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Whistle Go Explore review: GPS-powered puppy protection
I'm happy to say that I've never come close to losing Ellie, my beloved nine-year-old chocolate Labrador. But that doesn't mean I haven't occasionally had a moment of panic thinking about how truly terrible that would be. For years, the default protection against such a scenario has been "microchipping" — implanting a tiny ID chip under a pet's skin that can be scanned to reveal contact information for the animal's owner. While this is still a smart thing to do, it's only useful after your pet has gotten away and has been rescued by someone who tries to reunite the animal with its person. There's a lot that can go wrong before that happens, if it ever does. Whistle has been working to offer a better solution for several years now. What originally started out as a "Fitbit for dogs" evolved into a GPS-enabled pet tracker that alerts you when your pet left a designated "safe" zone and lets you see where it is on a map. Last week, the company released its latest trackers, the Whistle Go and Go Explore, which features real-time location tracking, improved battery life and a few other tweaks to the Whistle formula. Ellie and I have been testing the $129.95 Go Explore for almost a month, and while it's not without quirks, it's still a potentially important safety net for any dog. On a day-to-day basis, its activity-tracking features aren't particularly necessary, which made it easy for me to think of it as an unnecessary gadget. On the other hand, if Ellie ran off, I'd be very glad she was wearing it.
