The Tech I Use to Keep My Dogs Healthier (And the One That Actually Surprised Me)

I will be honest. I did not think I was a tech person when it came to Mac and Bru.

They are English Bulldogs and the absolute center of our household. Anyone who has lived with Bulldogs will understand that they come with a personality that takes up significantly more space than their already considerable physical presence. My partner thinks I am dramatic about monitoring them. I prefer to think of myself as appropriately attentive.

We already had the usual stuff. A GPS tracker for walks. Slow-feeder bowls because both of them eat like it is a competitive sport. An app for booking grooming appointments.

But it was not until I added a dog health tracker to the mix that I realized how little I actually knew about how they were doing day to day.

The GPS Tracker

We picked up a GPS tracker when Mac went through a phase of being very interested in what was on the other side of any open gate. It did its job.

That said, a GPS tracker is not essential for every dog parent. Bulldogs are not exactly known for their great escapes. They are more likely to be found asleep on the sofa than charging across a field. If your dog rarely leaves the house or stays close on walks, a GPS tracker is solving a problem you probably do not have.

What a GPS tracker does well: location tracking, activity summaries, peace of mind on walks. What it does not do: anything about their actual health. I know where Mac and Bru are. I do not know how they are.

The Slow Feeder and the Food App

Not glamorous, but the slow feeder was a genuine game changer. Both Mac and Bru used to inhale their food at a speed that made mealtimes feel vaguely stressful to watch. Slowing them down made a noticeable difference to their digestion and reduced the post-dinner bloat that Bulldogs can be prone to.

The food tracking app we use alongside it lets me log what they eat, track their weight, and set reminders for worming and flea treatments. Useful, low effort, does exactly what it says.

Neither of these, though, tells me anything about what is going on inside those wonderfully wrinkled bodies of theirs.

The Dog Health Tracker That Changed Things

About six months ago I started using Maven Pet, a pet health tracker that clips onto an existing collar. It weighs almost nothing and neither Mac nor Bru have ever once reacted to it being there, which for dogs who have strong opinions about most things in life, I took as a very good sign.

For Bulldog parents specifically, the resting respiratory rate monitoring is the feature that caught my attention first. Brachycephalic breeds breathe differently to other dogs, and understanding what is actually normal for your individual dog versus what is worth flagging to a vet is not always straightforward. Maven builds that baseline for you. It learns what normal looks like for Mac and what normal looks like for Bru, separately, and alerts you when something shifts.

Beyond breathing, it tracks heart rate, sleep quality, activity patterns, drinking behavior, and scratching. All of it feeds into an app I check the way I check the weather. Quickly, without it taking over my life.

The thing that surprised me most was not any individual alert. It was how much I learned about them in the first few weeks. Mac scratches more than Bru, consistently, which has since come up at a vet appointment. Bru drinks noticeably more after warmer days. Their sleep patterns are different enough that the app treats them as the distinct individuals they very much are.

None of this caused alarm. But all of it gave me something I did not have before: actual information to bring to vet appointments instead of a vague sense that they seemed fine.

Their vet spent longer looking at the two-week trend report than I expected and mentioned it filled in context that a standard ten-minute check-up simply cannot provide.

What It Costs

The GPS tracker runs around $10 a month depending on the plan. The food app has a free tier that covers most of what I need. Maven Pet is $19.99 a month, with the sensor included and one subscription covering up to three pets. Given that Mac and Bru are both on the same plan, the cost per dog works out to solid value for what it provides.

Of the three, Maven is the one that has most changed how I think about looking after them. The GPS tells me where they are. The food app keeps me organized. The Maven dog health tracker actually tells me how they are doing, which turns out to be the thing I wanted all along and just did not know to look for.

Is Dog Tech Worth It?

That depends entirely on what you want from it. If location and logistics are the priority, a GPS tracker earns its place. If you want to go deeper and actually understand your dog's health between vet visits, a dedicated dog health tracker is worth looking at seriously.

You can learn more at maven.pet.