There shouldn’t be any surprise what you can’t do with a smartphone now-a-days, so it should come as no surprise that yes, you can now track your pet dog or cat with your smartphone. All you need to have is to kit your furry friend with a GPS locator, and you’ll have peace of mind in the event that your pet makes a mad dash for the hills one day.
There are quite a few pet trackers out there, but when it comes to dogs especially, one that stands out from the rest is Whistle.
Whistle is a collar-mounted GPS tracker that is completely waterproof to IP67 and incorporates a rechargeable battery that’s good for 30 days. Whistle is also quite small, measuring only 1.5 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches, and weighs only 1.3 ounces.
Not only can Whistle be used to locate your dog if it goes missing, but the app can also be used to monitor your dog’s long-term health trends (information such as vaccination dates and such), and in addition, you can also set custom goals or receive notifications if there are significant changes to their activity or sleep patterns.
Whistle is compatible with iPhones and iPads running iOS 7.1 or greater, and Android devices which run 4.0.3 or greater.
Whistle costs $79, and also requires a service plan that ranges from $6.95 to $9.95 per month.
Because cats are smaller than dogs, the tracker itself has to be smaller also. While there are some trackers that claim to work for both cats and dogs, they’re only recommended for cats over 8 pounds, and as you can imagine, that’s a pretty big cat.
But there is a wearable specially designed for cats and it’s called Pawtrack, and it is has been “designed especially for cats, for cat owners by cat owners.”
Pawtrack allows your kitty to be tracked both by GPS and the GLONASS constellation of satellites. It can also detect when the cat is at home by identifying the Wi-Fi network, and at which point the device powers down to save on the battery.
About the only drawback to the Pawtrack is the short battery life. It only lasts about three days, so you’ll have to remember to charge it regularly.
Because cats are very active animals, the Pawtrack features a safety collar which can come off in the event of the cat getting into any difficulty with it.
Pawtrack costs $160, but that does include a 12-month subscription to the locator service.
