From first activity to your dog’s full story

Track. Log. Share. Progress. Together.

Here's what you need to know to get the most out of Qpaws.

Qpaws is built for people who live an active life with dogs – whether that means canicross, mushing, bikejoring, skijoring, long hikes or simply getting out every day.

But the kilometres are only part of the story.

Feeding, weight, vaccines, medication, health, recovery and everyday care all matter too. Qpaws brings it together around the dog – so every activity, log and milestone becomes part of the same story.

New to Qpaws – or just need a recap?

Start with the basics below. Six steps are all you need to get going.

The rest of this guide is here whenever you want to know exactly how something works.

Working with dogs professionally?
Trainer, dog walker, sitter, handler, kennel or breeder? See how Qpaws works for professionals →

In this guide

• The basics
• Finding your way
• Tracking
• Connections
• Progress, goals and badges
• Caretakers and groups
• Qpaws Premium
• Coming from the old Qpaws?

The basics

1 · It starts with your dog

Every dog gets its own profile – with its photo, details, status and history.

Everything you do in Qpaws connects back to a dog. One dog on the sofa or eight in the yard: each one builds its own story over time.

2 · Walk. Run. Mush. Repeat.

Track activities with GPS – from the daily walk to canicross, bikejoring, skijoring or a full mushing team.

See your route, distance, time, pace, speed and elevation live as you go.

Already tracking with your watch? Connect Garmin, Polar or Suunto – or bring in activities from Strava – and make them part of your dog's Qpaws history.

One button for everything.
Tap + to track an activity, add one manually, create a log or share a post.

3 · The kilometres are half the story

What happens between sessions matters too.

Weight. Feeding. Vaccines. Medication. Recovery. Health. Everyday care.

Log it when it happens, and Qpaws keeps it where it belongs: with the dog.

4 · A season. A career. A whole life.

Activities, logs, health entries, photos and posts come together in Timeline – including updates from other people who care for the dog.

Filter by dog, group or type and look back across days, seasons or years.

Keep using Qpaws and you're building something more useful than a collection of workouts: a living history of your dog's life.

5 · Set a goal. Watch the rings fill.

Set a simple repeating goal or plan specific training days in the calendar.

Aim for distance, time or number of sessions. Your rings fill automatically from what you actually do, while badges mark milestones along the way.

Sharing a dog with others? You can also see who's been putting in the kilometres.

Good to know: The picker in the top-left lets you switch between one dog, all your dogs or a group. Your choice follows you through Progress and Timeline.

6 · Your dog. Their people. All connected.

You don't have to manage everything alone.

Invite the people who help care for your dog – family, handlers, walkers or sitters – so they can track, log and stay up to date.

Groups bring dogs and people together around a shared context: a family, kennel, training team, dog service or community.

That's the idea

Dog → Activity & care → History → Progress → People

You're ready to use Qpaws.

Everything below is here when you want the detail.

Finding your way

Qpaws has five main areas in the bottom bar, one + button for adding things, and a few controls at the top.

The bottom bar

Home

Your starting point.

See reminders, updates and goals at a glance, followed by what's happening with your dogs, caretakers and groups.

Below that, Discover brings in activities and posts from the wider Qpaws community. Follow people, like and comment – and find inspiration for the next time you head out.

Overview

Where your dogs and groups live.

See your dogs at a glance, including important statuses such as injury, heat or medication.

Open a dog to see its full profile: details, status, recent activity, logs, caretakers, groups, photos, vaccines, weight and other information you've collected over time.

Groups live here too.

Progress

See how the work adds up.

Explore activity trends and comparisons, goals, badges and who's been most active with a dog.

Switch between a dog, all your dogs or a group to see the progress that matters to you.

Timeline

Everything that has happened, in one stream.

Tracked activities, manual activities, logs, health entries and posts come together chronologically.

Filter by dog, group or entry type to find what you're looking for – or simply scroll back through a dog's history.

Search

Find people to follow, dogs and groups across Qpaws.

The + button

The floating + button is where you add things to Qpaws.

At the top

Your profile

Tap your avatar to open your own profile – everything about you and your dogs.

Notifications

The bell collects things worth knowing about – such as new badges, comments, replies and updates involving your dogs or groups.

Menu

The three dots open the rest of Qpaws, including Qpaws Premium, Connections, Vaccines and Settings.

One picker controls what you see

The picker in the top-left lets you choose one dog, all your dogs or a group.

That selection follows you through areas such as Progress and Timeline.

One dog? You may barely notice it.

Several dogs or groups? It's how you move between them without having to set the same filter again and again.

