14 Reasons Why I Love The Fi Dogs Collar For My Boston Terriers

My two Boston Terriers weighing 17 and 19 pounds with neck sizes of 11.5 inches have been wearing the Fi Collar now for over four months. It’s not too big for them and I love that I have peace of mind when we take our daily off leash walks.

If you’re interested to know how we use it, this post is for you.

1. Three Proximity Zones

There are three ways you can set up your proximity or what I call “safe zones”

Fi Base: The collar knows how close/far it is from your home base. Why is this important? Let’s say you aren’t at home … and your dog escapes through a hole in your fence. You’ll get an escape alert notifying you your dog is away from home.

You can even buy an additional base if you want to set one up in your office or some other location.

Fi App: The collar knows when you get separated from the app. I saw this first hand when I dropped my phone during a beach walk (unbeknownst to me).

I got a notification on my Apple iWatch that my dog was not with their owner – and that’s when I realized my phone was not with me. I backtracked 50 yards and found my phone in the sand.

WiFi (Series 2): You can connect your collar to WiFi networks to track your pup in additional locations where there is no Fi Base. The Fi app can store up to 6 WiFi networks at once.

GPS coordinates: In the LIVE mode … you can click on location points to see the GPS coordinates of your dog. This is extremely useful if you get separated from your dog.

2.  Lost Dog Mode

This brings me to the most important function on the collar – the ability to locate your dog. Hopefully – you never have to use it. But if you do – you can activate the LIVE function and notify the app that your dog is lost.

At this point, the location attempts will increase to once per minute on LTE/GPS.

The app at that time will provide you directions to help guide you to your dog: in lost dog mode you’ll see your location in relation to your pup in the map, and the last known location for your dog, listed below the map.

Like the Whistle 3, the Fi Collar uses AT&T’s towers for GPS positioning. If you live in an area that doesn’t have AT&T this collar will not work for you.

3. Tells Me When My Dog Leaves Home

Because the collar talks to “home base” I get a notification anytime our dogs leave home.

Recently I took a trip with a girlfriend and I would get a notification on my phone & watch every time they went on a walk with their dad.

4. Long battery life

The Fi Collar stays charged for approximately two months.

We’re an active dog family and it could probably last three months if all we did were short neighborhood walks.

5. Email tells me when battery low

I love getting an email as well as an alert when the battery is at 20%.

This prompts me to place the collars on the charging station.

6. Social App

Fi has built a community where other dogs that wear the Fi can connect either through the app or on Instagram by using the hashtag #fidog

I found the app intuitive and easy to use.

7. Digital Cheer Leader

The app sends motivational prompts to acknowledge when your dog has met their daily walk goals.

8.  Amazing Customer Service

You can reach their Customer Support team through the app.

When I was new to the collar I had a few questions which were answered within minutes of me placing the inquiry.  I had to contact them because the device had gotten loose and detached from the collar.  I wasn’t sure how to put it back on but they guided me on how to set it back into place very easily.

9. Fitness Tracker

I track my own activity on my Apple Watch and I love tracking Maggie and Orbit’s activity on the Fi App as well.

It’s also been interesting to me to see which one moves more. Orbit tends to explore more during our off leash walks while Maggie stays close to me. And Orbit’s mileage is always greater than her sister’s for that reason.

10. Ability to Change Out The Collar

Fi has teamed up with dog collar companies to allow their users to obtain a variety of different collars if you want something different from what Fi comes stocked with.

I personally have not found a reason to customize my dog’s Fi collars further.

I’m happy with the simple design. My two only wear the Fi collars when they are off leash or when we go on a hike and so they get them pretty dirty.

11. Waterproof

We go to the off leash beach every day. And while my dogs are not water dogs, they do on occasion get in the water.

I appreciate that the Fi is waterproof and won’t break when it gets wet.

12. Night Light

I love the ability to active a light on the collar. We go on camping trips several times a year and having this capability will be an added bonus for night night walks.

13.  Looks Modern and Sleek.

One of my hesitations in putting the Fi on Maggie and Orbit is that it would be mistaken for an E-collar.

The logo is quite prominent and actually what I have found is that people will stop me on walks to ask me how I like the Fi.

14. Peace of Mind

My biggest fear is that I might lose track of Maggie and Orbit during an off leash walk.

I no longer worry when they are wearing the Fi because I know at any given moment that we get separated, I can track them.

Final Thoughts

The Fi Collar fits my small Boston Terriers fine. It looks like a thick collar but it doesn’t look too big. And the branding on it makes it so that you can’t mistake it for an e-collar.

The GPS tracker is the main selling point but you will need AT&T coverage for to work.

Hopefully you never have to use the lost dog mode. I have tested it by dropping the collar on the sand and then walking a mile away and using the tracker to find it. I found it to be accurate and loved that the collar was blinking and easily visible when I was fifty yards away.

If you like to track your own personal activity, you’ll love that you can now track your dog’s mileage and steps too.

And lastly you’ll love that by owning a Fi you become part of a community both on Instagram and in the Fi App.

Where to buy:  Directly on their website.  Use the code MAGGIELOVESORBIT to save 10% off

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hello my name is Hannah and I dance with my dogs.  A self proclaimed Boston Terrier addict, (aka breed advocate) I started this blog because there isn’t enough space to write on our Instagram.

I also want to help Boston Terriers learn as much as they can about this breed so they can raise their dogs responsibly.

I spent twenty years in the resort hospitality business.  At the peak of my sales & marketing career I had twenty six resorts under me.  I got tired of traveling and decided to work for myself.

I now run a social media agency handling social media for succesful pet brands.

I have two dogs.  Maggie is my socially awkward one; which I find highly relatable because I am completely out of place in large groups myself.  And Orbit is my sensitive flower.  Blow on her skin wrong (ok I might be exaggerating) and she breaks out in a rash.

You won’t read about cats here… but you will get a fairly large dosage of articles dedicated to the Boston Terrier.    Read more about us.