Do I really need... a fitness tracker for my pet?

What does it do?

The Pawbo ipuppygo (£30 from www.snipca.com/27331, pictured) is a plastic disc that attaches too an animal of your choice and records its movements using an accelerometer, similarly to how a fitness tracker on your wrist counts your steps.

Why would I want it?

So you can “know the sleeping patterns, calorie consumption and activity level of your pets with one tap on your phone,” says the press release.

What’s the catch?

It doesn’t do much. Huawei’s human-centric Band 2 Pro, for example, sells for £49 and has built-in GPS, a heart-rate monitor and blood oxygen metering, plus message notifications. Now, we realise paws are less suited to touchscreens, and your cat probably doesn’t get many texts, but the rest of those features would have been handy, especially GPS. Owners will usually know where their dog’s been, but for cats it would be a fascinating insight. Sadly, steps and sleep (when they’re not moving) is all you get, although the ipuppygo app (pictured above) does use the data to estimate your pet’s ‘mood’. The rigorous science behind this is: “The better the mood, the proper the lifestyle is!” Well, quite.

So can I do without it?

It actually seems kind of fun, but maybe the real question is: can your pet do without it? The ipuppygo is 35mm (an inch and a half) in diameter, which looks fine on a dog harness but more than a little ungainly on a cat collar. And if you discover kitty’s lazing on next door’s patio all day, what are you going to do about it – buy her a Jane Fonda fitness DVD?