A healthy dog is wealthy.

With digital dog collars, it can help you track your fido's location and fitness. You can even call the dog even when you're at the other end of the house. These smart collars use GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular data to provide stats to your smartphone or dedicated gadget.

Digital dog collars are the next generation in ensuring your pup's health. You can identify where they are and know if your furry pal is getting enough activity that it needs. Here is our list of the best smart dog collars for those who want to keep a closer eye on their dog.

• Whistle Go Explore Health & Location Tracker for Pets - Best for Health and Fitness
• FitBark GPS Dog Tracker - Best Digital Dog Collar For Tracking
• Fi Smart Dog Collar - Best Overall Digital Dog Collar
• Garmin Astro 430/T 5 Dog Tracking Bundle - Best Digital Dog Collars For Long Range
• PetSafe Smart Dog Trainer Collar - Best Digital Dog Collars For Training
  

How Do Digital Dog Collars Work?

Most digital dog collars use Android or iOS devices to provide quick read and data to paw parents. Some models use a base station to establish a line of communication between the dog collar tracker and a smartphone through Wi-Fi.

Like traditional collars, digital dog collars come in different shapes and sizes. Some have built-in rechargeable batteries, while others require cell batteries. You can also find some units that use Bluetooth as the base station. 

5 Best Digital Dog Collars of 2023

Dogs can get faster than humans, even the smallest dog breeds. According to the American Humane Association, there are over 10 million pets go missing every year. Some are lost while others are getting stolen. The latter is common for small dogs that are friendly even towards strangers. 

Meanwhile, some dog parents forget to give the right amount of daily exercise to dogs. It's because of a busy schedule, or they do not know 'how much' activity a dog needs. This data is concerning knowing how much happiness our fluffy friends can bring into our lives. But to prevent it from happening to your fido, we will give you the five best digital dog collars for small dogs.

1.Whistle Go Explore Health Tracker - Best for Health and Fitness

Whistle Go Explore Health Tracker focuses on the primary needs of the dog to become less aggressive. It is the health and fitness required to consume each day. Whistle Go Explore has a battery life that can last up to 20 days. You can charge the battery for two hours. But some reviews said that the average charging time is every two to three days. Still, it depends on how often do you use this digital collar. If you're already in the habit of charging your smartwatch and synchronizing the charging cycles, it shouldn't be a problem.

The app and flexibility of Whistle Go make it a better choice for monitoring your dog's overall activity. It is also waterproof, so you can use it even when outdoors. This digital dog collar utilizes both a cellular network and Wi-Fi. So if you are not at home, you need to have reliable mobile data to work in your current area. 

You can find daily activity information that you can tailor according to your dog's age, breed, and weight. Then, you can get notifications through SMS, app, or email. The adapter is compatible with any regular one-inch dog collar. Still, you can also use Whistle's Go Explore GPS specially made collar for this purpose. 

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2.FitBark GPS Dog Tracker - Best Digital Dog Collar For Tracking

Do you have a pup that loves to sneak out every morning? Do you spend most of your time searching for your furry pal around your home? The FitBark GPS Dog Tracker gives you the most reliable tracking feature among all digital dog collars for small dogs.

Aside from the cute bone design, the on-collar monitor is more attractive and more petite than other monitors. Plus, the monitor is robust so that it can withstand all your adventures with your fido. The app performs excellent with a pet activity tracker. The GPS will help you track the dog’s whereabouts, and you can link it to a designated fitness tracker.

The battery life can last up to 15 days, depending on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth use. Your pup won’t feel tired and conscious wearing it because the FitBark dog tracker only weighs 17 grams. It fits dogs weighing 5 to 240 pounds. Plus, it can fit collars of about 1.5 inches wide.

3. Fi Smart Dog Collar - Best Overall Digital Dog Collar

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The Fi Smart Collar is attached to a custom collar. So, you can remove the tracking devices, but the tracker is only compatible with Fi dog collars. It is a much sleeker tracker than the Whistle and FitBark models.

The tracking unit is as big as a Matchbox toy car, made from brushed steel and black plastic. Rather than continuously searching for GPS points, which quickly depletes the battery, the Fi gathers location information through Bluetooth from the included base unit or a connected mobile device. 

When you enable the "lost-dog" mode, Fi triangulates location and sends data to the user via a mobile-device app using three constellations of satellites and AT&T's LTE-M network coverage.

What's more impressive is the Fi's battery life. A fully-charge battery can last up to three months which are always at home. Meanwhile, the device can last two months for canines that leave the house for daily walks. You can expect it to last for three weeks for highly active dogs. The latter is uncommon for small dog breeds, so that you can guarantee three weeks to three months of battery life.

Accurate data, durable materials, and water resistance are features that the Fi Smart Dog Collar can offer.

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4. Garmin Astro 430/T 5 Dog Tracking Bundle - Best Digital Dog Collars For Long Range

Garmin Astro 430/T 5 Dog Tracking is excellent for long distances. It is ideal for small dog breeds who are into sports activities. You can also use it if you live on a farm with larger plots of land.

You'll get amazed with its powerful GPS tracking. This collar and GPS receiver package helps you to track up to 20 dogs over a nine-mile range. It improves accuracy by combining conventional GPS and GLONASS reception. For similar to real-time monitoring, it updates every 2.5 seconds.

You can rely on the preloaded maps, and the kit also contains a one-year satellite imagery subscription. A nine-mile radius could protect most runaways, so it's certainly worth considering if you have several uses for it.

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5. PetSafe Smart Dog Trainer Collar - Best Digital Dog Collars For Training

Most conventional dog training collars enable you to bring around a radio transmitter. Instead of using your mobile, PetSafe has equipped the collar with a Bluetooth radio. Since we all bear our smartphones in our daily lives, this dramatically increases the convenience of such devices.

This device's effective range is around 75 yards, which is very short for this type of device. However, if you wear it when you're actively exercising or training, it shouldn't be an issue. 

PetSafe Smart Dog Trainer Collar uses one level of beeping, one level of vibration, and 15 levels of "static stimulus" as part of correction stimulations. Shock collars are relatively standard and usually do not cause damage. But if you don't want to use one, you can still use the other choices for this collar.

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Conclusion

When choosing the best digital dog collars, consider your purpose in using it. Is it for tracking your fido's health, location, or both? Then, consider your budget. Digital dog collars with more features have higher prices. But it's worthy of the value if it would help you and your furry pal in your daily lives.