Activity Tracker For Pets: Why Pet Health Brands are Already Behind

Pet parents nowadays can tell whether their dog logged more steps or less steps from one day to another. But they cannot explain what the difference in activity mean. Right now, most activity tracking for pets devices on the market count movement.

The challenge is they do not offer any insight on why that might be. Pet parents will not wait for the industry to catch up. Right now, many people are tracking their own steps, sleep, and heart rate. With pets becoming a part of the family, customers are looking for the same products for their furry companions.

The real problem: tracking data is common, understanding it is not

Most devices on shelves right now solve the easy half of the problem. An accelerometer counts motion. A screen or app displays the count. What is missing is the second half: turning a raw number into something a pet parent can act on. A drop in activity means nothing on its own. A drop in activity compared to that specific dog's baseline, at that specific age, in that specific breed, means the difference between catching early arthritis and missing it for another six months.

Companies that only ship the counting half of the product are building a commodity. Every supplier can slap an accelerometer into a collar. The companies that will own this category are the ones building the interpretation layer on top of it, and right now, most have not started.

Why this is happening now

The market did not choose this moment by accident. Pet ownership has become a bigger financial and emotional commitment than it was a decade ago, and owners are behaving accordingly.

The numbers back this up from multiple directions, and they mostly agree on the trend even when they disagree on the exact size:

• Grand View Research projects the U.S. pet wearable market to grow at a 16.2 percent compound annual rate between 2026 and 2033, driven by rising pet ownership, higher spending on pet healthcare, and demand for real time monitoring.
• Global Market Insights puts the global pet wearables market at 7.1 billion dollars in 2025, expected to more than triple to 21.8 billion dollars by 2035 at a 10.9 percent annual growth rate.
• Fortune Business Insights expects the global pet wearable market to grow from 4.72 billion dollars in 2026 to 13.12 billion dollars by 2034, and specifically flags the smart collar segment, the category built for activity tracking, as the fastest growing product type.
• Market.us sizes the broader pet tech market at 13.8 billion dollars in 2025, projected to reach 52.1 billion dollars by 2035, and names AI-driven insight and multi-device interoperability as the trends shaping the next decade of product design.
• IMARC Group reports the pet wearable market at 2.8 billion dollars in 2025, growing at a 10.58 percent annual rate through 2034, with smart collars already holding around 60.9 percent of category revenue.

Every one of those firms used different methodology and landed on a different number. None of them found a shrinking market. That consistency across five independent research houses is the signal worth paying attention to, not any single figure.

Zoom in further and the activity-and-health segment specifically, rather than the broader wearable category, tells the same story. Mordor Intelligence values the pet wearable market at 3.56 billion dollars in 2026, growing to 6.65 billion dollars by 2031, and notes that dogs alone accounted for 59.12 percent of category share in 2025, with heart rate variability analysis now supporting early detection of anxiety or respiratory distress in active breeds. Verified Market Reports puts the pet tracker segment at 1.5 billion dollars in 2025, projected to reach 6.2 billion dollars by 2034, and specifically calls out the health and activity tracking subsegment as growing faster than the broader GPS-only category it sits inside.

That last point deserves attention from any company still positioning its product primarily as a lost-pet solution. Location tracking got pet parents in the door. Activity and health data is what is now pulling the fastest growth inside the category.

Behind the market projections sits a health problem that gives activity tracking its urgency. The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention found that 59 percent of U.S. dogs and 61 percent of cats were classified as overweight or obese in 2022, an increase over the previous surveys in 2018 and 2017. A more recent 2024 survey cited by the American Animal Hospital Association found around 22 percent of dogs and 33 percent of cats are clinically obese, with the overweight-or-obese figure for both species holding near 59 to 61 percent.

Obesity in pets is linked to diabetes, joint disease, and reduced lifespan. It is also, unlike a genetic condition, something an owner can actually see coming if they have the right data in front of them early enough. Activity tracking is the tool that makes early enough possible.

What a better approach looks like

A company building for this has three things to get right, in order.

First, baseline before benchmark. A three-year-old Border Collie and a nine-year-old Bulldog do not have the same normal activity level, and neither should be measured against a generic daily step goal. The device needs to learn what normal looks like for that specific animal before it tries to flag what is abnormal.

Second, trend over snapshot. A single low-activity day is noise. A two-week decline is a signal. Products that surface daily numbers without surfacing the trend line underneath them are handing the pet parent a task, not an answer.

