Research from Demandsage 2.0 indicates that on a worldwide basis, 23% of men and 21.8% of women own a smartwatch. In the U.S., that number is even smaller, as 12.2% of Americans are reported to use a smartwatch or a fitness tracker.

However, when we get to the pet space, that number drops even further. Market awareness for pet trackers in the United States is approximately 5% of pet-owning households, with the number of households that actually have purchased and use a pet tracker being much smaller than that, potentially as few as 1 million.

However, while the market is small now, the low level of awareness speaks to the high growth potential in the space, if pet parents can be educated about the utility and benefits of these devices.

Over the last several months, I've had the pleasure of trialing a new pet tracker called the Smart Dog Collar from a company called Invoxia. This device not only offers activity monitoring and location tracking, like many of the existing trackers in the market, but it was the first to come to market with a heart monitor. The device has a heart monitor in it, and it tracks heart signature (similar to an EKG), resting heart rate, and resting respiratory rate, along with a whole other host of beta features.

Skeptics might say, well if only 12.2% of Americans use a smartwatch or a fitness tracker, and less than 5% of pet-owning households are even aware of the existence of pet trackers, what is the potential upside to making what is the equivalent of a smart watch for pets?

The answer lies in the device's potential to offer better insights into your pet's baseline health levels. While at first glance, the ability to know your dog's resting heart rate and respiratory rate might seem like a novel curiosity, it in fact can be a critically important piece of information to gauge the day-to-day health of your dog. By establishing a baseline health profile for their pets, owners can easily detect any deviations, prompting timely visits to the veterinarian if there is a sudden departure from their normal resting heart rate or respiratory rate. Furthermore, the ability to gather health data outside the clinical environment is a crucial development. Many pets experience stress during vet visits, which can affect the diagnostic accuracy of measurements of heart or respiratory rate. Having a regular log of these measurements collected in a familiar, stress-free setting could lead to allows veterinarians to diagnose issues earlier and tailor treatments more effectively.

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Amélie Caudron, CEO at Invoxia, and Dr. Cade Wilson, DVM to discuss the Invoxia Smart Dog Collar.

Amélie answered questions about the device's capabilities, and outlined future plans, including new hardware versions, new features and functionality, and potential partnerships.

Dr. Wilson was able to provide his insight on the potential clinical benefits of having his clients wear a smart collar. He underscored how real-time, at-home data could provide more accurate insights than clinic-based observations, which are often skewed by pets' stress, and noted that the potential for early detection of disease, as well as treatment adjustment based on this data is immense. For example, if the smart collar was able to show that the prescription of a therapeutic had raised a dog's heart rate, Dr. Wilson could elect to stop the medication or change the dosage.

This week at CES (Consumer Technology Association), Invoxia unveiled a new hardware version called Minitailz. It retails for $99, and attaches to virtually any dog collar. However, it has all the capabilities of the device I trialed, including the ability to detect atrial fibrillation through the Heart Signature, which is a new feature that was just unveiled at CES.

Invoxia expects to unveil new partnerships in the coming weeks, and I'm excited to see what the partnerships entail.

Enjoy the episode!