I once lost my dog聽for four days because of an equipment failure. The carabiner connecting the leash and聽collar broke, and in a matter of seconds聽my pup was sprinting down a busy street in Minneapolis. What followed聽were four days of panic, frantic Craigslist and Facebook posts, and聽absolutely no sleep.
When a stranger eventually found and returned Charlie聽to me, the first thing I did was buy him a GPS tracker. After hours researching options online, I settled on the 聽($80), lured mostly by the accompanying smartphone app, which looked clean and intuitive. After using it for the past three months, I can say that the Whistle is one of the best pet purchases I鈥檝e ever made.
What Is It?
The Whistle is essentially a Fitbit聽for pets.聽The matchbox-size聽GPS attaches to聽Charlie鈥檚 collar via a hook and loop closure聽and pairs with the Whistle app, which displays a map showing his location. Setting up the app is easy and even a little fun. You can customize it to your pet, which means adding information like weight, age, and breed, and uploading a photo. You also set the radius your pet is allowed to roam, from just within the four walls of your house聽to the length of a city block.
Features
The main feature and the real reason I got the Whistle is the GPS function. The tracker uses a combination of GPS technology, cellular data (it pings AT&T cell聽towers), and Wi-Fi to pinpoint your pet鈥檚 exact location. Attach the Whistle to your pup鈥檚 collar, sync it with the app, and you can see a live, minute-by-minute update of your dog鈥檚 location. The only bummer: it requires an $84 per year聽or $10 per month subscription. But it鈥檚 hard to describe the true peace of mind that comes with knowing where Charlie is at all times, so if you鈥檙e on the fence because of the cost, trust me鈥攊t鈥檚 worth it. Besides displaying a map of his location, the app also lets me monitor Charlie鈥檚 sleep habits, calories burned, and total mileage. Sure, all this makes me feel a little like a helicopter parent, but the data is surprisingly enlightening. I now know聽Charlie sleeps most of the day when I鈥檓 at work聽and at most accumulates a quarter of a mile of walking. Now I never skip our evening walks or trips to the dog park.
To save battery life, the GPS updates Charlie鈥檚 location only聽when he leaves my house, or when I manually tell it to in the app. This is smart because unlike my Apple Watch, which聽lasts just a few hours in GPS mode, the Whistle鈥檚 lithium-ion battery聽usually lasts around six days. When the battery does die, it recharges in a few hours via USB. In the event that Charlie escapes, which I luckily haven鈥檛 had to deal with yet, I can turn on the app鈥檚聽live tracking and聽see a minute-by-minute update of where he is. The app even gives me preemptive notifications when Charlie begins to wander close to the limit of his designated area.
Should You Buy One?
The Whistle has been given me huge peace of mind when out on hikes or traveling with my pup. I鈥檓 still working on training Charlie聽off-leash, both around town and while hiking, and having the Whistle has aided in this process. Pets are a lot of responsibility, and losing one, whether for a few hours or a few days, is a traumatic experience. It鈥檚 happened to me before, but with the Whistle, I know it will never happen聽again.