BBB Geeky Novelties

Garmin, a manufacturer of G.P.S. equipment, makes a tracking system that keeps tabs on dogs during walks in the countryside or in the dense ground cover of a hunting trip. It has two parts: a hand-held G.P.S. unit for the owner and another device that is mounted on the dog's collar or harness.

If the dog bolts after a deer, the owner's device will show where the dog is headed so the owner can follow and find it, even if miles away. Garmin is one of many companies that have adapted an existing product line, in this case a hand-held G.P.S. unit, with the hope of tapping into the pet market.

The Garmin dog tracker system, called Astro, costs $599, weighs 6 ounces, is meant for large and medium-size dogs, which can carry it easily. The unit on the dog's collar computes the animal's location from G.P.S. satellites and radios the information to the owner's hand-held unit. The dog units also have tiny motion-sensing chips that detect when the dog is running, sitting or on point.

For dogs that are at home alone while their owners are at work, a start-up company, SNIF Labs, is developing a lightweight tag that logs, among other details, how much exercise the animal is getting. Small enough even for Chihuahuas, the tags are in preliminary testing and are scheduled for limited release in November at a price of $199.95.

The tags contain computer chips to detect a dog's motion inside and outside the house. "When the dog is out," said Noah Paessel, chief executive, "the computer on the tag is running and collecting information on walking and trotting, and storing it in memory on the dog's tag." When the dog returns home, the data stored on its collar are beamed by radio to a nearby receiver connected to a home computer and then to the company Web site for analysis and display.

Puplight uses a different technology for its dog tags: light-emitting diodes, fashioned into shining medallions that resemble smaller versions of the L.E.D. headlamps worn by hikers and cave explorers, at $19.95. The bright beams of the L.E.D.'s are intended to make dogs more visible — especially those that are small and dark in color and may be hard to see at night.
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