10 ms·

Fitbit for Dogs

140 points by samsnelling 13y ago

roin 13y ago
A friend from MIT is doing something similar with a great team. http://www.fitbark.com/ http://www.fitbark.com/
pstinnett 13y ago
Be sure to implement an owner shaming feature: "Your dog has been more active than you today!" But in all seriousness this looks great. My wife and I both use Fitbit and have joked about attaching it to our dog's collar to see how active he is.
untog 13y ago
New: you've always thought of your dog as an extension of yourself, now it can be an extension of your quantified self! I'm sure this has a market, but taking your dog for a walk and getting regular check-ups at the vet seems to work relatively well for most situations.
simonbarker87 13y ago
If the app allowed me to asses my dogs mood then this would be useful. I have an extremely energetic West Highland Terrier and there is a fine balance between enough exercise to tire him out and too much to turn him in to a grumpy, slightly snappy, stroppy teenager. We think the sweet spot is somewhere between 45 mins and 1.5 hours of walking per day - which is quite a big window
- bugschivers 13y ago
  That sounds like an excessive amount of exercise for a dog of that size. Have you considered training & more mental activity, all you are doing is making him fitter and require longer walks in the long run. I have a border collie who we joke runs on nuclear, and getting her to do focused activity such as playing with toys or training tricks or basic obedience can be pretty exhausting. I think that exercise is good, but you shouldn't expect your dog to simply wear out like a battery, if I did that with my BC I would end up walking for 4 hours a day!
  - simonbarker87 13y ago
    Haha, good point. Yes we do all of the mental stuff as well. He is well trained and always has to do something for a reward - dinner won't be served until he does a sit, a down and a 30 second wait in his bed. We play fetch on his morning walk, we play hide the toy/find the toy and lots of tug at home. It's a good point though, I'll do some more searching for other things we can do. We have a trainer who has described him as being the most expressed terrier she has ever come across (lucky us!) and she said the most effective way to absorb his mental and physical energy is to start agility - which we've always wanted to do but he only turned 2 last week and the local club have that as their minimum age.
- samsnelling 13y ago
  That's crazy I have a Westie also, and you are right on point with trying to find the right balance. The reason I posted this was that I love the concept of tracking the amount exercise "Toodles" is getting to see how it affects her mood. The device looks like it's on a big dog, and I'm wondering how it will look on a small/medium size dog as well.
  - simonbarker87 13y ago
    Agreed, I guess there is a minimum size that they could go down to but if it was ok I would buy one. I think people forget how much a dog's mood is affected by their walking time - playing is all well and good but there is something primal for a dog about walking, especially walking with intent/purpose. I think with big dogs it's fine to just exhaust them and they'll loll about and doze but with a small dog if you push it too far you just get a grumpy git.
just_observing 13y ago
"So you took the dogs for a long walk then, and didn't just stop at the pub?"
kurtfunai 13y ago
Seems like a cool concept for owners that leave their dog at home during the day. Could finally figure out what those rascals are up to. Or if an uncommon spike of activity happens in the middle of the day, you may want to check in at home.
- uptown 13y ago
  "Could finally figure out what those rascals are up to." I've checked with a webcam. Almost always sleeping.
  - sharkweek 13y ago
    We crate our lab mix during the work day -- he currently barks for about 2-3 minutes when we leave, chews on his toys (man he loves that kong full of peanut butter), falls asleep, wakes up for a few minutes, chews on his toys again, falls asleep; rinse and repeat. I think we broke it down to like: 90% sleeping 5% chewing on stuff 5% sitting there doing nothing but awake
    - waffle_ss 13y ago
      Perhaps it's just because I grew up on a farm and our dogs roamed freely during the day, but this sounds like a miserable life for a dog. Is this a common thing for people to do?
      - onli 13y ago
        It is common behaviour for dogs to be inactive when they are alone (I guess that on a farm with other dogs they don't need humans that much). Or do you mean letting the dog alone?
      - sharkweek 13y ago
