TLDR: Looking for best tracking device so I can know if my dog is at my apartment or a block away at daycare, live on my iphone.
My American Dingo (SC Dog) lives in a large city with me and goes to doggy daycare during the week.
While my roomate is great, occasionally (once every month or two) he forgets to drop her off or call to get her picked up. It is my dog and my responsibility, but I work before they open and feel bad texting him and calling them everyday to confirm she is there. As such, I want to know what GPS/SIM/gadget would be best to attach to her leash or collar so I can check if she is home or at daycare each day without bothering others.
Ideally something with an app that can show the difference between a block on a map so I can see if she is at daycare or home, and live updating. I see a lot of products but as this is a different occasion than most, I would really like your help with suggestions.
I don’t personally have one, but I have heard a lot of great things about the Whistle Dog GPS tracker. It attaches right to the collar, and allows you to track your dog’s location, how much excercise they have gotten (and still need), and a few other things through an app. The tracker apparently sends the app a notification when you dog leaves the house. It is fairly expensive, but it has a lot of really nice features. I would recommend checking it out.
Thanks - I'll check it out. I think I read a fair amount about it, but not sure about monthly costs as they start at 6.95 and id be using dailyish for a few minutes.
I'm personally fond og dog trackers and I've tried 3 brands of dog trackers which are: Gibi Pet Locater,pawtracker and trackimo and I'm proud to say that trackimo is the best out of 3 it's just very convenient and very easy to use. Not to mention that it's lightweight and it catches signal pretty easily and doesn't get hindered by much interferences.
I have the whistle 3 GPS tracker and it's pretty durable and reliable on my large rough play loving dog. It's only $5 a month if you sign up for a two year contract and was $30 then there's coupons and discounts and Dale's do not expensive at all.
It tracks the exercise, miles covered and activity covered daily and sends you weekly totals.
You can set it to send you alerts to where your dog is.
Problem for me is the daycare my dog goes to takes off their collars when they're there and insists they're secure and dogs can't escape. I've asked them to leave his on but they won't and say it's a safety issue. I'm still paranoid about him getting away but now he rarely goes anyway.
The whistle uses cell phone, satellite and radio to track the dog.
I’ve had most of the “ trackers” at one time or another. My findings are that they all are far too slow updating. I’m not really sure why but I think it’s a combination of the GPS system and quality of the device.
Say the tracker updates every 5 seconds. Most medium size or larger dogs can trot 15 mph most of the day if they are in a wandering mode. That means they can move about 22 feet per second or about 330 feet between updates. Question....can you spot your dog a block away in the city?
Most of these offer a means to see the path the dog is following. Also the path you may have walked with your dog. I decided to test this first with the track we walked.
I can stumble along at 3-4 mph in the fields behind the shop I work at. So went on a walk with the unit on my dog. The result way laughable. Firstnit didn’t know which end of a 60 foot building we went out of. It totally missed the path we traveled. I repeated this I think five times over the same path.
Then I left my iPhone with my boss while I took the tracking device. I walked a zig zag with about 600 foot straight legs. The device showed a basic rectangle about half the size of the area I covered. We repeated this test a number of times.
Then I wanted to see what would happen if we simulated my dog running off. First I was to get a head start then my boss would check my iPhone to see where I was at. I had his iPhone and he was to call me on the shop phone and tell me where my iPhone was showing my location. I was over a quarter mile off from the location shown. Again we repeated this and no results were the same or true.
I did this again in the city and the results were even worse.
I was able to test a radio collar with a friend that has bird dogs. We did basically the same tests and the locations and paths were within feet of true. These are what he uses to keep track of the bird dogs and to direct them as these are also e-collars. Unfortunately these cost $400 or more. They do work anywhere even in far remote areas away from iPhone coverage.
So my view is pretty dim of the inexpensive trackers. You can probably get ones that you pay a hefty fee for use but even these I’d question for a dog that can run at all. If they use GPS location.
