Dog Tech: The June Smartcollar Update

It's time to check in with our favorite smartcollar GPS and activity trackers, and introduce some new ones! I started a Facebook group for discussing pet technology, check out Planet Smartcollar for active discussion about all the different smartcollar products, and real, unfiltered reviews by people who have actually used them.

Zip takes a dip in a stock tank wearing her Whistle 2.

Whistle 2: Currently using.

I wasn't expecting to like Whistle as much as I do. I saw the Whistle 2 tracker as old technology, about to be eclipsed by bigger and better products. It has turned out to be pretty darned reliable. The tracking is slow, but it really does work. 

Just a few days ago I sent Zip over a hill to look for wandering sheep, and she didn't come back. Eventually I opened the Whistle 2 app on my phone. While the location points it sent were several minutes apart, I could clearly see that she was running back and forth on the wrong side of an electric fence over the next hill.She has probably gotten zapped going under it, and wasn't willing to do the same to get back to me. Without the Whistle 2 tracker, I wouldn't have even known which direction to start looking.

Whistle 3

I've been hearing good things about Whistle 3, faster tracking and a new app. I just ordered one for each of the girls, and will report back when they arrive. After months of research, and talking to people who are actually using different products, I am confident that this is the best 3G tracker currently on the market. It uses wifi, bluetooth, and GPS, and is waterproof. Whistle 3 is smaller than Whistle 2, it may even be small enough for cats. It requires a monthly subscription fee.

Scout!

I am cautiously optimistic about Scout, another GPS/bluetooth/cellular device. This one specifically allows you to set alerts for places you do not want your pet to go. With a virtual leash, tracking history, and three days of battery life, this could be the pet tracker I've been looking for!

Link AKC

Though I ultimately decided that AKC's Link collar wasn't for us, I'm still recommending it as the best all-around smartcollar on the market. Link has a virtual leash feature, as well as temperature monitoring. Though they recommend charging it each night, many users report that the battery is still at 75% at the end of the day. I've heard from a couple of people who had really bad battery life, or collars that wouldn't turn on until they had been sitting for three days to let the battery drain and then recharged them. Link seems to have really responsive customer service, they've replaced these defective units, and also the trackers that have fallen off collars. Yes, as I predicted, the tracker falls off sometimes.

Nuzzle

Nuzzle's smartcollar is an enigma that is poorly understood even by those that created it. I have yet to hear from a single user that reports consistent behavior from the device. Battery life remains well under a day, but often varies from 8-22 hours for no known reason. The app often grays out and ceases to provide updates, which the company claims is unrelated to the batteries, but paradoxically can often be fixed by swapping out the battery for a fresh one. The batteries take 5 hours to charge, but may only last 8 hours. Tracking can be hit or miss, and constant false notifications are totally normal. Nuzzle is still deleting negative comments from their Facebook page, and negative reviews from their website. They are currently 3 days behind on processing returns, because everyone who wanted a reliable and accurate smartcollar is sending theirs back. They've changed the return policy and are now claiming to only accept unopened products, so that 30-day money-back guarantee is another Nuzzle lie.

Pod 3

Pod 3 still hasn't shipped to anyone other than the initial beta testers, and also to Argos shops in the UK. Yes, you may have backed the project, but you can walk into a retail store and buy a Pod 3 weeks before you get your backer reward unit. Crazy. I had a very high opinion of this company, but they seem to be having a tough time rolling out their product, and they're not handling the PR well. Nobody is even totally sure why the company felt the need to run a Kickstarter campaign anyway, since they are an established business with capital and stuff. Whistle didn't crowdsource their product, they released it on time, and the thing seems to actually work.

Kyon

Kyon is now a year behind schedule, and the original Kickstarter backers have begun asking for refunds. It's pretty clear they will be missing their goal of shipping by the end of June. Will the Kyon rollout be like Link's, with lots of initial bumps but a solid product and excellent customer service? Or will it be like the Nuzzle rollout, with a shoddy product and worse customer service?

Scollar

The Scollar release date has been pushed back from August to December of 2017. Typical smartcollar project. The company was still discussing color options in May, I don't think this one has been finalized for production yet.

Wuf

Wuf is still claiming a release in Fall of 2017, but has not posted an update to their restless Kickstarter backers since April. Many are asking for refunds, as the project was fully funded in 2014. I am officially predicting that Wuf will end up as vaporware, like Buddy and DogTelligent.

Findster Duo

I'm hearing good things about the Findster Duo. This one has a limited range, but does not require cellular signal to work. You carry one piece with you, and put the other on your dog. Your phone connects to the piece that's with you. Findster does not have a monthly fee.

Trackums

Touted as "a smartphone for your pet", this project looks even more ambitious than Nuzzle. It actually has an LCD screen. It will have a virtual leash, geofence, 2-way communication, camera, and three days of battery life, all for $200. These are expected to ship in September 2017. Sound too good to be true? I'm expecting this one to be vaporware too.

Is the Nuzzle Collar a Scam?

I've been an enthusiastic supporter of Nuzzle and their incredible smartcollar for a few months now, but things have changed and I am now seriously concerned that the whole thing is a big scam. Is the Nuzzle collar really as great as they claim? Can it really do everything advertised? Is the company being honest with their customers. In a word, no.

Open and Honest

In the beginning, everything looked great. The Nuzzle collar sounded amazing. It was going to have highly accurate GPS tracking, alerts when your dog left a specified safety zone, a virtual leash to let you know when your dog strayed too far, activity monitoring, and temperature alerts. 

It was the temperature alert feature that really got my attention. Still, I had some questions, so I reached out to the Nuzzle team. I ended up spending an hour on the phone with one of the developers. By the end I was convinced this was going to be the greatest smartcollar, the yardstick by which other smartcollars would be measured. 

When I ordered my collars in January, the shipping date given was in February. When that date rolled around, I received an email explaining how a manufacturing flaw was going to delay shipping by a couple of weeks. We were given a very specific timeline as to when they would be leaving the factory. The collars were supposed to ship out on March 13th.

Hiding Something?

