Anyone use a tracker on their dog, any tips ?

[quentinsf]

It is now unlawful to let dogs off their leads on 'open access land' (such as moorland, forests, lakes, or beaches) in England and Wales until August 1, according to experts. Those who fail to keep their dogs on a lead between March 1 and July 31 could face a fine of up to £1,000.

This is interesting, but the article wasn't very informative, so I did a search. Official information is on the government website here.

Basically, Open Access land is where you're allowed to roam without using footpaths, and yes, in general it appears that you now have to keep your dog on the lead between 1 March and 31 July. I'm happy to comply with that, but I might bend the rules a bit when it comes to the lead being no more than 2m long.

Also:

On land next to the King Charles III England Coast Path, you must keep your dog under close control.

There may be other local or seasonal restrictions. These do not apply to public rights of way or assistance dogs.

 

[Guigsy]

Our Tractive is on home wifi. I did a test with it on a table, so clearly in its ‘home zone’ and still only 2 days’ battery. Ill talk to them as it’s a great piece of kit otherwise.

I literally get weeks of battery life on home zone with my Tractive trackers. Because it doesn't need to switch on the GPS. It just wakes up and checks if it can see (not even join) the WiFi. And occasionally it phones the servers to confirm. Which takes very little energy. Most of the time, the mogs are close enough to home that the GPS just doesn't switch on.

I did have an issue that it didn't like the WiFi on my Teltonika router in the van. A firmware update on either the trackers or the router broke something. So for a while I was running a £5 ESP32 WiFi beacon (it's nerdy!) as a workaround. But it seems to be ok again now.

 

[tkk]

Tractive trackers are brilliant and very accurate. I have had several over the years and they even replace them for free if they stop working. If attaching to a harness I use cable tidies as my dog goes through undergrowth etc. it gives amazing peace of mind. Would not be without one.



View attachment 1029108

I use insulating tape to secure. Strong but easy to peel off. The rubber fixing is prone to snapping

 

[Zoobec]

Another vote for tractive, they are brilliant at home or abroad imo.

 

[Whippet93]

Got anything I could fit to Mrs KNWH so I don’t keep losing her in supermarkets?

Keep her purse in your pocket

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[h8ten]

I had a Curve tracker operated by Vodafone. My dog got spooked and took off running away. She also had a retractable lead banging along behind her, which did not help. The Curve unit was showing her as being back home, less than half a mile away, but when I arrived, there was no sign of her, although the tracker still had her there. I then received a phone call, and she had been rescued a further half mile away after being caught in a fence. The Curve would also show her as being in a village 8 miles away where she had never been. I've since changed to Tractive and it is a lot more accurate. I cannot use any of the health things with the Tractive as my dog can't wear a collar due to an injury received when she bolted and only wears a harness when going out for a walk. The only issue I have had is the battery running down quicker than expected and then I realised that I had a new home router which the Tractive unit had not been configured to as the 'home' area and was not going into power saving mode when at home. Now corrected it lasts several weeks.

 

[Ridgeway]

AirTag is out due to locality, maybe if the deer start using iPhones then it would work

Will look at all the options although was surprised to here that non seem to have a longer battery life than 2days on GPS, i guess that’s the trade off vs decide size and weight, we can’t have it all.

Maybe a change on the flavour of dog might be easier…

 

[Zigisla]

We use PitPat as a tracker and activity monitor. I use “life” subscription just as an interest factor and to save his walks. You don’t need a subscription so if you only walk locally you don’t need to know where they are at all times, but if he bolted off, I would be able to track him down.
Eddie is our latest foster dog so most of his walks are on lead, but he is off lead as well. You can start a “find my dog” track anytime you are out.

 

[50shades]

We've used a Pawfit tracker on our Border Collie for a few years. It works well. Besides GPS location also tracks activity. Alerts when he's away from home or any other defined location in the App. Provides battery level alerts, environmental temperature alerts and gives a location history. Seems to be totally waterproof too since he's been swimming with it on numerous occasions.

 

[Minxy]

Got anything I could fit to Mrs KNWH so I don’t keep losing her in supermarkets?

I need one for hubby, not just at supermarkets though as he's a b*gger for wandering off anywhere!

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