Dr. Jennifer Bloss Radio Show

Have you ever lost your I-phone and used the “find my Iphone” app? Wouldn’t it be great if there was an app to find your lost dog that works the same way?

Do you use a fit bit to track your number of steps in a day? Wouldn’t it be great if our overweight pets had their own activity tracker?

You are in luck! New technology can help find your lost dog and track their activity!

If you google smart collars for dogs, a long list of devises will come up for you to compare and contrast.

Costs for the collars or wearable devices range from $50-150 plus a monthly subscription fee of $5-9$/month. Most connect to an app on your smart phone.

Some only have a single function- a gps tracker to find your lost dog, and others have multiple functions that also include

- remote activated sound - for training purpose

- light -to use during night walks for safety and also make it easier to find your lost dog in the dark

Some monitors can track health information

- thermometer -to track the temperature of your dog and its environment – help prevent heat stroke

- heart rate, arrhythmias, respiratory rate,

-activity tracker- calculate how many calories your overweigh dog is burning, but also possibly signify a seizure, severe scratching, or separation anxiety if increased activity, or decreased activity as a result of arthritis.

- body postitions- is your pet sleeping soundly or is it moving a lot because it is uncomfortable?

There are so many things these smart collars can do!

Even Uncle Sam is using the collars to provide real time health monitoring of dogs training and working for the US customs and border protection. They use over 1,500 dogs across the country to sniff out firearms, currency, smuggled food and drugs and also for search and rescue.