Fitbit for Dogs

I look at this and think "finally, someone's found a way to capitalize on the disposable income of people whose homes are already full of exercise bikes being used as coat hangers and whose wrists are nearly ready to collapse under the weight of their fitbits, pedometers, and GPSes."<p>Here's the secret to health and exercise: you have to want to do it. Another $100 device to tell you "you're still not doing the thing you said you want to do but that you're not making time for" if it's not something you want to do. I run and love to do it. Here's how I know I'm different from other people this way: when I started running a lot (about 6 years ago) I would ask friends if they wanted to go for a run and they would say "no." I wanted to get fit, but I also wanted to run. I know people who ask "how can I run more?" and I ask "well, do you enjoy running?" and usually they say they don't. I don't tell them they need to buy different shoes or gadgets to try to coerce them into doing it, I suggest they look at other kinds of activities that will fulfill them and try to incorporate that into their life.<p>I believe too many people confuse fitness with the <i>goal</i> of exercise. Happiness should be the goal. It's fair (and probably right) to say fitness will bring happiness, but it's important to keep those in perspective and realize that if exercise (a means to fitness) isn't bringing happiness, then maybe the exercise should change.<p>Lastly - I have a small ax to grind over people getting pets who aren't prepared to give the pets the attention they need to be happy. Pets need a lot of attention and activity - they express very clearly when they aren't getting enough if you pay attention. And you can calibrate the type of dog that might suit your lifestyle before you get one.<p>Sorry to rant over problems with fitness and pet ownership that I feel that a product like this brings up - the product itself may be totally fine and I'll probably get downvoted for saying some of this. Clearly there's somewhat of a need for a product like this.

Honestly, I think this will benefit the owners as much as the dogs.<p>My dog has tons of energy and potential to exercise, but usually the problem is that I don't have the energy or time to take him outside.<p>I suspect that a major benefit of this product will be that it transforms owners' lifestyles, encouraging them to be more active and take breaks from being inside and/or online when necessary.

If you are a non-attentive, dis-interested pet owner you probably don't care enough to buy this. If you are attentive and interested in your pet this device tells you nothing new.<p>Fitbit works because you can correlate the data to your personal well being. Unless this device magically discerns the dog's well being I don't see how it provides any actionable statistics.

"It's an Airbnb for dogs."<p><a href="http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/04/airbnb-for-dogs-rover-com-raises-7m-led-by-the-foundry-group-rolls-out-animoto-powered-video-service/" rel="nofollow">http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/04/airbnb-for-dogs-rov...</a><p>"It's a Uber for dogs." <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10677391.htm</a>

The product looks amazing. Congrats to Ben, Steven, Nate, Kevin and the rest of the team working on this. Great job.

I attached my Fitbit to our kitten a while ago. Worked pretty well and the data was interesting. Also, now my Fitbit has kitten teeth marks from her finding it something fun to chew on.

If <i>"monitoring your dog's daily activity"</i> isn't a first world problem, I don't know what is.<p>That being said, I would buy a similar/simpler device for my cat–not because I give a damn if my cat how many steps it takes but because I want to know where it goes all day (on a map).

<i>"Whistle lets you know who's spending time with your dog while you're away, be it family or friends."</i><p>How the hell does it do that? Before I saw the founders comment here on HN I thought this was an elaborate ruse because of this "feature."

I follow activity monitors rather closely. The wifi connectivity is the most unusual part of this design.<p>There's never been a nice, simple way to setup wifi from a small device before.<p>The trick they are using here is to use the Bluetooth connection to setup the wifi. It's not a bad approach (in fact, they like it so much they're trying to patent it).<p>But TI recently came out with the CC3000, a wifi chip that can grab the setup information on its own (well, with the help of a smartphone app).<p>This avoids the hassles of managing two different 2.4GHz wireless systems on a small device.<p>I think that's where the future of wifi setup is heading.

To me this looks like top notch execution of a silly idea.

This is a great untapped market, people go crazy for pets and spend a hell of a lot of money on them.<p>I think the pitch should be "turn your terrier into a tamagotchi"

Seems like a cool concept for owners that leave their dog at home during the day. Could finally figure out what those rascals are up to.<p>Or if an uncommon spike of activity happens in the middle of the day, you may want to check in at home.

