Whistle Pet Tracker 2024: Products Description

The Whistle Pet Tracker company was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, USA. Its founding team consisted of Ben Jacobs, Steven Eidelman, and Kevin Lloyd. In 2016, Whistle was acquired by Mars Petcare.

Mars Petcare is a business unit of Mars Group and a global leader in pet care. After the acquisition, Whistle's influence was boosted in the pet technology market.

Whistle Pet Tracker aims to utilize science and technology to enhance the quality of life of pets. It primarily focuses on enhancing pet health and providing accurate GPS location tracking.

Whistle's products are pet location tracker and pet activity tracker. It cooperates with several pet care and veterinary organizations.

1.Whistle's Products

1.1 Whistle Activity Monitor

Whistle launched the first generation of Whistle activity monitor in 2013, its main function is to monitor the dog's activity data to help dog parents understand the dog's status.

It can record your dog's activity time, including walking, running, and resting. And it can estimate the dog's calorie consumption. Dog parents can use this data to determine if their dog is getting the exercise they need each day.

Whistle activity monitor also provides trend reports on the dog's activity and health data. It also alerts dog parents to changes in their dog's health status. It can also save the dog's health records and vaccination records.

1.2 Whistle Activity Monitor (2nd Generation)

In 2014, Whistle upgraded the first generation. They upgraded the sensors to improve the accuracy of monitoring the dog's activity data. In addition to this, they also upgraded the battery to extend the battery life of the device.

1.3 Whistle GPS Pet Tracker

In 2016, Whistle launched its third-generation product. This product added GPS location and the ability to set up an electronic fence compared to the previous ones.

Whistle GPS pet tracker consists of GPS and a cellular network. After GPS positioning, the dog's location data is transmitted to the mobile app by the cellular network.

It can't track the dog in real time if the cellular signal is not good. Therefore, the Whistle GPS pet tracker may not be suitable for use in rural or suburban areas. (For rural or suburban users, the Aorkuler pet tracker may be a better option.)

The new e-fence function of this product can help dog parents limit the activity range of their dogs. After the dog parents set the electronic fence for their dog, the dog parents' cell phone will receive an alert when the dog leaves the range.

Dog parents will also need to pay a monthly subscription fee to the cellular carrier after purchasing this product.

If the dog parent does not pay the subscription fee, they will not be able to use the advanced health monitoring feature, the electronic fence feature, and the GPS location feature.

1.4 Whistle 3

In 2017, Whistle upgraded the Whistle GPS pet tracker. It reduced the size of the device to make it more wearable for small dogs. And it increased the waterproof rating of the device to IP67.

1.5 Whistle Go and Whistle Go Explore

In 2019, they introduced the Whistle Go and Whistle Go explore. These two products add to the previous products by adding the ability to monitor your dog's scratching, licking, and sleep.

In addition to this, they have extended the battery life of the devices, with a 10-day battery life for Whistle Go and a 20-day battery life for Whistle Go Explore. And the Whistle Go Explore is IPX8 waterproof.

The Whistle Go Explore also comes with a built-in light. As opposed to the Whistle Go, it is more suitable for dogs to use while exploring the countryside.

But Whistle Go Explore is more expensive compared to Whistle's other products. And it requires dog parents to pay a subscription fee to use the real-time tracking and activity data monitoring features.

1.6 Whistle Fit

In 2020 Whistle introduced Whistle Fit. It upgraded the feature of dog activity data monitoring. This product doesn't have the feature of GPS location.

Added:

--Multi-Pet Support: This product can manage the health and activity data of multiple dogs at the same time.

--Weight Management Function: This feature helps dog parents to set health goals for their dogs. For overweight dogs, it assists in weight loss.

--Optimized Battery Life: Whistle Fit's battery life is extended to 15 days.

Whistle Fit can only monitor your dog's activity data. Dog parents can buy this product if they don't need to track their dog's location and just want to know their dog's exercise data.

1.7 Whistle Switch

In 2021, Whistle introduced the Whistle switch. It boosts performance and battery.

--Replaceable Batteries: Whistle switch offers two replaceable batteries. If one of the batteries is faulty, the dog parent can replace it with a healthy one.

--Enhanced Location Capability: Whistle switch improves the accuracy and speed of GPS location.

--IPX8 waterproof rating.

The Whistle Switch's dual-battery design causes its hardware to cost more. But this advantage reduces the hassle for dog parents. They don't have to contact Whistle's customer service for repairs after the batteries are damaged. They can just replace the batteries.

Looking at the time of updating their products, Whistle is constantly tweaking their products. From the original Whistle activity monitor to today's Whistle Go Explore and Whistle Switch, Whistle is constantly pushing the envelope.

Every update from Whistle is a concern for your dog's health and travel safety. Not only do they make it easier for dog parents to keep their dogs, but they also keep dogs safe.

However, there are still some unresolved issues with Whistle's products. We've compiled a list of these issues for dog parents. We hope that Whistle will improve these issues when they upgrade their product next.

2.Whistle Pet Tracker Common Issues

I checked out 32 reviews of Whistle products on Amazon. I counted and categorized the bad reviews. The following chart shows the data I got.

2.1 Bad Customer Service

Many users on Amazon complained that Whistle's customer service will not help users to solve their problems. After a user raises an issue with them, they inform that they will take care of it as soon as possible. But the next thing you know they disappear and stop responding to messages.

Some customer service even blamed problems with Whistle products on users' improper use. For consumers, this is obviously unfair.

2.2 Inaccurate GPS positioning

Whistle has launched several products, but the GPS positioning function has not been improved to be accurate.

It fails to update the location when many users on Amazon need to use GPS to locate their pets. If a pet is lost and tracker doesn't help the pet owner, it doesn't make much sense to buy this product.

Some users on Reddit have also reported that it only updates its location once every six minutes. If a dog is lost, users cannot find the dog in time.

When the tracker is connected to WiFi, the GPS stops locating and no longer tracks the pet's position. This means that when the pet enters a WiFi zone, the pet owner will not know its whereabouts.

One user on YouTube was upset by this behavior. Because he can't know the exact location of his pet when the WiFi covers a large area. And he also encountered some trouble in returning the product.

3.Summary

There are more types of Whistle pet trackers. Dog parents need to choose the product according to their needs before buying. We hope that in the future Whistle pet tracker can improve positioning accuracy, battery life, and other issues.