        Yes, very -- it's his den. He loves being in there and enters on his own will as it's his safe place where he gets all the best toys as well as sleeps at night. A good owner will NEVER use crate time as punishment, it's only supposed to be used as a positive place. It's also important when they're young to not associate it with you leaving, so you typically put them in a few times randomly while you're home during their puppy months, and leave lots of treats/fun toys for short period where the dog can still see you. Slowly they'll learn that it's their own private and "fun" place. It really prevents him from getting into too much trouble while we're away, but eventually when he's less "puppy" (he's currently 9 months), we'll slowly start letting him roam the house/yard for short periods while we're gone, working our way up to a full work day. Fear not though, when we're home he's with us, and he always gets about 1-2 hours of exercise as well as a trip to our local dog park daily.
wilhil 13y ago
I want one for me! :)
joeblau 13y ago
The product looks amazing. Congrats to Ben, Steven, Nate, Kevin and the rest of the team working on this. Great job.
- eclipxe 13y ago
  And Brad!
  - alabut 13y ago
    And Krista!
- NDizzle 13y ago
  I hope you all like money.
hawkharris 13y ago
Honestly, I think this will benefit the owners as much as the dogs. My dog has tons of energy and potential to exercise, but usually the problem is that I don't have the energy or time to take him outside. I suspect that a major benefit of this product will be that it transforms owners' lifestyles, encouraging them to be more active and take breaks from being inside and/or online when necessary.
- reeses 13y ago
  Doggie day care. It's the best thing you can do for them. Yes, it's yuppie, but as with hiring housekeepers, it makes so many 'problems' go away. My dogs love going to play with other dogs, toys, pools, fountains, and trained handlers, and they love coming home to play and run. They get to socialize and I still get a lot of quality time with them.
chenster 13y ago
I wonder how dog would think about it?
- sharkweek 13y ago
  Guaranteeing my labrador would find a way to get it off and eat it... total punk, that one
rainhacker 13y ago
What about the dogs privacy ?
- efsavage 13y ago
  I'm not sure there is any animal less concerned with privacy than a dog :)
victoknight 13y ago
Why no GPS integration? Would it affect the battery life to poorly?
- efsavage 13y ago
  This is a neat device, but GPS would seal the deal for me. I've looked at Tagg (http://www.pettracker.com/ http://www.pettracker.com/) which has it, but it isn't waterproof which a must for my Lab who loves to swim.
- joeblau 13y ago
  I have a buddy that works at Garmin and from what I understand, GPS receivers are a huge battery drain and they are also pretty big/heavy in relation to other sensors. If you look at GPS running watches for instance, even the small ones are pretty beefy and they only last up to 8 hours while active.
  - swamp40 13y ago
    Well, the way it would work (and I'm sure how the TAGG does it) would be to leave the GPS and cellular modem powered down most of the time. But say once every 30 minutes, they would all power up, grab the GPS data, fire off an SMS message with the coordinates, then power back down again. It's not perfect, but it's a good compromise.
dfc 13y ago
"Whistle lets you know who's spending time with your dog while you're away, be it family or friends." How the hell does it do that? Before I saw the founders comment here on HN I thought this was an elaborate ruse because of this "feature."
- pdeuchler 13y ago
  Seconded. I thought it was a joke at first, making fun of the "It's X, but for dogs!" meme. Definitely seems like this is solving a non-problem
- qq66 13y ago
  Maybe it exposes a Wi-Fi access point and sees which MAC addresses connect?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
acgourley 13y ago
There is potential to save a ton of money in vet bills via early warning of potential disease in pets[1]. Activity and food intake information is enough for many. Adding some sort of food logging component could make it really powerful. I also wonder if the USP for the product should shift to the savings in vet bills or the extension of life. [1] Obviously the response cannot be to go to the vet for each alert, but instead to take some action at home.
- dfc 13y ago
  Adding some sort of food logging component could make it really powerful. If you are not already aware of your dog's food intake there is already a big problem and a pretty good chance that you are a disinterested owner. Dogs should be fed a certain amount of food each day. The dog's food bowl is not an all fido can eat buffet that is constantly refilled. I also wonder if the USP for the product should shift to the savings in vet bills or the extension of life. It seems that before the USP shift you would need some actual research and judging from the answer to "What research supports Whistle's approach?" there is no research to support this proposition.
  - bargl 13y ago