The promised shipping date came and went, and eventually we got an extremely vague update. There were some minor software issues that needed to be addressed, but the team was working hard to get them fixed and would give us a shipping date as soon as they were able.

That was well over a month ago. No details or further updates have been given. Attempts to contact the company have been met with either generic responses that they would be shipping within a week or two, or no response at all.

Sell, Sell, Sell!

Look, I understand that product development is a rocky road. I understand that Nuzzle is supposed to be breaking new ground. What I don't understand is why they continue to aggressively promote their product when they have yet to ship any of them to anyone beyond their original IndieGoGo backers. They are busily doing giveaways and sweepstakes. They are aggressively advertising on social media. They still have not shipped a single collar.

Most disturbing is the prominent claim on their website that "new orders ship in approximately ten days". That claim has been up for weeks. Multiple people have messaged the company via Facebook, asking them to remove this blatant falsehood from the website, but it remains up. Nuzzle is lying to sucker in new customers, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying.

Nothing But Disappointment

The limited reviews available from the original product backers reveal some disturbing details about the Nuzzle collar. You won't see those on the website though, as the company is heavily censoring both reviews on their own site and any negative comments on their Facebook page. They don't currently appear to have a lot of audience engagement on social media, aside from angry customers asking where the collars are.

Fortunately, the company cannot censor the Amazon reviews for the product, which are universally bad. The battery doesn't even last one day, the boundary notifications are a joke, and the temperature monitoring was an outright bogus claim. The comments from the IndieGoGo backers aren't any better. The Android app has nothing but bad reviews, and the iTunes store isn't much better.

Buyer Beware

I finally asked for a refund for the three collars I ordered when the social media team spent an entire week claiming there would be an email update with a shipping timeline either "today or tomorrow". That was over a week ago. There is still no update.

They delete negative comments on their Facebook page very quickly, but if you're quick you can read some before they delete them. Some people placed their orders and gave Nuzzle their money well over a year ago. To date, nobody has received a Nuzzle collar except the original IndieGoGo backers.

The Nuzzle website and Facebook are designed to deceive you into thinking you are buying a finished product that is all ready to ship. When I bought mine, I believe I was just waiting for the manufacturing process to be complete. However, it turns out that Nuzzle is still very much a product under development. It is by no means a finished product. It is not a functioning smartcollar. 

When you give this company your money, you are not purchasing a smartcollar, you are funding product development for a project that may never be finished. Like Buddy and DogTelligent, this amazing dog tech project appears to be slowly sinking. If you purchased a Nuzzle collar, I advise you to get a refund quickly before the company goes under. No matter how much you want a Nuzzle collar, please be aware that it is, in fact, too good to be true.

Dog Tech: Link AKC is Not for Us

We've been using Link AKC for less than a week, but I've already determined that it's not the right product for us. This groundbreaking smartcollar is supposed to be able to track your dog, help you find them if they get lost, let you know how active they are, and even alert you if they are getting too hot or cold. Unfortunately, like all new technology, it has quite a few bugs.

A Rocky Start

The company has chosen to make Link AKC an entirely app-based product. This means the collar only works as long as the app works. I ran into a software bug two screens into setting up my account, and this prevented me from using my Link AKC smart collar for the first week I had it. Eventually this was resolved, not through a software update, but through a customer service manager taking my credit card information over the phone and handing it off to the engineering team so they could create an account for me on the back end. 

Yeah, I never got to check out the account creation process. I also learned that the entire device is one software bug away from total failure. Even once we got everything working, the number of error messages and false alerts was really disheartening.

"A Smartphone for Your Dog"

One of my wonderful readers described Link AKC as being "like a smartphone for your dog", and I cannot think of a better way to put it. Using this device feels exactly like buying a smartphone and then strapping it to my dog's collar. Think about that for a second.

Yeah. It's a cool idea. Having a GPS/Bluetooth/WiFi tracker on my dog should give me some piece of mind, but instead it just fills me with concern. Is the smartphone still attached to her collar? Did we break it yet? What if it gets caught on something out there? It's a huge chunky thing that sticks way out from her neck, and she does a lot of squirming under fences and shoving her head down squirrel holes. It also keeps sending me false notifications, which is alarming. I got two notifications that Sisci Godzilla was getting too hot, both when she was with me, cool and comfortable, and definitely not laying on the tracker or trapping heat in any way. I also got notifications that she was away when she had been sitting on my lap for an hour.

The battery life is reminiscent of a smartphone. You're supposed to take the device off your dog every night to charge it, and just hope your dog doesn't get lost at night. They recommend you charge it right beside your smartphone, which is cute, but I'd rather have this safety device on my dog 24/7.

For Civilized Dogs

I don't think the makers of Link AKC were thinking about me and my dogs when they designed their product. This thing has no business being on a dog that runs through thick underbrush and jumps into a stock tank or pond to cool off. It's great for urban and suburban families that have civilized adventures, but it was clearly not made for rugged working dogs, rough terrain, or long days outdoors.

While I'm sure the software will get better with time, I am absolutely certain we are going to break the hardware in short order. After two days the spring latches that keep the tracker on the collar mount are already moving noticeably less smoothly. I had grand plans to compare the tracking ability and accuracy of various smartcollars, but I can't justify keeping this one when we're just going to destroy it. I am using Link AKC's 30-day money-back guarantee, and continuing to look for a GPS tracker with long-lasting interchangeable batteries, durable hardware, and a low profile.

Dog Tech: Link AKC First Impressions

It took an entire week, but my Link AKC smart collar is finally working...ish. Probably. Really, the issue isn't so much the collar hardware as the smartphone app. It's buggy as hell, and when the app doesn't work the collar doesn't work. So far the only dog GPS tracker I have personal experience with is the Whistle 2. Whistle has browser-based option that allows users to log on from regular computers. This means that a bug in the app won't render to collar useless.

Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs

The first software bug I ran into was the inability to set up a subscription plan, the app took me to a blank screen and nothing else ever loaded. The workaround for this was to talk to a support manager after several days of phone tag, give them my credit card number and all of my personal information over the phone, and have them set up my account from the back end.

