FitBark Dog Activity Monitor, Baby Pink

This is great -- it keeps me honest! I have a basset hound, and it is soooo easy to just let her sleep on the couch and miss a walk. I have a fitbit, and this works to make sure I keep her active the same way the fitbit makes sure I stay active EVERY DAY and I can't "rationalize" how much she actually moved around. The device doesn't count steps, but "activity." It is a fun app on my Iphone, connects via bluetooth. The monitor fit snugly and easily flat on her collar. Pearl is a bigger dog, and has a bigger collar; on my mother's Chihuahua, however, I think the fitbark would be too big. It isn't heavy -- very lightweight -- so the only issue on tiny little dogs would be bulk. The best thing is the attitude of the company.... this is a relatively new product, and they are continually updating and making changes to the software, and seem to have a really great and positive and FUN attitude. There is the option to share and have friends, just like with the fitbit. Love this, and it HAS helped give me the reason to shoo my dog off the couch and force her outside for a walk!

It stopped working 46 days after I bought it due to normal usage which is 1 day outside of the return period.

I love it. I had purchased a FitBit for myself and was wondering how I could monitor my dog Jersey's activity and found this product on Amazon. It was easy to install the app on my iPhone and also the monitor on Jersey's collar and sync quickly. Manufacturer has great instructions. Also good feedback from them if you have a problem setting up.I have a Portuguese Water Dog who is quite active and is also going to turn 11 in October and wanted to make sure she was getting enough exercise and was comfortable while sleeping. So far so good. I would caution not to overly exert your dog to gain more points during hot and humid weather; its not a race. Highly recommend for all dog owners and lovers of dogs.Audrey and Jersey

I was a bit skeptical about this but figured I would give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised that we love it! We have a small dachshund and was concerned about how it would look on her, but it is so small you barely notice it and when you do notice it, it's cute and no wider than the collar itself. Easy to setup and track your dogs activity the app has lots of insightful creative graphs to get an idea of what your dog/pet is doing during the day while you're not around. The app itself does not the most intuitive to navigate - it took me a few days to find certain graphs for instance but they have daily learning tips that pop up and eventually you'll find where the features are located. The app lacks a good social component, so it's hard to meet other fitbark dogs and make friends with them - you have to know the other dogs email address to compete with them which is a bummer. I just want to know who has fitbark nearby so I can friend, compete and socialize with them. I did hear from the developers and that feature is in beta, so hopefully that will be possible soon. Also another wish list is GPS, but I think that would make it much larger but would be neat to see that information.

After the first charge the battery last just a few days. Also about 1-2 times a week the sync fails. Great concept love the GPS but for the price would expect better only owned for a few months.

I LOVE my dog, Maisey's, Fitbark! I always thought Maisey was super active and because of that I sent her to daycare while I'm at work. I wanted something so I could see how active she was while at daycare. It was so helpful to see that she is actually active and playing at daycare. I was concerned because Maisey is a 9 lb chiweenie and wanted something that was light enough and small enough for her. Maisey does not even notice she has it on. Things I like the most: I can see what she is doing each hour, I can see how well she sleeps at night, I can compare her activity to other dogs her age and size, AND at one point she was getting sick and I looked back and noticed that her activity the prior days was decreased and the points started increasing when she was on the mend. Oh yeah, customer service is phenomenal. I've never contacted them for issues, just questions I had and they respond immediately. I could go on and on, like it can help you estimate how much to feed your dog based on weight and activity for the day and much more, but if you'll have to get one to see all the awesome features!

Pretty happy with the product except that the attachment ring was not in the package so I had to use a hair tie.

Suppose to be waterproof and after my dogs first day in water it never charged or worked properly.

A bit tricky to get up and going, but after contacting customer support was able to use.

Not sure if it is any good. I was sent a returned defective item. So not sure if I should take a chance on a replacement. To be fair probably a manufacturing defect. The condition of the item leaves me wondering.