    There are two schools of thought out there. And I think it boils down to your specific dog. My dog used to get enough of a workout that I could leave her with a free feeding bowl. She was at a GREAT weight. Then she had a knee injury and she started gaining weight. Since then I've switched to timed feedings. Also from their site... http://www.whistle.com/support/ http://www.whistle.com/support/ "Whistle is supported by veterinary research around activity and behavior as a measure of pet health from leading academic institutions such as the University of California at Davis, North Carolina State University, and the University of Pennsylvania. We work closely with the veterinary community to bring new data to this research across a much broader population of dogs."
    - dfc 13y ago
      I have never heard a vet, breeder or trainer recommend free feeding a dog. Also from their site? That is not an "also" that is what I was referring to. You read that paragraph and concluded there must be research supporting this? When I read that paragraph the first thing that I was "where are the citations?"
swamp40 13y ago
I follow activity monitors rather closely. The wifi connectivity is the most unusual part of this design. There's never been a nice, simple way to setup wifi from a small device before. The trick they are using here is to use the Bluetooth connection to setup the wifi. It's not a bad approach (in fact, they like it so much they're trying to patent it). But TI recently came out with the CC3000, a wifi chip that can grab the setup information on its own (well, with the help of a smartphone app). This avoids the hassles of managing two different 2.4GHz wireless systems on a small device. I think that's where the future of wifi setup is heading.
- mietek 13y ago
  Withings have been using the dual Bluetooth/Wi-Fi approach for a while.
- cschneid 13y ago
  The fitbit aria scale had a clever way to set itself up. As far as I could tell, it had my computer join a known network, and broadcast the SSID & Password that my computer already knew off to the scale. So the scale gets put in setup mode, and listens for that temp network. At least that's what it appeared to be doing when I set it up....
slipperyp 13y ago
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 you said you want to do but that you're not making time for" if it's not something you want to do. I run and love to do it. Here's how I know I'm different from other people this way: when I started running a lot (about 6 years ago) I would ask friends if they wanted to go for a run and they would say "no." I wanted to get fit, but I also wanted to run. I know people who ask "how can I run more?" and I ask "well, do you enjoy running?" and usually they say they don't. I don't tell them they need to buy different shoes or gadgets to try to coerce them into doing it, I suggest they look at other kinds of activities that will fulfill them and try to incorporate that into their life. I believe too many people confuse fitness with the goal of exercise. Happiness should be the goal. It's fair (and probably right) to say fitness will bring happiness, but it's important to keep those in perspective and realize that if exercise (a means to fitness) isn't bringing happiness, then maybe the exercise should change. Lastly - 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. Pets need a lot of attention and activity - they express very clearly when they aren't getting enough if you pay attention. And you can calibrate the type of dog that might suit your lifestyle before you get one. Sorry to rant over problems with fitness and pet ownership that I feel that a product like this brings up - the product itself may be totally fine and I'll probably get downvoted for saying some of this. Clearly there's somewhat of a need for a product like this.
- IanDrake 13y ago
  >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?
  - yannyu 13y ago
dongoz 13y ago
finally! this has been a major pain point for me in the past
pdeuchler 13y ago
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.
- picklefish 13y ago
  The only thing I could see something like this doing is alerting the owner if the dog is barking all the time while they're out or something. You could always just set up a webcam for that though. Also, I wonder how much you have to charge it. Can it survive rain and mud?
- danielpal 13y ago
  Disagree 100%. Just pre-ordered one. I am a very attentive and interested dog owner. Here's what I'll get: 1. I pay a dog walker to exercise my dog every-day for 1 hour. I want to make sure he is actively walking and not just sitting around the park. 2. Dog Sleep: I want to keep a healthy sleep vs activity percentage. I think this is great. I love this trend of constantly tracking vs going to the vet every 6 months to find out whats wrong.
  - pdeuchler 13y ago
    Do you not trust your dog walker? That would be a problem this device cannot fix. I can tell the minute I get home if my dogs got a good walk or not. I'm also interested in how you plan on acting upon this new knowledge about your dog's sleeping habits.
    - kmfrk 13y ago
      I think it's pretty clear that there's a startup opportunity here. "Uber for dogs". DAE ...? EDIT: FFS, I hate this world: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm.