This brings me to the second software bug, the inability to log in via email. First I tried logging in through Facebook, and when I hit that blank screen I tried logging in through email instead. The app said there was already an account with that email address, but not with any password I ever set up. Attempts to reset the password just got me the error message "Password reset failed". 

This is awesome, because my weirdass backdoor account set up by the support team was supposedly done with my email address. The app opened to the collar pairing screen after they did that, so I actually still have no idea what my account password is, or anything else about it.

Upon finally pairing my collar, I tried setting up a profile for Sisci Godzilla. So far I have been unable to upload a picture to her profile, I get a weird error message that I should probably copy down and send along to the support team. "There was an error communicating with the Link AKC server: Object version mismatch Dogld 878". (I'm sure they're tired of hearing from me by now.)

Battery Life

Link AKC must be removed from the collar and placed on the base station to charge. The company recommends you charge it every night, just in case you need to use the GPS tracking feature. This means no tracking, temperature alerts, or anything else at night. I'm surprised at this decision by the development team, it seems like all the other smartcollar companies are touting the battery ife of their products. Our Whistle 2 lasts about five days between charging, it's kind of weird for Link AKC to not be intended to last more than a day.

I had originally planned to use this GPS tracker for Zip, because she likes to range further than I'm comfortable with when exploring. However, due to my concerns about the reliability of the product, I'm leaving the Whistle 2 tracker on Zip for now. It may not have as many features or options, but right now I trust it a whole lot more than Link AKC.

Dog Tech: Smart Bowls

Smart bowls are the wave of the future when it comes to feeding or watering your pet. Some allow you to carefully monitor food and water intake. Others help you schedule feedings even when you aren't home. There's a lot of variety in this branch of the emergent world of pet tech. Let's take a look!

Obe ProBowl

No, not a bowl that makes your dog smart!

This is a dishwasher-safe bowl that connects to a smart base. The base works with a smartphone app that allows you to monitor your dog or cat's habits. Portion control is built in, there's an indicator that changes color when you've added just the right amount of food. It changes to a different color after your pet has eaten, so they can't convince anyone else in the household that they haven't been fed. Obe's ProBowl app will send alerts if your pet's eating or drinking habits change, as this can indicate a health problem. ProBowl's app will also somehow figure out if you are out of food, and order more on its own from Amazon. We have a printer at work that orders its own ink when it's about to run out. This feels like that only maybe a little creepier. ProBwl is currently in pre-order stage, with a projected shipping date of spring 2017. It will set you back about $100.

Eyenimal Intelligent Pet Bowl

This smart bowl is basically a food scale with a dog bowl attached, which is still pretty cool. Portion control is a huge part of keeping pets healthy, and it's really easy to add a heaping scoop of food rather than a level scoop, and end up packing in extra calories. Weighing pet food is definitely the most accurate way to go. The price on this one isn't bad, just $30.

PetNet Smartbowl and Smartfeeder

PetNet's Smartbowl is another scale for portion control, this time in a neat modern-looking square for $50. Their Smartfeeder is the real deal, though. It works with a smartphone app to schedule feedings, and lets you feed remotely and do custom portions for every meal. It also monitors your pet's intake. This device costs $150, but it's already on the market. I really like that it uses a stainless steel bowl insert, I'm not a fan of plastic bowls.

Hoison Pet Care Robot

This one is part interactive webcam, part automatic feeder. It has an HD camera and two-way audio. You can set a predetermined feeding schedule, or feed remotely. If you lose connection, the robot will automatically feed your pet at the preset time. It even has an internal power source, so your pet will still be fed in the event of a power failure or general apocalypse. This robot is $130, and already available for purchase.

CleverPet

Ok, this one's actually about making your dog smart. It's like a videogame for dogs. It opens to reveal their meal (in a stainless steel bowl!) when they correctly nose the lit touchpads. The game gets more difficult as they learn to touch only the lit pads. Of course, CleverPet also has a smartphone app that allows you to monitor what your dog is up to. I'll be honest, this thing is so freaking awesome it makes me wish I left my dogs at home now and then so I could have an excuse to get one for them! Alas, the girls will have to settle for herding sheep at work with me insteadof playing video games. This masterpiece of dog technology costs $300, about the same as I've paid for a videogame consol in the past. Seems fair.

Tikr by Sbark

Sbark has invented the most amazing puzzle toy, Tikr is a super-durable food-dispensing toy that opens with a timer. It's like an egg timer and a Kong Wobbler that dispenses different types of treats at different times. You can set the timer for up to 45 minutes, and the toy will open bit by bit, allowing the goodies out.

Photo by Erin Koski

 A Kong and a Egg Timer

I got to meet the inventors of the Tikr at SuperZoo 2016, and hear firsthand how they came up with this idea. They had been using regular Kongs for years to keep their dogs busy. You know the drill, stuff it with goodies and watch your dog empty it out in a few minutes. You can freeze it for a longer unstuffing session, but your dog is still going to empty it in well under an hour.

The idea for the Tikr came when one of the creators set a classic Kong toy down on top of a magazine with an egg timer on the cover. Thus came the idea of incorporating a simple torque timer into a dog toy in order to stretch out playtime.

Photo by Erin Koski

A Puzzling Puzzle

I came home from SuperZoo and immediately preordered a Tikr, and it finally arrived a few weeks ago. Sbark was even kind enough to send along some extra Tikr treats with my order. This thing is so cool!

The Tikr has one inner treat chamber, and three different-sized openings. Wind the timer, and the green chamber slowly rotates. When the opening in the green chamber matches up with one of the outer holes, treats come out! 

Photo by Erin Koski

The genius is in the size of the openings. The smallest one opens up first, releasing only the smallest treats. The medium-sized one opens next, and then final the biggest hole releases anything left.

The inner chamber has a peg sticking up from the center, onto which a softer treat can be impaled for an additional challenge. The largest Tikr treats have a hole in the center, presumably for sticking them on there. Unfortunately, the  treats are pretty crunchy and so far I've only succeeded in shattering them when I try that. gonna have to try sticking a chunk of cheese or something there instead.