Nifty, nice job! Does it work with horses?<p>I feel pretty in touch with my dogs since I work from home and provide their exercise...but I could see my wife wanting to see how the horse is doing since it is kept at stable and she can't make it out every day.<p>Also typically horse people are super rich (tho we are not) and already paying lots and lots on horse care, might be good to explore.<p>Minor css bug for firefox/win <a href="http://imgur.com/wT4nXYS" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/wT4nXYS</a>

There is potential to save a ton of money in vet bills via early warning of potential disease in pets[1]. Activity and food intake information is enough for many. Adding some sort of food logging component could make it really powerful. I also wonder if the USP for the product should shift to the savings in vet bills or the extension of life.<p>[1] Obviously the response cannot be to go to the vet for each alert, but instead to take some action at home.

Give me a device that can tell when my dog is about to try to go to the bathroom in the house and corrects that behavior automatically with a dog whistle and you have yourself a winning product.<p>On top of that, just add features that trains the dog for you. Like automatic "heel" commands or making sure the dog doesn't crawl onto the couch and leave dog hair all over it while you are out of the house.<p>Use geofencing to make sure the dog can't wonder past a certain distance from the house without hearing a dog whistle. It would be like a reprogrammable electric fence without all the cost of burying wires in the yard and worrying about the wire getting cut by accident and the dog running away. Add geolocation so I can have a "Where is my dog?" feature, just like I can already find my iPhone.

Be sure to implement an owner shaming feature: "Your dog has been more active than you today!"<p>But in all seriousness this looks great. My wife and I both use Fitbit and have joked about attaching it to our dog's collar to see how active he is.

What about the dogs privacy ?

"So you took the dogs for a long walk then, and didn't just stop at the pub?"

This looks like the kind of product that will do well in San Francisco -- SF is where the venn diagram of "dog owners" and "gadget owners" overlap.

Firstly I thought it was a parody, then I moved to the Company page and figured out it isn't. Well, maybe there is a market for this after all.

If the app allowed me to asses my dogs mood then this would be useful. I have an extremely energetic West Highland Terrier and there is a fine balance between enough exercise to tire him out and too much to turn him in to a grumpy, slightly snappy, stroppy teenager. We think the sweet spot is somewhere between 45 mins and 1.5 hours of walking per day - which is quite a big window

A friend from MIT is doing something similar with a great team.<p><a href="http://www.fitbark.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fitbark.com/</a>

New: you've always thought of your dog as an extension of yourself, now it can be an extension of your quantified self!<p>I'm sure this has a market, but taking your dog for a walk and getting regular check-ups at the vet seems to work relatively well for most situations.

Design looks fairly similar to Misfit Wearables (<a href="http://misfitwearables.com/" rel="nofollow">http://misfitwearables.com/</a>). Not quite as sleek but I don't expect the user to complain.

I just pre-ordered! What a great idea! My whole business life revolves around charts and graphs. I can't wait to apply the same level of deep analysis to helping my pet stay healthy and happy!

I can't put my finger on it, but this app makes me very sad.

Not sure this service lives up to such an awesome domain :/

I want one for me! :)

But what about the cats?! Cats care about fitness just as much as dogs do. When can I order a feline version?

Was going to buy one until I saw "android coming soon"<p>Build android first, or at the same time, or no thanks.

Thinking about getting one of these for my GF to make sure she gets enough daily exercise.

Instead of spending time setting goals, monitoring progress and charts, worrying about unmet goals, and god knows what else why not just spend that additional time with the poor dog. If you do that, I am pretty sure that you will be able to gauge your dog's health better than this. Don't mean to offend anyone just my 2 cents.

This is just cruel. Just take your dog(s) for a run once or twice a day.

Why no GPS integration? Would it affect the battery life to poorly?

I'm really shocked that whistle.com was available or attainable.

I wonder how dog would think about it?

finally! this has been a major pain point for me in the past

Will this tell me how many times per hour my dog licks his balls?

that is one expensive ass pedometer.