The PetPace was the first dog collar to focus on overall health, not just simple activity tracking. The company’s long-gestating follow-up, the PetPace 2.0 (starting at $379 for the collar and a one-year membership), is far more advanced than the original. It's packed with sensors to track just about every aspect of a dog's wellness, including activity, sleep, pulse, respiration, and temperature, and it's enhanced by useful AI-powered insights. It also has GPS for real-time location tracking to keep up with competitors. The PetPace 2.0 remains a worthwhile diagnostic tool for pet parents and veterinarians alike, but if you have a healthy dog, the Fi Smart Dog Collar Series 3 offers more peace of mind that it won't go missing, so it remains our Editors' Choice for GPS pet collars.

Design and Specs: Just for Dogs

The original PetPace collar came in multiple sizes for dogs, one size for cats, and one color: deep purple with black highlights. You still get multiple sizes for dogs: small (meant for canines weighing 8 to 22 pounds, with a neck measuring 8 to 12 inches in circumference), medium (22 to 62 pounds, with a 10.5 to 18-inch neck), or large (exceeding 62 pounds, with a 16 to 24.5-inch neck), and the color is now reversed to black with subtle purple highlights. 

The nylon collar weighs 2.1 ounces (small), 3.2 ounces (medium), or 3.5 ounces (large) and protrudes from the neck about 0.9 inches on each size. It is significantly bulkier than the dog-exclusive Fi Series 3 tracker, which measures 0.4 inches in depth and weighs 1.0 ounces. The interior of the collar has 34 small soft-rubber “spikes” to get a grip on your dog's fur to prevent it from slipping.

(Credit: Eric Griffith)

The collar is designed to be worn with the tracker portion at the bottom of the throat, over your pet's ventral midline, with a plastic clasp at the top, making it easy to take on and off. It should be worn snug to get good readings—something my wife and I constantly fought over, as she felt it always looked too tight.

(Credit: Eric Griffith)

While the old version supported cats, the FAQ for PetPace 2.0 says the company is still working on feline functionality with this iteration.

PetPace still doesn’t include a ring for clipping on ID tags; you’re also not supposed to put a second collar on with the PetPace. The collar is waterproof and rugged, meeting the IP68 standard. In other words, dogs can take it for a swim.

Pricing: Subscription Required

The PetPace 2.0 works in the US, Canada, and Europe. When purchasing the PetPace 2.0, you must sign up for a subscription plan for one to three years, and the length of the membership you select will determine the price of the collar. A subscription lets you access all collar features, including daily wellness scores, health alerts, location updates, trend reports, and vital sign tracking.

With the cheapest option, you'll pay $199 for the collar plus $180 for a one-year subscription, totaling $379. If you pay up front for a two-year plan, the collar is $169 and the subscription is $153 per year for a total of $475, a 15% savings versus opting for the base plan. Paying for three years up front brings the collar price down to $159 and the subscription to $144 per year for a total of $591, or 20% off. The price is the same no matter what size collar you order.

For comparison, the wellness-focused Whistle Health 2.0 pet tracker, a rectangular dongle that attaches to any collar, is significantly cheaper, with a starting price of $69 for the device and then only $40 per year for the subscription, but the PetPace 2.0 tracks a lot more data.

Veterinarian pricing for PetPace 2.0 is different. Collars for vets start at a steep $720 with a one-year subscription included, and cost $480 per year after that. The goal of PetPace’s vet program is to let pet hospitals loan out multiple collars and do remote outpatient monitoring. The collars can also monitor hospitalized pets, such as post-operative patients. All diagnostics for multiple patients are accessed via a web-based portal. Vets also get their own dedicated tech support. PetPace has already partnered with one major Canadian telemedicine vet company. There’s also a program for researchers who want to use the PetPace collar and data, but that requires a call to the company to ascertain pricing and options. 

PetPace also has an affiliate program—recommend the collar to others via the app, and if someone buys it using your code, they get it for $25 off, and you get a $25 gift card to spend at Amazon. 

How It Works: Connectivity and Sensors

The old PetPace required a hardware gateway that you plugged into your router. The new version uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LTE cellular connectivity. If there’s no data network, information is stored until the collar is back in range.

Despite its relatively compact design, the PetPace 2.0 is packed with sensors, including accelerometers for position and activity, acoustic sensors for pulse and respiration, GPS for location, and thermometers for temperature. Using these sensors, it constantly monitors your dog’s behaviors, vitals, and location.

(Credit: PetPace/PCMag)

The company claims to have the world’s largest pet health data repository. It utilizes that data to create AI machine learning models that make recommendations based on the information that is collected by the collar. PetPace is even creating a special program using the collar's sensors and collected data to try to turn pets into early earthquake warning systems by monitoring for anxiety spikes.

The PetPace App: Lots of Helpful Data

The PetPace app is available for Android and iOS. You can also log in to your account via the PetPace web portal to get more limited access, but it's handy to have some desktop views. Either interface lets you view multiple pets.

On mobile devices, the initial app view has two sections. The first, My Journey, is for new users and is unavoidable in the first weeks of data collection. The reason is that PetPace has AI features that require substantial data to work—the company literally asked me to wait a full three months to gather data on my dog before reviewing the product. New features were constantly enabled as more data came in. For example, comparison charts were unavailable until my dog Clark had the collar on for a few weeks.

