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Tracking their health and the location of your furry friend has never been so simple.

Wearables are used to improve quality of life and the health of people but, what would happen if the human being wasn’t the only one that could benefit from artificial intelligence?

Dogs, cats, budgies, rabbits, guinea pigs and all pets, have become a fundamental part of Spanish families.

According to the Pet Study, carried out in June 2021, by Veterindustria and ANFAAC, 50.2% of families have a pet. In 2019, the percentage of families was 39.7%, which is an increase of more than 10 percentage points, strengthening the increase in recent years.

Within this 50%, most (33.2%) have a pet dog, while 17.6% have a cat.

What are the health benefits of having a pet?

Our pets offer us well-being, health and happiness; their company helps to release oxytocin, the pleasure hormone, in addition to reducing levels of cortisol in the blood, facilitating the decline in heart rate and blood pressure.

The relationship with animals is so strong that they become another member of the family and, as such, our role is to look after and protect them. If people use technologies to have a greater control over their own health and obtain information about the condition of their body, why not use it to look after our pets’ health? Given that they don’t know how to, portable devices can become great allies to enable us to communicate with them.

Wearables that enable us to know how our pets are in real time when we are not at home are nothing new; in fact, for a number of years, the market has offered various devices that enable us to keep an eye on our pets, such as cameras or radios similar to baby monitors. 

But these smart devices, despite being a highly useful monitoring tool, fall short. If we really want to have an accurate picture of their health, we need to know more information about our furry friends; data that we can also find out about ourselves such as number of steps, heart rate or body temperature. All of this data helps us to know what condition they are in, whether they are nervous, excited or feel any discomfort. Some wearables companies are using smart bracelet technologies, adapting the parameters and offering smart dog collars as a result.

One of the most popular brands of smart dog collars is Whistle. Their many advantages include the real-time monitoring of parameters that measure pet health. From any location, and via the application, owners can find out how their little four legged friends are; since they collect information about the day-to-day activities of the dog in real time. Another advantage is that the data is recorded in the app and can be shared with the vet if the dog suffers any health problems.

Using this collar, it is possible to detect minor changes in the dog’s habits and vital rhythms, which will make the vet’s assessment easier and they will be able to find out about the condition of health of their furry patient in greater detail.

The collar works using rechargeable batteries, just like smart bracelets; in addition, when purchasing this product you get two batteries.

There are also different models depending on the size of the animal, as well as different colors.

Whistle, the smart dog collar

The functions offered by the dog collar are:

• To track the dog’s location.

Each year, 10 million pets disappear or get lost, for a variety of reasons: a fright from a loud noise, running off after a cat, squirrel or other animal, or simply running away.

In these cases, many animals return, but others don’t know how to get home. Thanks to the smart dog collar, you can find out the exact GPS location, if your pet leaves the perimeter designated a “safe area”, you will receive an alert. 

• To track their health and establish a balanced diet

The collar enables you to know the perfect amount to feed your pets; to do so, it analyses patterns such as age, breed, weight, level of activity, and the different brands of pet food, to get the perfect diet. Additionally, the collar will send an alert through the app when it detects potential problems or changes in behavior.

• To track their physical condition

Receive daily reports about their activity, which will allow you to share complete logs with your vet about your pet’s physical activity, from exercise to rest time.

• To connect to Tele-Vet

The app offers free veterinary consultation services via chat, phone call or email; in addition to informative videos with frequently asked questions and tips about pet health.