    - 13y ago
espadagroup 13y ago
Not sure this service lives up to such an awesome domain :/
davidbrent 13y ago
I can't put my finger on it, but this app makes me very sad.
ErikAugust 13y ago
"It's an Airbnb for dogs." http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/04/airbnb-for-dogs-rover-com-raises-7m-led-by-the-foundry-group-rolls-out-animoto-powered-video-service/ 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 http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm
- greghinch 13y ago
  Never underestimate the seemingly ludicrous amounts of money people are willing to shell out for their dogs (and other pets).
  - hayksaakian 13y ago
    inb4 pets.com
    - greghinch 13y ago
      Ha, it's a fair point, but the failure of pets.com had little to do with the fact that it was a site selling pet-related goods and more to do with poor investment choices, bad management, and unsustainable pricing.
weisser 13y ago
Design looks fairly similar to Misfit Wearables (http://misfitwearables.com/ http://misfitwearables.com/). Not quite as sleek but I don't expect the user to complain.
mckilljoy 13y ago
This looks like the kind of product that will do well in San Francisco -- SF is where the venn diagram of "dog owners" and "gadget owners" overlap.
- ruswick 13y ago
  Also, most of the cohort of SF residents fit into the most important category, "people with more money that they know what to do with."
sutro 13y ago
Will this tell me how many times per hour my dog licks his balls?
rschmitty 13y ago
Nifty, nice job! Does it work with horses? I feel pretty in touch with my dogs since I work from home and provide their exercise...but I could see my wife wanting to see how the horse is doing since it is kept at stable and she can't make it out every day. Also typically horse people are super rich (tho we are not) and already paying lots and lots on horse care, might be good to explore. Minor css bug for firefox/win http://imgur.com/wT4nXYS http://imgur.com/wT4nXYS
luisivan 13y ago
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.
- adestefan 13y ago
  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.
callmeed 13y ago
If "monitoring your dog's daily activity" isn't a first world problem, I don't know what is. That being said, I would buy a similar/simpler device for my cat–not because I give a damn if my cat how many steps it takes but because I want to know where it goes all day (on a map).
- jmatthis 13y ago
  And on another day: What about a version for tracking children? I have to say that I find this somewhat spooky.
  - callmeed 13y ago
    I think that already exists–at least for driving and driving + texting [1]. I'm actually okay with it for those uses (I have a teen and 3 smaller kids). I don't need to know where my teen is at all times but if I can reduce (a) her chances of dying and (b) my car insurance bill, sweet. [1] http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/aaa-testing-device-track-teen-drivers/nW8H8/ http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/aaa-testing-device-tra...
simpsond 13y ago
To me this looks like top notch execution of a silly idea.
- etjossem 13y ago
  Quantified self wasn't enough. Behold ... the quantified dog!
- kapilkale 13y ago
  Do you own a dog?
stevehawk 13y ago
that is one expensive ass pedometer.
tapatio 13y ago
Thinking about getting one of these for my GF to make sure she gets enough daily exercise.
charlesju 13y ago
I just pre-ordered! What a great idea! My whole business life revolves around charts and graphs. I can't wait to apply the same level of deep analysis to helping my pet stay healthy and happy!
tibbon 13y ago
I attached my Fitbit to our kitten a while ago. Worked pretty well and the data was interesting. Also, now my Fitbit has kitten teeth marks from her finding it something fun to chew on.
needacig 13y ago
But what about the cats?! Cats care about fitness just as much as dogs do. When can I order a feline version?
sksksk 13y ago
This is a great untapped market, people go crazy for pets and spend a hell of a lot of money on them. I think the pitch should be "turn your terrier into a tamagotchi"
- ruswick 13y ago
  Indeed. People often succumb to irrationality when dealing with their pets, and are certainly inclined towards purchasing superfluous things for them. This is an excellent market from which these guys can probably extract a lot of profit.
danielhonigman 13y ago
This is just cruel. Just take your dog(s) for a run once or twice a day.
SkittlesNTwix 13y ago
I'm really shocked that whistle.com was available or attainable.
- ry0ohki 13y ago
  They raised $6 million already.
boca 13y ago
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.
- GuiA 13y ago
  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.
malandrew 13y ago
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.
Urgo 13y ago
Was going to buy one until I saw "android coming soon" Build android first, or at the same time, or no thanks.

