An automatic dog-walker in action in Hilldale.
- "A dog barked behind him. Marty glanced back, and saw a dog and a leash with nobody on the other end. The leash was just sort of hanging up there in the air. Of course! Marty thought. It must be some kind of automatic dogwalker. Wow, the future!"
- —From Back to the Future Part II by Craig Shaw Gardner (quote, page 80)
Automatic dog-walkers were units developed between 1985 and 2015 that consisted of an autonomous drone, similar to a hovercam, leashed to a dog's collar to walk it when the owner was preoccupied.
History[]
Marty McFly saw one of these dog-walker units in Hilldale the night he and Dr. Emmett Brown attempted to rescue Jennifer Parker from his future residence, and wandered away to do some exploring of Hilldale. The distraction was sufficient for Biff Tannen to steal the DeLorean time machine and travel from 2015 back to 1955 to give his younger self the Grays Sports Almanac.
Behind the scenes[]
- Back to the Predictions refers to the automatic dog-walker as a Dog Walking Drone.[1]
Actuality[]
- Devices that could make this concept a reality do in fact exist, but for the time being are not widely available. Additionally, the noise from modern drones (used for this purpose) would likely spook most dogs, making their use unlikely.[2] It could also put the dog at risk if owners are not with them, as the dog could get attacked, kidnapped, dart across traffic and possibly get run over, or run off and disappear. For the time being, it appears that dog owners will still have to walk their pets manually.
Appearances[]
- Back to the Future Part II
- Back to the Future Part II novelization (As automatic dog-walker)