Photo by Erin Koski

Tikr Treats

You can put any kind of dry or semi-moist treats in the Tikr, they even mention kibble and have pictures of dog biscuits. However, Tikr also sells nifty little gear-shaped treats in three sizes. The teeth on the gears lock together when you cram them into the toy, and of course they are just the right size to fall out when the right hole opens up.

The Verdict

Photo by Erin Koski

Godzilla and Zip love this thing. It has a timer that goes off when a new aperture opens up, to let them know when it's time to play again. I do have a small concern about Sisci Godzilla getting her lower jaw stuck inside the biggest opening, though. There are reports of lower jaw entrapment incidents happening with a bunch of different puzzle toys, and for this reason I am going to be supervising my dogs with the Tikr.

This is a flexible rubber-compound toy that stands up to some chewing. A ton of research went into finding the exact formula that would be durable enough without damaging anyone's teeth or clunking around on hardwood floors. Sbark currently recommends the Tikr be used by dogs under 50 pounds, only under supervision, and that owners should discourage dogs from gnawing on it.

Photo by Erin Koski

Our Tikr has taken some minor damage around the top, because Zip enjoys gnawing stuff. So far it's only cosmetic, though. I expect this toy to last forever. Sbark is currently developing an Extreme version for larger dogs, and I look forward to seeing what else they come up with!

Dog Tech: Interactive Webcams for Dogs

We've been keeping tabs on pets via webcam for as long as we've had webcams, but did you know that there are two-way devices specifically for remotely interacting with your dog? Wall-mounted, freestanding, or even interactive, they allow your pet to see and hear you while you're watching them. Some devices move, or even dispense treats, all controlled from your smartphone. 

PetCube

I got to see the PetCube in person at SuperZoo 2016, and it's pretty awesome. Their flagship product is a little 4" cube with a webcam and two-way audio. Other features include sound and motion alerts, digital zoom, and the ability to capture video and pictures on demand. The original PetCube streams 720p video and has a 138-degree view.

They've since released the PetCube Play and the PetCube Bites. The Play is a smaller 3" cube with night vision, 1080p video, and an interactive laser pointer that allows you to play with your pet remotely. The Bites is a treat dispenser that can fling goodies up to 1" in size either on a schedule, or on demand. All of PetCube's devices are both iOS and Android compatible. The original model will set you back $150, the Play is $200, and the Bites is currently in pre-order stage for $250.

Furbo

Furbo is another treat-dispensing petcam. While PetCube is designed to sit on a counter or table, Furbo sits on the floor where it somehow resists destruction. Furbo uses yellow and blue lights to signal to your pet when you are monitoring remotely and are available to dispense treats. It can be loaded with any treat that will fit through the dispenser hole, the company recommends using round ones that are less than a centimeter in diameter. To keep pets from knocking it over, it includes adhesive tape and also a tripod mount. 

Furbo has two-way audio and the camera has a 120-degree field of vision. Video quality can be set to either 320p or 720p. It is both iOS and Android compatible. Despite the appearance of this puppycam, it cannot be rotated or moved remotely. Furbo is currently selling for $211.

Petzi

Petzi is another remote treat dispenser petcam. The website is pretty short on details, but it apparently dispenses any treat less than 1" in size. It has night vision and two-way audio, and runs about $170. The website describes the camera as "wide angle", but doesn't give specifics on either the viewing angle or the video resolution. It does offer a number of different mounting options, including screwing it to the wall and strapping it to furniture.

PetChatz

PetChatz is unique among the petcams because it offers two-way video as well as audio. That's right, it has a little LCD screen so your dog can see your face. It also features a remote treat dispenser and a remote soothing scent dispenser. PetChatz mounts to the wall over a power outlet, without offering any cords and highly-chewable corners. The option PawCall accessory allows your pet to initiate video calls with you. It looks like PetChatz only uses their specific treats. This one is both iOS and Android compatible, and it's also made in the USA! All these features come with a hefty price tag, just the basic PetChatz unit will set you back $380. 

PlayDate

Playdate is a petcam inside a remote-control ball. Yes, it's an interactive moving camera. The outside is a hard polycarbonate ball that can be replaced if damaged, and the whole thing charges wirelessly without having to take it apart. You can take a picture or record video with PlayDate, use two-way audio, and even make it squeak remotely! The camera is stabilized to prevent that shaky camera effect. Unlike many petcams, PlayDate has a website interface in addition to the iOS and Android apps. PlayDate's IndieGoGo campaign was fully-funded in May 2016, they missed their December 2016 ship date and are now hoping to ship in July of 2017. You can still get in on the campaign, for $190 you can get a PlayDate smartball if and when they finally ship.

I'm usually very skeptical of IndieGoGo campaigns with endless delays, but this one somehow feels more genuine. I think it's the pictures and stories about Hulk, the creator's lab/ridgeback mix and inspiration for creating a way to remotely interact with dogs. Nothing makes a company seem more honest and trustworthy than personal pet stories, in my book.

For wearable ways to monitor your best friend remotely, you can follow along on my search for a dog GPS tracker, explore the world of cat wearables, and check out some upcoming smartcollars that I'm looking forward to.

Dog Tech: Updates!

The dog wearable tech market is expanding, and there's a lot of fun new smart collars and pet trackers on the horizon. March seems to be the month when almost everything will hit the market for real, and I'm hoping to have my hands on a couple of new products within the next month.

Whistle 2 - What We're Using Now

Whistle 2 is our first pet tracker smart collar wearable, and currently the only one I have actually used in person. Zip has been wearing this activity/GPS tracker for six weeks now. With our normal weekly routine of spending all day long away from the base station, and not using the active tracking feature, the battery lasts five days.

Whistle 2 is great if I want to know what my dog was up to yesterday. The active tracking is nice when I want to know precisely where my dog was 3 minutes ago. The alerts that my dog has left the safe zone arrive approximately 8-15 minutes after she has actually left. Overall the system is pretty good as long as I don't mind waiting for information. The tracker syncs with the base station and uploads data every 12-24 hours, so I can't use it to tell if Zip needs some extra dinner after a super active day because I don't normally have that data until the next morning.

