“Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs,” according to the ASPCA and only 26% who were there as strays return to their owners! This can be prevented by having one of the smart collars below on your dog!

Not only do these collars let you know where your fur-baby is at any time, but they provide so much other useful information about their health, training, and safety!

Camden cares about our residents, including our four-legged residents. We have many pet-friendly communities, so we not only want our residents safe, but we want our four-legged residents safe too! If you could not only prevent your dog from ever being lost but also know when there is a health problem before it’s too late, why wouldn’t you? These three collars are the best smart collars which will be available very soon!

Nuzzle

The Nuzzle is a collar with a tracker which can be easily detached and reattached to your dog’s own stylish collar or harness if you wish to do so. What makes this collar a must-have?

• GPS Tracking

• Temperature Monitoring

• Impact Detection (from motorists, etc.)

• Activity Monitoring

• LED Lights

• Geofencing Capabilities (invisible fence technology)

• Waterproof and Durable

• 2 rechargeable batteries

• Super lightweight at 1 ounce!

• Embrace Pet Insurance

• Easy to use App with Alerts

With its geofencing capabilities, you can create an invisible fence for your dog or cat and get immediate notifications when they go out of bounds. This collar is around one ounce, so it is super lightweight for any size dog or cat! This collar is also waterproof and comes with 2 rechargeable batteries (which last about a week each fully charged) so your pet's Nuzzle is always working. Want to know what your pet is up to? Just open the Nuzzle app and it will tell you if they are sleeping, playing, or just wandering around. The Nuzzle is a great collar for outdoor cats! Keep track of all their adventures with GPS tracking and know they are in good health with the other features! Nuzzle has also partnered with Embrace Pet Insurance to offer pet insurance for Nuzzle pets, so you have all the information about your pet at your fingertips. Nuzzle will retail for around $189. Their campaign ended November 30th, just last month, so Nuzzle will start shipping out their first collar in March 2016, to those who were quick to purchase one through their campaign. Keep up-to-date with Nuzzle on their Facebook page!

Dog Telligent Connected Collar

Now, this collar just about has everything you would want in a smart dog collar! This collar is worth every penny because it has:

• Training

• Virtual Fence

• Invisible Leash Technology

• Barking control

• Speakers

• Microphone

• LED Lights

• Bluetooth Enabled

• GPS Enabled

• Wi-Fi Enabled

• Cellular Enabled

• Waterproof

• Shockproof

• Durable and Flexible

• Geofencing

• Activity Monitor

• Sleep Monitor

• Temperature Monitor

• Compare to Breed Standards

• Rechargeable

• 7-14 day Battery Life

• Communicate with other Home Automation Devices

• Interchangeable Colors

• Easy to use App with Alerts

Dog Telligent Connected Collar offers training for your dog with a virtual fence and invisible leash technology which alerts your dog if they wander off too far from you! It actually gives your dog a little tug feeling as if he was on a leash to redirect them back to you! It helps with excessive barking by giving an automatic ultrasound discouraging your dog from barking too much. There are built-in ultrasound and vibration commands to train your dog to do the basics such as sit, stay, come, etc. We can't hear the ultrasounds, but they are safe for our dogs and they can hear them. This collar even has micro speakers so you can talk to your dog from anywhere!!! If you have video monitoring, and you see your dog doing something wrong, you can speak to them right then! Of course, this awesome Dog Telligent Connected Collar has optional GPS tracking so you always know where your dog is, and get an alert if they go outside of the boundary lines you created. This collar also monitors your dog’s sleep, walking, running, if they are too hot or too cold, and compare your dog to their breed standards and age. This collar comes in a variety of colors and three different sizes. It has built-in safety LED lights which light up at night, great for night walks, and flashes when your dog is lost or steps out of their boundary you set. The app keeps all of your dog’s information for their vet at your fingertips and alerts you for their upcoming appointments. With all of the information this collar collects in progress charts, it will help your vet be more informed about your pet’s health and activity.

This smart collar is durable, flexible, and waterproof so not to fear if they go for a swim with it on. The battery lasts 7 to 14 days before needing to be recharged. And since this is a “Connected” collar, they are in the works of creating products this collar can communicate with such as automated feeding bowls, toys, doggy doors, etc. Stay up-to-date with the latest news about Dog Telligent with their blog or Facebook page!

Buddy

Buddy is the collar I am super excited about! This is why it could be the best:

• LED RGB Lighting

• Bluetooth Connectivity

• OLED Display

• GPS Tracking

• Training

• 3 Axis Accelerometer

• Wi-Fi Charging Dock

• Water-Resistant

• Durable

• Geofencing

• Activity Monitor

• Sleep Monitor

• Temperature Monitor

• Rechargeable

• Kinetic Charging Capabilities

• 14 Day Battery Life

• Communicate with other Home Automation Device

• Easy to use App with Alerts and Food Scanner

Buddy by Squeaker is the coolest looking smart collar with LED lighting technology all around the collar, and you can even set the lighting effects! Your dog will not only be stylish but always visible and illuminated in the dark to prevent collisions of any kind. The collar can even be set to know when to turn the lighting on and off by the time of day and how much light is around your pet at that time with its light sensors! Buddy can tell you what your dog is doing at any time of the day, if your dog is awake or asleep, and tell you their sleep stage, how long they slept, and how well. Buddy tracks your pets' activity levels including steps, distance traveled, calories burned, and floors climbed. There is also a barcode scanner in the app so you can scan his food and log it at meal times so you know exactly what is going in your dog nutritionally and calorie based. This way you can know your dog’s intake of calories as well as calories burned and weight to keep your dog as healthy and fit as possible. Buddy also can monitor your dog's temperature, so if they are too hot or cold, Buddy can communicate with your smart home devices like Nest to adjust the temperature in your house! The Buddy can also communicate with any other home automation devices in your home like smart lighting, locks, automated doggy doors (in development), etc.! Like some of the other smart collars, you can set a perimeter area you want your dog to stay in and an alert will be sent to your phone if your dog leaves that area with its geofencing technology. The Buddy collar also has an OLED Display, so like the Fitbit Charge, you can see a digital display of information such as your dog's temperature, their name, minutes active, calories burned, and more! This smart collar will also be able to help train your pet with training software built-in, but it also has a microphone and speaker so you can not only talk to your dog from anywhere but also listen to what they are doing at any time! It's waterproof, durable, has GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth capability, and a great battery life of up to 2 weeks with kinetic charging capabilities to keep the battery charged while they move or charge it on its WiFi charging dock. This collar is still in pre-production but you can be pre-order one for $250.00 right now. This collar can do it all! Keep up-to-date with everything Squeaker on their blog or Facebook page.

All in all, any of these three smart collars would be a great asset to have on every dog. If there was a product I could get for my dog so I could know something was wrong with him before it got serious, not to mention expensive, I would want to get it right away! In a few years, every dog will be wearing some sort of smart collar, but for now we have a select few to choose from. Don’t forget there are other devices as well mentioned in my last blog 5 Activity Trackers For Your Pet?

I am very excited about the future for my dog Shadow! My three year old miniature schnauzer will have a safer and healthier life now that I have ordered one of these collars for him! Check out Squeakers other illuminating products till Buddy is released! If you only get a collar for your pet which allows motorists to see your dog at night while on a walk around your Camden property, or lost, it would be totally worth it for your safety and your pets at totally reasonable prices!