“Fitbit” for dogs:
… The Whistle monitor (available for $99.95 here) is a stainless steel disc embedded with an accelerometer that fits onto your dog’s collar. It weighs about half an ounce. As your dog plays, walks, or sleeps, the device records his activity and sends it via your Wi-Fi connection to your phone. Using the free Whistle app, you can then watch your dog’s day unspool in a blue line that spikes when he moves around. You can even upload comments and photos, visible to as many as four other people who’ve downloaded the app. If you’re feeling competitive, pressing a button on your screen produces a rainbow of charts that compare your dog’s activity and rest levels to those of similarly sized dogs in Whistle’s database. The sensor itself needs charging every five days or so. For an extra $20, you may have it engraved…
In fact, Whistle bills itself as a kind of canine exercise mate, à la FitBit or Fuelband: When registering your dog with Whistle, you are invited to set a daily activity goal. Thereafter, a cheerful pop-up on your phone notifies you whenever that goal is met. (Sometimes, a separate congratulatory note appears when you meet the goal two or three days in a row. Whistle is very encouraging.) The daily activity goal is represented as a gray bagel that gradually fills with blue the closer you and your dog come to realizing it; it turns a gratifying shade of green when the goal is achieved. Not greenifying the bagel is very frustrating. Therefore, Whistle could conceivably motivate some users to give their dogs more exercise. (On the other hand, when Ziggy consistently failed to meet his initial benchmark of 120 minutes per day, we just scaled the goal back to 90 minutes. Good boy!)…
Schlemizel
-First- Worst World Fashions
Nath3an
Surprised this has not hit the front page yet.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/cats-recognise-their-owners-voices-but-never-evolved-to-care-says-study-8966580.html
The Pale Scot
If we’d had this my dude’s moniker would have been changed from “Himself” to “Flatline”.
NotMax
Things The World Doesn’t Need.
#887,323,111,284,909 in a series.
People sprawled in recliners remotely checking on the exercise of their pets .(Just walk the damn dog a bit longer and a bit more frequently.)
Mnemosyne
Or you could get the free (sponsored) Map My Dog Walk app for your smartphone. Of course, that would necessitate the owner getting up and doing some of the work, too.
(The link is to the iOS version, but there’s also an Android version.)
I do love my FitBit Flex, though. I think I’m going to upgrade after the holidays and get a FitBit Force, which is basically the same thing with a little more functionality (like, I’ll be able to use the thing on my wrist that looks like a wristwatch as a wristwatch! Magic!)
Tommy
Shit. I was talking to my dad yesterday. That I wanted a dog. Wasn’t sure if my cat would like it, but I have a lap dog, it is called a cat. I want a large dog. One that seeing this will want to walk with me. I want it to be active. A big dog.
Tommy
@Mnemosyne: I use MapMyRun. I am a walker, hiker, runner. It is an amazing app.
Mnemosyne
In other news, though I was hopeful about Thanksgiving Day, my hopes have been dashed — we have to go to my brother’s after all. Turkey loaf and Potato Buds for all. Whee!
(And, sadly, Your wife is a terrible cook is not a valid reason for canceling Thanksgiving in my family. Maybe I’ll get food poisoning between now and tomorrow. A girl can hope.)
ruemara
We really do come up with some amazing luxuries.
NotMax
@Tommy
Not Marmaduke large, but intelligent and feisty: Norwegian Elkhound
Adam Lang
There’s one good use-case for this that I can think of: my girlfriend is a professional dog-walker, and she’s considering offering these at a discount to customers who pre-pay for a certain number of walks. It makes a great way for customers to verify that you’re really exercising the dog the way you say you are. (Note: I have no financial interest in the company but did get to check out one of their pre-release units. They look solid.)
jl
‘rest levels’? OK, great, now the dog isn’t lying there on the couch sleeping like a log, it is in one its various ‘rest levels’. This whachamajig is un-American, you ask me.
My favorite family dog back in the day, WAS a rest level, and that was about it. Edit: until some food was out.
Tommy
@Adam Lang: I want to yell. I don’t mind your girlfriend doing this. Like she has a job. Bet she cares a lot for them. But I find this hard to wrap my mind around. That folks need somebody to walk their dog.
Tommy
@NotMax: Wow that is an amazing link. I’d like a Shepard of some sort. Active dog. My brother has a Labradoodle. I’d kind of like a mute, but his dog is amazing.
Yatsuno
@Tommy: Go big or go home. Get a Newfie. Big piles of loving fur plus great with the nieces.
Cassidy
Just put them in the treadmill and press go.
Mnemosyne
@Tommy:
Gex posted a video yesterday of her cat and dog playing together. You can ask the rescue group you deal with to point you towards a dog that is cat-friendly. No guarantee what your cat will think, but at least you’ll have one half of the equation taken care of.
For the kind of stuff you want to do, you probably don’t want to go much bigger than a shepherd (sorry, Yutsy!) I don’t know if a Newfie’s knees could keep up with a lot of running and walking. The breed chart on Runner’s World looks good, though you’ll have to click through two different ads to get to it (boo!)
Tommy
@Yatsuno: LOL. That is my thinking. I live in a 5 bedroom house. By myself. On an acre of land. I run and/or walk miles a day. Like to have a dog. Bet she/he would like my household.
Citizen_X
@Yatsuno:
Nothing against Newfs, but know what you’re getting into!
danielx
Went to the grocery at 9 last night to pick up what I was assured were the last items needed to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for fourteen tomorrow. I told the cashier that I was ever so pleased that I wouldn’t have to go today, since the day before Thanksgiving is insane at any grocery store.
So this morning….
Spousal unit: You need to go to the grocery to get eggs.