The weekly report is nice, it gives me a summary of Zip's activity and rest, and compares it to other border collies the same age. She averages about two hours of high activity, and 13 hours of rest per day. I haven't had occasion to actually use the active tracking for anything other than my own amusement yet, but so far I'm not finding Whistle 2 to be worth the $10/month subscription fee.

Whistle 3 - February 2017?

Whistle 3 will use wifi, GPS, Bluetooh, and 3G cellular signal to accurately track your pet and record their activity. The collar unit is smaller than Whistle 2, so it's possible this one will be appropriate for cats as well as dogs. Whistle 3 is in the pre-order stage right now, and is scheduled for release this month. I have a bunch of questions for the Whistle team, but so far they've been saying they've "get back to me right away" for well over a month.

Nuzzle - March 2017

I love Nuzzle so much, I ordered them for all three dogs. This is a 3G/wifi/Bluetooth collar with geofencing, temperature monitoring, everything I want in a smartcollar. It does not work with a base station like Whistle 2, it just needs me, my dog, and my smartphone. It also does not have a subscription fee. Nuzzle comes with two batteries so I won't have to take it off to charge it every few days. We were expecting our Nuzzles to ship in the middle of January, but they discovered a quality control issue that has delayed the process until mid-March. 

I absolutely love this company because they have been extremely forthcoming with information about the shipping delay. I know exactly what happened, what they are doing to remedy the situation, and how long it will take. They even provided a breakdown of the entire process, and how long each step will take. Since the original notification of the delay, I have received two addition email updates. While I'm a bit sad to have to wait long for my smart collars, I am extremely pleased with how the company is handling it.

Link AKC - March 2017

I pre-ordered a Link AKC (<- this is an affiliate link) smart collar back in December, and at the time they were not forthcoming with an expected launch date. I've been expecting to get an email about it shipping since mid-January. I finally got a launch countdown notification a few days ago, and I'm expecting our collar to ship in early March. This is another wifi/GPS/Bluetooth/3G device, and it works with a base station that can be charged in the car. It can also use my phone as a base station. Link AKC has the unfortunate combination of a sky-high price and a monthly subscription fee, so I don't know how long we'll be using this one.

Pod 3 - March 2017

Pod 3's triple-funded Kickstarter (<- this is an affiliate link) projects it's shipping date at the end of March, with the interchangeable modules shipping in May. This is the smallest pet wearable out there, it was inspired by a beloved cat that went missing. It's a wifi/GPS/Bluetooth/3G device with a monthly subscription fee. I really want one, but I can't actually to buy ALL the smart collars.

Kyon - March 2017

The Kyon smart collar can display messages like "I'm lost!", and the GPS can tell you what floor your dog is on in the building. This is another one with both a high price ($250) and a monthly subscription fee. It offers temperature sensing, which is a big plus. It also uses a base station to set a safe zone. Kyon is an actual collar to which you can attach a leash, it doesn't have a removable module that can strap onto any collar or harness. This one is expected to ship at the end of March 2017.

Scollar - August 2017

Scollar is a small smartcollar designed for cats and small dogs. Unlike most pet wearables, this one has a tappable display right on the collar. This one does GPS tracking, and has add-on modules for geofencing and vibration. There is a lot of emphasis on reminders for medication, feeding, and flea and tick treatments. This is an interesting one, but not one of my must-haves.

WUF - Summer 2017?

Wuf is unique because it is intended to be upgradable. My smartwatch isn't even upgradable! It offers tracking, geofencing, and a virtual leash, but their Kickstarter was fully funded two years ago so I'm not putting a lot of faith in the Wuf team at this point.

Buddy - Nobody Knows...

Squeaker's Buddy collar sounded amazing, it was going to have customizable LED colors and patterns in addition to all the wonderful smart collar features. They missed their October 2016 release date though, and started sending out refunds for their IndieGoGo backers four months ago. Nobody has responded to comments on the campaign page in three months, and nearly all mention of Buddy has been removed from the Squeaker website.

Dog Tech: The Silliest Wearables

The world of pet wearables is constantly growing, and there have been some major successes and some major failures. Along the way, there have also been some that are...outside the box. Most "smartcollars" are intended to monitor your pet's location, health, or both. Let's take a look at some products that do something else entirely...

LOL!
Photo by Erin Koski

DogStar TailTalk

Let's take the concept of a smart collar, but put it on the other end, ok? I'm not kidding, TailTalk was intended to strap onto your dog's tail on order to translate wagging into emotion. 

There's a surprising amount of scientific study on the topic of dogs and tail wagging. Most studies seem to conclude that dogs wag asymmetrically, and the side to which they wag more at a given moment is indicative of their emotional state. TailTalk took that concept and ran with it, creating a tail-mounted band and smartphone app to record the motion of your dog's tail. Unfortunately, their Indiegogo campaign didn't really take off. I can see why, I'm having a tough time seeing the appeal of this product. Might have something to do with Sisci Godzilla's deficiency in the tail department.

Inupathy

This is a another wearable that is not a collar. Inupathy is basically a hybrid between a dog harness an a mood ring. It uses heart rate variation analysis to read your dog's emotional state, and the colored and moving lights to express that emotional state. Calm? Blue. Excited? Red. Happy? Rainbows! This one also has an app that records your dog's feelings over time, plus it has suggestions for fun games for you to play together. 

I actually want one of these. At its core, Inupathy is a heart rate monitor that records for 4-8 hours at a time, and looks way more comfortable than any heart monitor I've ever had to wear. Among other cool things, the company invites other developers to use the heart rate data collected for their own apps. This one is $250, more than I'm willing to spend on something primarily cute and funny, but I'm watching carefully to see where it goes. The Indiegogo campaign missed its December 2016 release date, and has pushed the release back to March 2017.

