Why Does My Dog Need A GPS Collar?

GPS Dog Collars were originally made for hunters to be able to find all their dogs after a hunt.  Dogs can travel great distances in a short amount of time and may be very hard to find if they can’t find their way home.  Until recently GPS technology was very expensive and only the dedicated hunters would purchase a GPS Dog Collar.  Now that the GPS collars have become more reasonably priced a lot of hunters have decided to invest in them and even your average pet owner with the escape artist dog are jumping on them.  If you dog gets out of your yard you can easily find them or even if someone were as cruel as to try and steal your pet you would be able to track them and recover your beloved dog.

How Does A GPS Dog Collar Work?

There are two parts to a Dog Collar GPS.  The transmitter and the receiver.  Each dog will have a transmitter which bounces a location signal off satellites which then send that location back to your receiver.  Some units just send a radio signal straight to the receiver and have the receiver transmit to the satellite.  Your receiver can be handheld or some systems use your home computer.  Some GPS dog tracker systems even let you set a designated area for your dog to roam and if your dog leaves the designated area you will be notified.  This is especially useful for detecting if your dog has escaped from your yard or left a designated hunting area.  Some GPS dog tracking systems let you mark locations.  This is useful for marking the locations of your kills or different waypoints you are tracking and even the location of you vehicle or start point.

What to Look For In A Dog GPS Collar

• Velcro Straps are a Bad Idea.  Although finding the collar after it has fallen off your dog is easy thanks to GPS, finding your dog becomes very difficult.  Look for a collar with a buckle type connector.
• Older models may not be good for smaller dogs in dense cover like tall grass or even for larger dogs that are in a thick wooded hunting area.
• Replace the battery before you go on a hunt.  You don’t want the battery to die as soon as you start.  No matter how fresh you think the battery is, if you don’t replace it you will end up being sorry you didn’t.

Where Can I Buy A GPS Dog Collar?

GPS Collars are kind of hard to find at retail stores.  You can’t just go to your local walmart or Best Buy but you can sometimes find the collars at big box hunting stores like Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s.  The best place to get them without a doubt is Amazon.com.  You can get a used one on eBay for cheaper but remember that some used ones may not work well in dense cover or may use velcro to hold the collar onto the dog.