Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Please Recommend a GPS Collar for Dog

As the title states I'm looking for a GPS tracking collar for my dog. I would like to be able to use a smartphone or Ipad for location and I do not want it to be a shock collar. I do not want to have to subscribe to a monthly service in order to use it.


I would only need to use it in the case my dog runs off so I can locate him quickly.


Thanks!

Sport Dog 450 from Academy.

You can adjust it to a tickle or up to a jolt for sensative or hard headed dogs to get their attention off the rabbit they are chasing as it runs toward a highway or chasing a javelina back to a pack and certain death or a pup hauling ass toward its first barbed wire fence or down a ranch road toward a crippling cattle guard or trying to attack a skunk or crippling badger or blinding porky pine or pissed off rattler or crazy momma cow focused on goring you dog as its focused on a covey of running blue quail.

And the good thing is its not too expensive so if some animal doo gooder doesnt want you being cruel to your wonderful highly valued young bird dog and throws it away you can prolly afford to go back to Academy and get you afuggingnother one.

I use Garmin Alpha system.

Jag- he's looking for a locater, not a shocker.

We babysat Henry for a few days last week, and his mom ( a neighbor) has a GPS collar on him. She can locate him on the map on her smartphone, from anywhere, even from 500 miles away, as she was. Had he strayed, we could have called her and she would have told us where he was.


Henry never strayed. Good thing too. He's one of those nasty satan dogs - pitbull/Lab/other. 85 lbs of slobbering mush.... spent most of his time either sleeping (he's old and gimpy), or laying on his back letting my 45 lb, high-energy female Lab/whippet maul him.

Now we go to the pit-bull haters.....

But yeah- that collar is a neat device!

las. What type of collar is that?.

Garmin's Alpha system is hard to beat. You can get the collars with or without the shock feature. There is also an app that can link the receiver with a lap top, though I'm unsure about an iPhone.

A battery charge on these collars only last about 36 hours however depending on your update rate, so you're not going to be able to strap in on and forget about it. They are not designed to be kept on your dog permanently.

I've had some experience with wildlife GPS collars too that last up to 2 years. They collect coordinates every 2 hours but only relay them back to a laptop every 24 hours....which doesn't do you much good if your dog runs off. These also require a monthly subscription fee as well.

Alpha is just GPS and the Astro can deliver a "shock". Both are good for what they do......I can't imagine running my dogs without GPS.

I don't know- didn't look at brand. Maybe an Alpha- had to be charged every day or two.

Thanks for all of the advice so far.

Please keep them coming.

Check out - https://getfindster.com/

We've got them for our five dogs. One time cost - no cell coverage necessary, no sim card needed. 1/2 mile radius coverage in congested areas (city), 3 mile radius in open areas (country). Updates are available as they are released. Haven't used ours with the dogs off-leash outside of our back yard.

Rechargeable batteries last up to about 7 days if you just find/track the dog's location and 2 - 3 days if you want to monitor their various "activities" and some other things.

Sportdog pathfinder

Actually you them reversed, I've had both systems. Astro is the one with GPS only and the Alpha system can both shock and track, or just track depending on the type of collar you have entered in.

Alpha is NOT just GPS, it is VHS radio and has stimulation, sound and shock features too. Trust me I use the system. Alpha is the next generation from Astro.