PitPat Dog Activity Monitor Review – Guest Blog

Damian was approached to trial the latest dog activity monitor on the market, the PitPat. As his dogs don’t wear collars, he passed it on to me to give it a try.

The PitPat is a small device that attaches easily by velcro to the collar of Lola, my English Pointer. She is a bit of a fidget and very active and I initially thought there was no way it would stay on. However, it has proved surprisingly robust. The PitPat sends data to a phone app, again very easy to set up. You add the dogs breed and weight and it suggests an activity target: for Lola this was 80 minutes a day.

How Active Is Your Dog?

Each day is made up of running, walking, playing, pottering (this is cute, a pottering Pointer) and resting. Quite how the PitPat discerns between say, running and playing, is uncertain but overall, the stats did seem accurate. Lola’s daily activity of running, walking and playing was a couple of hours, sometimes more. Activity is also presented in graph form, calories burnt (around 1400) and distance travelled (around 12 miles).

If you are a Garmin kind of person, the precision of the figures may be in question. I’m not that person and I found it really fun to use. To update the stats, you simple select the day on the app and then press the PitPat. Virtual badges are awarded for activity, from a lap of Stonehenge to the length of the Thames.

I’ve swapped the PitPat onto my older Pointer now. I am interested to see the difference. Despite them having the same amount of outdoor exercise, Meggie’s figures are lower as she is more sedentary in the house and garden. Next up, I will be trialling it on my sister’s New Zealand Huntaway to see how many miles she travels as a herding dog on a working dairy farm.

Using The PitPat As A Motivator

The PitPat is far from an essential piece of dog owning kit, especially if, like me, you have no concerns about whether your dog is getting enough exercise. Having said that, it is still a useful insight into your dog’s activity. If you were looking for your dog to be more active or lose a little weight, this would be a great tool to use. Conversely, it would also be good to have it on a puppy to make sure you weren’t over exercising them. I could also see kids loving having this information about the family dog and it could be a great incentive to get everyone out walking.

As with many apps, there is paid functionality if you want more from your PitPat. For me, PitPat lite provided fun insights into the active world of my dog.

Posted: October 22, 2020