of the walk, and

the pet caregiver portable electronic device programmed with instructions for the pet caregiver portable electronic device microprocessor to record the geographic location of the pet caregiver portable electronic device at each of said plurality of times separated by the regular intervals and to transmit data representing said geographic location at each of said plurality of times to the server.

2. The system ofclaim 1, the pet caregiver portable electronic device further comprising a clock and being further programmed with instructions to

detect whether a transmission signal is available to transmit the visit start or end signal during the start time or end time, respectively; and

if the transmission signal is unavailable,

read and store the time from the clock when the input is received; and

transmit the start or end signal and the corresponding stored time from the clock to the server when the transmission signal is available.

3. The system ofclaim 1, said server memory further storing a database of at least one care provider login, the server further programmed with an instruction for the microprocessor to receive a care provider login transmitted from the portable electronic device, said at least one precondition on performing the storing and displaying subroutine further including that the received care provider login equal the stored care provider login.

4. The system ofclaim 1, said storing and displaying subroutine further including instructions to transmit to said pet care customer electronic device, for display on said pet care customer electronic device display, a representation of a total distance traveled by said portable electronic device between the service visit start time and the service visit end time.

5. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said making the appointment information accessible to the caregiver personal electronic device and the pet care customer electronic device includes an action selected from

electronically transmitting a message to a device of the respective caregiver or pet care customer, and

generating and storing a representation of the appointment information accessible by the caregiver or pet care customer from the server within the respective user account.

6. The system ofclaim 1, further comprising the server operating a website, permitting the pet care customer and pet caregiver to access their accounts through the website and arrange the pet care appointment on the website.

7. A pet care appointment management system comprising:

a pet caregiver portable electronic device including a portable electronic device microprocessor, a portable electronic device display, a portable electronic device memory, a geographic location sensing mechanism, and a clock, and the pet caregiver portable electronic device being configured to receive data input and to determine its geographic location;

a pet care customer electronic device including a pet care customer electronic device microprocessor, a pet care customer electronic device display, and a pet care customer electronic device memory; and

a server including a server processor and a server memory, the server being configured to receive data input, the server storing user accounts for the pet care customer and the pet caregiver, permitting the pet caregiver and the pet care customer to arrange a pet care appointment by transmitting appointment information to the server, and automatically storing the appointment information and making the appointment information accessible for viewing on the pet caregiver personal electronic device and an electronic device of the pet care customer, the appointment information indicating at least one of a distance, a duration, and a route of the walk for the appointment;

the server programmed with instructions for the server processor to

receive a start signal transmission initiated by input to the pet caregiver device at the pet care appointment site, the signal marking a beginning of the pet care appointment;

store a pet care appointment start time corresponding to the start signal transmission from the pet caregiver portable electronic device,

store a pet care appointment end time corresponding to a pet care appointment end signal received from the pet caregiver portable electronic device, the end signal transmitted at the pet care appointment end time from the pet care appointment site,

store data received from the pet caregiver portable electronic device indicating time-sequenced geographic locations of the portable electronic device at a plurality of times, separated by regular intervals, between the pet care appointment start time and the pet care appointment end time, and

in response to the end signal from the pet caregiver portable electronic device, transmit data to the electronic device of the pet care customer to permit display on a display of the pet care customer electronic device the pet care appointment start time, the pet care appointment end time, and a visual map of a walk path constructed from said time-sequenced geographic locations of the pet caregiver portable electronic device at each of said plurality of times, to permit the pet care customer to confirm a route of the walk, and

the pet caregiver portable electronic device programmed with instructions for the pet caregiver portable electronic device microprocessor to

record the geographic location of the pet caregiver portable electronic device at each of said plurality of times separated by the regular intervals and to transmit data representing said geographic location at each of said plurality of times to the server;

detect whether a transmission signal is available to transmit the pet care visit start or end signal during the pat care visit start or end time, respectively;

if the transmission signal is available,

transmit the pet care visit start or end signal during the corresponding pet care visit start or end time; and

if the transmission signal is unavailable,

read and store the time from the clock when the input is received; and

transmit the start or end signal and the corresponding stored time from the clock to the server when the transmission signal is available.

8. The system ofclaim 7, the microprocessor further programmed with instructions

to store the sensed geographic locations in the portable electronic device memory; and

to read and store the corresponding times from the clock when the geographic location of the portable device is sensed in the portable electronic device memory.

9. The system ofclaim 7, the instruction to cause to be stored the sensed geographic location of the portable device comprising an instruction to immediately transmit data to the server indicating the geographic location at each of the plurality of times at which the geographic location is sensed.

10. A method of providing a pet care visit including a walk to a pet care customer, using a pet caregiver portable electronic device including a portable electronic device microprocessor, a portable electronic device display, a portable electronic device memory, a geographic location sensing mechanism, and a clock, and the pet caregiver portable electronic device being configured to receive data input and to determine its geographic location, a pet care customer electronic device including a pet care customer electronic device microprocessor, a pet care customer electronic device display, and a pet care customer electronic device memory, and a server including a server processor and a server memory, the server being configured to receive data input, the server storing user accounts for the pet care customer and the pet caregiver, permitting the pet caregiver and the pet care customer to arrange a pet care appointment by transmitting appointment information to the server, and automatically storing the appointment information and making the appointment information accessible for viewing on the pet caregiver personal electronic device and an electronic device of the pet care customer, the appointment information indicating at least one of a distance, a duration, and a route of the walk for the appointment, the method comprising:

initiating at a pet care appointment site a signal from the portable electronic device marking a start of the pet care visit;

providing a pet care service to the pet care customer including walking the pet along a walk path, while transporting the portable electronic device along the walk path;

causing a sensed geographic location of the portable electronic device to be stored at a plurality of locations along the walk path, at regular time intervals; and

initiating at the pet care appointment site a signal from the portable electronic device marking an end of the pet care visit.

11. The method ofclaim 10, where transporting the portable electronic device along the care service path comprises the pet caregiver carrying the portable electronic device along the walk path.

12. The method ofclaim 10, where transporting the portable electronic device along the care service path comprises attaching the portable electronic device to the pet for the pet to carry along the walk path.

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