Me: We have eggs.
Spousal unit: Their sell-by date was eleven days ago. Go get eggs. And as long as you’re going, here’s a list of other stuff that I need.
Me: (after a long silence) You’re just doing this to fuck with me, aren’t you?
Spousal unit: (with hand spread over chest) Moi? Never.
Gin & Tonic
@Yatsuno: Big piles of saliva, too.
jl
@Mnemosyne: thanks for the link. I was looking for something for a dachshund, but that breed didn’t make the list.
MomSense
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Going home soon to madly clean the house and bake the pies and breads. Hosting lots of friends and my family so there is much to do before tomorrow!
catclub
@danielx: I larfed, I did.
plus, sell-by date is not related to risk of harm. Ask Andrew Tobias.
the Conster
OT, but that NewsMax article about Bill Ayers writing “Dreams From My Father” – LOL. I actually clicked on it. The inability of conservatives to detect snark explains so much – in particular, Stephen Colbert. These angry old farts are so ridiculous it makes me want to grift them just because it’s so.fucking.easy. and they deserve it.
Robert Sneddon
@Tommy: Border Collie, if you’re smart enough. Wonderful dogs when they know who’s boss, endless energy when you’re out with them and good indoors. A decent breeder will have dogs bred to be stable and well-mannered, avoid pure-bred show collies and toy collies generally. A working collie cross (collie/Lab or similar) is a fine choice but it will cost you. See the dam and sire if you can, they’ll be a good guide to the nature of their offspring.
Fuzzy
But, but dogs can’t read.
@Tommy: Look at some photos of Swiss Mountain dogs or their smaller cousins. Big and playful an very calm.
Mnemosyne
@danielx:
I think this is where you’re supposed to wonder what you did wrong to piss her off. I’m assuming there was something.
@jl:
I have a feeling that a dog with legs that short isn’t a great jogging companion. Maybe it’s just me.
NotMax
@danielx
For next time.
“We’re not selling them, we’re cooking them.”
(Of course, what with my being blissfully single and unencumbered, YMMV.)
? Martin
@Tommy:
Cities. People don’t have yards. Dogs need to do their business while owners are at work. They think everyone else is crazy to pay for gardeners or to have a car detailed.
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: it could be worse. Your sister in law could be using Ann Romney’s cookbook.
Suffern ACE
@Robert Sneddon:Bloodhound. He needs a hound to nap on his porch and wait for someone to approach, who will be greeted with one indifferent “woof woooo” from the dog before it returns to its nap.
RSR
Bill Gates thinks students should wear something like that, too:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/13/us-usa-education-gates-idUSBRE85C17Z20120613
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: I use My Tracks on Android to keep track of my walks. It’s free from teh Google.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Did you get your new phone? Note 3?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (tablet): Upgrade day is Sat., I’ve decided to go with the Note 3. I was comparing it sizewise to my current Droid Charge yesterday at Costco.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Let us know how you like it. My aging Droid Incredible is doing all right, but consumer lust is a creeping, insidious thing.
Anna in PDX
@Adam Lang: Hey yeah, and I would never have thought of this. I was combing through these comments wondering why the owner who presumably walks the dog and has one of these bracelets him/herself would need one for the dog who is going the same pace to the same place.
It is always interesting to hear a practical application for things like this. I think my self-righteous “Oh FFS who the hell would buy something like this for their PET” means that I have much less imagination when it comes to figuring out when it might actually come in useful.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (tablet): Will do. My Charge is stuck on Android 2.3 and quite a few apps are Android 4.0+ now; so it’s now entirely consumer lust on my part.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Heh, my Droid is on Android 2.3.4, and just today I got another notice for the same system upgrade that has been failing to install for like six months. A constant reminder of my technological inadequacy.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (tablet): My Charge is up to date on upgrades, still 2.3.6; my wife’s isn’t but I changed her build.prop file so it doesn’t bug her to upgrade. Both of our phones are rooted and run a tweaked rom.
Origuy
@Tommy: If you want a dog that likes to run, consider a rescue greyhound. Racing greyhounds have a short career, then need someone to adopt them. They’re supposed to be pretty mellow dogs.
SiubhanDuinne
@the Conster: Bill Ayers has had way too much fun with that for years. Always makes me chuckle heartily.
Karen in GA
@Tommy: When we got Iggy, I worked late two nights a week. We hired a dog walker/pet sitter to come in on those days to spend half an hour with him. If not for her, then those days that I worked late would have made getting a dog impossible.
My new job has a much better schedule — I was even able to work from home while Iggy was recovering from a stomach bug a couple of weeks ago. But they’ll need me to put in what will probably be a 13-hour day next Wednesday, so we’re calling the dog walker again.
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
Jeez, some of those recipes need to be anthologized by James Lileks.
Anne Laurie
@Origuy:
The ones I’ve met — there are very active rescue groups here — have indeed been wonderful dogs, very mellow couch potatoes indoors. But possibly not great jogging buddies, because they can still outrun even a very determined human from a standing start!
Also, every dog is different, but retired racers (heck, any sighthounds) are not always safe around cats — they have been trained to enhance their ‘prey drive’ for small creatures moving fast, chasing the mechanical rabbit. This is not a dealbreaker, if you have a specific dog in mind, just make sure you mention your cat (rabbit, hamsters) to the people fostering the dog. It’s certainly possible to retrain a ‘bunny chaser’, but even people who know dogs can be surprised by how very fast and agile those long-legged, harmless-looking dogs can be. But as a dear friend with a retired lure-courser told me, one develops excellent reflexes & upper-body strength leaping to snatch the harness before your dog can demonstrate its amazing talents on the unsuspecting passers-by!