The 60-Day Warning: How Pet Wearables are Rewriting the Rules of Cardiac Care

For years, the management of dogs with degenerative mitral valve disease (DMVD) has relied on a single, vital metric: the Sleeping Respiratory Rate (SRR). We’ve taught thousands of owners to count breaths in the dark, waiting for that “magic number” of 30 to stay safe.

But as any cardiologist will tell you, a spike in respiratory rate is a late-stage indicator. By the time the breathing changes, the crisis of congestive heart failure (CHF) has often already started.

Thanks to the landmark AI-COLLAR study published in late 2025, we now have a suggestion of a 60-Day Warning window that could fundamentally change how we intervene in cardiac cases.

The Problem with the “Fire Alarm” Approach

Traditionally, we have used the SRR like a fire alarm. It’s effective, but reactive. Manual counting by owners is also notoriously difficult; it’s intermittent, prone to human error, and often misses the “weak signals” that occur weeks before a crisis.

Furthermore, many dogs are “clinical maskers.” At the vet clinic, stress can double a heart rate, making “snapshot” measurements almost useless for long-term trending. To truly see what’s happening, we need to look at the heart when the dog is at home, relaxed, and in its own environment.

The Breakthrough: Heart Rate as a Leading Indicator

The 2025 AI-COLLAR study, which tracked over 700 dogs across 29 countries, revealed a game-changing paradigm shift. Using high-precision seismocardiography (SCG) - technology that measures the physical vibrations of the heart through the fur - the study established an unprecedented 99.6% accuracy for heart rate and 98.6% for respiration.

The most striking finding? In dogs that eventually developed pulmonary edema, the algorithms detected a gradual, steady increase in resting heart rate 60 to 120 days before the respiratory rate ever spiked.

Why does this happen?

Before the lungs fill with fluid (Stage C), the heart begins a compensatory phase. The heart isn’t maintaining blood pressure due to disease progression, and the sympathetic nervous system kicks in, increasing the heart rate to desperately try to maintain cardiac output. Eventually, congestion begins to occur to also boost cardiac output, and finally fluid builds up in places it shouldn’t do, and the lungs flood with fluid.

So if we are only watching the lungs, we are missing a two-month window where a veterinarian could proactively adjust medication or schedule a re-check echocardiogram. We want to start the diuretics before the lungs fill with fluid, not after…

Beyond the Numbers: The Rise of the “Digital Health Twin”

Today’s smart collars are no longer just “Fitbits for dogs.” They are becoming clinical-grade surveillance tools that create a “digital twin” of your pet’s health profile.

• Arrhythmia Detection: The Invoxia Minitailz now features HeartPrint, which uses Poincaré plots to visualize every single heartbeat. This allows for the detection of Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) with a 92.1% sensitivity in a home environment - something previously only possible with a Holter monitor.

• Heart Rate Variability (HRV): Devices like the PetPace V3.0 now provide continuous HRV monitoring. This isn’t just about speed; it’s about autonomic tone. A drop in HRV can signal pain or physiological stress weeks before you see a change in behavior.

• Validated Precision: Even the most user-friendly trackers are reaching new heights of accuracy. A 2025 study in the American Journal of Veterinary Research (AJVR) confirmed that the Maven Pet collar has a bias of less than one breath per minute compared to manual visual counts, making it a reliable bridge for owners who struggle with manual tracking.

Clinical Takeaway: Gaining the Advantage

The future of cardiac care isn’t about replacing the SRR; it’s about contextualizing it. By combining automated heart rate trends with respiratory data, we are finally closing the gap between “stable” and “emergency.”

If you are managing a pet with Stage B2 DMVD, the goal is now proactive intervention. Seeing a 40-day moving average of heart rate begin to climb - even if the SRR is still 15 - is the new warning sign that allows us to act before the crisis occurs.

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References:

Chetboul V, Humbert E, Dougoud L and Lorre G (2025) Resting heArt and respIratory rates in dogs in their natural environment: new insights from a long-term, international, prospective study in a COhort of 703 dogs using a biometric device for LongitudinaL non-invasive cARdiorespiratory monitoring (the AI-COLLAR study). Front. Vet. Sci. 12:1667355.

Murphy KE, Benjamin EJ, Leigh R, Adin D (2025) The Maven Pet Smart Collar system shows small bias compared to manually counted resting respiratory rates in healthy dogs. Am J Vet Res. Oct 27;87(1):ajvr.25.06.0220