We've had our FitBark for three months now, and I've held off on reviewing it until I could give an honest review. In summary, it's a great little device, and customer service is great, but there are a few design flaws which need addressing before I'd be happy to give it five stars. While I'm no expert in the field, we've also tried other dog fitness tracking solutions, such as G-Paws and Tractive, so I have some experience with dog tracking gadgets.You get everything you need in the box. The FitBark itself, which is about an inch long and weighs almost nothing. The micro USB charging cable, and three of the elastic bands which attach the FitBark to the collar. They recommend you charge the FitBark prior to putting it on the collar. When you plug it in to charge, the LEDs underneath the logo on the unit light up and parade across the logo like the lights on the Knight Rider car. Then charging begins.While it charges, download the app for your phone. It's pretty straightforward. Download it, set up a login for yourself, and a profile for your dog. It's really easy. Choose a daily movement target for your dog, which is measured in FitBark's own system of Bark points. FitBark are pretty good and have daily target recommendations for lots of different breeds, based on other users' information, but you can set your own daily goal. Open the app, and it should automatically connect to the FitBark and start syncing, assuming it's got enough charge. I've been able to sync with the unit from a maximum distance of about 5-6 metres. On iPhone, you can't tell it when to sync - it starts as soon as the app opens, and every few minutes after that if you keep the app open. I have heard rumours that Android users have the ability to choose when to sync, but I can't confirm that as I have no Android devices to check it with. You can have more than one owner monitoring the account. For example, my husband and I both have the app on our phones, and we can both sync the FitBark and keep an eye on it. Apparently you can keep adding people to your account, such as your vet or social media followers, but we've not done that. I think my vet probably has enough on his plate, but it's a nice idea.You can make use of a feature called "Journal", which is basically a scrapbook where you can upload photos, and where FitBark automatically insert achievements, such as your dog's most active week, or how many days that week you dog has hit their goal. Again, you can limit your posts to just owners, or let your social media followers or vet see them too.Once the charging is complete, which takes about half an hour in my experience, you're ready to attach it to the collar. It is really simple, which is good, but also a bit of a downfall. You can probably see the two arms located centrally on the item photo. These arms have a hook system, which grabs onto the elastic band, a bit like a crochet hook. Once the FitBark elastic band is secure, you'll hear a "click" as it secures itself into the locking mechanism. Stretch the band round the back of the collar, and click it into the hook on the other side.Herein lies the first design flaw - and I speak from personal experience. After a particularly enjoyable run through some undergrowth with an equally enthusiastic labrador, my dog's FitBark unclipped itself. The band didn't snap - it must just have got caught on one side and pinged itself off the collar. We spent two hours crawling about in the undergrowth, using the third party bluetooth device tracking app which FitBark recommend for instances like this. However, I cannot help but think that rather than rely on a third party solution, they ought to think about redeveloping the way the FitBark attaches to the collar. The elastic band system is fine if your dog is going to be placidly trotting along, but if it only takes one session of active bounding to knock it off the collar, that's not good. We now fasten it on to the collar with an additional elastic band of our own. Not very pretty, but better than crawling about on our hands and knees for hours!Back to the review. Once your FitBark has been on the collar for a few hours, it will have collected plenty of data, and can show you how close you are to achieving your daily target. You get 4 additional measurements, although some of these will require a few days' worth of data collection before they appear. These are health index (Showing you how health in % it thinks your dog is), sleep score, calories burned, and how many miles your dog has walked. Tap on the circle with the points earned, and see a breakdown of when the points were earned during the day. Link your Fitbit account and you'll see a comparison of how many steps you've taken vs how many your dog has taken. Please note that you can only link one Fitbit to your FitBark. Once your dog meets his/her target, you'll get a screen message to let you know your dog has hit their goal, as do other app users on your account. My husband gets notified even when he's at work and not the one walking the dog.FitBark claim that the battery has a 14 day lifespan, but I'd dispute that. It may well be 14 days if you're not syncing it at all, but why would you not sync it at all during the two weeks? My experience is that you'll probably get 2-3 days out of it between charges. My dog is quite young, and we walk for about 3-4 miles per day. I sync the FitBark regularly on the walk, perhaps once every ten minutes, and a few times during the day, which I don't think is an unreasonable amount. I do understand however, that much like mobile phones, if you want something compact in size, everything inside it, including the battery, is going to be small.Now, on to my second, and final foible. The unit is charged by micro USB. The port is found on the rear, underneath a rubber cap. The instructions tell you to make sure that the cap is pushed on firmly if your dog is going to come into contact with water. My dog is not a big fan of swimming, but she'll reluctantly swim if she really wants the stick you've chucked into the river. The FitBark is safe to use in water, and states that it's waterproof. However, at least once per month since I've had it, water has somehow got past the rubber cap, no matter how firmly we've pushed it on, and we've had to put the FitBark into a bowl of rice in the airing cupboard for 24 hours to dry it out, like you do when your mobile phone gets wet. This usually remedies the problem, but it does mean you lose the chance to collect data. It's not as water-tight as it could be, and this is something which could be re-designed in future.If you need help, you contact the support team via the app, and initiate a "Live Chat" session. Customer service is excellent. Staff are friendly, and full of boundless enthusiasm for the product. Very American style, and keen to make sure you're happy, which is lovely and makes such a difference to me when I'm used to grumpy and unhelpful live chats with some of our energy providers and utility companies. In my experience, FitBark staff have always managed to resolve the problems I've contacted them about. They are well aware of the most common problems you'll encounter, and they're always happy to listen.Overall, this is my favourite of all the trackers I've put on my dog so far. No waiting for a GPS signal, no monthly subscription, and you can leave it on your dog all day. Plenty of interesting information to study, and a way to compare it to your Fitbit data. An excellent customer service team, and developers who look to be constantly looking for ways to improve the product. I'd really like to see the wifi station available via Amazon in the UK, because I cannot justify $80 + shipping and customs charges from the US-based FitBark store. It would make syncing and obtaining data much easier, as it collects data even when you're not with your dog. Especially useful if you go out to work and your dog stays at home.I do think it's slightly overpriced at just short of £60 (At the time of writing), particularly since our American cousins can pick this up for the equivalent of £53 (At the time of writing) and I think that the design flaws in attaching it to the collar and keeping water out of the unit need addressing quite urgently, but I think I'd purchase one again if I needed to. It certainly motivates me to keep the dog moving in the same way that my Fitbit motivates me to get myself off the sofa. I'll be watching its development with interest in the future.

Very satisfied with this product.

The FitBark has been a revelation to me and my dog. I was concerned when my dog lost weight (whilst a puppy) and thought I may be over exercising her. Along came FitBark with recommendations for my size and type of dog - really easy to use and friendly to non techy people.I cannot sing the praises of their support staff enough - sometimes things do go wrong with technology but whenever there were minor things wrong, they were on hand to solve with the techy folks.At one point the wee chip did die and Tristan immediately sorted out a replacement with no problems. Thank you FitBark and all your fab support folk - Tristan, Sara, Davide, Fabrizio, Marcus, Allison, Crissia and Geoff - keep up the good work, Dottie and me love the FitBark!