Waterproof Activity Trackers for You (and Your Little Dog, Too!)
For Fido: Whistle
First things first: Why would you want to monitor your dog’s activity? Yeah, I know some of you are asking this question, and before you chalk it up to being one of those products that just for dog-crazy people with money in their pockets, hear me out. For one thing, if you have a dog walker, pet sitter or have anyone else who you trust to take care of your dog, Whistle can help you see — from anywhere — whether your pup is getting the exercise she needs. Also, if you’re the only one who ever walks your dog, you know how easy it is to say, “Oh, yeah, we go for a walk most days of the week,” even if you only actually get out a couple of times. When you have actual data tracking this, it’s a lot harder to lie to yourself (and your vet, for that matter).
Not to mention, if anyone in your family travels frequently for work, this is kind of a cool way for them to stay a little more connected to the family pet. I’m totally excited to check in on our pups while I’m in Hawaii. But, I digress. So! Whistle! I first heard about this product when I attended Global Pet Expo in Orlando this spring, and I actually got to chat for quite a while with the CEO and co-founder, Ben Jacobs, who was a seriously interesting guy with major smarts (and who was wearing a Jawbone UP as well, so we obviously hit it off right away).
Look similar to apps you’ve used for your own activity tracker?
He put a lot of thought into the design and functionality of Whistle in order to make it the kind of gadget he’d want to use — that included waterproofing it, which was high on his list. “Why would you pay for a high-end GPS watch or tracker that can just get ruined in the water?” he said, and I couldn’t agree more.
Whistle is small and fairly flat, and once I attached it to my dog Hollie’s collar, she took zero notice of it. Setting it up is easy — you just enter a few bits of information about your dog and Whistle does the rest, sending data about how much activity your dog does, when she was active, and how intense it was directly to the app. You (or your dog walker) have the option to manually add feedings and specific activities to your dog’s day as well — so, a lot like the human activity trackers many of us use.
Multiple owners can be set up to monitor the same dog, and multiple dogs can be set up on the same app. And Whistle can be used as a social app as well — you can find dogs similar to yours (weight, breed, age) and compare their activities, and you can also share your dog’s activities via Whistle to Facebook, Twitter, email or text message. Also, it has a solid battery life, only needing to charge every 10 days or so, which is really handy. It should be noted that this is not a GPS tracker, so it’s not meant to be used to track dogs who are prone to running away. Whistle, $129.95
Fit Bottomed Line: But, For those of us who like feedback on how active we and our dogs are, this is a really cool, useful and easy-to-use tool.
Get it: Whistle, $129.95
Would you use an activity tracker for yourself? How about your dog? —Kristen