From Couch to Couch – Is Your Dog Getting Enough Exercise?

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Ammo

Disclaimer: this post is brought to you by Pod Trackers. All opinions are my own, and I only share products I think you and your dog(s) will love.

So I’m the first to admit that I’m no stranger to couch snoozing. I know where to find the perfect spot at anytime, and I have no problems sinking myself into one whenever I feel like it.

As cute and cuddly as I look (I know, I’m just so stinkin’ adorable), it got me thinking….when is too much napping too much? (as if that’s a thing!)

Well my friends, after a little googling (on the couch no less), I discovered that according to an article I found on PetMD the average dog should be getting about 30 minutes of rigorous exercise (or play) along with 1-2 hours of daily activity.

So how am I supposed to tell if my romps on the farm are enough?

Well, as luck would have it, my friends at Pod Tracker have a kickstarter going for their Pod 3 – the customizable GPS tracker for everything in your life, including your dog!

Now I know what you’re thinking, how is a GPS tracker going to tell me how much exercise I’m getting? Well, one of the super cool features of the Pod is that it also has an Activity Monitor. That’s right, you can monitor your dogs activity or set up sensor alerts and even detect unusual activity right from your smart phone.

So not only is your pet’s activity being monitored, but you can also set up geofences to be notified if your pet leaves a specific area, and you can even record and share your pets adventures.

Their Kickstarter campaign for the new Pod 3 is already fully funded, but there are still a few days left for you to jump on board and get your pet one of the newest models at an introductory price. The cool thing about the new Pod 3 is it now has various add-ons such as sound, light, ultrasonic speaker (hello bark control), XL battery and permanent power dock. You can head on over to their campaign to find out more details on their new upgrades!

So just how did I do with my activity levels for my first day of tracking it? Well as you can see by bedtime I had exceeded my walking goal (what can I say, I’m an active guy), and I was pretty close to my rest goal (we all need naps). But 9 minutes of play? That’s sad. Really sad.

Well, there’s really only one thing to do about that.

Tug-of-war ALL DAY LONG tomorrow!

So do you think your dog gets enough exercise? If you’re curious to find out for sure, be sure to check out the Pod 3 Kickstarter campaign!

A GPS Pet Tracker with no Monthly Fees + A Giveaway

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Ammo

Disclaimer: This post and giveaway is brought to you by Iota GPS Tracker. All opinions are my own, and I only share products I think you and your pets might love.

Way back when my mom decided to help fund a little kickstarter campaign for the Iota GPS Pet Tracker. Fast forward to about a month ago, and suddenly this little white box was strapped to my neck!

See what makes the Iota a little different than most GPS Trackers for pets is this little contraption sitting next to me (the Home Base), it’s because of this that there are no monthly fees, unlike most Trackers you might see on the market that require a monthly or yearly fee for their tracking services. And when you can save those extra pennies for more important things (like dog toys), that’s always a good thing!

You simply set up the home base inside your home near a window, and it connects up with your own Wifi network. Each home base can then track your tracker up to 1 – 4 miles away. And the cool part is Iota Trackers can connect to any home base in your area, meaning if your neighbor has one your reach is already extended even further.

The Iota is also the smallest pet GPS I’ve ever tried, which can make a big difference when you’re a small dog. I certainly can’t have some hunky thing on my collar weighing me down!

The free Iota App allows you set up geo-fences for your dog. Which is essentially a “safe area” that you would like your dog to stay in, when they enter or exit the area you can receive an alert on your smart phone.

You can then set up as many Iota trackers as you like within the app to monitor all of your pets. It even has a handy feature to notify you when the battery level is running low. The iota’s battery can to last up to approximately one month and is rechargeable for 200+ cycles. That’s a pretty long time.

When it does need charging there is a handy charger that plugs into any USB port.

I’ve been wearing my Iota around home, and when mom and dad leave me home alone. Even though its very rare that I ever “escape” my fenced yard, my parents feel safer knowing they would be alerted if I ever left the area.

For testing purposes though we drove my Iota to the farm one day to see if it would alert my mom to the fact that it left the geo fence, and not long after exiting the designated area mom got a notification on her phone.

And the alert also showed up on the app’s notifications too.

Eventually the Iota will be adding more features like temperature sensors (to alert you if the Iota is above or below a certain temperature). Each iota is also weatherproof and submersible up to 3 feet.

A video posted by Ammo The Dachshund (@ammothedachshund) on Mar 11, 2016 at 9:49am PST

The Iota also has a cool little ring feature, so if you’re trying to find your dog (who’s maybe really good at playing hide-n-seek like me), you can just turn on the sound to find them quicker.

If you’d like to find out more about Iota you can check them out here, and you can even use code ammo4iota to save $15 off your order with them!

