I can use all the help I can get trying to manage my three big, willful dogs at home and in the outdoors. So I understand the desire to apply the same tech solutions that have made work and home more convenient, more connected, and safer to dog ownership. Ive tried connected dog trackers with great enthusiasm. But after some testing, I found them all lacking. Let me save you time and money by explaining where they went wrong and point you toward the products and training approaches that actually work.
Whistle, Fi, and Halo all fall into a new category of product known as connected dog collars. Each one offers some degree of location or activity trackingor in the case of Halo, training and geofencingwhile connecting to your smartphone through Bluetooth, cellphone signal, or WiFi. These arent the only connected dog collars on-sale right now, but these three products are the most well known, and together represent all technologies currently available in the space.
Whistle currently offers two devices: an $80 motion-based fitness tracker and a $150 unit that adds live GPS tracking. Both are small, unobtrusive, and clip to your dogs existing collar. Using the Whistle app, you can define a perimeter around your yard and receive an alert if your dog leaves that area. In addition to tracking exercise intensity and duration, Whistles motion sensors are equipped with algorithms designed to identify and alert you of problem behaviors like licking and scratching. Fitness tracking plans start at $5 per month; location trackingstarts at $8.25. Battery life for the GPS tracker is said to be three days if the dog is away from your WiFi connection.
The $150 Fi Series 2 collar offers a very similar feature set to Whistle. It provides GPS location tracking and alerts if your dog leaves a designated area, as well as activity tracking. Its main advantage appears to be battery life, with up to three weeks of run time if your dog is away from WiFi signal (which I assume it will be on any walk). Fis monthly subscription starts at $7.50 per month.
By offering a shock-based training and geo-fence aid, Halo promises substantially more function than Whistle or Fi. And, for $1,000-per-collar, with a $2.70 monthly subscription fee, it better. But Halos unique selling point is clear: with the tagline The go-anywhere wireless fence, the brand says its product will contain your dog within custom areas you can define anywhere, at home or away. Halo works with celebrity dog trainer Cesar Millan and runs owners through a mandatory 21-day training school on the app that teaches them how to humanely and productively apply shock training to their dogs. You need to recharge your Halo collar every night.
Take your dog for a walk around town, and youll probably notice that the number of signal bars on your phone varies as you walk past tall buildings, through heavily wooded areas, or up and down hills. Thats because the UHF radio frequencies that your phone uses to communicate with a cell tower must travel in a straight line between source and receiver. In other words,cell phone signal is line-of-sightphysical obstructions between your phone and a tower can block it.
The problem likely gets worse if you take your dog on a hike outside of town. While all of these devices are capable of receiving location information from GPS satellites, they transmit that location to your phone using cellular phone networks. The potential for problems double, because were talking about two devices here: the collar on your dog, and the phone in your hand. The second either one of those loses its cell signal, you lose the ability to track your dog.
This problem was evident testing Whistle back in Los Angeles, where I used to live. My favorite spot to hike the dogs there was Runyon Canyon, a mega-popular city park in the Hollywood Hills. There, we found cellphone blackout areas at the bottom of the parks canyons and the crowded trailhead on the parks south side. Whistle wasnt able to track dogs or communicate with my cell phone through parts of the most popular dog park in LA.
Borrowed or rented a car lately? Shared a wireless speaker with your partner? We all know how challenging it can be to pair your phone with another device using Bluetooth, maintain that connection as you leave and return to an area, and share a device with multiple users.
Bluetooth-enabled devices transmit radio signals on the same frequency as other wireless gadgets, like baby monitors and cordless phonesthe same frequency emitted by microwaves and fluorescent lights. All of our homes and public spaces are packed full of devices that compete for that frequency or interfere with it. Smart collars also use Bluetooth to communicate with your phone when theyre in close proximity for functions like setting changes, or in the case of Halo, training inputs.
The first step to using any shock collar is to put it on your dog, and begin testing to see what degree of shock is needed to elicit a response. As Ive explored at length, the humane use of shock in dog training relies on finding the minimum effective dose that works on your dog. The goal isnt to hurt them; its to establish a clear and immediate communication cue. So new Halo in hand, I fitted it to our middle dog, Bowie, used my paired phone to set the shock function to its lowest setting, and began pushing the test button in the app to transmit shocks.
Or at least I thought I did. An athletic 75-pound husky-German shepherd mix, Bowie is a tough little guy, so I wasnt surprised when Id moved through the first half of shock intensity without seeing any sort of reaction. I kept turning the level up and pushing the button to fire the shock until Id reached the maximum level. The apps interface kept telling me it was working, but Bowie was just sniffing around like usual, unbothered. So I pushed the shock button a few more times. All of a sudden, Bowie did a giant backflip while letting out an awful yelp. Turns out my phone hadnt been communicating with the collar, so the first shock he received was at one of the highest levels. I took his collar off and didnt try it again until a couple weeks had passed.
