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Fitbit for Dogs

whistle.com

91–100 of 132 posts

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#91

Firstly I thought it was a parody, then I moved to the Company page and figured out it isn't. Well, maybe there is a market for this after all.

I still can't tell if it's really good satire or actually real. I'm waiting for Jonathan Swift to show up at any moment.

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#92
Instead of spending time setting goals, monitoring progress and charts, worrying about unmet goals, and god knows what else why not just spend that additional time with the poor dog. If you do that, I am pretty sure that you will be able to gauge your dog's health better than this. Don't mean to offend anyone just my 2 cents.

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#93

I look at this and think "finally, someone's found a way to capitalize on the disposable income of people whose homes are already full of exercise bikes being used as coat hangers and whose wrists are nearly ready to collapse under the weight of their fitbits, pedometers, and GPSes." Here's the secret to health and exercise: you have to want to do it. Another $100 device to tell you "you're still not doing the thing…

I agree that the devices don't change your workout habits, but if you have the habits or want the data then this is a cool thing.

I don't think this post has ANYTHING to do with people who aren't prepared to take car of their pets. It's just a way that people can track over the lifetime of their dog, activity and health. I've got a 9 year old dog and have had her since she was 1. I wish I could see where she's declined in activity over those years.

Also, she blew out her knee. This might have helped me see a decline in activity and begin to worry about my dog even before she began to show a limp.

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#94
post #92

Instead of spending time setting goals, monitoring progress and charts, worrying about unmet goals, and god knows what else why not just spend that additional time with the poor dog. If you do that, I am pretty sure that you will be able to gauge your dog's health better than this. Don't mean to offend anyone just my 2 cents.

False dichotomy, one does not preclude the other.

You can very well spend time with your dog, and still enjoy the metrics that this thing will give you.

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#95
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2. Dog Sleep: I want to keep a healthy sleep vs activity percentage. What is the healthy ratio? Are you a veterinarian?

I'd imagine that detecting an abrupt change in sleeping patterns could be a useful thing to know. It definitely is in humans.

So:

1. Detecting an abrupt change in sleep patterns in humans is useful.

2. Dogs are not humans.

Ergo: Detecting an abrupt change in sleep patters in dogs is useful.

Anthropomorphizing dogs is terrible. It is certainly one of the biggest causes for behavior problems in dogs.

Maybe it is because I have only ever had dogs that were bred for protection but I do not want to think about what my dogs sleep patterns are/were. Does whistle monitor for sounds so that I can disregard the change in sleeping pattern due to a siren? Foot traffic on the sidewalk? Thunder?

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#96
post #90

If you are a non-attentive, dis-interested pet owner you probably don't care enough to buy this. If you are attentive and interested in your pet this device tells you nothing new. Fitbit works because you can correlate the data to your personal well being. Unless this device magically discerns the dog's well being I don't see how it provides any actionable statistics.

Ok so I have to disagree. I'm a very attentive dog owner. Matter of fact I'd say I'm really good. And my memory is also pretty good. I'm going to lay out what's nice about this device. 1) You have a lifetime of data on your dog (and with further improvements to the device I'm sure you'll get heart rate as well as movement). This is awesome, and here's why. My dog blew her knee out. She got a lot less exercise and is…

Dammit you've just convinced me I need to get this.

Who doesn't love more data on everyday things anyway? This seems really cool.

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#97

I look at this and think "finally, someone's found a way to capitalize on the disposable income of people whose homes are already full of exercise bikes being used as coat hangers and whose wrists are nearly ready to collapse under the weight of their fitbits, pedometers, and GPSes." Here's the secret to health and exercise: you have to want to do it. Another $100 device to tell you "you're still not doing the thing…

>I have a small ax to grind over people getting pets who aren't prepared to give the pets the attention they need to be happy. While I generally agree, how do you reconcile this with the thousands of dogs euthanized every day in kill shelters because no one will take them?

I'm not thrilled about that at all, either. My dog is from a shelter (it was a no-kill shelter but I looked at kill shelters, too). Basically, I think more people need to take care of their pets and more people need to help sterilize pets that there don't appear to be anyone to take care of. My parents got a few ferral cats in Texas "fixed" and I know a guy in rural Peru who was supporting this mostly out of his own pocket. I think those types of things are probably the best approach (and I donate money to a local shelter and know one of the services they perform is sterilization of stray animals). Mostly, though, I think that's just another sad situation in addition to people not taking care of their pets (a mild form of animal abuse) and think they are mostly separate issues.

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#98
Give me a device that can tell when my dog is about to try to go to the bathroom in the house and corrects that behavior automatically with a dog whistle and you have yourself a winning product.

On top of that, just add features that trains the dog for you. Like automatic "heel" commands or making sure the dog doesn't crawl onto the couch and leave dog hair all over it while you are out of the house.

Use geofencing to make sure the dog can't wonder past a certain distance from the house without hearing a dog whistle. It would be like a reprogrammable electric fence without all the cost of burying wires in the yard and worrying about the wire getting cut by accident and the dog running away. Add geolocation so I can have a "Where is my dog?" feature, just like I can already find my iPhone.

Re: Fitbit for Dogs

#100

"It's an Airbnb for dogs." http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/04/airbnb-for-dogs-rov... "It's a Uber for dogs." http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm

Never underestimate the seemingly ludicrous amounts of money people are willing to shell out for their dogs (and other pets).

inb4 pets.com
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