PawPace - Dog Days Walk Planner

What I Built

I built PawPace, a Dog Days walk planner for people who have ever looked at the sidewalk in August and wondered:

Is this still a walk, or is this a bad idea with a leash?

PawPace takes a simple dog profile and day profile:

• air temperature
• humidity
• pavement feel
• walk length
• dog size
• short-nosed breed sensitivity
• senior, puppy, or recovering status
• thick or dark coat

Then it turns those signals into a readable walk plan with a caution score, heat/paw/hydration risk bars, best time window, paw-check guidance, hydration reminders, and indoor enrichment backup ideas.

The one-line idea: most dog apps are cute; PawPace tries to prevent actual vet visits.

Demo

rohithmatham12.github.io

Source code: GitHub repository

Quick flow:

Why I Built It

Dog safety advice is often scattered across memory, weather apps, and “I think this pavement is fine” guesses.

I wanted to build something small enough for a weekend challenge but useful enough to imagine opening before an actual walk. PawPace does not replace care or veterinary advice. It just makes the safer choice easier in the moment: shorten the route, move the walk later, check the pavement, carry water, or swap the walk for enrichment when the day is too hot.

Real Weather Grounding

PawPace can use Open-Meteo to pull live local temperature, humidity, and UV index from a city name. No API key is required for weather.

Users can still adjust the sliders manually, but the live weather button keeps the planner from being only vibes. The score is grounded in actual conditions when the user wants that.

Google AI Mode

PawPace works fully without an API key using a rule-based planner.

I also added optional Google AI mode for the prize category. If a user pastes a Google AI Studio API key, PawPace sends the current dog/weather profile to Gemini and asks for a concise custom indoor enrichment plan. The key is not stored; it is only used in the browser session when the button is pressed.

There is also a Walk Report Card mode. It uses the same dog/weather profile to generate a short first-person note from the dog’s perspective, such as:

Today was a 6/10 walk day, buddy. Pavement felt spicy at 2pm, so let’s go after sunset. Also, I want a puzzle toy.

The report card can be downloaded as an image, so the playful part is shareable without taking away from the safety utility.

Screenshots

Desktop:

Planner:

Report card:

Mobile:

Technical Details

• Vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• cute illustrated dog hero with subtle motion overlays
• Open-Meteo geocoding and current weather lookup
• rule-based scoring model for walk caution, paw risk, and hydration need
• color-coded visual risk meter and risk breakdown bars
• accessible form labels, fieldsets, live result region, and role="meter"
• copyable walk plan
• optional Google Generative Language API calls for enrichment and report cards
• downloadable report-card image via canvas
• responsive layout and prefers-reduced-motion support

What I Am Proud Of

The project tries to answer the challenge theme with something both playful and practical. It is about dogs, but it is also about the tiny responsibility of changing the plan when the day is not safe for them.

The source is MIT licensed.