140 points by samsnelling 13y ago

roin 13y ago

A friend from MIT is doing something similar with a great team. http://www.fitbark.com/ http://www.fitbark.com/

Be sure to implement an owner shaming feature: "Your dog has been more active than you today!" But in all seriousness this looks great. My wife and I both use Fitbit and have joked about attaching it to our dog's collar to see how active he is.

untog 13y ago

New: you've always thought of your dog as an extension of yourself, now it can be an extension of your quantified self! I'm sure this has a market, but taking your dog for a walk and getting regular check-ups at the vet seems to work relatively well for most situations.

simonbarker87 13y ago

If the app allowed me to asses my dogs mood then this would be useful. I have an extremely energetic West Highland Terrier and there is a fine balance between enough exercise to tire him out and too much to turn him in to a grumpy, slightly snappy, stroppy teenager. We think the sweet spot is somewhere between 45 mins and 1.5 hours of walking per day - which is quite a big window

bugschivers 13y ago
That sounds like an excessive amount of exercise for a dog of that size. Have you considered training & more mental activity, all you are doing is making him fitter and require longer walks in the long run. I have a border collie who we joke runs on nuclear, and getting her to do focused activity such as playing with toys or training tricks or basic obedience can be pretty exhausting. I think that exercise is good, but you shouldn't expect your dog to simply wear out like a battery, if I did that with my BC I would end up walking for 4 hours a day!
- simonbarker87 13y ago
  Haha, good point. Yes we do all of the mental stuff as well. He is well trained and always has to do something for a reward - dinner won't be served until he does a sit, a down and a 30 second wait in his bed. We play fetch on his morning walk, we play hide the toy/find the toy and lots of tug at home. It's a good point though, I'll do some more searching for other things we can do. We have a trainer who has described him as being the most expressed terrier she has ever come across (lucky us!) and she said the most effective way to absorb his mental and physical energy is to start agility - which we've always wanted to do but he only turned 2 last week and the local club have that as their minimum age.
samsnelling 13y ago
That's crazy I have a Westie also, and you are right on point with trying to find the right balance. The reason I posted this was that I love the concept of tracking the amount exercise "Toodles" is getting to see how it affects her mood. The device looks like it's on a big dog, and I'm wondering how it will look on a small/medium size dog as well.
- simonbarker87 13y ago
  Agreed, I guess there is a minimum size that they could go down to but if it was ok I would buy one. I think people forget how much a dog's mood is affected by their walking time - playing is all well and good but there is something primal for a dog about walking, especially walking with intent/purpose. I think with big dogs it's fine to just exhaust them and they'll loll about and doze but with a small dog if you push it too far you just get a grumpy git.

just_observing 13y ago

"So you took the dogs for a long walk then, and didn't just stop at the pub?"

kurtfunai 13y ago

Seems like a cool concept for owners that leave their dog at home during the day. Could finally figure out what those rascals are up to. Or if an uncommon spike of activity happens in the middle of the day, you may want to check in at home.

uptown 13y ago
"Could finally figure out what those rascals are up to." I've checked with a webcam. Almost always sleeping.
- sharkweek 13y ago
  We crate our lab mix during the work day -- he currently barks for about 2-3 minutes when we leave, chews on his toys (man he loves that kong full of peanut butter), falls asleep, wakes up for a few minutes, chews on his toys again, falls asleep; rinse and repeat. I think we broke it down to like: 90% sleeping 5% chewing on stuff 5% sitting there doing nothing but awake
  - waffle_ss 13y ago
    Perhaps it's just because I grew up on a farm and our dogs roamed freely during the day, but this sounds like a miserable life for a dog. Is this a common thing for people to do?
    - onli 13y ago
      It is common behaviour for dogs to be inactive when they are alone (I guess that on a farm with other dogs they don't need humans that much). Or do you mean letting the dog alone?
    - sharkweek 13y ago
      Yes, very -- it's his den. He loves being in there and enters on his own will as it's his safe place where he gets all the best toys as well as sleeps at night. A good owner will NEVER use crate time as punishment, it's only supposed to be used as a positive place. It's also important when they're young to not associate it with you leaving, so you typically put them in a few times randomly while you're home during their puppy months, and leave lots of treats/fun toys for short period where the dog can still see you. Slowly they'll learn that it's their own private and "fun" place. It really prevents him from getting into too much trouble while we're away, but eventually when he's less "puppy" (he's currently 9 months), we'll slowly start letting him roam the house/yard for short periods while we're gone, working our way up to a full work day. Fear not though, when we're home he's with us, and he always gets about 1-2 hours of exercise as well as a trip to our local dog park daily.

