I Bought a Device That Tracks My Dog’s Every Move
My new dog, Kaya, is fast and energetic — and potentially very easy to lose
When we got our dog, Kaya, last year, I was ready for life with a puppy. I’d read the books and watched endless training videos. What I wasn’t prepared for was the endless assault of companies trying to sell me a million kinds of dog things.
From smart dog cameras with lasers to automated fetch toys, device makers have come up with a slew of gadgets for pet owners to splurge on — even though a stash of dumb toys would do the job just fine, as we’ve recently argued on Debugger. I’ve resisted these smart things so far with a single exception: I caved and bought a GPS tracking collar called the Whistle Go Explore for Kaya.
Kaya is a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever, which are fast, energetic dogs with a high prey drive. They’re sometimes used for hunting, and I was warned by my vet to consider investing in a way to track her down in case she darts off in the woods when she sees a rabbit. A friend of mine lived this exact scenario and spent an entire stressful day searching for their dog before finally being reunited.
After researching GPS trackers for pets, the $129 Whistle Go Explore seemed like the obvious choice. There are only a small handful of “trackers”…