The Cowlar

Ok, this one's not even for dogs, but I absolutely love that it exists. This is a smart collar for dairy cows. Described as a FitBit for cows, the Cowlar monitors temperature, activity, behavior, and will text you if someone is stealing your cow. This product is intended for worldwide use, and can make an automated call if the user is unable to read a text message regarding cow theft. The purpose is to improve yields for dairy farmers. The Cowlar has a six-month battery life so that farmer's don't have to worry about charging it.

I love the Cowlar, but the website leaves me with more questions that answers. Like, how easy is it to strap a collar on a milk cow? And how easy is it to get that collar off again in six months to replace the battery? What does the product actually look like? Has it been released yet? How affordable is it for farmers in developing countries? Is anybody making a smart collar for sheep yet? Why not?

Dog Tech: Failed Smart Collars

I first read about "smart collars" before "wearables" was even a buzzword, before smart watches and FitBits were everywhere. They sounded AMAZING. Also, EXPENSIVE. I can't remember the first technological marvel I read about, but I do remember that it was supposed to be priced around $300. That may have been ten years ago, I'm pretty sure it was before we all had smart phones and smart everything else. Before the days of crowdfunding. Simpler times.

Just a regular dumb collar.
Photo by Erin Koski

I don't know if either of those "smart collars" actually made it to market. They were both supposed to monitor your dog's heath and activity, but I don't think they included GPS tracking. Since then, the world of wearables has expanded exponentially, and the idea of a smart collar that can monitor, track, and locate your dog has become much more reasonable. So has the price point for such technology. Crowdfunding is now a realistic way to get your dream project off the ground too, which opens up the doors for small startups and individuals with vision.

Unfortunately, not every dream becomes reality, and while delving into the world of pet wearables I've encountered a surprising number of failed products. Let's take a look!

Dogtelligent

Dogtelligent was an ambitious Indiegogo project to develop a Connected Collar. Features included an ultrasonic whistle noise, remotely triggered vibration, virtual fence and leash options, tracking, temperature monitoring, and bark control, all with 14 days of battery life, for under $200. It got a lot of press, and was originally set to ship in November of 2015. Then the ship date got pushed back to September of 2016. Finally the entire project was abandoned after two years, despite raising $136,332 from nearly a thousand backers.

What went wrong? It seems the project started with a really big idea, and all of the funding went towards development. Dogtelligent failed to secure funding for actual production. I'm told that a company needs to produce something like 20,000 units to get the best price for components and stuff. Unfortunately, many of the backers were led to believe that there was already a developed product, and they were just funding production, so there are a whole lot of angry would-be Dogtelligent customers.

Voyce

Voyce was a health monitor collar designed to collect diagnostic data like heart rate and respiration, Tracking was not one of its features. This one actually made it to market, and began shipping in early 2015. It included the ability to interface with veterinary software. The collar cost around $300, and required a $10 monthly subscription fee,
What went wrong? Voyce shut down in December of 2016 after failing to make any kind of profit. People weren't buying it. I suspect the price and the subscription fee turned a lot of people off. As many have mentioned, human activity trackers don't require a subscription fee.

Zazu PetLink

Zazu PetLink was supposed to be a sleek, small, brightly-colored tracker and health monitor. They planned to offer a very different sort of subscription, paid on demand and only when you needed it. Despite having over 1000 preorders by summer of 2015, the company appears to have missed their April 2016 ship date. Their Facebook page has not been updated since then, and the company website is still announcing an April 2016 ship date and accepting preorders.

What went wrong? This company is based in Colombia, and I haven't found anything explaining their dropping off the face of the earth. There might be some sources that I haven't found because they aren't in english.

PetTronix RomEO Seekr

 The PetTronix RomEO Seekr was a GPS collar with a handheld tracking device and no subscription fee. It offered active tracking and a virtual leash, and did not require a cellular signal to work. It looks like they had a successful product, and were planning to release an updated one.
What went wrong? I have no idea what is wrong with this company, but they missed their spring 2016 release date, and are no longer responding to people on social media.

Beagard Activity Collar

Beagard was an activity monitor collar that could run for months on a single battery. The collar interacted with a smart phone app. The company was supposedly running a prototype and was ready to start manufacturing completed units in 2015.

What went wrong? It looks like the Beagard Indiegogo campaign only attracted six backers.

Those are my favorite failed pet wearables. There are a few more that may or may not come to fruition, but I've learned not to hold my breath. Have you heard of any others?

Dog Tech: Whistle Pet Tracker

Zip has been wearing her Whistle Pet Tracker for almost two weeks now, and it has been an interesting experience. This is the oldest dog wearable on the market, and the first one I've owned. Originally known as Tagg, this product finally gave dog owners the ability to track their dogs in real time.

The dog wearables market has lagged a bit behind human wearables, but not by much. FitBit has been around since 2008, Tagg came out in 2011, and smartwatches didn't really take off until 2013. They're not terribly different, either. Both human and dog wearables can track activity and location, and primarily interact with your smartphone. For some reason though, most pet wearables require a monthly subscription cost. This seems weird to me, my Moto360 works without a monthly fee.

Note that this screenshot taken at 4:18 pm
showing activity had not been logged since
approximately 8:00 am.

Anyway, the Whistle is performing approximately as expected. It keeps track of Zip's activity and location in a fairly accurate and fun manner. It gives me her average amount of time spent active each day, and sends me a weekly report comparing her activity to similar dogs. (Spoiler alert: Zip is more active than the average young border collie.) Since this is my first dog tech review, I wanted to identify some key factors with which to compare the Whistle to other smartcollar devices. Here's what I came up with:

Cost: $60+montly fee
I purchased my Whistle tracker on Amazon for $60. It requires a monthly fee of $10. There is a discount for buying an entire year of service, however that appears to be non-refundable according to various reviews. I am not yet certain I want to use the device for an entire year, so I am paying month-to-month.

• Initial Purchase Price: $60
• After 1 Year: $190
• After 2 Years: $310
• After 3 Years: $430

Accuracy: Decent
Whistle is reasonably accurate when it updates the tracker. An "Active Tracking" session only updates on her location every 3 minutes though. We've done a couple of tracking sessions on hikes with Zip running off leash, so far I've determined that the app and device could probably get me within shouting distance if she was lost. If there was some reason she couldn't come when I called, I don't know if I'd be able to find her. If she was actively running away from me, it probably wouldn't help very much at all. A dog can run pretty far in three minutes. However, when I initiate a tracking session, it inevitably reports her as being a mile away before reporting her actual location.

