LAS VEGAS–Verizon Wireless dreams of 500 percent penetration(Opens in a new window). That means everybody has to have five things connected to Verizon’s network, and they aren’t going to be phones.

Over in Verizon’s booth at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company is showing off a lot of unexpected objects that connect to the Verizon network for one reason or another. My personal favorite is the trash can: a big-belly municipal trash can that can tell city employees when it needs to be emptied. It’s already in use in Allentown, PA, a Verizon rep told me.

Or how about the doggie door? From Lowe’s comes a doggie door that links up with a dongle on your dog’s collar so that it only opens when the dog is trying to exit—and so that you have a record of every time your dog headed into the backyard.

All of these devices are part of the fast-growing world of “M2M,” or machine-to-machine mobile connectivity. M2M devices tend to use relatively little data and operate well even on 2G networks. And they’re spreading, all over the place, invisibly.

Not all of these devices require Verizon per se. Some of them, like the doggie door, are really connected to your home Wi-Fi; Verizon is showing how you can manipulate them from afar using a smartphone or tablet. Another wireless carrier, presumably, would work just as well.

And Verizon isn’t alone in nurturing the connection of random stuff to its network. AT&T is a leader in the field, with the company giving its “emerging devices” portfolio to Glenn Lurie, the guy who managed to negotiate AT&T’s original deal with Apple, years ago.

Since then, AT&T has appeared at every trade show with a motley collection of gadgets, such as an Internet-connected pill bottle that tells your doctor if you forgot to take your medicine, and a wireless golf club attachment that rates your swing.

Take a look at our slideshow to see what Verizon is hooking up to its network that you might not expect.