PitPat Pooches get their own back

We at PitPat are dedicated to helping keep dogs fit and healthy but recently our Pack pooches were wondering why we weren’t doing so well with our own activities. So we tasked Esther to be our human tester and find something to help us get as fit as our Pack pups. Muffin is our Pack Miss Motivator!

EA: Since joining the Pack I haven’t been running as much, but I am probably fitter due to my commute being on my bike. So I have been frustrated at the fact that all my fitness apps and gadgets don’t recognise my extra activity because they all revolve around running. Enter the new FitBit Charge HR, in a rather gorgeous teal blue. It was delivered to my work, I charged it up, nice and quickly I might add and installed the app onto my phone. So far, so smooth Fitbit.

I pedalled home and here are my first wonderful stats!

But after I arrived home that day, my offspring was convinced that she in fact should wear the FitBit and not me. It was the nicest colour for her, you see and lots of her friends have them.  After rebuffing her with the ultimate argument: “because I said so,” I promised that I would take her out with our Pack friend Muffin to review our joint antics of PitPat and Fitbit tech wearing on a go-pro captured run along the Cam.

The ‘Summer’ weather turned out too awful for river running so I had lots of solo fun with Fitbit to get acquainted with the features. My wet commutes tested the water resistance and found it to be top notch. Two weeks in and I was already getting rather addicted to the literal buzz of hitting my target 10,000 steps. It was very hard not to do a celebratory dance or fist pump whenever and wherever I happened to hit that goal. Even on the yogurt aisle in Tesco; celebrate with me probiotics purchasers!

And have I mentioned that for the first time I was getting recognition for my pedal powering across Cambridge?! I was excited to see that there were different levels of exertion, just like PitPat recognises different activities. The different zones of Fat burning, cardio and peak were all helpfully colour coded too. And just like with PitPat I was earning badges for my efforts. More of my self high five celebrations were in the office as I received my notifications in my email, it was SO motivating! To date I have earned a Redwood Forrest, Urban Boot, Penguin March, Trainer and a Marathon and I just got a Helicopter too. Each badge comes with its own little picture and explanation of your achievement. For instance the Penguin badge is when you have stepped the same distance as the Emperor Penguins when they do their yearly March. Serious cuteness. It even sends me weekly reports on my activity, and really how many other reports do you get at work that are so exciting and GOOD for your health? The only gripe I have is I don’t get as many hours of sleep as Fitbit tells me. We seem to be an office of the perpetual sleepless here at PitPat. It does pick up on my restlessness very nicely though so it’s definitely monitoring my crazy dreams about running around with hundreds of furry PitPat Pack-ers. Woof!

I haven’t even begun to use the feature for food intake yet although I am sure that it will help with eating the right amount. It’s so exciting to share that our very own PitPat app has gone live with a tailored calorie counter for your pooch! Our Tech Hounds have had their noses down for months testing it out with different dogs. We had lots of lovely Pack-ers requesting this feature to help keep their dogs at the right weight. We can’t wait to hear how you all use the Calorie burn feature to help you work out how much to feed them based on their activity. We know this will help the Pack work out when their furry pal is feigning hunger to get treats and when it might be good to let them run around for another 5 minutes.

Muffin is definitely looking at me with pride in her doggy eyes these days as we compare our activity stats, me on my Fitbit and her on her PitPat! I now feel even more motivated to steal her away for some play and walkies because now we BOTH get badges!

The Fitbit team wanted in on the PitPat action and tasked a lovely little Frenchie called Bowie with being the furry tester.

Bowie’s doggy tale

I will leave you with my very best fail at using go-pro.