#652 TMI

There are many fitness devices available to measure steps, calories burned and other types of activity.  These all make sense to me as a way to promote a healthy lifestyle -- for people.  Now someone has taken this one step further and is promoting an activity tracker -- for dogs.  

"Whistle is an on-collar device that measures your dog's activity and rest, giving you a new perspective on day-to-day behavior and long-term health trends."  I don't need to spend $129 to know that my dogs have about 10 minutes of craziness for every three hours that they sleep.

Whistle also makes a WiFi Video Pet Monitor Camera that you can access from your smart phone -- so no matter where you are, you can see the urchins shredding your furniture or snoozing away in their crate.  I am not sure what you are supposed to do with this additional information, but for those who can't bear to be separated from their dog, but who can part with $199, this is for you.

The Whistle collar is just another example of the trend toward measuring and quantifying more and more of our life.  Our carbon footprint, miles walked, energy usage of appliances, miles per gallon, fat grams, sleep patterns and heart rate are all tracked and even shared with "friends".  

Do you really need to know how much activity your dog had today?  For some things, you are better off relying on hunches and common sense vs. empirical data.  Think about what you are going to do with information before you spend the time and money to collect it.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com