AirTags tell you where your bag is. Tractive’s new Cat 6 Mini and Dog 6 XL tell you whether your pet is stressed, scratching too much, breathing differently than usual and more, the company said Wednesday.
Your dog or cat can’t wear an Apple Watch. These collar-based trackers seem to be the next best thing.
“Since Tractive’s founding, we’ve helped pet parents know where their pets are,” said Michael Hurnaus, CEO and founder of Tractive. “Now we’re helping them understand how their pets are doing. ”
Tractive pet trackers: Cat 6 Mini and Dog 6 XL
An Austria-based company that Apple users may know for its GPS pet trackers — which pair with an iPhone app and work independently of the Find My network — Tractive launched two new devices. Cat 6 Mini ($79) and Dog 6 XL ($89) trackers just went on sale at Tractive.com and select retailers.
AirTags excel at answering “where did I leave my keys?” or “where did my dog wander off to?” But Tractive builds its trackers for living, breathing animals. The devices monitor health metrics around the clock and use AI to flag when something seems off, even before your pet shows obvious symptoms.
“Pets can’t tell us when something is wrong, but their bodies can,” Hurnaus said. “With cutting-edge sensors on every tracker, learnings from millions of pets and AI-powered insights, we’re turning one of the world’s largest pet data platforms into clear, simple information so pet parents can act sooner and care even better.”
Cat tracker gets more appropriate hardware
Photo: Tractive
Cat 6 Mini is Tractive’s biggest statement that feline health has been underserved by pet tech. The device is collar-integrated rather than clip-on, making it far less obtrusive on a cat’s neck. It comes in beige, black and purple and is built around cat-specific physiology — not just a dog tracker with a different icon on the app.
Perhaps the best feature monitors resting heart rate and respiratory rate calibrated to feline baselines. That’s a meaningful distinction. A cat’s resting heart rate is typically 140–220 bpm — nearly double a dog’s. And Tractive trained its detection algorithms on billions of anonymized data points from real cats.
The app will surface changes in those vitals that may signal stress, illness, or discomfort, the kind of subtle warning your vet would love to have before a condition progresses.
And a redesigned Territory feature maps where your cat actually spends time — favorite spots, roaming patterns and changes to their habits over time.
Cat 6 Mini:
- $79 — collar-integrated
- Resting heart rate + respiratory rate monitoring
- Cat-specific behavioral baselines
- Territory insights with roaming patterns
- Available in beige, black, purple
Cat 6 mini is smaller and more feature-packed than older versions, with more advanced health and territory tracking.
- Compact and lightweight
- Measures heart and respiratory rates
- Tracks territory
- Somewhat expensive and requires subscription
Dog tracker gets smarter and longer-lasting
Photo: Tractive
Tractive designed Dog 6 XL for larger breeds (55 pounds and up). It includes two improvements iPhone users will appreciate: battery life up to three times longer than the previous tracker. And a new scratch-monitoring system detects behavioral changes that could indicate allergies, skin irritation, pain or stress.
Scratch monitoring rolls out to existing DOG 6 owners, as well. That’s a welcome move that mirrors Apple’s approach of pushing software features to older devices. An ultra-durable Adventure Edition of the XL should come out this summer.
Dog 6 XL:
- $89 — for breeds 55 lbs+
- Up to 3x longer battery than Dog 6
- Scratch behavior change monitoring
- Enhanced durability for active lifestyles
- Available in beige, black
This GPS tracking for dogs increases previous battery life, decreases size and weight, and monitors dogs' scratching behavior as a sign of possible health problems.
- Improved battery life
- Smaller size and weight
- Tracks changes in scratching behavior
- Somewhat pricey and subscription is required
What the app adds
Photo: Tractive
Both devices work with an updated Tractive app that now includes a History Timeline (a visual log of Safe Zone entries, walks and territory patterns), AI-powered weekly health summaries in plain language, and a redesigned Health screen.
Think of the health summaries like the weekly summaries in Apple Health — except for your pet, and written by an AI that’s digesting months of behavioral data.
Subscription required — here’s what it costs
Basic Plan: $108/yr or $144/2 yr
Plan includes live tracking, virtual fences and escape alerts.
Premium Plan: $120/yr, $168/2 yr, or $300/5 yr
Plan includes all Basic features plus worldwide coverage, family sharing, 365-day location history and GPS export.
Both plans are required on top of the hardware purchase. Family sharing on Premium makes it easy to loop in a partner or pet sitter — the same way you’d share a location in Find My, but with health data attached.
The bottom line
AirTags are a fine way to locate a lost pet. But Tractive is building something closer to a Fitbit-meets-stethoscope for animals — one that learns your pet’s baseline and tells you when something has changed.
And at $79 to $89 plus a subscription, it’s not cheap. But for anyone who’s ever rushed a pet to an emergency vet for a condition that had probably been developing for weeks, the pitch makes a lot of sense.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