Aside from trouble reliably transmitting training cues, Bluetooth also suffers from a limited range (typically 30 feet or so, not enough to cross my backyard) and generally unreliable connection. The technology throws a wrench in the ability of any of these products ability to provide consistent training cues or assured safety.
The Global Positioning System is a series of 24 satellites launched and controlled by the Department of Defense. Each of those satellites constantly transmits its location and the exact time. To determine its location, the GPS receiver on your device looks at the signals transmitted by at least four of those satellitesand compares the time it took those signals to arrive to calculate its position on earth in three dimensions.
Buildings, trees, terrain, and other obstructions can block satellite transmissions. So while the best-case scenario accuracy level for any of these devices is seven feet or less, that number can rapidly grow, depending on your surroundings.
While simply tracking a dog, temporary variances in location accuracy shouldnt be a major problem. If your dog is 100 yards ahead of you on the trail, it doesnt really matter if your display is saying 99 or 110 yards. But variances in accuracy can cause issues when it comes to geo fencing.
Testing Whistle and Fis escape alert functions by having a friend leash up one of the dogs and walk them away from the house, neither product proved able to reliably provide an alert of the dogs escape until they were well away from the house. In some cases, that alert came after theyd moved a couple blocks away, across a couple of major roads.
In the case of Halo, location accuracy problems proved more fundamental. I wanted to use it to contain the dogs within the yard of our cabin. Since its located near Glacier National Park, there are large predators like grizzly bears and wolves in the immediate vicinity, but the lake its located on also freezes over in the winter, and that ice is often of dubious thickness. Keeping the dogs in the yard is a matter of life or death.
I tested Halos accuracy by holding two collars in my hand and moving around and off my cabins property. I was sometimes able to walk out onto the ice with no feedback from the collars whatsoever, and up into the wooded hills on the other side, again with no reaction from the collars. In other cases, the collars would skip the audible warnings and move straight to applying shocks. Sometimes, the shocks would come at the precise border Id defined, and other times those shocks would occur ten yards or more past that point.
Fitting the collar to Wiley, our oldest, and most strong-headed dog, I noticed him receive a correction at the border of the property, then continue his adventure onwards, unchecked.
Given that the purpose of a shock collar is to provide consistent, immediate, clear training cues, this is incredibly problematic. By failing to reliably alert my dogs of the border of the property, they werent able to receive effective training to stay within it. And by applying shock unpredictably, Halo created the risk of frightening the dogs and causing them to run further into danger.
I have since given the collars to friends who live on a ranch outside of town, here in Montana. Their property is all grassland, with an unobstructed view of the sky and covered in strong, consistent cellphone signal. Its not near any roads or other major dangers. In that best-case environment, they have found that Halo is able to keep their small dogs from visiting the nearest neighbors, several hundred yards away.
Despite the frustrations I ran into testing these collars, I am successfully able to keep my dogs contained at home, at the cabin, or in camp and can even track them when theyre off-leash. Heck, I even know how much exercise they get. Heres how.
To keep our dogs in the yard and off the busy street we live on here at home in Bozeman, Montana, I built a six-foot tall fence. The total cost? $5,000. Or only $2,000 more than the cost of three Halo collars. And that fence is 100 percent reliableas long as my friends remember to shut the gate.
At the cabin, Ive installed a sort of aerial dog run by tensioning a strong rope at head height between two trees. Clipping the dogs leashes to that allows some small degree of outside activity and bathroom breaks. No matter how I hang it, the dogs always find a way to get tangled, but it is safe. No dog has gotten out on the ice or chased a moose yet.
In camp, I just rely on the recall Ive built into each dog with years of consistent positive reinforcement training. Theyre a ways from being absolutely reliable with a simple call, but I also choose to camp a long ways from other people, so its not a huge issue.
I use a Garmin Astro 430and T5 collars. The system isnt cheap, starting at $650 for the handheld device and a collar, and $250 for each additional collar. And its not without its own problems: the interface isnt very user friendly, the handheld receiver runs on expensive lithium batteries that have to be fed every few hours of use, and the collars use a proprietary charger that you have to buy a new collar to replace. But man, this thing is reliable.
Unlike the collars mentioned above, Garmin employs a radio transmitter (the big antennae you can see the my dogs wearing in the photo on top of this article) to transmit the location of each device back to the handheld receiver. That gives the Astro a nine-mile range between human and dog, even in heavily wooded mountains. The collars are also made from the kind of robust materialsnickel-plated steel hardware, polyurethane-coated nylon strapsthat have stood up to all of the abuse our dogs can throw at them for two years with no signs of wear. While the big antennae might seem awkward, our dogs have never gotten them stuck on anything, and so far as I can tell, dont even notice theyre there.
