Just as the title of thread says can I put an Apple watch on my dog's collar and track him in real time?
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Can I use an Apple watch to track my dog?
- Thread starter ryanwarsaw
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If it’s an LTE model I suppose you can with the Find My iPhone app.
Much, much cheaper overall solution to use something like Whistle though.
Much, much cheaper overall solution to use something like Whistle though.
I doubt it. The question you would have to answer is which location gets shared. The phone the watch is paired to or the watch itself? Once you have answered this question, you would then need to find out if the answer stays the same if the watch is locked and not on your wrist. If you put it on your dog's collar it may as well be on the desk. I would assume the location sharing would come from the paired phone at that point.
EDIT:
Select the device sharing your location
If you’re using Find My Friends on multiple devices, use Find My Friends on iCloud.com to choose which device you want your friends to follow you on. You can follow friends on each of your devices, but friends can follow only one of your devices.
Note: You can stop sharing your location from your Apple Watch. Go to Settings > General > Location Services, then turn off Share My Location.
EDIT:
Select the device sharing your location
If you’re using Find My Friends on multiple devices, use Find My Friends on iCloud.com to choose which device you want your friends to follow you on. You can follow friends on each of your devices, but friends can follow only one of your devices.
- Click Me, then select the Share My Location checkbox (if it’s not already selected).
- Click the “Share My Location from” pop-up menu, then choose a device.
- Click Done.
Note: You can stop sharing your location from your Apple Watch. Go to Settings > General > Location Services, then turn off Share My Location.
Thanks. I don't own an Apple watch so was just curious. Seems like a tracking function could one day possibly be useful for parents to use for their kids at places like fairs etc.
Great....you put the AW on his collar, he bolts and someone get’s your watch.
Just kidding.
Couldn’t you put one of those ‘tile’ thingys on the collar and track him that way, or are you wanting to see his route with GPS?
S
It’s already useful if your kids have LTE watch since your kids watches will be paired to their phones, not yours so Find My Friends will work brilliantly.
Very old thread but recently picked up a used Watch 4-LTE and it works perfect on my dog. Get an accurate location via FindMy and the fitness app keeps full track of his walk. Fun to compare afterwards. Overall works much better than for example Tractive for a fraction of the longer term cost.
Dogs shouldn’t run unsupervised. They could endanger themselves or others. If you do allow it to run off, you’d be better off and cheaper buying third party insurance.
How did this work out for you? I have a AW 4 that I was thinking of adding cellular back onto it to use to track my dog.
It's been a while that I used it and it was definitely a fun thing to experiment with but at the end it wasn't practical. Main issue was the battery drain.
Due to the very different movements of the dog compared to a human wrist, the screen continued to turn itself on. This and the power-hungry LTE connection basically meant that the battery didn't hold for more than an hour at best. I tried attaching a charger and a power bank which kind of worked but it was just to bulky/heavy.
Luckily my dog turned out to be a quick learner. He's now always paying attention where I am and stays close which is clearly what works best
This may be one of those instances where a dedicated device is a much better choice than trying to repurpose a watch. A quick Google search unearthed this comparison of them in Consumer Reports.
www.consumerreports.org
Best GPS Pet Trackers - Consumer Reports
Find out which is the best GPS pet tracker in this Consumer Reports review of pet trackers from Cube, Fi, Link, Tractive, and Whistle.
www.consumerreports.org
That would be great if your dog takes off into a crowded venue with lots of iPhones, but if he's off in search of new and interesting smells and takes off into the woods (from my personal experience the more likely scenario), an AirTag would be completely useless.
And agreed, an Apple watch on a dog is pretty silly, hence my recommendation to look at cellular and GPS equipped dedicated trackers if this is a need.
I use AirTag to track Rocky. They have a variety of special collars that hold the tags. Works great!!!