Is Your Dog Just Lying Around? Tagg Tells You

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Humans have the new FitBit Zip to track their fitness activity. Dogs now have the Tagg. Okay, well maybe humans now have the Tagg to track their dog's fitness activity.

Last year Snaptracs released the $99.95 Tagg, a GPS-tracking enabled clip-on for a collar, that would alert owners via text message or e-mail when their pet was outside of the home area. But now the company has released an update to the digital collar, adding an activity tracking feature.

The new feature provides a 24-hour view of the dog's fitness activity. Using an accelerometer in the collar, it tracks the intensity and duration of the activity; it will pick up everything from running to sleeping in front of the TV, says Snaptracs.

That data is then logged and uploaded into a Tagg account, where owners can view it in charts and graphs. Similar to the FitBit, it shows a pie chart of the dog's activity during the day and you can adjust it to see activity over the long term too. You can view this all through Tagg.com or new iPhone and Android apps.

"This is a fun way to stay connected with your pet," Dudley Fetzer, a senior director at Snaptracs, told ABC News. "This gives owners a way to engage with the product and is something you can also talk to a vet about." The company is working with vets as it hopes the device can help motivate owners to more closely monitor their dog's activity and exercise, Fetzer explained.

The gadget clips to any dog collar and has a cellular chip inside to send updates to the account. A home docking station knows when the collar is in the area and also doubles as a charger. (The collar's battery lasts up to 30 days before having to be recharged, says the company.) But there's a price to pay on top of the $99.95 it costs to buy the high-tech collar: Because of that cellular connectivity there's a monthly $7.95 fee.

The collar itself is available now. The fitness tracking update will be released in October for new buyers and current owners alike.