Link AKC Smart Collar - Review 2022

The Link AKC is a fashionable device that mounts on your pet's neckband to track its fitness, location, and even ambient temperature. It'south endorsed by the American Kennel Club, comes with its own attractive leather collar, and offers some useful features yous won't find in our Editors' Pick, the Whistle three. But information technology likewise has some drawbacks, including a bulky design and a steep $179 cost.

Pricing, Blueprint, and Features

The Link AKC starts with a loftier initial cost of $179. That should probably earn you a costless yr of tracking, just it doesn't: You lot accept to activate the service plan immediately to get the full do good of the GPS choice. The programme also comes with a three-year replacement warranty, access to the Pet Poison Hotline from within the app, and a costless collar upgrade if your pet outgrows the first one. It costs $nine.95 per calendar month, $95.twoscore for one twelvemonth, or $166.80 for two years. That'southward the aforementioned price every bit service plans for the Whistle 3, however, the Whistle sells for much less initially. (The lowest two-year full cost for the Link AKC is $345.fourscore compared with $246.75 for the Whistle iii.)

The Link AKC shows upward in some very nice packaging: a fat cardboard cylinder with a plastic top. Inside is a loftier-quality leather collar, a shock/water-resistant (IP67) tracking unit, a neckband carrier to attach the tracker, a base station (with convenient USB laissez passer-through to accuse other devices), and a power cord.

Link AKC--Contents

The collar is bachelor in four sizes: small for necks 9 to 14 inches, medium for xiv to 17.v inches, big for 17 to 21 inches, and XL for 20.5 to 25 inches. No affair what size you choose, the tracker hardware remains the aforementioned: 1.5 by three.9 by 0.5 inches (HWD). Information technology'due south curved to fit your domestic dog's cervix, then it won't work on a harness that well, depending on placement. It weighs 2.55 ounces with the carrier, making it quite a large bigger and heavier than the Whistle three (1.v by 1.8 by 0.6 inches, 1.25 ounces). You tin can use the tracker and carrier on whatsoever collar, non just the included 1—but the included one is really nice.

The visitor recommends the device for dogs 15 pounds and up. On a pocket-sized pup—similar my testing assistant, Madison, who weighs in at a graceful 32 pounds of brindle-colored energy—information technology looks bulky. The smaller the domestic dog, the weirder it'south going to announced. My wife saw information technology and proclaimed it "a little ridiculous and manlike" for her precious niggling girl. It's non sized or designed to piece of work with cats, like the Whistle 3 can.

The tracker clips into the tracker carrier. A spring-release button on the carrier pops it off, and so you lot can set the tracker in the base station (which is simply a niggling bigger than the tracker itself) to recharge. In my tests, Madison wasn't able to accidentally pop the tracker off.

Link AKC--Madison

Fix the tracker on the base station and iv LED lights indicate the charge level. The base of operations station is also office of the tracking system. When you remove the tracker from the charger, you must physically actuate it with a button of the push on the back; a light on the front end will blink green. Information technology'due south also one of the few pet trackers you can plough on and off. Link AKC recommends charging it nightly, despite an estimated battery life of ii to three days. I typically got near 2.5 days before it died, which is far short of the Whistle 3's nearly weeklong battery.

Tracking position for the Link AKC comes via AT&T's cellular network. If y'all don't take AT&T 3G near you, it's not going to work. There'southward a thirty-day coin back guarantee if it doesn't office in your surface area.

App and Functioning

Link AKC--Setup Setup requires an account, created via the Link AKC app for either Android or iOS. You tin can besides use a Facebook login if desired. There is no web choice.

Start past activating Bluetooth on your smartphone and turning on the neckband; in the app, go into Nearby Collars and it should find the tracking unit for you to annals. You can so add your canis familiaris's proper name, age, weight, gender, and breed—unlike the Whistle three, you can select multiple domestic dog types if you lot have a mix.

You also need to set up upwardly the base station. The app supports multiple base stations, so you lot tin can have them in every room if you so desire (the company isn't selling base of operations stations separately yet, simply says it will shortly, though pricing isn't bachelor). Each base uses Bluetooth to create a safe zone—if the dog wanders out of the range of the zone, the app volition send y'all an warning. If you stick with one base station, it's best if information technology is every bit centralized in your home as possible. Leaving the base unplugged can lead to false "away" alerts. For comparison, the Whistle iii uses your home Wi-Fi, which provides a much wider range than Bluetooth, and you don't need to worry about setting upwards base of operations stations.