Tracking

From Start to saved activity

Tracking is at the heart of Qpaws.

Whether you're walking around the block, running canicross or taking a full team out on the trail, Qpaws records the activity and connects it to the dogs who actually did the work.

Starting an activity

Tap + → Track Activity.

1. Choose the activity

Pick what you're doing – Walking, Running, Canicross, Canitrail, Mushing, Skijoring, Bikejoring, Kickbike/Scooter and more.

2. Add the dogs

Choose the dog – or dogs – taking part.

For team activities, you can build the team and add each dog's position.

3. Add the details

Add relevant people, group or equipment where needed.

4. Start

Hit Start and go.

While you're moving, Qpaws shows the key stats live, including time, distance, speed and pace.

Active time and pauses

Qpaws separates your activity into active and inactive time.

When your speed drops very low – approximately below 2 km/h – that part of the activity is treated as inactive time.

That means stops and very slow sections don't distort your moving stats, while the complete activity is still recorded.

Live Following

Want someone to know where you are while you're out?

Turn on Live Following before you start. People you've shared the activity with can follow your position on the map as you move.

It's useful when you're heading into the mountains, training a team or simply want someone to be able to follow your trip.

For dog walkers and sitters, it also gives owners a way to follow along while their dog is out with someone else.

Live Following is a Qpaws Premium feature.

When you're done

Save the activity and Qpaws turns the recording into part of each dog's history.

You'll see the full activity breakdown, including:

• distance and total time
• active and inactive time
• route
• average, moving and maximum speed
• average pace and kilometre splits
• elevation curve, ascent and descent
• dogs and team positions
• equipment
• who tracked it
• which connected service or device it came from

You can also set how hard the session was, from Easy to Max – adding useful training context beyond distance and speed.

Add notes or photos, make any adjustments, and save.

Team positions

Running a mushing team?

Set each dog's position on the line – lead, swing, team or wheel.

Positions belong to that activity, so today's setup doesn't dictate tomorrow's.

Over time, each dog's sessions build into its individual activity history – including where and how often that dog has run.

Share your activity

Turn a finished activity into a shareable card with a photo and key stats from the session.

Choose the look you want and share it outside Qpaws.

Connections

Already tracking with a watch or another app?

You don't have to track twice.

Connect Garmin, Polar, Suunto or Strava, and new supported activities can automatically come into Qpaws.

Once an activity arrives, attach the dog or dogs who took part and it becomes part of their Qpaws history.

Go to Menu → Connections to connect your services.

What gets imported?

Qpaws imports supported activity data from the connected service, including the route, distance, duration and other available stats.

Imports currently start from the time you connect. Activities recorded before you connect aren't imported.

This may change in the future as we expand the way historical activities can be brought into Qpaws.

Good to know: Connections are one-way. Activity data comes into Qpaws. Your dogs, logs, health information and other Qpaws data aren't sent back to Garmin, Polar, Suunto or Strava.

Tracking without coverage

No mobile signal? Keep going.

GPS itself doesn't require mobile coverage, so Qpaws can continue recording your activity when you're offline.

Your route and activity data are saved and sync when you're connected again.

Offline maps

With Qpaws Premium, Qpaws automatically downloads a map area of at least 20 × 20 km around your location.

That means the map is there if you lose coverage or deliberately head somewhere without it.

You can still see where you are while Qpaws records your activity.

Without an offline map, GPS tracking still works. Your route and activity continue to be recorded, and the map background can load again once you're connected.

Progress, goals and badges

Tracking tells you what happened.

Progress shows you how it adds up.

Goals

Qpaws has two ways to set goals.

Quick goals

Set a target that repeats automatically.

Choose who it's for – a dog, all your dogs or a group – what counts, and whether you want the target to repeat daily or weekly.

For example:

5 km every day
3 running sessions each week
20 km with Luna this week

Quick goals can continue until you choose to end them.

Custom goals

Plan training day by day.

Open the calendar and put targets on the specific days you intend to train.

This gives you a simple view of what's planned, what's completed and how the month is adding up.

When a new month starts, you can use the previous month's plan as a starting point rather than building it all again.

Three ways to measure a goal

Goals can be based on:

Distance · Time · Sessions

Once the goal is running, Qpaws does the counting for you.

The rings fill from the activities you actually complete – you don't manually mark a session as done.

A planned target starts as a dashed ring. Progress fills it. Hit the target and the ring closes.

Quick goals can be edited or ended from the Goals screen, while individual days in a Custom goal can be changed directly from the calendar.

You can also choose to show an important goal on Home, so your progress is visible every time you open Qpaws.

Badges

Badges mark the moments worth noticing.