wilhil 13y ago

I want one for me! :)

joeblau 13y ago

The product looks amazing. Congrats to Ben, Steven, Nate, Kevin and the rest of the team working on this. Great job.

eclipxe 13y ago
And Brad!
- alabut 13y ago
  And Krista!
NDizzle 13y ago
I hope you all like money.

hawkharris 13y ago

Honestly, I think this will benefit the owners as much as the dogs. My dog has tons of energy and potential to exercise, but usually the problem is that I don't have the energy or time to take him outside. I suspect that a major benefit of this product will be that it transforms owners' lifestyles, encouraging them to be more active and take breaks from being inside and/or online when necessary.

reeses 13y ago
Doggie day care. It's the best thing you can do for them. Yes, it's yuppie, but as with hiring housekeepers, it makes so many 'problems' go away. My dogs love going to play with other dogs, toys, pools, fountains, and trained handlers, and they love coming home to play and run. They get to socialize and I still get a lot of quality time with them.

chenster 13y ago

I wonder how dog would think about it?

sharkweek 13y ago
Guaranteeing my labrador would find a way to get it off and eat it... total punk, that one

rainhacker 13y ago

What about the dogs privacy ?

efsavage 13y ago
I'm not sure there is any animal less concerned with privacy than a dog :)

victoknight 13y ago

Why no GPS integration? Would it affect the battery life to poorly?

efsavage 13y ago
This is a neat device, but GPS would seal the deal for me. I've looked at Tagg (http://www.pettracker.com/ http://www.pettracker.com/) which has it, but it isn't waterproof which a must for my Lab who loves to swim.
joeblau 13y ago
I have a buddy that works at Garmin and from what I understand, GPS receivers are a huge battery drain and they are also pretty big/heavy in relation to other sensors. If you look at GPS running watches for instance, even the small ones are pretty beefy and they only last up to 8 hours while active.
- swamp40 13y ago
  Well, the way it would work (and I'm sure how the TAGG does it) would be to leave the GPS and cellular modem powered down most of the time. But say once every 30 minutes, they would all power up, grab the GPS data, fire off an SMS message with the coordinates, then power back down again. It's not perfect, but it's a good compromise.

dfc 13y ago

"Whistle lets you know who's spending time with your dog while you're away, be it family or friends." How the hell does it do that? Before I saw the founders comment here on HN I thought this was an elaborate ruse because of this "feature."

pdeuchler 13y ago
Seconded. I thought it was a joke at first, making fun of the "It's X, but for dogs!" meme. Definitely seems like this is solving a non-problem
qq66 13y ago
Maybe it exposes a Wi-Fi access point and sees which MAC addresses connect?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

acgourley 13y ago

There is potential to save a ton of money in vet bills via early warning of potential disease in pets[1]. Activity and food intake information is enough for many. Adding some sort of food logging component could make it really powerful. I also wonder if the USP for the product should shift to the savings in vet bills or the extension of life. [1] Obviously the response cannot be to go to the vet for each alert, but instead to take some action at home.

