Dog walking gadgets

15th November 2012 by Gillie McNicol

It is now November and a glorious sunny day, perfect for dog walking and being outside rustling through the leaves. This morning I took the two youngest dogs, Zolli and Zeaver out for a long walk and the views were just gorgeous so I had to take some photos facing north from our woods.

Dog walking has to be the one of the greatest pleasures in life as an Animal Aunt; fresh air, beautiful new places to see, lovely new walks to find. I find it impossible to do the same route all the time so we aim for different walks every day. We are blessed with the most amazing array of footpaths and bridleways in and around the South Downs National Park.

I have been test walking a couple of gadgets: The first is Mapmydogwalk, an App for iPhone which, if you remember to start it will map your walk reasonably accurately (I use View Ranger too and there is a small discrepancy in the distance logging) and tell you when you have done each mile, although The lady in the app (voice feedback) shouts a lot about the distance travelled, current pace average pace etc every mile which is a bit intrusive and there is no stopping her once she starts, So I have had to limit the number of things she reports as she always launches at the worst possible time.. Just as I meet someone or just as I have the dogs sitting and waiting for a dog to go by. Then, as long as you remember to stop the recording before you get in the car, you can keep a record with photos all of your favourite walks. Made by Subaru you can find it at the App Store or more info at Mapmydogwalk.com

My second gadget is the tiny Fitbit www.fitbit.com which is a tiny step counter/pedometer which fits anywhere on your body with a sturdy rubber clip. It measures the time, number of steps, miles, calories burned and it can even monitor your sleep pattern though I have not tried this yet. I like to use a pedometer just because I find it motivates me a bit to do that little bit more.. Those extra few steps.