We had a unusual request a few weeks ago. As a blogger you get requests to review all sorts of things. This felt like one of the more unusual. It’s not often you hear about something that basically works as a fitbit for dogs. I had a chat with Penny (we all chat with our dogs don’t we?!) and we both agreed to test it and put it through its paces.
The PitPat calls itself a dog activity monitor. Don’t expect to find out much more than that, it tells you when and how much play, resting, walking, and running your dog has each day. I expect in time that this will expand to all sorts but really these are the most important things anyway. It comes with a battery already in place and a piece of velcro to attach and a spare one to put away.
I did wonder how well it would stay on Penny’s collar as she loves to go through brambles, bushes and streams but so far it has not budged. Setting it up is very simple. You just download the free app and set it up around your dogs details. You can find a specific breed or as in Penny’s case just choose mixed breed. You do need to know her weight and age but that’s it, pop in the information and you are ready to go for a walk.
I have to confess I did get slightly confused (doesn’t take much). I presumed that it tracks the dogs movement and exercise whilst out and like a fitbit you would see the progress as it happens but you wait untill you get home or wherever you are going after the walk and press thr PitPat button this will then connect to the app and you will get to see what your dog has achieved. A bit like this;
So you can see it breaks down how much of each activity the dog has done and gives a time chart as to when it happened. I found it to be incredibly precise and it worked out just the same as I timed it. Another bonus of the PitPat was I became more aware of making sure she had enough exercise each day, with the children and a busy life sometimes especially in winter the dog walks can become more difficult to squeeze in but this was a reminder to get out and of course this meant I have been doing more walking too which is fabulous exercise and a great stress relief for me.
Something that I hadn’t considered was what would happen when she went to kennels whilst we went away for a long weekend to the city. The PitPat stayed on her collar and she was dropped off on the Thursday night till the Monday morning. Just have a look at the results;
You can see on the Thursday she had 75 minutes activity whilst at home with us. On the Friday she had in total 20 minutes exercise, Saturday 35 minutes and Sunday was better at 60 minutes. I have to say I’m pretty upset to see on the Friday in particular she had such little exercise and the Saturday wasn’t much better. I didn’t tell the kennels about the PitPat and they obviously didn’t know what it was or maybe she would of had longer exercise. They may have a reason for it and I have not asked as yet but if you ever use a kennels the PitPat could become even more useful to checking on what your dog has been up to.
I have to say as dog accessories go this is one of my absolute favourites. My son loves it and checks every night what his dog has been up to. We are getting out even more than normal to make sure she has reached her daily goal, you can see what she is up to when you are not around, it keeps her and us fit, it’s simple to use and it’s hardy enough to stand all weathers and conditions (it even survived a Snow storm). It sells at roughly £40 and in my opinion it’s very much worth it. For more information just have a look over on the website PitPat, or just feel free to ask me or Penny and we will try and advise. Happy dog walking!
Leave a Reply