‘Buddy’ Is a Smart Collar That Keeps Your Dog Safe, Fit, and Stylish

Believe it or not, smart dog collars are a thing. Yep, soon Fido will be nearly as connected as you are. Take the Buddy collar by Squeaker, for example.

Currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, this ambitious doggy wearable is designed to keep your pet safe, healthy, and active — and add a little bit of style — all in one device.

To prevent your pooch from developing a paunch, Buddy tracks your pup’s activity throughout the day. The data collected and displayed on Buddy’s connected Android or iOS app includes how many steps your dog has taken, how far it’s walked, and the number of stairs climbed. So if your pet is starting to get a bit of wide load, you can figure out how much more activity it should get each day.

The Buddy app also lets you add the type of food you feed your furry friend, which means you’ll be able to see your dog’s caloric intake to calculate whether you’re overfeeding it or not. That’s a big deal considering weight gain can have an impact on your dog’s quality of life.

Besides monitoring your dog’s health, the Buddy app also lets you set up a geofence. You designate an area in which the dog can play and run around, and if it goes outside that space, you’ll get a text alert. Buddy will also send GPS information to track the dog’s whereabouts when it leaves the virtual fence area.

Oh, and Buddy can connect with smart home devices, like your Nest thermostat, so if your dog is too hot and you’re not home, the thermostat will automatically kick on your air conditioner.

And if you’re the kind of person who wants to give your canine pal a bit of style, the Buddy has you covered there, too. Thanks to a ring of built-in color LED lights, the collar can basically serve as your pet’s own personal disco ball.

You can also customize the collar’s colors using the Buddy app. This makes it easy to ensure that your little fluff ball is simply the most stylish pup at the dog park.

The Buddy collar doesn’t come cheap, though. To get the full package, you’ll have to pledge a whopping $300. That’s pretty steep for a dog collar. Two less expensive versions of the Buddy collar are also available, one without GPS tracking ($240) and a base model ($180), which also lacks hardware for fitness-tracking.

What’s more, the Buddy collar remains far from its funding goal. The company has, at press time, raised $60,000 of its $280,000 target. But don’t worry: With 19 days to go before its money-raising campaign expires, there is still plenty of time for this bells-and-whistles dog collar to make it.

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley or on Google+.