LINK AKC Smart Collar for Dogs
The LINK AKC smart collar is a sophisticated GPS smart collar designed for dog comfort, fit and fashion. It lets you track a lost dog with GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, & cellular monitor activity, log vet records, receive ambient temperature alerts, and much more. Smart collar pairs with LINK AKC app to be used with the LINK AKC smart collar helps you take a more informed and active role in managing your dog’s well-being and to feel connected to your dog when you’re apart from each other.
- Link AKC SMART DOG collar: The only GPS and activity tracker your dog will ever need to keep your dog safe, healthy, and happy. Works with iOS and Android. Have questions or need support call 866-772-6055 * only works in the U. S. A.
- Service plan: Link AKC is like a smart phone for your dog & requires service plan connectivity to allow data to be transmitted. Includes an extended , A size , and access to the pet Poison Helpline, a 24/7 animal Poison control center
- Size: don’t stress about which size to order, link AKC will exchange your collar for free Just call customer service at 866-772-6055 *Not recommended for dogs under 10 lbs.
- Location tracking nationwide in United States: know your dog’s location with fast and accurate GPS tracking enabled by the AT&T cellular network (service plan required). Be alerted if your dog leaves designated safe zones
- Activity monitoring and sound training: activity goals are customized by AKC to your dog’s age, breed, and size to allow for accurate daily activity monitoring. Remote turn-on sound to help with training
- Adventures feature: record, remember, and share special walks, hikes, and other adventures with your dog
- Safety Features: temperature alerts if your dog’s environment is too hot or cold. Led light on collar with remote turn-on LED light to see and be seen. Vet Records can be stored in app to make dog ownership easier with a place to store important Records
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I originally owned a Tagg, which I upgraded to a Whistle GPS Pet Tracker. I took the LINK AKC because although Whistle GPS is the best option I’ve found so far, it has its flaws. Here’s how they compare.________________________AESTHETICS/COLLARWinner: LINK AKCOne of the beauties of LINK AKC is the form factor and the fact that it comes with a matching collar. They flow together as one. No one would ever point to my dog’s collar and ask “What’s that?” like they do with her Whistle GPS.The medium LINK AKC collar was too large and could slip off my dog’s head if she pulled against the leash, so I called and asked for a smaller size. LINK AKC will send you the size you need if you get the wrong size or if your dog grows.Whistle GPS does not come with a collar.________________________SIZE/FIT/COMFORTWinner: Whistle GPSThe LINK AKC collar looks like it is well made, but it is stiff leather, and it looks uncomfortable. Maybe a larger dog could wear it better. On the positive side, you can use the LINK AKC on any collar, which is what I ended up doing. Still, the LINK AKC unit is huge compared to Whistle GPS. My 23-pound cocker spaniel is about the smallest dog I’d recommend it for, but even she looks a little dwarfed/uncomfortable with it._______________________GPSWinner: LINK AKCThe one biggest drawback to Whistle GPS is the tracking, which it does every 3 minutes. With Whistle GPS, you will always be 3 minutes behind your dog. LINK AKC tracking happens in real time, something I am totally in love with and did give me pause to switch. Tagg (the prequel to Whistle GPS) used to have real time tracking, and it upset a lot of people when Whistle bought Tagg and replaced it with the new tracking system.Both apps notify me when my dog is outside the safe zone, but only Whistle GPS sends a text message in addition to the app. While I like text messages, I like real-time tracking better. I could be more than a block away from home while walking my dog before Whistle GPS notifies me, whereas LINK AKC is right on it._______________________APPWinner: LINK AKCBoth apps show tracking and activity level, but the Whistle GPS app is clunkier. Whereas LINK AKC has the map and activity displayed on the same page, Whistle GPS defaults to activity level and you have to go through a few manipulations to get to the map. Also, LINK AKC’s real-time GPS can’t be beat (see above)._______________________BATTERY LIFEWinner: Whistle GPSWhistle GPS wins hands down. I can’t even remember the last time my dog’s Whistle GPS ran out. I wash her every two to three weeks and charge it then, so it lasts at least 2 to 3 weeks on one charge if not longer. LINK AKC lasts one day._______________________WATERPROOFWinner: TieI have to take the manufacturer at their word when they say LINK AKC is waterproof. I have washed my dog with her Whistle GPS on. No problem. If I remember correctly, she even once took a swim with the Whistle GPS on. They are both supposed to be waterproof._______________________STAYS ONWinner: TieThe old TAGG used to fall off all the time, but I don’t have that problem with Whistle GPS. I have not had that problem in the short time I’ve owned LINK AKC, either._______________________LIGHTS/SOUND/TEMPERATUREWinner: LINK AKCThese features are not available on the Whistle GPS, but to be honest, I have no use for them. The light doesn’t do much for me on our daytime walks. The sound is not that loud and I have no desire to use it for training. The temperature alert, I didn’t even turn on for testing._______________________OVERALL IMPRESSIONLINK AKC’s real-time GPS really tempted me to swtich. Even though the large size looked uncomfortable from the human perspective, my dog wasn’t complaining. What prevents me from doing that is the pathetic battery life. There is no way I want to have to remember to charge the GPS every night and put it back on in the morning. Not to mention, if I’m away when she gets out, I don’t want to worry that the GPS will run out of batteries before I get back to find her.Rating this product is difficult for me, because the real-time GPS is wonderful, and many owners wouldn’t mind charging every night like they do their phone just to have that feature. If you have a large dog and can remember to charge the device, this is the one for you. If you have a toy breed, I don’t recommend this at all. It’s too big.I’ll give four stars, because this works as promised. Minus one star for short battery life.