You can check the GPS while going on MAPS just look at the track as you drive 15 mph down the street. You will be past and intersection before it indicates. I even watched Uber coming to my apt. He got there before the track said he was. Even watching them navigate the streets. You have to be a bit ahead of the marker visually to navigate.
I further tested the GPS last summer in my boat. While I can get pretty close by going slow if I had only the GPS plotter to go by I would have parked almost 100 yards away from my home slip. Good thing I know where the sand bar is or it would have taken me right over. It.
For dogs that are serious escape artists like mine used to be it's better to have some way to figure out where they've gotten to than nothing at all. He'd chew through a leash, open a gate or jump a fence and race off at full speed and be gone. I've seen a few dogs literally climb the fence or jump on a storage cabinet then jump the fence right out of the completely fenced dog park and run off too. Luckily he hasn't tried that.
I know a couple who adopted a shy nervous rescue dog. They also had a newborn and one night they let their dog out in their fenced yard for a bathroom trip. Something scared him and he managed somehow to get out and was missing literally all night running loose in the city. Luckily they found him and he didn't get run over. They got a whistle gps after that. He usually has decent recall but he was alone for a few minutes and panicked and just bolted.
My horses used to live in a beautiful farm next to a state forest with many miles of trails. Also full of coyotes, Fisher cats and all kinds of predators. I tend to go at night when it's less busy since my old horse is a bit hyper and crazy and I like to enjoy time with her while avoiding all the kids and teens there. I keep my dog leashed there but let him loose if the barn is all closed. He's still managed to run off on me several times and my heart always stops worrying he'll be hit by a car or killed by coyotes. Now they're in a different place and it's easier to make sure all the doors are closed.
Of course since I got the whistle tracker he hasn't taken off, or if he has he's come right back.
As far as in my city, i had my friend take him for walks and to the dog park if I've been stuck at work and I get constant updates as to where he is and when he gets to the park and when he gets home. I have to set it to track him and it uses the battery of the tracker and my phone faster but it seems fairly accurate in my area.
Certainly accurate enough that if I was looking for him I'd be able to see him.
Having never had such a talented escape artist dog before, the peace of mind it brings is well worth it!
Obviously it's best to train your dog to not escape and to have perfect recall and never let them loose, but when you take shelter adolescent dogs that aren't trained well or raised poorly you deal with what you get. It takes a long time to retrain a confirmed escape artist, especially only using positive methods and never being harsh or punishing. The reward they get from escaping and freedom to chase the rabbit or run or whatever is much stronger than someone saying good boy and giving them a treat and then confining them again.
It's also hard to never let them loose when they can take off harnesses, chew through leashes, open fences, jump and dig out of things. It's embarrassing to be outsmarted by a dog but it certainly happens. Then they also just take off and push through you to jump out of the car. Had a dog I was watching do that. I hung on to him anyway. Then he just lunged and bounded because he wanted to get to the other dogs in the park. Large strong dog. Not my dog so I didn't train him. He got a crash course in manners the week I had him.
So my experience is the whistle one I use is reasonably accurate. A lot of people I see in my area have the same one on their dogs that I use. It's better to never have to use it or test it out, but all the recall training I've done the past almost three years and this dog still isn't as reliable as my last dog was from the very first day I had him. Never had to work on it with the last dog, it was never an issue. He was loose everywhere because he just never left my side. If he did he'd race full speed when I called. I could call him off chasing a deer or squirrel mid lunge. Never needed treats.
I'm using the Trackimo dog tracker right now, but I think the best trackers are trackimo and Pawtracker both are very lightweight and convenient, pawtracker is better when it comes to attachability and looking fancy on your dog pawtracker hands down, but when it comes to signal and communication and GPS connectivity I would choose trackimo.
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Dog Forum
819.7K posts
66.7K members
Since 2008
A forum community dedicated to all breeds of dog owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeds, training, puppies, food reviews, service animals, and more.