Each of the dogs got about ten miles of moderately-paced hiking in last Saturday. How do I know that? I clipped on their leashes, put on my boots, and took them on a ten-mile hike. I can tell how far we went by looking at a map and watching the terrain we cross. I can gauge how theyre doing by observing their body language. And I can determine if it was enough exercise by whether or not they fall asleep when we get home. I dont need an app to tell me that stuff, and neither do you.
Here is the original post:
The Unsuccessful Intersection of Dogs and Technology | Outside Online - Outside
- Report: Apple acquires French startup behind AI and computer vision technology - 9to5Mac - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- CACI Awarded $1.3 Billion Task Order to Provide Communications and Information Technology Expertise to U.S. ... - Business Wire - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- What is semi-automated offside technology and how does it work? - The Athletic - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- Can technology save us from an ecological apocalypse? - interview - CyberNews.com - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- Does LaLiga have goalline technology? What about other major leagues? - AS USA - April 22nd, 2024 [April 22nd, 2024]
- Driver Assistance Technologies: NHTSA Should Take Action to Enhance Consumer Understanding of Capabilities and ... - Government Accountability Office - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- OpenAI reveals Voice Engine, but won't yet publicly release the risky AI voice-cloning technology - The Associated Press - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Nexalin Technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: US$0.63 loss per share (vs US$0.30 loss in FY 2022) - Yahoo Finance - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- 'Battle for your brain': What the rise of brain-computer interface technology means for you - WBUR News - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Firsthand Technology Value Fund (NASDAQ:SVVC) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com - Defense World - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Suzhou Anjie Technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: Misses Expectations - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Inside the shadowy global battle to tame the world's most dangerous technology - POLITICO Europe - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- The Technological Pivot Of History: Power In The Age Of Exponential Innovation Analysis - Eurasia Review - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- 'Women Behind the Wheel' explores the intersection of gender, culture and cars - NPR - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Shanghai Weihong Electronic Technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: Revenues Beat Expectations, EPS Lags - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- A Look At The Fair Value Of Powertech Technology Inc. (TWSE:6239) - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Weaver Network Technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: EPS Beats Expectations, Revenues Lag - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- New York City will introduce controversial AI gun detection technology amid subway crime crisis - SiliconANGLE News - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Earnings Not Telling The Story For Beijing CTJ Information Technology Co., Ltd. (SZSE:301153) - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Vontron Technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: EPS: CN0.35 (vs CN0.34 in FY 2022) - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Huawei Revenue Rises as Technology Giant Commits to Growth - Technology Magazine - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Shenzhen Fortune Trend technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: Beats Expectations - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- USPACE Technology Group Limited (HKG:1725) May Have Run Too Fast Too Soon With Recent 28% Price Plummet - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- NYC to test gun-detecting technology in subway system - SILive.com - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Cancer Treatment: 3D Printing and Scanning Technology - Surviving Mesothelioma - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Does Contel Technology (HKG:1912) Have A Healthy Balance Sheet? - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Oppo Find X7 series now supports 5G-Advanced technology with up to 10 Gbps downlink speed - The Indian Express - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- DCPS receives nearly $20k in grants for technology program advancements - The Owensboro Times - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Hangzhou Electronic Soul Network Technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: Misses Expectations - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- International Business Digital Technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: CN0.07 loss per share (vs CN0.019 loss in FY ... - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Analysts Are More Bearish On Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (SZSE:002709) Than They Used To Be - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Daheng New Epoch Technology Full Year 2023 Earnings: EPS: CN0.11 (vs CN0.16 in FY 2022) - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Tesla offers U.S. customers a month's trial of its driver-assist technology - Reuters - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Slam Dunk Technology: How AI Is Revolutionizing The Game Of Basketball - Forbes - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- China Environmental Technology and Bioenergy Holdings Full Year 2023 Earnings: CN0.03 loss per share (vs CN ... - Simply Wall St - March 31st, 2024 [March 31st, 2024]
- Vuma and Huawei team up to launch industry first 50G PON ... - Light Reading - July 15th, 2023 [July 15th, 2023]
- See What Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner Look Like With Aging ... - E! NEWS - July 15th, 2023 [July 15th, 2023]
