谁来最终狗狗的活动率？
你会经常看到，当人们运动时会穿戴一个健身追踪器，比如耐克FuelBand运动腕带。那么当现在出现专门为狗狗设计的健身追踪器时，也就见怪不怪了。但是仅仅凭一个健身追踪器就能让狗狗和它久坐的主人都去运动吗？
如果长坐而不运动的内疚感化身为动力的话，答案是肯定的。主人甚至会带着狗狗在寒冷的冬天也会带着狗狗出去溜达，来完成它的健身任务。运动得越多，主人和狗狗在一起的时间也就越多些。这是件好事，这样狗狗就不会眼巴巴的望着主人“带我去公园逛逛吧”，而主人因正在忙于工作遗忘这事。
直升机设备帮助你养育狗狗
智能狗哨安装在狗狗项圈不显眼的地方，追踪你的狗狗的运动。它可以收集狗狗运动的距离、奔跑量、玩耍量以及休息量等数据，然后它会通过蓝牙把数据传到你的智能手机上。
如果您是那种想24小时追踪您狗狗活动的用户，例如，它都吃了什么东西，都在哪玩了，干了什么，并想把这些分享给其它爱狗人士，那么此款智能狗哨还拥有一个社交元件您可能会很喜欢。
智能狗哨的APP让你可以追踪狗狗动态，分享狗狗的食物和摄入的药品，还可以发表评论，还可以上传你和狗狗的亲密合照。这些信息还可以分享到Facebook或Twitter上。若果你比较喜欢图表形式，软件还可以把狗狗每天和每周的活动情况以及趋势以图表形式显现在屏幕上。
如果你要离家数小时去工作并担心遗漏什么，此时，您的智能手机就派上用场了。和你手机配对的蓝牙会收集数据并下载下来传给你的手机。它会向你展示狗狗的运动情况，活动情况，让你能够感觉到您花这么多钱购买此装备是值得的。
“我也希望APP里有GPS功能，这样就能看到狗狗的具体位置等情况，但是你要是想让其他人帮忙带一下狗狗，这时GPS功能可能会被用来欺诈。因为这个只能狗哨显示的是设备的位置，而不是狗狗的位置信息。日后，GPS功能会不会用上还很难说”，智能狗哨的设计者史蒂夫·爱德曼如是说。
“GPS功能的确是我们未来要考虑的。目前的技术还不能广泛支持这样小的装置，考虑到高昂的月使用费和短暂的电池寿命。与此同时,我们会将位置信息与业主的手机应用程序中合并，尽管这不会帮助预防损失，但会形成一个图像来显示狗狗与主人失去联系的位置。”
起床跑步
把智能狗哨设置成为人设计的健身追踪器并不难。包装盒里并没装太多的文件，只有一页启动指南，上面印着激励我们去跑步的漂亮图片。
装置本身就是一个小银盘，通过一个简便的橡胶塑料钮安在狗狗项圈上，而且狗狗一般不会注意到，防止引起狗狗的排斥。
在你使用它和狗狗去逛公园前，还有几件事情要做。首先，你得给它充好电，充电器是一个磁性贴，你可以插在任意一个USB接口上，充满电大概只需要一个小时，而且使用七天之后依旧剩余有电。
其次，你要在软件商店下载APP，IOS和Android都支持。软件会提醒你打开蓝牙以便匹配设备。但用户不喜欢的地方在于软件会消耗很多手机电量，这样你的手机电量可能比平时消耗的快些。
设置好后可以加入和狗狗的合照，狗狗的体重、大小、品种等信息，并可以设置运动目标了。
这个只能狗哨看起来很耐用，而且是防水的。在产品网站和包装盒上，有条狗戴着狗哨在海边和沙滩上玩耍。
经过测试，虽然没去海边，但经历过一两次下雨之后，用毛巾把表面水擦去，设备依旧正常运行。
编辑小结：
如果你真的是和狗狗很亲密，想记录狗狗的每条信息，了解狗狗的生活细节，那这款设备对你而言再好不过了。对于一般人而言，130美元价格真的是不低，这些钱可以用来买大量的狗粮了，每天带着狗狗出去遛弯也已经足够了。
How Lazy Is Your Dog? The Whistle Activity Monitor Will Tell You
Like many people, part of my job entails sitting in front of my computer most of the day. That means my dog, Jade, is also not exercising most of the day. That’s not good for either of us. So when the people behind theWhistle Activity Monitor contacted me and asked if I wanted to try out their fitness tracking device for dogs, Jade and I jumped at the chance.
Who tracks a dog’s activity levels?
You knew this was coming, right? wherver you look, people are wearing fitness trackers. I wear the Nike FuelBand myself, which has totally given up on me. Still, perhaps it’s not so strange that there are now fitness trackers for dogs. But can a pricey ($130) canine fitness tracker increase the likelihood that a sedentary writer and her furry companion would both get off their duffs?