Coverage: Not sure yet
So far I've only tried tracking Zip in places with decent cellular signal. The app has been able to find the tracker and give me Zip's approximate location within a couple of minutes.

Safe Zone: Big, round, and static
Whistle's safe zone is defined by its base station, the user can set an acre-sized or large circular Whistle Zone. The zone cannot be smaller, and the shape cannot be changed. Setting an additional zone requires an additional base station. There is no option to set a mobile safe zone, and the app does not seem to know how far my phone is from the tracker.

Notifications: Many, some untimely
I could change this, but currently I get an email, text message, and push notification from the app every time Zip and I leave the Whistle Zone. I get a text message and a push notification every time we return to the Whistle Zone, and it also blows up my phone every time the tracker needs charging or is fully charged, and every three minutes during a tracking session. It's great, there is no way I could possibly miss something going wrong. However, the time it takes to inform me that Zip has left the Whistle Zone varies between fifteen minutes and an hour. Again, precision is not Whistle's forte.

Battery Life: 5-7 days
Surprisingly, the Whistle battery has lasted several days at a time despite Zip and I spending the vast majority of our time away from the base station. The first time I had to charge it was seven days after we started using it. This was with Zip just wearing the tracker to work, though I also took a couple of days off while getting over a cold. I had to charge it again five days later, but we also had two ~20-minute active tracking sessions in that time. It seems like active tracking eats up a ton of battery. On the plus side, it only takes about two hours to go from 20% to fully charged, and it notifies me when it's getting low. On the down side, I have to take the tracker off my dog in order to charge it.

Size: Big
This thing is kind of big and clunky, even on 36-lb Zip. It's not heavy, but it is bulky and stiff. A cat would need to wear the Whistle tracker on a harness, and there's just no way I could use it on Ru.

Durability: Surprising
My friends lost a Whistle tracker in a foot of water for well over an hour. It wouldn't connect to anything until it dried out, but now it works fine.

Dog Tech: Whistle First Impressions

Well, Whistle's 30-day money back guarantee was too good to pass up, so I bought a Whistle GPStracker for Zip. It arrived today, and I thought I'd share my first impressions. This is the first pet wearable device I've had in my possession, though I did get to play with a Pod tracker at SuperZoo.

Whistle is advertised as an end to lost pets. It offers on-demand tracking of your pet's location from your phone. Users can set up a custom Whistle Zone, and the app will alert them if the pet leaves that zone.

Health and activity monitoring is another Whistle feature. The company promises to track long-term health trends, and alert users to changes in their pet's sleep and activity patterns.

Whistle's flagship product was an activity tracker, like a FitBit for your pet. About two years ago they acquired Tagg, a GPS pet tracker. There was a rocky start to the merger for users, as evidenced by all the angry reviews on Amazon. It seems the tracking functionality tanked, while Tagg users complained that the app had become a bloated social media manatee. I'm hoping things have gotten better since then.

What's in the Box

The Whistle arrived mounted on a clear plastic...thing. It took me an embarrassing several minutes to figure out how in the world to remove it. (You have to slide it down, it's the same way it hooks onto the collar mount.) Inside the box a base station, two-piece collar bracket, wall plug, USB cable, and tiny instruction booklet. I also had some trouble locating the cable inside the box insert. (It's in the top.)

The instruction booklet instructed me to plug the base station in. The first page also includes a note that the tracker must be placed on the base station before it can be activated. I set up the base station, plugged it in, slid the tracker into place, and went to work.

Getting Started

The next step was the install the Whistle app on my Android phone, and then follow the steps to activate my tracker. 

Welp, I followed the steps, but there were definitely some missing. First I entered  the tracker ID number, then I filled in Zip's personal (dogtional?) information. Next I chose a picture of Zip. Then the app took me on a little tour of the main screen and told me what everything did. That was it. All done.

According to Whistle's support page, I should also have been prompted to enter a daily fitness goal for Zip, (lol seriously!) and then been asked to enter payment information and set up a service plan. Since the app skipped that step, it seemed I had ruined everything and there was no going back. Both the website and the app told me to complete the activation, but did not offer any options to do so. I finally had to log in and out of the website several times before it would let me start the activation process all over again.

The Whistle Zone

Now that we're all activated, I set up Zip's Whistle Zone. This is an area around the base station that is a "safe zone". If Zip leaves this area, I will receive text messages that she has done so, and hypothetically could begin tracking her. There are basically two immediate issues with the Whistle Zone.

1. It's a circle. My house, like most suburban southern California homes, is on a square-shaped lot.

2. It's way too big. Like, maybe an acre. My house is sitting on a quarter acre, so the minimum size of Whistle Zone also encompasses the neighbors to either side, the drainage ditch behind the house, and the truck parked across the street. So if Zip gets out of the yard but then hangs around with the kids next door, I'll never know that she's out.

What's Next?

Next, Zip and Godzilla and I are going to go to work and see how the Whistle performs. I'm a little worried about the battery life though, apparently leaving it on the base station to charge all day long got us 21.86% battery life. 

Shopping for a GPS Tracker

For a variety of reasons, I would like to purchase GPS trackers for Zip and Sisci Godzilla. We spend a lot of time outdoors, hiking and working, and once in awhile the girls go out of sight. Godzilla is very good about checking in with me every so often, but Zip tends to run far and wide before it occurs to her to come and find me. In addition to leashes, beacon lights, and reliable recalls, it would be nice to have some technology to help me locate my dogs should they ever not come when I call them.

