We could earn income from the merchandise accessible on this web page and take part in affiliate packages. Learn More ›
There are few worse emotions than not realizing the place your canine is; GPS canine collars can repair that. It’s widespread to lose sight of your pup when searching thick cowl, and it’s assured whenever you’re working pointers or a far-ranging pack of hounds. However it’s additionally all too widespread for canines to get separated from you and, within the worst circumstances, really misplaced.
The easiest way to watch your canine whereas he’s off-leash is to put money into a monitoring collar. These are usually divided into two classes: purpose-built GPS collars for searching and dealing canines, and on a regular basis trackers extra generally used to maintain tabs on the household pet. Each sorts of collars have their benefits, and that’s why I examined among the finest GPS canine collars which are accessible proper now. As extra collars grow to be accessible for testing this summer time, we’ll consider them and add them to this assessment. Listed below are our prime picks:
How I Examined the Greatest GPS Canine Collars
I carried out this check in rural, suburban, and concrete environments to judge every collar’s mobile and GPS protection, in addition to potential interference from each terrain and know-how. Hen canine coaching periods had been carried out with my 2-year-old retriever, Hatchet, in tall grass, timber, farm ponds, and steep terrain, in addition to in suburban neighborhoods and a distant U.S. Forest Service tract.
I put the collars on Hatchet and enlisted a buddy to run him as much as a mile away, then verified that observe with the hand-held and smartphone readings to verify monitoring accuracy. The GPS collars had been additionally positioned at recognized distances (100 yards and 200 yards, measured with a laser rangefinder) and in comparison with their handheld location monitoring. Along with working Hatchet by way of repeated water retrieves in each freshwater and saltwater with every collar, they had been submerged in a bathtub of freshwater for half-hour to check water resistance (all of the collars on this check handed with out incident). The person options of every collar—lights, battery life, e-collar coaching performance, perimeter alerts, and many others.—had been additionally examined within the subject.
Hatchet and I’ve been training together and with professionals for 2 years. He usually wears a SportDog 825X e-collar throughout coaching and searching, and was comfy with even the heaviest GPS collar he wore on this check. He’s close-ranging on upland hunts however allowed to wander barnyards and surrounding fields every time we’re in rural areas, the place he continuously works cowl and sometimes chases rabbits and different critters out of sight.
Greatest GPS Canine Collars: Evaluations and Suggestions
Greatest Total: Garmin TT 15X
The Garmin TT15X is an correct monitoring and coaching collar with all of the bells and whistles. It’s appropriate with a wide range of Garmin’s handheld gadgets (offered individually); we examined the TT15X with the brand new Alpha 300i handheld.
Key Options
- Collar dimensions: 3.5 x 1.75 x 1.85 inches
- Collar strap: 1-inch huge, 27 inches lengthy
- Complete collar weight: 10.3 ounces (tester measured)
- Handheld: Not included; compatible with Garmin Alpha fashions, Astro 430, Professional 550 Plus; examined with Alpha 300i, weighs 10.4 ounces (tester measured)
- Battery kind: Rechargeable lithium-ion; user-replaceable
- Charging twine: USB, proprietary
- Marketed battery life: As much as 80 hours
- Marketed vary: 9 miles
- Waterproof score: As much as 10 meters (1 ATM)
- Lights: Beacon LED with a number of settings, managed remotely
- Rescue mode: Sure
- Sleep mode: Sure, with sure handheld gadgets
- E-collar coaching: Sure; 18 stimulation ranges (steady and momentary), plus tone and vibration
- Consists of: Commonplace and long-range antenna, automobile energy cable
Professionals
- Most correct monitoring
- Straightforward e-collar entry whereas monitoring
- Infinitely customizable in your searching fashion
- Suitable with Garmin watches
Cons
- Requires a separate buy of a handheld system
- Bulkiest collar
Garmin is unmatched in its Iridium satellite-supported InReach devices that many hunters already depend on within the backcountry, and its TT15X GPS canine collar is not any exception. Whereas hen hunters and houndsmen will recognize the feature-packed TT15X (with an marketed 9-mile vary in the perfect circumstances), this collar would additionally work nicely for a devoted blood monitoring canine and his handler, due to its waypoint performance and detailed tracks. The TT15x’s GPS was the clear accuracy winner, with nuanced monitoring that confirmed my canine’s each transfer. The GPS monitoring interface is info-packed and intuitive, with a number of shows to trace your canine, together with maps.
