Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire GPS to find lost pet???

After having one of our dogs "escape" the yard and take off on an adventure, only to be hit by a car within about 1/2 mile of our yard, we have been checking out what is available for GPS tracking set-ups for the other 4 dogs we have. I know, it's closing the barn door after all the cows are gone, but the past is kinda hard to fix . We live in a more rural area of our small city. The immediate area is comprised of pasture and timber with cattle (100+ acres), 5+/- and 1/2 acre acre properties with single family homes, as well as some duplexes primarily intended for older near or retired couples w/o children. We frequently see deer and have a fair-sized coyote population on the farm ground. In the last 2 years I have freed, or helped to release, several deer from the fences of our neighbors. One was discovered too late, after the coyotes had dispatched her in the overnight hours.

ANYWAY -
We have been looking at Findster Duo+ and several other brands / types of GPS tracking systems. The real "plus" I see with the Findster Duo+ is that you buy it and have NO additional monthly/yearly cost, but if it doesn't work well, it is not what I want. Whether units attach to collars, have their own collars, are implanted or whatever, we don't have a preference/don't care. We just want something to be able to find our pet in "real time" and bring them home safely. I am convinced that if we had had something like this, we would still have Ruby in our home.

SO - does anybody have any firsthand experience with or recommendations for a good, reliable GPS system for multiple pets? I welcome any assistance and or comments. Thanks to all.

The bear hunters in northern Wisconsin use them all the time to help find their hounds in the big woods. I would suggest that you look in on a bear or coon hound hunting site to get a first hand recommendation. The "Gun Dog" site here on the camp fire might have some hound guys that could give you a recommendation also.

I don't know the particulars about what they were using, but a few years ago I looked outside and see a couple of teenagers wandering around my deck. I live in a very rural area so that's a bit unusual so I jumped up and went outside. Turns out they were using a GPS tracker and had lost a coon hound the night before about 3 miles away from my house. He had come up to my house (without me knowing) and was lying under my deck when they tracked him using their GPS. It worked and they got their dog back so they certainly do work.

The technology is fully capable, but will be very expensive if one wants 24/7 real/time availability. The biggest issues are battery life, radio transmission distance, and durability. There are some phone capable units, but they're off little use in remote realms or for extended durations. Over time, one will most likely be ahead by building a suitable fence.

GPS/radio collars are frequently used for research purposes, but typically sample positions at scheduled intervals. In the intervening time, the units turn off to conserve batteries. The accompanying clock, scheduling computer, and switching consume very little power Data down loads are typically sporadic too, with feeds going to receiving towers or perhaps an overhead aircraft or satellite for remote work. I'm out of it now, but used such in the past to the tune of about $3K for each collar. Real time tracking/transmitting will consume batteries in 1 to 3 days. The units used by some hound people do not have the battery capacity for sustained deployments.

The least expensive real time tracking is still the simple pulse radio systems and an antenna/receiver. These, however, are line of sight systems with effective ranges usually being about 1/2 of that advertised (like 1 to 2 miles). Not looked at their costs recently, but units that a dog could pack have 2 or 3 years of battery capacity, are completely polymer enclosed and one can switch them off with a small magnet taped to the exterior.

I don't think it would be practical for what you want to do. I'm involved with some SAR teams and dog handlers use it a lot to track search dogs if they manage to get out of sight. But the ones I'm familiar with only have a battery life of about 10-12 hours. Fine for day to day use, but I just don't see it practical for round the clock use.

Otter, Would installing an invisible fence be feasible? Over the years, I've had a few mutts that liked to roam around the hood spreading their good cheer and seed to all the ladies dogs in heat. I got tired of chasing them down and fearing "Paternity" suits from neighbors with pictures of my dog going full Ron Jeremy on their bi-tches....I installed an electric invisible fence. Slapped the shocker collar on my Don Juan Dog... Turned the "Pain Hammer to Max" on the collar and went inside the house to wait for the "howl, yelp, screaming" of my dog after it tried to cross the fence boundary...Worked like a charm, twice....Dog understood that if he was sporting the shock collar, our yard was his sanctuary...Neighbors, yard, not a sanctuary, with a shocking effect that would cause him to slam his face into the ground immediately for each attempt at crossing...

Invisible Fence has a model that uses GPS to set boundries. No need to bury wire IF the area is big enough.
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Chicken Dinner ^^^^^^^Right There!

Invisible fence for sure would be one thing.

The other is there are some key finder things.. just small tabs that go on key chains etc.. ( I was hoping to get some folks with an austitic child we had to search for in a hurricane here to buy some and sew to his jacket or shirts etc...) and then its kind of like I phone locate thingy.

BUT you have to be aware the dog is gone.

We have a garmin collar on Tiger for finding dead/wounded deer, I only let him off leash if the deer is jumped so he can bay the deer, but he has gotten away twice and after those 2 scares we put the collar and locator on. it works good. I had his collar on the wife and had her walk around the deer lease while we stayed in the trailer and I knew exactly where she was. Even texted her when she stopped to pee cause I know her actions.. LOL.

Sorry, I skipped over the fact that the dogs are mostly house dogs, even the one that left the yard and got hit. The gate to the fenced in back yard was left open for a matter of minutes and four of them left the yard. Two returned quickly and one returned in about 15 minutes. The one that got hit was always with the one that returned after 15 minutes. They were good buddies and when the Beagle came back we were certain she would be just a bit behind him. It was only the second time in over 5 years she had even been out of the back yard, so she was out of her element and got confused and disoriented or just felt like exploring further. If we get GPS setups for the 4 we still have, it would not be for 24/7 monitoring, not even all day monitoring. It would probably be just for shorter periods of time when we all (dogs and bride and I) were outside. It has been a very emotional week for me as I found the dog at the shelter and she hung to me like only one of our other dogs ever has. I wasn't clear on the circumstances of our need . . . my fault.

Otter, very sorry for your dog being hit...A nightmare for you all.

Garmin Astro 330–mine works well

I have a Garmin Alpha system that I use on my big game hounds. The plus is that it can track multiple dogs and is accurate and dependable. The minus is that batteries need to be recharged every 24-36 hours. The range is about 3 miles depending on terrain, but I have picked up collar signals up to 30 miles away if they are line of sight.

Another alternative is a telemetry system, that emits a radio pulse every few seconds that can be tracked. They are old school and not as accurate, but the batteries can last up to 5 years of continuous use. When running my dogs in difficult terrain where recovering my dogs within the 36 hour GPS battery life is not always possible, I strap on both types of collars.

The professional trainers in bird dogs have been using GPS tracking systems for years. Some dogs
have been recovered from amazing distances away. But it is not a system that you can put on the dog]
and just leave it there.

If your dogs are house dogs primarily the GPS should work easily for you. When you are going to let
the out for a while put the GPS collar on them. Take it off when they come back inside. Simple.

Let me warn you that having a GPS collar on a dog will not prevent them from being hit by a vehicle. It
will allow you to find the body if that happens.

Pet safe I believe makes a system that keeps dogs in an area without wires.Dog wears a collar and when they approach the boundary of the transmitter it makes a correction sound to let the dog know not to go any farther then shocks if they continue. The shock setting is adjustable. I know people that have them and they work very well.

Check out Gun Dog in Starkville MS. My son works for them and they sell all kinds of tracking systems and fence systems...

Tag this for later. Looking for something for our dog as well.