Pet vs. Hunting Dog Tracking

It turns out there are two basic types of dog tracking devices out there: those for everyday tracking of pets and those for closely tracking hunting dogs. Hunting dog tracking devices are intended to be worn for several hours during a hunting trip. They are made for larger dogs, and can be rather bulky. Designed for use in remote areas, they use radio and GPS tracking technology. Many hunting dog telemetry collars are also electronic training collars, though tracking-only collars are also available. The battery on these tends to last about a day, and the range is about five miles. Telemetry systems for hunting dogs can be a pretty big investment, starting at $300 for an inexpensive one-dog setup, or $460 for a two-dog setup. Multi-dog systems that can pinpoint your dog's location and tell you whether they are running, walking, or standing cost well over $1000.

Pet trackers are relatively inexpensive, designed to be worn all day everyday, just in case pets get lost. These pet wearables usually have enough battery life to last for several days, and are largely modeled after human wearables, with smartphone apps and activity goals. There are a whole lot of them, and they use everything from GPS tracking, to cellular phone networks, to Bluetooth to locate your pet. This is an emerging market, and there are quite a few products in development right now, as well as a few that have been available for a few years already. These feel like they would be a better fit for my situation, and they're significantly cheaper than the hunting dog systems, but I'm having trouble deciding on one.

Whistle

Once upon a time there was Tagg, a GPS tracking system for your dog that used cellular netorks and GPS tracking to find your lost dog. The system worked with your phone, and sent you alerts if your dog went outside a predetermined area. Then Whistle, maker of pet activity trackers, purchased Tagg and everything went to hell. Though Tagg/Whistle has been around longer than anything else on the market, there still seem to be some major kinks that need to be worked out. 

Pros: Uses 3G cellular networks and GPS to locate pets. I get decent cellular signal at work, so this would be useful there.

Cons: The app is quite bloated. It is filled with activity tracking, social media connections, and pictures that detract from the basic locating functionality. It's not terribly accurate. It sends false notifications that your pet has left when they're safe, or fails to report when they actually leave their safe zone. It's slow, only updating every three minutes when actively tracking your lost pet. It also won't let you activate tracking when you know you pet is missing, instead you must wait until the system reads that your pet has left to begin tracking them. The battery life is only decent when near the home base station, which means having my dogs at work with me all day would rapidly drain it on a daily basis. There seem to be a lot of complaints about customer service.

Pod

I got to play with a Pod tracker at SuperZoo, and I was incredibly impressed with how light and compact it was. Like the Whistle, it allows you to set up a predetermined safe zone, and will alert you if your pet leaves that zone. However, it has some improvements over Whistle's current system.

Pros: Uses Wifi as well as cellular and GPS tracking, for more accurate indoor locations. Allows the user to set how often the location updates, and the safe zone can just be turned off to save battery life.  Is not dependent upon a base station to define safe zone, can be set anywhere. Comes with two removable batteries, so one can always be charged and ready to go. Much smaller than the Whistle tracker, small enough to out on cats and large birds and tiny dogs. The company offers a 50% upgrade to their newest product. Their customer service seems to be really good.

Cons: The Pod tracker only uses 2G cellular networks. In case you hadn't heard, the remaining vestiges of the AT&T 2G network is going down next month. T-Mobile is keeping at least some of their 2G up until 2020, but coverage is certainly not going to get any better. Pod is supposedly going to come out with a 3G version in February...maybe. At SuperZoo they were claiming it would be out before AT&T killed the majority of the 2G network. The current Pod tracker probably wouldn't be able to track my dogs while we are at work, or on hiking trips. Or possibly at all.

Tractive

Tractive is another GPS+cellular pet tracker. It seems to be a bit more compact than the Whistle, but doesn't offer as many customized options as the Pod.

Pros: Does not seem to need a base station. Allows customized safe zone and alerts if pet leaves that zone.

Cons: Appears to be basically a foreign knockoff of the Whistle, with a lighter but less user-friendly interface and worse customer service. Uses only 2G cellular networks, with no plans to update to something that isn't rapidly becoming obsolete. The annual fee for the device appears to be equal to the purchase price.

Nuzzle

The Nuzzle collar is brand new and just started shipping in the last month or two. Unfortunately, this means there aren't yet product reviews out there about the actual battery life, or other ups and downs.

Pros: Uses 3G cellular networks, GPS, and also Bluetooth. Comes with two batteries. Comes with a custom collar, but can be attached to any collar. Offers temperature monitoring.
Cons: Uses a base station, so may be intended for dogs that spend most of their time at home, like the Whistle.

AKC Link

AKC's Link collar is another brand new product that hasn't been widely reviewed yet. Unfortunately, their website is pretty short on information, so I have no idea if it uses 3G cellular networks, or experiences shorter battery life away from its base station. It sounds pretty awesome, but it's hard to tell what actual user experiences are like.

Pros: Specifically can be used to set mobile safe zones for off-leash activity or visiting friends. Temperature monitoring. Supposedly uses an algorithm to determine what counts as intense activity for your dog, versus moderate activity. 

Cons: No idea if it uses 3G or not. 

PetTronix RoamEO SeekR

This one looks like a significantly more simple product than any of the ones above. The RoamEO is not an activity monitor, it's not a smartcollar, it just tracks your pet. This one just uses GPS, so it should work both in town and way out in the backcountry.

Pros: Has customized safe zone that can be any shape, not just a circle. Safe zone can be mobile for off-leash activity. 

Cons: Has 3-5 mile range for active tracking, not sure if it also does remote monitoring.

Coming Soon...

There are some neat-looking smartcollars and pet tracking devices that may be coming out soon, but are not actually shipping yet. The Kyon smartcollar appears to be marketed toward urban dog owners, as its GPS location technology will tell you what floor of a building your pet is on. The Kyon collar is expected to ship in January 2017. Squeaker's Buddy smartcollar looks pretty amazing, with custom LED light colors and patterns for nighttime safety, as well as the usual suite of smartcollar features. However, it is being developed via Indiegogo campaign, and the updates have been few and far between. Apparently it was fully-funded over a year ago, four months ago they were shooting for a release date of December 2016, and they have not updated in the last four months. It also going to be crazy expensive, $250 for campaign backers and $450 for the general public if it ever comes to market. Wuf is yet another smartcollar with integrated phone app, that may or may not ship in spring of 2017.