Patent ID: 7617799

Claim:
An animal management system, comprising: a computer system provided to a first wireless communication transceiver; an animal toy provided to a second wireless communication transceiver, said animal toy having an identification code, said animal toy configured to communicate with said computer system using wireless two-way handshaking communication according to said identification code such that said computer system can send commands to said animal toy and receive acknowledgement of receipt of said commands from said animal toy, and said animal toy can send data to said computer system and receive acknowledgement of receipt of said data by said computer system, wherein said computer system sends commands to said animal toy corresponding to reinforcement stimuli, wherein said computer system receives data from said animal toy related to one or more actions of an animal using said animal toy; one or more sensors provided to said animal toy; and wherein said animal toy provides said reinforcement stimuli, wherein said animal toy uses said transceiver to transmit sensor data from said one or more sensors, said sensor data comprising information regarding interactions between an animal and said toy, wherein said computer system receives said sensor data and processes said sensor data to determine one or more behavioral characteristics of the animal, wherein the computer system selects said reinforcement stimulus based, at least in part, on said one or more behavioral characteristics.