FitBark Dog Activity Monitor, Red

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.

WOW where do I start - this product is incredible but the customer service is simply OUT OF THIS WORLD. I have never had such excellent customer service and after sales product help - I had several questions and every time I sent them a message to their support people (via the app - not emails or anything - just ask them from right in the app itself) and within minutes (every single time) they got back to me immediately. Obviously it was a different person each time, but it honestly seems to be 24 hour round the clock support Monday-Sunday. These people have an incredible product but even better after sales help and service. About the product, well it gave me amazing insight into what my dog (1 year old golden retriever) does day and night - how well he sleeps, how long he sleeps, how active (running around) he has been, how active (just general play and walking about the house). It breaks down by the hour - we had a big thunderstorm one night between 2am-3am - I looked at the fitbark and during that time you could see he must have been walking around the house watching the storm from the windows! Then storm finished and you could see he fell asleep again! I love the Fitbark calculated target activity points, they give you a target of activity for your dogs (age/breed/gender) and I love seeing him reach it. It's also great when I go on holiday, I can see what he's doing every day with the carers and (not that I don't trust our lovely carer) but I want to know he's getting all the normal sleep and exercise he gets with me! I love this product, I love the customer care. I cannot recommend this enough. You will love it. The only thing I think they need to improve is the quality of the fitting for the collar and the quality of the seal for the USB port so dampness can't get into the unit.

If anyone is thinking of purchasing a fitbark, just do it... These have been invaluable. They give you an good idea of how your dog is actually doing. I have one boy who has had cancer and is in recovery and i can now judge exactly how active he is being on a daily basis. You can also see how well they sleep at night so if he were in any pain i would notice it in the charts with the movement. I would just not be without these now, its piece of mind to know that my boys are ok. Also the customer service is second to none, when i first recieved the fitbarks i couldnt get them to link to my phone contacted customer service and they went through it with me. A real person at the other end that had a giggle when they realised that my boys were called Bill n Ted and sent me an animated pic from the film. Its the personal touch that so impresses me these days. Their website is also full of useful info and you have the option to add other dogs to your phone so you can compare how your pooch is doing - Like i said, buy it you wont regret it

Sadly not long after I purchased a fitbark my dog decided to go for a paddle in the sea and despite the black rubber seal being fully closed the unit stopped working; I contacted fitbark through the app and can honestly say that I received the best ever customer service, they were wonderful. They gave me clear instructions on how to get it up and running and when that failed they posted a brand new fitbark very quickly with no cost and no questions asked. A truly wonderful experience. I would have no qualms about purchasing again or recommending to a friend. EXCELLENT!!!!