FitBark GPS for Dogs & Cats

Our dog has a clinical anxiety so she stays home all day, everyday. We looked for a solution for monitoring her activity levels, so that we can be sure she stays active despite no longer being able to attend doggy daycare. FitBark gives great insight into the activity levels throughout the day and sets a goal based on other dogs of similar size/weight etc. the battery lasts multiple months without needing to recharge and the device can sync retroactively if we haven’t opened the app in a few days. At some point we were experiencing an issue with the device not syncing properly, we contacted support and within the hour they were able to push a firmware update. That’s incredible! As an engineer I am in awe of the speed at which they were able to troubleshoot and push a fix, to a hardware device no less! Impressive! Highly recommended!

I found out about FitBark from watching the show 'My Big Fat Pet Makeover'...while my Bichon Frisée isn't overweight, I wanted to keep track of how much she was active and how her sleeping was. I like the fact that you can sync the FitBark to the FitBit app so that you can compare pet to owner. Would have been a 5-star rating except that after the last update, (which allows landscape view on the iPad), when viewing the daily synopsis, it covers up the 'share' link on bottom and then when you tap on the 'clock' face to see hourly view of activity it has shrunk down big time to where you have to carefully tap between the hours you want otherwise you'll tap in another hour segment. I would also like to see an update made to the Journal to where 1) you see the date the post was done without having to open the post completely, and 2) be able to edit/add to an post - would be handy instead of having to delete that post and redo from scratch.

Just got my FitBark for Assisi yesterday and loving it! Perfect companion for my little girl trying to lose her "after Christmas" pounds like her Mom. My Fitbit is part of me--I never leave home without it and Assisi will be the same. Now we can get slim for summer together! My only complaint is that you can't edit a journal entry and add to it without deleting it. That really would be nice so you dont have to keep making new entries to correct. Update: we completed Week 1 as of yesterday and we are both just really having “a ball” (pardon the pun!) with this wonderful little device. Sisi actually lost a whole pound, she’s sleeping really well (wonderful being able to monitor her sleep with this!) and she’s a much more active dog. We’re having Amit of fun bonding time and she’s getting her sometime procrastinating Mom to move more too. Really doggy parents, you’ve got to get one of these!!!

This is a great app! It builds an understanding of your dog's normal patterns and alerts you when things go off track. Helps you interpret what has changed and the likely reasons why. And in this way it gives your dog a voice to communicate with you. My vet has found it to me a good tool for help in diagnosing an allergy. And as an extra option I can tie into the app myself with my Fitbit. Now I have a motivator for myself and my dogs. Note this is not a dog pedometer. It is much more sophisticated and nuanced than that. This is an unbelievable database that will help you understand what is happening with your dog hour by hour and day by day plus give you access to other people and their dogs around the world. Lots to explore in this app. Plus customer service is unbelievably terrific. You will be impressed.

I have this problem that whenever I go to yesterday’s chart it won’t let me hit the back button. I end up having to restart the app. The same thing happens when looking and another dogs profile. I think it should be encouraged more to fill out your “journal” with the activities that your dog has done for the day to help other owners get ideas. A good way to encourage this is to have sort of like a browse page with just journals that people have filled out. One last thing is that I don’t think you should limit how many dogs you can follow or even see. That being said I love the app and all the different settings to see sleep and exercise and how they are doing compared to similar dogs. The help chat was quick to respond and very helpful. Overall I recommend.