dfc 13y ago
Adding some sort of food logging component could make it really powerful. If you are not already aware of your dog's food intake there is already a big problem and a pretty good chance that you are a disinterested owner. Dogs should be fed a certain amount of food each day. The dog's food bowl is not an all fido can eat buffet that is constantly refilled. I also wonder if the USP for the product should shift to the savings in vet bills or the extension of life. It seems that before the USP shift you would need some actual research and judging from the answer to "What research supports Whistle's approach?" there is no research to support this proposition.
- bargl 13y ago
  There are two schools of thought out there. And I think it boils down to your specific dog. My dog used to get enough of a workout that I could leave her with a free feeding bowl. She was at a GREAT weight. Then she had a knee injury and she started gaining weight. Since then I've switched to timed feedings. Also from their site... http://www.whistle.com/support/ http://www.whistle.com/support/ "Whistle is supported by veterinary research around activity and behavior as a measure of pet health from leading academic institutions such as the University of California at Davis, North Carolina State University, and the University of Pennsylvania. We work closely with the veterinary community to bring new data to this research across a much broader population of dogs."
  - dfc 13y ago
    I have never heard a vet, breeder or trainer recommend free feeding a dog. Also from their site? That is not an "also" that is what I was referring to. You read that paragraph and concluded there must be research supporting this? When I read that paragraph the first thing that I was "where are the citations?"

swamp40 13y ago

I follow activity monitors rather closely. The wifi connectivity is the most unusual part of this design. There's never been a nice, simple way to setup wifi from a small device before. The trick they are using here is to use the Bluetooth connection to setup the wifi. It's not a bad approach (in fact, they like it so much they're trying to patent it). But TI recently came out with the CC3000, a wifi chip that can grab the setup information on its own (well, with the help of a smartphone app). This avoids the hassles of managing two different 2.4GHz wireless systems on a small device. I think that's where the future of wifi setup is heading.

mietek 13y ago
Withings have been using the dual Bluetooth/Wi-Fi approach for a while.
cschneid 13y ago
The fitbit aria scale had a clever way to set itself up. As far as I could tell, it had my computer join a known network, and broadcast the SSID & Password that my computer already knew off to the scale. So the scale gets put in setup mode, and listens for that temp network. At least that's what it appeared to be doing when I set it up....

slipperyp 13y ago

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 you said you want to do but that you're not making time for" if it's not something you want to do. I run and love to do it. Here's how I know I'm different from other people this way: when I started running a lot (about 6 years ago) I would ask friends if they wanted to go for a run and they would say "no." I wanted to get fit, but I also wanted to run. I know people who ask "how can I run more?" and I ask "well, do you enjoy running?" and usually they say they don't. I don't tell them they need to buy different shoes or gadgets to try to coerce them into doing it, I suggest they look at other kinds of activities that will fulfill them and try to incorporate that into their life. I believe too many people confuse fitness with the goal of exercise. Happiness should be the goal. It's fair (and probably right) to say fitness will bring happiness, but it's important to keep those in perspective and realize that if exercise (a means to fitness) isn't bringing happiness, then maybe the exercise should change. Lastly - 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. Pets need a lot of attention and activity - they express very clearly when they aren't getting enough if you pay attention. And you can calibrate the type of dog that might suit your lifestyle before you get one. Sorry to rant over problems with fitness and pet ownership that I feel that a product like this brings up - the product itself may be totally fine and I'll probably get downvoted for saying some of this. Clearly there's somewhat of a need for a product like this.

IanDrake 13y ago
>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?
- yannyu 13y ago

dongoz 13y ago

finally! this has been a major pain point for me in the past

pdeuchler 13y ago

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.

picklefish 13y ago
The only thing I could see something like this doing is alerting the owner if the dog is barking all the time while they're out or something. You could always just set up a webcam for that though. Also, I wonder how much you have to charge it. Can it survive rain and mud?
danielpal 13y ago
Disagree 100%. Just pre-ordered one. I am a very attentive and interested dog owner. Here's what I'll get: 1. I pay a dog walker to exercise my dog every-day for 1 hour. I want to make sure he is actively walking and not just sitting around the park. 2. Dog Sleep: I want to keep a healthy sleep vs activity percentage. I think this is great. I love this trend of constantly tracking vs going to the vet every 6 months to find out whats wrong.
- pdeuchler 13y ago
  Do you not trust your dog walker? That would be a problem this device cannot fix. I can tell the minute I get home if my dogs got a good walk or not. I'm also interested in how you plan on acting upon this new knowledge about your dog's sleeping habits.
  - kmfrk 13y ago
    I think it's pretty clear that there's a startup opportunity here. "Uber for dogs". DAE ...? EDIT: FFS, I hate this world: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm.
  - 13y ago

espadagroup 13y ago

Not sure this service lives up to such an awesome domain :/

davidbrent 13y ago

I can't put my finger on it, but this app makes me very sad.