Actually, there’re so many options packed into the TT15X that it may well take some getting used to, with every little thing from Garmin watch pairing and SOS performance with an InReach subscription to proximity alarms and competitors timers. Customization is obtainable for practically any characteristic your pup would possibly want, together with GPS collar lights, level/treed alerts, e-collar stimulation buttons, and extra.
The GPS unit on the collar was the bulkiest and heaviest within the check (although it’s comparable in design to the SportDog Tek 1.5, and has been up to date with the TT 25 collar mannequin). However that’s a minor gripe about an in any other case stellar unit that may observe your canine wherever he would possibly go. The underside line: You probably have the price range for an ongoing subscription and a separate handheld system, the Garmin TT15X is likely one of the finest GPS canine collars available on the market.
Greatest Worth: SportDog Tek 1.5LT
This no-nonsense GPS monitoring collar from SportDog consists of each monitoring and e-collar coaching capabilities.
Key Options
- Handheld included
- A number of canine monitoring: As much as 12 collars
- Marketed vary: As much as 7 miles
- Measurement: Matches canines 8 kilos or bigger with neck sizes 10.75 – 23 inches
- E-collar: Sure; 99 stimulation ranges (momentary, steady, rising), plus tone and vibration
- Complete collar weight: 9 ounces (tester measured)
- Handheld weight: 7.3 ounces (tester measured)
- Waterproof: Handheld is submersible as much as 5 toes; collar as much as 25 toes
- Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries
- Charging twine: USB, proprietary
- Marketed battery life: GPS collar prices in 4 hours and lasts 24 hours per cost; handheld prices in 2 hours; lasts 20 hours per cost (tester confirmed)
- Consists of lanyard
Professionals
- Handheld included
- Straightforward to make use of out of the field
- Easy, simple operate
- E-collar integration
- One-time buy
Cons
- No maps on the hand-held system
- Compass calibration required forward of every hunt for monitoring accuracy
- Guide magnetic declination angle choice required after touring
The SportDog Tek 1.5’s mixed GPS unit and e-collar is intuitive for a brand new consumer and easy to deploy within the subject. It incorporates important monitoring options with the corporate’s confirmed e-collar know-how and doesn’t make you fork over further money for options you gained’t ever use, making it an uncomplicated various to the Garmin TT15X’s bells and whistles. There are not any ongoing subscriptions or further purchases required to make use of the Tek 1.5, both.
I do want this system had the choice to trace utilizing maps, since it may be tough to check your canine’s actual location with out topographical options. However that’s additionally a part of the Tek 1.5’s attraction: It merely factors you towards your canine’s location, with particulars about how distant he’s and how briskly he’s shifting, together with correct on-point alerts when your canine stops. For closer-ranging canines, like pointers and setters that work close by and up to some hundred yards away, this GPS canine collar is a superb choice. Should you’re wanting to trace a pack of hounds throughout miles of nation, contemplate a pricier collar with extra mapping performance.
There are a couple of minor options which are somewhat clunky, together with restricted entry to e-collar buttons from the monitoring display. For instance, I take advantage of an e-collar tone to recall my hen canine within the subject, however solely the continual stimulation button is useful from the monitoring display. Nonetheless, it’s simple sufficient to toggle between the monitoring and coaching display, and long run use would make accessing the complete e-collar instructions second nature whereas monitoring. Total, the Tek 1.5 is straightforward to make use of and affords all of the important encompasses a hunter wants to trace a hard-working hen canine.
Greatest On a regular basis: Fi Series 3
That is the third era of Fi canine monitoring collar; I examined the Massive mannequin.