And now for the best part…

ONE WINNERS WILL WIN A HOME BASE & IOTA INTRO KIT!

Here’s HOW TO WIN:

No purchase necessary. To enter use the Rafflecopter widget below. You will be contacted via e-mail to claim your prize. All the winners will also be announced on this blog post once the giveaway ends. Open to USA & Canada readers only. Winners must claim their prizes within 48 hours of being notified or prize will be forfeited. By entering you are agreeing to the terms & conditions set forth in the Rafflecopter widget (see below).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Never want to miss any of the adventures (or giveaways) on my blog? Make sure you sign-up for e-mail updates!

GPS Pet Tracker To Keep Your Dog Safe + A Giveaway

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Ammo

Disclaimer: This post and giveaway is brought to you by Trax and does contain some affiliate links. All opinions are my own, and I only share products I think you and your pets will love.

You might remember that at the beginning of this year I started testing out a new GPS Pet Tracker on the market to keep pets (and anything else you want) safe called Trax.

This tiny little device that gets attached to my collar has changed the way I get to enjoy time on the farm. Not to mention it keeps my mom from worrying ALL THE TIME (She’s a bit dramatic if you ask me) about what I’m doing.

Now for those of you that are dachshund owners – this is a common scene I’m sure you know all too well. You trust “dachshund” to stay close, you unhook leash, dachshund takes off and pretends they can’t hear your frantic yelling, you chase dachshund down, you tie dachshund up again, no one is happy.

Now while a good recall is always a good idea, I (nor any dog) wants to listen all of the time (life is just too short for that), and being tied up 24/7 is just oh so sad. So enter the Trax GPS Tracker.

With this around my neck my mom feels better about letting me roam the farm (which is not fenced) because she can check in on me any time she wants. I’m happy because I don’t have to be tied up as much, and I still get to go on my coveted hunting excursions!

Mom sets up a “geo-fence” around the areas she would like me to stay and anytime I cross the invisible boundary she gets a text to notify her and can check in to see where I’m at using the free Trax mobile app.

And guess what, it even works underground! Thanks to Trax I’m able to enjoy my time outdoors without the restrictions of a leash. If you haven’t tried it, it’s heaven!

Mom even leaves my Trax on me when I’m home alone, and it’s kinda fun to check it later to see where exactly I traveled inside the house. Now while the farmhouse is still too new to show up on the aerial view of the map, you can sort of still decipher that I only traveled to check the side doors and to my dog bed while mom was gone.

A fun little tip for all you Trax wearers out there is that since Trax is only water resistant (not waterproof), mom slips mine into one of these tiny little bags before putting it on my collar to make sure it doesn’t ever get too wet on dewy mornings or rainy days.

Thanks Trax for helping set me free, and making sure I get to check EVERY SINGLE ONE of my ground hog holes!

My pal Minnow is thrilled that I can keep those pesky critters at bay so he has no scary holes to fall into when he’s playing in the pasture.

You can fetch your own Trax GPS Pet Tracker for $249 + 2 years of free service ($5/month for each additional year). Which is much cheaper than many of the comparable trackers we have researched.

Make sure you check out my full review from back in January with even more nifty features that are available when you purchase the Trax GPS Tracker.

And now for the best part….

ONE GRAND PRIZE WINNER WILL WIN A TRAX GPS TRACKER! ($249 value!)
TWO RUNNERS-UP WILL WIN A DISCOUNT CODE FOR TRAX + A TRAX SLEEP MASK!

Here’s HOW TO WIN:

No purchase necessary. To enter use the Rafflecopter widget below. You will be contacted via e-mail to claim your prize. All the winners will also be announced on this blog post once the giveaway ends. Open to WORLDWIDE residents. Winners must claim their prizes within 48 hours of being notified or prize will be forfeited. By entering you are agreeing to the terms & conditions set forth in the Rafflecopter widget (see below).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read our full Terms & Conditions for this giveaway.

Never want to miss any of the adventures (or giveaways) on my blog? Make sure you sign-up for e-mail updates!

Friday Fetch: All-In-One Smart Dog Collar

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Ammo

I’m already a “GPS Dog”, with my trusty Trax collar that I love, but I couldn’t help but take notice of the new indiegogo campaign to fund Dogtelligent’s Connected Collar. The Connected Collar is a a proposed GPS Tracker, Activity Monitor, Safety Collar and Training Device all in one. Just check out the video below to see what it’s all about!

The most interesting thing to me was the ability for the Connected Collar to simulate a leash tug through vibrations – to perhaps keep your dog from running into traffic, or going too far from home. I can’t wait to see how these collars perform once they make it into production. There’s still 25 days to get involved with funding the Connected Collar into production, and eventually you’ll be able to fetch them from DogTelligent.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, nor do I own this product. Simply wanted to share my latest find!