ErikAugust 13y ago

"It's an Airbnb for dogs." http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/04/airbnb-for-dogs-rover-com-raises-7m-led-by-the-foundry-group-rolls-out-animoto-powered-video-service/ 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 http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm

greghinch 13y ago
Never underestimate the seemingly ludicrous amounts of money people are willing to shell out for their dogs (and other pets).
- hayksaakian 13y ago
  inb4 pets.com
  - greghinch 13y ago
    Ha, it's a fair point, but the failure of pets.com had little to do with the fact that it was a site selling pet-related goods and more to do with poor investment choices, bad management, and unsustainable pricing.

weisser 13y ago

Design looks fairly similar to Misfit Wearables (http://misfitwearables.com/ http://misfitwearables.com/). Not quite as sleek but I don't expect the user to complain.

mckilljoy 13y ago

This looks like the kind of product that will do well in San Francisco -- SF is where the venn diagram of "dog owners" and "gadget owners" overlap.

ruswick 13y ago
Also, most of the cohort of SF residents fit into the most important category, "people with more money that they know what to do with."

sutro 13y ago

Will this tell me how many times per hour my dog licks his balls?

rschmitty 13y ago

Nifty, nice job! Does it work with horses? I feel pretty in touch with my dogs since I work from home and provide their exercise...but I could see my wife wanting to see how the horse is doing since it is kept at stable and she can't make it out every day. Also typically horse people are super rich (tho we are not) and already paying lots and lots on horse care, might be good to explore. Minor css bug for firefox/win http://imgur.com/wT4nXYS http://imgur.com/wT4nXYS

luisivan 13y ago

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.

adestefan 13y ago
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.

callmeed 13y ago

If "monitoring your dog's daily activity" isn't a first world problem, I don't know what is. That being said, I would buy a similar/simpler device for my cat–not because I give a damn if my cat how many steps it takes but because I want to know where it goes all day (on a map).

jmatthis 13y ago
And on another day: What about a version for tracking children? I have to say that I find this somewhat spooky.
- callmeed 13y ago
  I think that already exists–at least for driving and driving + texting [1]. I'm actually okay with it for those uses (I have a teen and 3 smaller kids). I don't need to know where my teen is at all times but if I can reduce (a) her chances of dying and (b) my car insurance bill, sweet. [1] http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/aaa-testing-device-track-teen-drivers/nW8H8/ http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/aaa-testing-device-tra...

simpsond 13y ago

To me this looks like top notch execution of a silly idea.

etjossem 13y ago
Quantified self wasn't enough. Behold ... the quantified dog!
kapilkale 13y ago
Do you own a dog?

stevehawk 13y ago

that is one expensive ass pedometer.

tapatio 13y ago

Thinking about getting one of these for my GF to make sure she gets enough daily exercise.

charlesju 13y ago

I just pre-ordered! What a great idea! My whole business life revolves around charts and graphs. I can't wait to apply the same level of deep analysis to helping my pet stay healthy and happy!

tibbon 13y ago

I attached my Fitbit to our kitten a while ago. Worked pretty well and the data was interesting. Also, now my Fitbit has kitten teeth marks from her finding it something fun to chew on.

needacig 13y ago

But what about the cats?! Cats care about fitness just as much as dogs do. When can I order a feline version?

sksksk 13y ago

This is a great untapped market, people go crazy for pets and spend a hell of a lot of money on them. I think the pitch should be "turn your terrier into a tamagotchi"

ruswick 13y ago
Indeed. People often succumb to irrationality when dealing with their pets, and are certainly inclined towards purchasing superfluous things for them. This is an excellent market from which these guys can probably extract a lot of profit.

danielhonigman 13y ago

This is just cruel. Just take your dog(s) for a run once or twice a day.

SkittlesNTwix 13y ago

I'm really shocked that whistle.com was available or attainable.

ry0ohki 13y ago
They raised $6 million already.

boca 13y ago

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.

GuiA 13y ago
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.

malandrew 13y ago

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.

Urgo 13y ago

Was going to buy one until I saw "android coming soon" Build android first, or at the same time, or no thanks.