- AFRL conducts swarm technology demonstration > ONE AFRL ... - afrl.af.mil - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Shell to use new AI technology in deep sea oil exploration - Reuters - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Former Google CEO says AI at 'center' of technology competition between US and China - Fox News - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Agriculture and technology combine to drive the industrys growth - Times of India - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Technology and the Skills Shortage - Financial Times - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- New License Agreement Announced for Next-Generation Base ... - BioPharm International - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Orion Governance Licenses Technology from GE to Deliver Next Generation Data Governance Solution - Yahoo Finance - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- World needs to be 'vigilant' as AI technology improves and ... - KTVZ - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- After Losing Son, Ridgefield Mother Pushes For Technology to Prevent Hot Car Deaths - NBC Connecticut - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- After last year's fan violence in Queretaro, has Fan ID technology ensured safety for Liga MX fans? - ESPN - ESPN - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Bleach: The Soul Reapers' Gigai Technology, Explained - CBR - Comic Book Resources - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Cogito Tech - Catalyzing Transformation in Global Healthcare ... - Business Standard - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Barriers to Use of Technology in Diabetes Management - Patient Care Online - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Blue technology startups presented at the inaugural Gulf Blue ... - The University of Southern Mississippi - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- CureVac files expanded patent lawsuit against Pfizer/BioNTech over ... - Reuters - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Harrison Ford defends use of de-ageing technology in new Indiana Jones film: I know that that is my face - Yahoo News - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Sanwo-Olu: Nigeria needs technology to compete with likes of China - Guardian Nigeria - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Prejudice in technology, and the necessity of time: Books in brief - Nature.com - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- New technology uses ordinary sunlight to disinfect drinking water ... - Stanford University News - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Incredible AI technology shows what UK cities will look like in 2050 - LADbible - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Your Firm and Your Tools - Top Technology Initiatives - CPAPracticeAdvisor.com - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Tom Hanks: I could appear in movies after death with AI technology - BBC - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Transform your career with Chief Technology Officer online course - Economic Times - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- e-Learning Jamaica Technology in Education Conference Slated for ... - Government of Jamaica, Jamaica Information Service - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Andrew Maynard | What's a Luddite? From Industrial Revolution to ... - TribDem.com - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- At Yale, Kaloyan Kolev used technology to create and to make ... - Yale News - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- This technology could alter the entire planet. These groups want every nation to have a say. - MIT Technology Review - April 17th, 2023 [April 17th, 2023]
- The secret lives of snakes and how Georgia College uses technology to study them - 13WMAZ.com - April 8th, 2023 [April 8th, 2023]
- Technology Innovation Institute to host 2nd 'Additive Manufacturing the Future' seminar in Abu Dhabi - Devdiscourse - April 8th, 2023 [April 8th, 2023]
- Can Array Technologies Inc (ARRY) Stock Rise to the Top of Technology Sector Thursday? - InvestorsObserver - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Here's Why We Think Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology (ETR:PFV) Might Deserve Your Attention Today - Simply Wall St - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- Will WM Technology Inc (MAPS) Stay at the Top of the Technology Sector? - InvestorsObserver - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- Ways in which technology can enhance the abilities of law enforcement agents to assist the community - Times of India - February 7th, 2023 [February 7th, 2023]
- Meet The Titans: Google And OpenView (Microsoft) Faceoff On Chat Technology Innovation - Forbes - February 5th, 2023 [February 5th, 2023]
- MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:MTSI) Stock Has Been Sliding But Fundamentals Look Strong: Is The Market Wrong? - Simply Wall St - February 5th, 2023 [February 5th, 2023]
- WVU Dept. of Ophthalmology acquires state-of-the-art technology for simulation lab - WV News - February 5th, 2023 [February 5th, 2023]
- Executive Vice President of Technology & Operations Alok Sethi Just Sold A Bunch Of Shares In Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) - Simply Wall St - February 5th, 2023 [February 5th, 2023]
- Is Now The Time To Put Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR) On Your Watchlist? - Simply Wall St - January 27th, 2023 [January 27th, 2023]
- There Are Reasons To Feel Uneasy About New Oriental Education & Technology Group's (NYSE:EDU) Returns On Capital - Simply Wall St - January 27th, 2023 [January 27th, 2023]
- Technology has set us on a path toward one of two dystopian scenariosbut its not too late to save democracy - Fortune - January 17th, 2023 [January 17th, 2023]
- IonQ Acquires Entangled Networks And Locks In Quantum Networking Technology Critical To Its Future Success - Forbes - January 10th, 2023 [January 10th, 2023]
- Industrialization 3.0 - How Technology, Wall Street, And The Government Can Help The US Win In A World Of Re-Industrialization - Forbes - January 10th, 2023 [January 10th, 2023]
- Connect with aspirational India through technology and work in interest of world: Anurag Thakur to NRIs - Economic Times - January 8th, 2023 [January 8th, 2023]