Third, translate the number into a next step. "Activity is down 18 percent this week" is data. "Activity is down 18 percent this week, consistent with the pattern that preceded joint pain in dogs this age and breed, consider a vet visit" is a product. The second version is what keeps a customer subscribed and talking about the brand to other pet parents.

Why this matters for the business, not just the pet

There is a commercial argument here that is easy to miss when the conversation stays focused on the animal. Activity data, collected continuously and compared against a baseline, is the closest thing a hardware company has to a moat. A GPS chip is a commodity part any supplier can source. A dataset built from months of an individual pet's movement, sleep, and vitals is not something a customer can take with them to a cheaper competitor without losing the insight that made the product worth paying for in the first place.

That data also creates a natural subscription argument. A one-time hardware sale ends the relationship the day the box ships. A device that keeps building a more accurate picture of a specific animal over time gives a brand a reason to keep a customer on a monthly plan, and gives that customer a reason to stay, because switching means starting the baseline over from zero. Companies still pricing activity trackers as a single hardware purchase are leaving that recurring revenue, and that retention, on the table.

There is also a cross-sell angle worth mentioning. A brand that already has continuous activity and health data on a customer's pet is in the best possible position to recommend the right food, the right supplement, or the right insurance product at the moment the data actually calls for it, not on a generic marketing calendar. Few categories offer a company this much first-party, ongoing, high-trust data about a customer's daily life.

Where PuresPet's PHH-23 fits into this

The PHH-23 pet health monitoring device was built around this exact gap between counting and understanding. It runs continuous monitoring, tracking heart rate, respiratory rate, body movement, and BCG curve around the clock, and logs abnormal readings along with sleep, health, and HRV reports rather than a single daily activity total.

On the activity side specifically, the device tracks vibration, active and sleep time, calories burned, and exercise mileage, and pairs that with 4G-based GPS and wifi location tracking, geofencing, and geofence alerts. That combination means a brand can offer activity insight and location safety from a single unit instead of asking a pet parent to buy two separate devices.

The hardware specs matter for any company evaluating this for their own line. The PHH-23 weighs 55 grams, runs on a built-in 750mAh battery rated for three days of working time, and carries an IP6 waterproof rating. It connects over 4G Cat.1, charges magnetically, and is compatible with both Android and iOS. For companies building or private labeling a pet health product, it is available with a minimum order of 100 units per color and size, a 10 to 15 day standard delivery lead time, and a 25 to 30 day lead time for customized production, including laser logo, screen printing, and customized packaging options.

For a brand deciding whether to build activity tracking in house or work with an established manufacturer, the PHH-23 is a working example of what the interpretation layer described above looks like in hardware terms: sensors that go beyond step counting into the metrics that make a trend line meaningful.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best activity tracker for pets?

There is no right answer here, but it depends mostly on what pet parents need. Right now, the challenge is delivering a device that combines GPS tracking and health monitoring. That is the new niche that pet parents will focus on, and companies should try to deliver.

How accurate are pet activity trackers?

Accuracy varies by device and calibration of the sensor. Here is the challenge. Calibrating a sensor for four-legged movement is different than one for two-legged movement.

Companies are catching up, and devices with breed and age-specific baselines product the most useful data.

Can a human Fitbit track a dog's activity?

Not reliably. Human activity trackers are calibrated for human movement patterns and are not built to interpret a four-legged gait or account for the size and weight differences across pet breeds. A pet-specific device gives more accurate results.

What features should a pet activity tracker have?

At minimum, continuous activity monitoring, sleep tracking, and a baseline comparison specific to the individual pet. Premium devices also measure heart rate, respiratory rate, and can turn the device into a health and safety tool.

How much does an activity tracker for pets cost to bring to market?

For companies working with an established manufacturer rather than building hardware from scratch, cost depends on order volume, customization level, and which sensors are included beyond basic motion tracking. Minimum order quantities in the 100 unit per color and size range are common for private label or OEM production, with pricing scaling down as volume increases.

The Window is Open Now, Not Later

Every market report cited above points the same direction: more owners buying, more money spent per pet, and a category still dominated by companies solving the easier half of the problem. The brands that build the interpretation layer now, while most competitors are still shipping step counters, will be the ones pet parents trust when something actually goes wrong with their animal. That trust is difficult to buy back once a competitor earns it first.

The companies still deciding whether to add activity tracking to their product line are, in effect, deciding how much of that trust they are willing to hand a competitor for free.