William –
I’m a former Whistle user that was looking for a more accurate tracker. As a Husky owner, I need to be able to track him in real-time should he get loose. Whistle had a hard time being that GPS unit that could give me that piece of mind.Pros vs Whistle1. MUCH better tracker as it finds my Husky ASAP with great accuracy.2. Comes with very nice, durable collar.3. Very easy to detach and reattach link unit to collar.Cons vs Whistle1. Horrible activity tracking. My Husky gets about 100-150 minutes of activity a day. The activity goal on my Link is 90 mins and it has yet to hit the goal with about 5 days of trials.2. Horrible activity synching. The Whistle would sync his activity as soon as we got back in the Whistle zone. Most of the time the Link doesn’t even register we came back from a walk/run.3. The Whistle zone is a much better setup than what Link tried to do with “with you”, “near home”, and “away”.4. The app is substandard compared to Whistles app.All in all, if you need a great GPS unit…get the Link. If you’re looking for more of an activity monitor and can deal with spotty GPS tracking than go with the Whistle.I’ll stick with Link only because the tracker is awesome.
Cassandra Cutbirth –
I purchased this collar after comparing several other collars for my dog. She is an escape artist, who will run in case of thunder or fireworks. The decision was between the link akc and the whistle, several reviews said if you want a collar that is best at gps get the link akc. We had issues at first with the base station not broadcasting far enough to cover our back yard. Alerts would come every 10 minutes or so that she had left or returned. This wasn’t a big deal because I read it was an issue from other reviewers. The problem was when she was “away” the collar would not find her location. One night a group of kids set off fireworks and we came home and she was gone. While my dad went to find her in the car, I updated the app over and over from 10p-2a trying to get 1 signal out of the collar, it never showed me her location. We live out in west Texas, no trees (so it’s not heavily wooded) and no tunnels to hide in. she has access to a clear sky and there is good at&t service there. The collar should have worked, but when we needed it, it did not come through. We found her by the way, trotting along the street a block over.
Steve V. –
I’ve been cleaning up the house and writing up reviews for things I’ve been meaning to. I bought the Link Collar and Whistle right around the same time about a year ago, and have since moved onto the Fi Collar for our dog. I’ve gotten a few quetsions about how they are different so I figured I’d break it out here.Overall I’d rank them: 1) Fi Collar, 2) Whistle, 3) LinkUnfortunately the link’s battery life is pretty bad, it was running out daily and I had to charge it constantly. The Fi lasts us just short of 3 months between charges (I only let it get down to 10%), and the whistle was charging every 2-3 days.The Link and Fi have the best looking collars, but I didn’t like how stiff the Link is especailly on my bigger dog (great dane). The Fi comes in different sizes and swaps out bands like the link does, which I love.The whistle just attaches to a normal collar with a rubber band that I didnt think was very secure.Escape detection and location tracking was much more accurate on the Fi and the Whistle, the link seemed to really struggle to get accurate points for us, and we’re in an area with really good AT&T service which is what all of these collars seem to use. The whistle struggled with false alerts whenever the collar stopped connecting to our wifi, where the fi seems to be much smarter and properly handles when my wife takes our dog out for a ride in the car.Overall we’re really happy with the fi. We’ve even tried the newest whistle devices just to make sure we werent missing out, and ended up returning them within 2 weeks as it still only lasted 10 days! Even though fi is slightly more expensive, keeping our dog safe was our top priority and we love the peace of mind we have with the fi collar.