Pros & Cons
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- Tracks location and activity.
- Accurate home range and notifications.
- One account can track multiple pets.
- Long battery life.
- Low up-front cost.
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- Each pet requires an individual service plan.
- No adventure hike tracking.
A few years ago we tested the Tagg Pet Tracker and gave it a positive four-star review. Tagg was bought by competitor Whistle Labs shortly thereafter, and the device has since become the $79.95 Whistle GPS Pet Tracker. The hardware is the same size and shape as the Tagg, but has a brushed metal sheen to replace the old plastic build. The software, though, has gotten a big upgrade by moving over to Whistle's platform. The Whistle GPS Pet Tracker has all the best things we liked in the original Whistle Activity Tracker and the Tagg jammed into one device. It excels at providing a heads-up that your pet is no longer in a preset safe zone, finding your pet on a map, and giving you an at-a-glance reading of how much activity your pet is getting. That makes it our Editors' Choice for tracking all the things your canine is up to.
Pricing, Design, and Features
Let's talk about price, since GPS collars like this and the Pod 2 have extra costs that kick in instantly. You have the choice of paying monthly ($9.95), annually ($95.40), or for two years ($83.40 per year, billed annually) for GPS service. So for two years, the lowest possible cost is $246.75, including the purchase price. The Pod 2, in comparison, works out to $248 for two years, also including the purchase price. That said, the Pod 2, with its $49 yearly GPS fee, is cheaper when you extrapolate the cost to more than two years.
The Whistle is slightly bigger than the original Tagg, measuring in at 1.3 by 4.2 by 0.8 inches and 1.3 ounces. It's got an arc, so it fits pretty well on most dog collars, though it sits flatter than the cylindrical Pod 2. It looks huge on smaller breeds, and even on my medium-size test mutt, Madison. The surface is a lovely brushed metal with an embossed Whistle logo and a pinhole to see a flashing light that indicates battery life (four flashes means it's fully charged). The side has two buttons: One is for the battery test, and you can hold it to power on or off completely. The other is a Snooze button that turns off notifications for 15 minutes.
Whistle GPS Activity Tracker with base-740
The device attaches to your dog's collar with a plastic clip and a rubber strap. The tracker itself slides in and out of the clip easily, so you can remove it and place it in the charger base station as needed. You'd think the base would include something like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to facilitate communication with the Whistle and your smartphone or the Internet, but it doesn't. Instead, the Whistle connects to the Internet over 3G only (this is its coverage map). The base station contains a short-range proprietary radio that talks to the device, however, providing a 150- to 200-foot circular beacon zone (the documentation calls it the Whistle Zone). The system checks whether your pet is in the zone every 12 minutes, which is how the Whistle knows when it may have gone rogue. That short-range radio connection helps save on battery life. and if you have a large property, additional base stations are available for $29.95 each.
The Whistle itself is water-resistant (not waterproof), with an IP67 rating. According to Whistle Labs, the innards of the tracker are essentially identical to what was in the Tagg. Ultimately, the biggest change is the migration to Whistle's software platform.
Recent mobile app updates add medication tracking and alerts. Tracking feedings (like a canine MyFitnessPal) is also an option, although it lacks features such as calorie info. The website is good only for editing your pet's profile and tracking its location—it doesn't get into fitness.
Whistle GPS -Out of Zone screenYou may see some claims by Whistle Labs—even on the product packaging—about temperature alerts. The company told me it decided not to roll that feature out. Its test results were questionable; scenarios such as a dog lying by a fire or out in the sun caused false alerts. I saw the same thing while testing the one smart pet collar that does currently track temperature, the PetPace.
Performance and App
Setting up the Whistle GPS Activity Tracker is easy. Download the free app for Android or iOS, create an account, tap "Set up a new Whistle," pick a product, and type in the ID found on the back of the tracker. Enter multiple codes for multiple pets—each dog needs a profile. You can detail goals for your canine's activity in minutes, along with the zone where they live. Set up notifications and a service plan for the 3G/GPS service, and you're ready to track.
Notifications are great. The every-12-minutes zone check means your dog won't get much of a head start if it wanders outside the zone (of course, some dogs can go a long, long way in a few minutes). I had iOS push notifications, SMS text notifications, and email setup, and all alerts came in simultaneously. When Madison went outside the zone, the Whistle not only alerted me, but also sent the address she was nearest to at that moment. Notifications also arrived when she met her daily activity goal and when the battery was low.
Whistle GPS - Activity screen
Should your beloved mutt make an escape, go directly to the Maps section of the app or the website, and click Refresh GPS. You'll get an instant location update. If you click Track, you get a notification on where your dog is every three minutes for the next half hour. It shuts off after that, since this hits the battery pretty hard; you can go back to that screen and stop tracking before the 30 minutes are up. You also have the option to track more than one pet at a time, if they're escaping in packs. Sadly, Whistle GPS does not have an Adventure feature to record the path taken when you go on a dog hike—only the Pod 2 has that.
With very little active GPS tracking, the hardware is rated to stay charged for up to 10 days. I made it to 13. In comparison, I swapped out the Pod 2 battery every 3 or 4 days.
As for activity, the device has a built-in accelerometer to track how long your dog is active during the day, in minutes. In the app, tap your dog's name in the menu to see graphs for each day, then hour by hour. Click the Plus symbol at the bottom of the screen to enter food, meds, pictures, and notes about what's going on in the dog's life.
As is common among fitness trackers for both humans or pets, Whistle offers a social and friends component. It's not just for other pets, but also for humans with profiles. You can find others via Facebook, Twitter, or your own contact list. All accounts automatically track the Whistle mascot dog, Duke, who's based at the company's San Francisco office. When you visit your dog's info in the app and click Profile, you get a quick comparison with all the other dogs you follow.
Conclusions
Activity tracking is a luxury most pet owners can probably skip, but location tracking via GPS is important if you have a pet that roams. The Whistle GPS Pet Tracker offers the best of both worlds. It's got the longest battery life of any pet tracker we've tested, along with excellent software and notifications. If you only want activity tracking, you can stick with the Whistle Activity Tracker and save on GPS fees. But if you need to know where the dog is at all times, Whistle GPS is your best option, and our Editors' Choice.