Key Options
- Sizes: 5; XS to XL
- Fasteners: Sizes XS to M have plastic buckles; L to XL buckles are stainless-steel
- Sturdiness: Chrome steel tracker can “maintain 400 lbs of static power”
- Dustproof and water-resistant: IP68 & IP66k
- Collar materials: Nylon
- Complete collar weight: 4.9 ounces(tester measured)
- Tracker dimensions: 1 x 2 x .5 inches
- Location monitoring: AT&T LTE-M, three satellite tv for pc networks (GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo)
- Monitoring vary: LTE cell protection (inside the US solely)
- Syncs with smartphone app
- Maps: Sure
- Monitoring performance: Stroll, escape, and misplaced canine modes
- Exercise monitoring: Steps, Sleep, Pressure
- Battery life: As much as 3 months (marketed); realistically 1 to 2 months with regular use, 21 hours in misplaced canine mode with good cell protection (consumer examined)
- Subscription: Sure, consists of value of collar, charging cradle
- Mild: A number of colours, managed through smartphone app
Professionals
- Low profile, light-weight
- Sturdy system and {hardware} for on a regular basis put on and tear
- Low upfront value
- Lengthy battery life
- Makes use of smartphone app; no handheld system to cost or carry
Cons
- Least correct location monitoring
- Poor to nonexistent monitoring in distant areas with dangerous cell service
- Requires subscription
Should you’re on the lookout for an on a regular basis monitoring collar for your loved ones canine, the Fi Sequence 3 is a superb selection. The tracker is slim and built-in into the included collar with a low-maintenance battery life that your canine can put on across the clock. The collar depends on AT&T’s LTE M community plus GPS for monitoring your canine’s location, which you’ll monitor utilizing Fi’s smartphone app. (You don’t want AT&T as your cellphone supplier to make use of a Fi collar.)
Fi permits you to set perimeters round geographic areas, like your own home and yard, or possibly the rental cabin the place you’re staying for every week. Should you’ve bought a Houdini who’s vulnerable to slipping off, you’ll be able to select to obtain a notification that your canine has “escaped” these perimeters with out an proprietor. The Sequence 3 collar robotically detects walks and automotive rides, and you may manually activate misplaced canine mode in case your canine runs off or goes lacking. This characteristic combines LTE-M and GPS know-how to ping your canine’s collar at the least as soon as each minute. Fi refers to this as your canine’s “real-time dwell GPS” location. Generally your canine’s location is displayed precisely and different instances it lags; in rural areas, it may be downright ineffective. For good monitoring efficiency with the Fi Sequence 3, you should be in an space with good AT&T cell service.
My hen canine will often take off after wild critters, leaving my unfenced yard or disappearing whereas we’re out within the woods. More often than not he returns earlier than misplaced canine mode can pinpoint his location. As soon as, whereas scouting in a distant nationwide forest this spring, he ran off whereas carrying his Fi Sequence 3. I had only one bar of cell service (additionally AT&T), and the misplaced canine mode couldn’t lock onto his location. I used an quaint whistle and he got here trotting again after half an hour, and nicely earlier than the Fi app ever registered his location. There merely wasn’t ok service to trace my canine utilizing Fi’s know-how.
Through the known-distance exams in a number of areas, Fi wasn’t tremendous correct. At 100 yards, Fi advised me my canine was nonetheless with me; at 200 yards with misplaced canine mode engaged, the app advised me I used to be standing inside 50 toes of my canine. That stated, when the Fi was in misplaced canine mode throughout accuracy testing in a suburban space, it nearly precisely matched the Garmin TT15X observe. Fi’s path of journey was much less exact than Garmin’s, however it will have been a lot helpful for locating my canine if he’d truly been misplaced.
The Fi’s battery drains faster in areas with poor connectivity and whereas in misplaced canine mode, when the collar is consistently pinging (or trying to ping) its GPS community. My testing confirmed that, in a suburban space with good AT&T protection, a fully-charged Fi Sequence 3 battery lasted 21 hours in misplaced canine mode. Regular use in poor protection areas may also run down the battery rapidly. With regular on a regular basis use, nevertheless, the Fi Sequence 3 collar will work for greater than a month and probably even two, on a single cost.