If you take a very large house, y'all may need multiple base stations. If the domestic dog is not near the base, nor with you, the app will send an alert. Information technology also activates GPS in the tracker, which can have a couple of minutes to become a location. Subsequently that, it checks every 30 seconds until the unit is dorsum in the safe zone or turned off.

Link AKC--Home The mobile app has buttons along the lesser for Habitation, Location, Activeness, Adventures, and More than. It also has a battery life indicator. Dwelling gives yous quick access to the other sections. Information technology likewise lets you activate the white LED light on the tracker, which is convenient for finding your dog out in the night. There is a button to activate an audible chime on the tracker, ostensibly for training, just it's not going to replace a clicker. (All three of these only work if the tracker is connected via Bluetooth to your smartphone—not to the base station.)

Location displays a map (via TomTom) with an overlay depicting the safe zone created by your base station and smartphone. Click the target to jump to the current whereabouts of the tracker. Notifications typically hit your telephone after about 30 seconds according to my tests, which is much faster than the Whistle, which takes a few minutes.

You need to answer some questions to gear up an Activity profile for your domestic dog. For Madison, who could run free all mean solar day if allowed, the Link AKC recommended 48 minutes of daily active fourth dimension, based on her historic period, size, and gender. She'due south a lilliputian former though, and so I set that down to 40 minutes. While information technology tells you how many minutes your pet has moved (similar most trackers do), it also splits that information upwardly to show moderate vs. intense activity; the company claims it has a patent-awaiting algorithm that "learns what constitutes intense activity." It seemed relatively accurate in testing, but it'due south hard to say what it sees in a hike that's moderate as opposted to intense. Playing take hold of with a Frisbee seemed accurately labeled as intense.

Link AKC--Adventures Adventures is for tracking special location-based hikes or trips to the park. Click the scarlet push and it'll start tracking the time and place—but just if yous're within Bluetooth range of your dog, and out of range of the base station. Starting an Take chances from my front porch was an exercise in frustration...in one case far enough away, I had to also ensure my iPhone was continued to the tracker. Yous can't rail an Hazard if someone else takes the dog out (like a dog walker).

Pictures taken in the app while tracking go stored with the location data, providing a picayune snapshot of the Take chances. You can rename, share, or delete Adventures, unlike the Whistle 3, which automatically removes them after 24 hours. My initial experiences tracking Adventures had some oddly inaccurate GPS maps, but eventually the hikes seemed to tape fine.

Ambient temperature alerts are non on by default, and that's a good affair. I've seen body temperature readings tried in some other products, like the PetPace, and the fake positives—say on a common cold day when the dog lays near the fireplace—are off the charts. The company goes out of its way to note this feature is almost the surrounding air, not your dog's body temperature, which means it could be a handy way to avoid something we all fear in the summer: animals trapped in hot cars.

Link AKC--Temp Alerts I set it for forty to seventy degrees Fahrenheit—the highest depression and the lowest loftier temperatures the app will rails—and the fake positives came rolling in (Madison sleeps in a window in the sunday). I changed the high to 95 degrees and even so got alerts, even on cool days. I somewhen deactivated the temperature warnings altogether. Unfortunately, after the tracker'south battery dies and is recharged, the warnings plow back on without permission.

Lastly, there is an option to shop your dog's health records and other paperwork. This is zero fancy, just a uncomplicated use of your smartphone camera to take pictures of paperwork to store in the app. You can do the same affair in OneNote, Evernote, etc., but it'due south even so handy to have for reference when you visit a veterinary.

Conclusions

The Link AKC comes so close to being a dream tracker in many ways—it does a few things improve than the Whistle 3, including more than advanced activity tracking and a way to store Adventures (not to mention a snazzy leather collar). Simply it's held back by the need for cumbersome base of operations stations, the bulky size of the unit itself, and a toll more double some of the competition. I'm looking forward to the side by side generation of Link AKC, which admittedly has the potential to exist a winner. For now, the Whistle 3 remains just ahead, and our Editors' Choice.