They're awarded automatically when you or your dogs reach certain milestones.

Some belong to individual dogs. Others can be achieved together as a group.

Qpaws starts with milestones around things such as distance and elevation – from the first kilometres to achievements that take a lot more work.

You'll find the badges you've earned under Progress, with more challenges and achievements appearing over time.

Caretakers and groups

Share a dog. Build a team. Stay connected.

There are two ways to connect people and dogs in Qpaws: Caretakers and Groups.

They solve different problems.

• Caretakers control who has access to a dog and what they can do.
• Groups organise people and dogs around a shared context – such as a family, kennel, training team, dog service or community.

The rule to remember

Access belongs to the dog.

Being in a group does not automatically give someone access to everything about every dog in it.

Access to a dog is controlled through that dog's caretaker permissions. A group admin cannot give someone more access to your dog than you have allowed.

Caretakers

Invite someone as a caretaker when they help look after or work with your dog.

That might be a partner, family member, handler, trainer, dog walker, sitter or someone else you trust.

Full access

For people who share responsibility for the dog.

They can track activities, add logs and stay closely involved with the dog's care and history.

Ownership and ultimate control of the dog remain with the owner.

Limited access

For someone who needs to help with everyday activity or care without having access to everything.

They can perform the everyday actions you've given them access to, while more sensitive dog information and management remain restricted.

Invite a caretaker

Open the dog's profile → Caretakers → Invite

Choose the person and access level, then send the invitation.

You can change or remove their access later.

Groups

Groups bring dogs and people together around something they share.

You might have one for your family, another for your kennel and another for the people you train with.

Think of groups as shared spaces rather than access controls. You can belong to several, each serving a different purpose.

Group roles

Admins manage the group, including its details and members.

Members take part in the group and see the information shared with them.

Dog permissions remain separate from group roles.

Create a group

Create a group, give it a name and choose what kind of group it is.

Then add dogs and invite the people who belong there.

Invitations are personal – people don't simply gain access to your group or dogs by finding them in Qpaws.

What kind of group?

When you create a group, choose the type that fits best.

Family
Share dog activities and care with family and friends.

Kennel
Organise multiple dogs and the people working with them.

Training team
Group dogs for training and racing, and follow their stats.

Dog services
Bring together walkers, sitters, trainers and other people helping with your dogs.

Community
For dog people connected by a sport, breed, club, neighbourhood or other shared interest.

Other
Group dogs and people any way you like.

The type simply helps describe what the group is for. It doesn't lock you in.

A Training team might be your race team, Tuesday canicross crew or a temporary group for a race weekend. A Community might be built around a breed, club, sport or neighbourhood.

The important bit: Groups organise people and dogs. Access to an individual dog is still controlled separately through that dog's caretaker permissions.

More about Caretaker and Groups

Qpaws Premium

Most of Qpaws is free – including dog profiles, GPS tracking, logs, Timeline, goals, caretakers and groups.

Premium adds features for people who want more from their time outside with their dogs.

Qpaws Premium includes

Live Following

Let others follow your position on the map while you're out.

Offline maps

Qpaws automatically keeps a map area of at least 20 × 20 km around you available for use without mobile coverage.

Ad-free Qpaws

Use Qpaws without advertising.

Current plans and prices are always shown in the app.

Subscriptions are managed through the App Store or Google Play. Cancelling a subscription doesn't remove your Qpaws data, and Premium remains active until the end of the period you've already paid for.

Coming from the old Qpaws?

New Qpaws. Same dogs. Same history.

We've rebuilt Qpaws to make it faster, clearer and better suited to everything we're building next.

Your existing Qpaws history comes with you. Your dogs, activities, records and relationships are migrated to the new Qpaws.

Just update the app and log in with your existing account.

Where things moved

Teams are now Groups

If you used Teams before, you'll find them as Groups.

The new name better reflects what they can be: a family, kennel, training team, dog service, community – or simply your own collection of people and dogs.

Why Timeline exists

Activities, logs and other records used to live in different places.

Timeline brings them together chronologically so you can see what has actually happened with a dog – today, this season or years ago – in one continuous history.

Why Progress has its own home

Progress is no longer buried inside a profile.

Activity trends, goals and badges now live together in one main area because Qpaws isn't only about what your dog did today.

It's about how all those days add up.

That's Qpaws

You don't need to learn everything before you start.

Add your dog. Track something. Log what matters.

The rest will make sense as you go.

And before long, Qpaws becomes more than another activity tracker.

It becomes the living history of your active life with your dog.

Questions, ideas or something not working as expected?

team@qpaws.com

Updated on: 14/09/2026