You knew this was coming, right? wherver you look, people are wearing fitness trackers. I wear the Nike FuelBand myself, which has totally given up on me. Still, perhaps it’s not so strange that there are now fitness trackers for dogs. But can a pricey ($130) canine fitness tracker increase the likelihood that a sedentary writer and her furry companion would both get off their duffs?
If guilt is the primary motivator here, then the answer is yes. I wound up taking Jade for extra walks and even braved the near-freezing weather so she could run around at the off-leash dog park with her friends, just so she could make her fitness goal for the day. We moved more, and we spent more time together. That in itself is a Good Thing, as Martha Stewart would say, because I had gotten way too good at ignoring those big brown eyes that pleaded, “Please take me to the park!” in order to make work deadlines.
Helicopter-parenting your dog
The Whistle sits unobtrusively on your dog’s collar and tracks your dog’s activity. It collects data on how much walking, running, playing, and resting your dog does, and then it transmits it via Bluetooth to your smartphone.
The Whistle sits unobtrusively on your dog’s collar and tracks your dog’s activity. It collects data on how much walking, running, playing, and resting your dog does, and then it transmits it via Bluetooth to your smartphone.
If you are the kind of person who likes to know what your dog is doing 24/7, who would like to track everything that goes into her mouth, and also want to share all that info with other dog lovers, then there’s a social component to the Whistle that you might enjoy.
The Whistle app lets you track and share your dog’s food and medicine intake, make comments, and add photos of all the fun you two are having together. You can then share this information either privately between owners or on Facebook or Twitter. If you like infographics, you can look at the Trends screen and pore over the analyses Whistle compiles for you on your dog’s daily and weekly activity.
Working long hours away from home and afraid you’ll miss something? This is wher your smartphone comes in. The Whistle pairs with your phone via Bluetooth and downloads activity data whenever you’re in range. It will show when your dog had bursts of activity, so you can see whether the expensive dog-walking service you hired to exercise Rover while you were at work actually showed up and did its job.
I do wish there was GPS tracking on this app so I could see wher my dog was in addition to the intensity of the exercise. If you’re relying on someone else to exercise your dog, it seems way too easy to cheat, since the Whistle is basically a pedometer and would respond to moving the unit but not the dog. GPS may or may not be in the works, says Whistle co-founder Steven Eidelman.
“GPS capability is definitely something we’re evaluating for the future. Current technology that is broadly available doesn’t allow for a better service given size of device, expensive monthly fee, and poor battery life. … In the meantime, we’ll be incorporating location information from owners’ phones into the app, so while that won’t help with loss prevention, it will help paint a picture of wher the dog has gone with its owners.”
Getting up and running
The Whistle isn’t any harder to set up than a fitness tracker meant for humans. There’s not a lot of documentation in the box, but a single-page jump-start guide with nice pictures (think IKEA) got us off to the races pretty quickly.
The Whistle isn’t any harder to set up than a fitness tracker meant for humans. There’s not a lot of documentation in the box, but a single-page jump-start guide with nice pictures (think IKEA) got us off to the races pretty quickly.
The device itself is a silver disk that attaches to your dog’s collar via an easy-to-assemble rubber and plastic insert. Jade is naturally skeptical about everything, but she didn’t even notice the Whistle on her collar.
Before you can go for a romp in the park, however, there are a few things that need to happen. Some of them require a good amount of patience. First, you will need to charge the Whistle. The device attaches magnetically to a charging station that plugs into any USB port. I plugged mine into my laptop so I could keep working while I waited to play with Jade. A full charge, which was still going impressively strong seven days later, took about an hour.
Downloading the app from either the iTunes Store or the Google Play store was easy, and the app will remind you to turn on your Bluetooth in order to pair your phone with the device. This is the only part of installation that I didn’t like, and the Whistle app seemed to draw down my phone’s battery. For the week I used the Whistle, I had to recharge my iPhone a lot more.
once I had the hardware set up, I added a photo of Jade, put in a bit of information about her (weight, breed, and so on) and set the activity goal using the handy slider. I like to underpromise and overdeliver, so I set it for a modest 30 minutes a day.(And no, the irony that Jade’s photo shows her curled up and napping is not lost on me.)
The Whistle seems to be durable enough for most levels of activity and is waterproof. On the website and on the box, there are photos of a damp dog staring wistfully out to sea while wearing his Whistle, contemplating another swim or run on the beach. Jade is a border terrier and a sworn landlubber, so we won’t be fighting the undertow anytime soon, but the unit did experience a downpour or two. A simple wipe off with a towel kept it ticking and looking pretty.
The upshot?
This is a good device if you are really, really involved with your dog and feel the need to record everything she does and consumes (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Jade and I are close, no doubt, but my feeling is that $130 buys a lot of dog food. For now, I think we’ll just assume that if we make it outside for a daily long walk, it’s good enough for the both of us.
This is a good device if you are really, really involved with your dog and feel the need to record everything she does and consumes (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Jade and I are close, no doubt, but my feeling is that $130 buys a lot of dog food. For now, I think we’ll just assume that if we make it outside for a daily long walk, it’s good enough for the both of us.
