Pet wearables are following the same path as wearable tech like the Apple Watch or Oura ring. For people, continuous tracking of activity, heart rate, and sleep has gone from “niche gadget” to “mainstream health tool.” For pets, though, today most wearables are still just fancy collars: GPS trackers, virtual fences, and basic activity monitors. An interesting opportunity right now is turning those collars into true health-monitoring devices, because who doesn’t love their pets, right?
Why explore the pet wearables market?
According to fortune business insights, “The global pet wearable market size was valued at USD 3.69 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow from USD 4.16 billion in 2025 to USD 10.43 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 14.0% during the forecast period. North America dominated the global pet wearable market with a share of 33.06% in 2024.”
In many Western countries there was a boom in pet ownership during the Covid pandemic, and so an expanded market of customers appeared. Based on the statistics above, they show no sign of easing up on spending on their furry companions, with wearables showing strong growth.
From GPS trackers to health-monitoring pet wearables
Today’s smart pet collars typically focus on location and safety (here are some examples). A GPS pet tracker shows where your dog or cat is in real time and can trigger alerts when they leave a virtual fence. Many products also add activity and sleep tracking, giving a rough sense of how much your pet runs, plays, or rests each day. However, if we look at many of today’s common human health wearables, they’re back in the Stone Age in comparison.
Caring for our pets’ health and avoiding or reducing huge vet bills are two key objectives for today’s pet owners (especially when pet insurance premiums are skyrocketing and unobtainable for many owners), so what if pet wearables could continuously monitor vital signs like heart rate, breathing, temperature, and stress level, and then warn us about any issues early? For owners, that means fewer nasty surprises, the ability to take action at home, and, hopefully, fewer emergency vet visits. For vets, it means real data to work with instead of relying only on short in-clinic observations and the owner’s memory.
This is especially important because pets tend to naturally hide illness; so, by the time a dog or cat is visibly unwell, the issue may already be serious and expensive to treat. Catching problems early is good medicine and good economics, especially when vet treatment is so costly.
Design challenges: fur, fit, and real-world behavior
Why aren’t health-monitoring pet wearables everywhere already? Mainly because the engineering challenges are tougher than they look, especially compared with a human smartwatch. You may notice that some of the early models on the market today look pretty clunky and large. But why so, when human wearables are so sleek and unobtrusive? Here are some common issues:
- Fur blocks traditional sensors. Human wearables often use optical heart-rate sensors that shine light into the skin. Under a thick layer of fur, those optical signals can’t get through properly, especially around the neck, where fur is often densest.
- One product must fit many breeds. Neck and chest shapes vary dramatically between a Chihuahua and a German Shepherd, or, indeed, different cat breeds. Keeping sensors consistently positioned and lightly pressed against the body is hard when the collar fit can be loose, rotated, or adjusted by the owner.
- Pets don’t respect the device. Scratching, shaking, rolling, and playing all batter the device and can interrupt its monitoring.
- Ruggedness is often required. A collar might be subjected to chewing, pulling, water, mud, and daily wear, so they tend to be designed with ruggedness in mind, but that can mean bulk, a more complex & costly design work, and higher design validation testing fees.
The challenge is how to overcome these issues. There appears to be demand among owners, for example, for health-monitoring wearables that are neither bulky nor rely on wires:
“Monitoring vital signs such as heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature is important in hospitalized dogs, but can be stressful for patients and time-consuming for staff. Currently, devices with the capability to measure vital signs require wires connecting patient and device, which can be cumbersome for the patient. A wireless device that continuously records these vital signs without needing repeated handling could improve patient comfort and clinical care.” (Source: National Library of Medicine)
Two promising sensing approaches for “through-fur” monitoring
To go further, pet wearable innovators are exploring sensing methods that don’t depend on clean optical contact with bare skin.
- Optical fibre–based sensing
Instead of shining light into the body, fiber-optic sensors detect vibrations or movements in a flexible strand integrated into the device (pet collar or harness). The fiber picks up breathing movements and heartbeats, so with the right signal processing, the device can track respiration and heart-rate data, regardless of whether there’s fur in the way. For pet product designers, this technology might lend itself to lighter-weight concepts like textile-based health-monitoring chest straps or harnesses that quietly capture vital signs, with no chunky plastic required. - Magnetic / field-based sensors
Magnetic or electromagnetic loop sensors being embedded into a fabric collar or chest band is another interesting design avenue for a pet health monitoring device. As the pet moves (from breathing or heartbeat), it disturbs the magnetic or electromagnetic field and this can be measured through fur. If engineered to use low-power electronics, it might be used to turn a “simple” pet collar into a continuous, non-contact vital-sign monitor.
Turning concepts into manufacturable products
For brands exploring the next generation of pet wearables, the challenge is not just picking a clever sensing principle. It’s about integrating sensors, mechanics, firmware, wireless connectivity, and IoT and Cloud tech into a sturdy, pet-proof, mass-manufacturable device that owners trust and pets can tolerate.
Companies are, roughly, going to need to validate sensor concepts on real animals, iterate device geometry for different breeds, design low-power electronics, and build a reliable supply chain for production. Complex, but possible with an experienced product design and hardware partner like Agilian (and we have been working on several smart pet products, which is why we are watching this space with interest).
Pet wearables are moving from “where is my dog or cat right now?” to “is my beloved pet healthy?” The companies that bridge that gap with robust design and smart sensing tech could ride the wave at the forefront of the next generation of smart pet collars.