(Credit: PetPace/PCMag)

My Journey shows each new feature that appears over time. With each new unlocked step, you'll receive notifications and emails. It culminates at 12 weeks with the Wellness Score, a rating of your pet’s overall health and well-being from one to 100 (the closer to 100, the better). Each new section/feature can be clicked into for further clarification.

The Data section is found via a tab at the bottom of the app when the My Journey section is still around; after 12 weeks, Data takes over. A navigation panel at the bottom of the app has buttons that let you switch between sections, including, from left to right, the main Dashboard, Health (for all tracked vitals), Map (to see a live or historical view of your pet's location), and Notifications. The plus button in the center of the bottom navigation panel brings up a menu from which you can add new collars or pets, events (like tracking specific vital signs or activity), or goals (for activity or calories). Here, you can also configure Wi-Fi networks, enable the Pregnancy Program (more on this below), or share data with someone, such as a partner or veterinarian. 

The Health section has fever, pulse, and respiration data up top. Click each and you get graphs showing information going back hours, days, weeks, or months, depending on the data. Some of it is color-coded—under fever, for example, green is associated with a normal temperature, while red indicates a pet is getting hot. The app’s AI also considers activity and the environment, so a game of fetch on a hot day isn’t going to throw a bunch of false positives. That said, I got a few fever warnings from Clark when he would sleep too close to the fireplace. And his penchant for barking at everything that moves regularly triggered elevated pulse notifications.

(Credit: PetPace/PCMag)

The data included in Health is where PetPace truly shines. It goes beyond the three data points mentioned above and shows activity level, calories burned, heart rate variability (HRV), posture (how often a pet changes position), sleep quality average, and more.

Along with the aforementioned Wellness Score, pets get an AI-powered Workout Score and Pain Score, among others. Check the Health Profile page for indicators across the board to see if your dog is in or out of the normal ranges. If it reads “all parameters are normal,” your animal is doing fine. Scroll down for Analytics to see trends and historical data or to compare your pet to other dogs using the PetPace collar. 

You’ll also receive an emailed weekly report (ostensibly from Dr. Asaf Dagan, the company’s co-founder and Chief Veterinary Scientist). It’s a nicely laid-out infographic featuring your pet’s latest stats, with the same designs you get in the app.

To be honest, the amount of data the PetPace 2.0 generates is overwhelming. Thankfully, each section has an info button (an “i” in a circle) to provide more context about what you’re seeing. It’s still a lot to take in. But, if you’ve got a dog with a specific problem you’d like to track, the data and comparisons could be invaluable for narrowing down a health problem. 

(Credit: PetPace/PCMag)

The health management aspects can help with already diagnosed diseases, including allergies, cancer, heart disease, infections, respiratory issues, and urological problems. The biometric monitoring claims to be especially good at identifying arthritis and kennel cough (aka CIRDC). PetPace has a dedicated epilepsy algorithm in the works. 

One area where using the collar might stand out is for breeders. It offers a complete Pregnancy Health Monitoring system. I couldn’t test this with my neutered male dog, but the stats available via PetPace 2.0 for pregnant or whelping dogs could be a real boon. The app breaks the pregnancy down into manageable stages, then goes into overtime with extra monitoring and alerts when delivery approaches. Unfortunately, pregnancy monitoring costs extra, either $99 for four months or $149 for an entire year.  

Location Tracking: A Secondary Feature

Unlike the original, the PetPace 2.0 includes location tracking, which gives the company a way to compete with the many competitors that specialize in tracking, such as Fi, Tractive, and Whistle, and even virtual fence products like the Halo and SpotOn. 

Tap the Map tab in the PetPace mobile app—it isn’t available on the desktop web interface—to see a live location and history of where the dog has been, including routes and time stamps. 

(Credit: PetPace/PCMag)

What it offers is limited. Support for safe zones, a feature available on Fi and Tractive, is listed as coming soon. In other words, it doesn’t alert you if a dog busts out of the gate.

There is a Find My Pet option, but during activation, it clearly states that it can take up to five minutes for the collar to switch modes. Once on, it’ll update the app in one-minute intervals with location data. This, of course, drains the collar battery a lot faster than regular use, and 60 seconds won’t help much if your dog is running. While a welcome bonus feature, we recommend you stick with a dedicated location tracker if this is your primary focus.

Verdict: Effective Pet Health Tracking

The PetPace 2.0 is best for health-obsessed pet owners or those who have a dog that has been diagnosed with a serious condition. While pricey, it can help you sleep better at night, knowing your dog's behaviors and key vital signs are being monitored to help prevent pain or even save its life. The second-generation model connects directly to your phone without a separate hub and adds basic GPS tracking, making it a welcome upgrade over the original. That said, there are better options if your main concern is keeping tabs on a wandering pet. The Fi Smart Dog Collar Series 3 and the Tractive GPS Dog LTE Tracker both offer reliable escape alerts and more frequent location updates if your dog goes missing, so they remain our Editors' Choice winners for GPS pet trackers.