The collar is supplied with an app-controlled, color-changing gentle. It’s not particularly brilliant, nevertheless, and features extra as an indicator gentle than a beacon.
Fi is marketed to “canine dad and mom,” which implies it affords a couple of frivolous options that don’t have anything to do with finding your canine. That features the flexibility to attach with different Fi customers or submit pet photographs in a newsfeed. The Fi Sequence 3 can also be an exercise monitor that may observe your canine’s steps and sleep habits (metrics designed to enhance high quality of dwelling for home canines who get extra treats than train). I do discover step monitoring and auto stroll detection helpful on the uncommon events that I’m touring with out my canine or want somebody to let him out noon. A fast look at my cellphone tells me my canine is being cared for correctly.
The Sequence 3 mannequin, launched in fall 2022, is an enormous enchancment over Fi’s Sequence 2 mannequin, which wasn’t tremendous correct or intuitive to take away from third-party collars for charging. (Actually, my canine’s Sequence 2 system fell off the collar greater than as soon as; the third time this occurred the monitoring performance was poor sufficient that I used to be by no means in a position to find it.) This monitoring collar’s value is included in a weekly membership of a pair bucks, which makes this collar comparatively inexpensive in comparison with the opposite GPS trackers on this check, which value a whole bunch of {dollars} upfront.
Regardless of its limitations in poor service areas, the Fi Sequence 3 is an inexpensive, low-maintenance GPS canine collar that works infinitely better than an Apple air tag and can in the end assist many canine homeowners observe down their misplaced canine.
Tips on how to Select a GPS Canine Collar
First, contemplate your price range and your targets in your canine. Do you simply desire a low-maintenance tracker to spy on the canine walker or find Fido after he escapes the yard? Or are you a devoted hunter with a pack of hen canines or hounds who wants the perfect GPS canine collar accessible for exact monitoring in rugged, distant areas? Many GPS collars from searching manufacturers like Garmin, Dogtra, and Sportdog additionally embody e-collar coaching performance, so contemplate whether or not you need or want a mixture collar for coaching and reinforcement within the subject.
When you’ve recognized the kind of monitoring collar you need, store round for the fashions that suit your price range. Does your collar require a subscription to a GPS service or is it a one-time buy? Will you need to buy further gear, like a handheld system to go together with the collar? Subsequent, contemplate the surroundings the place you’ll use the collar most frequently. Do you reside within the suburbs or the nation? Do you hunt rural areas the place you’ll need built-in maps and an SOS operate in your GPS handheld system?
If you’re all the way down to deciding between just some fashions, evaluate the smaller features which are most necessary to you, corresponding to collar lights and waypoint performance, and determine from there.
FAQs
Most GPS canine collars vary from water-resistant to waterproof, though every collar’s score is dependent upon the producer’s specs. Producers check their GPS gadgets for water resistance and dirt utilizing what’s often known as an Ingress Protection rating. Electronics like monitoring collars meet certain water resistance requirements (corresponding to the flexibility to be submerged at 10 meters for half-hour) however can typically fall wanting or exceed these rankings in the actual world.
The battery lifetime of a GPS canine collar is dependent upon the person mannequin and might final from 24 hours as much as a number of months. The battery lifetime of the collar you do purchase may also differ primarily based in your system settings. As an illustration, you probably have your collar programmed to relay your canine’s location each 2.5 seconds as an alternative of each two minutes, you’ll run down the battery quicker.
Sure, GPS canine collars are usually secure for canines to put on. A 2021 study of monitoring gadgets for pets decided that well being dangers from publicity to radio frequencies of GPS and mobile monitoring gadgets was a lot decrease than the radiation from on a regular basis gadgets like house wifi networks and cell telephones. Don’t maintain massive GPS collars with contact factors in your canine for greater than 12 hours at a time to keep away from discomfort and pores and skin irritation.
The accuracy of GPS canine collars is dependent upon a wide range of components, together with the monitoring know-how of a selected collar. For instance, the Iridium satellite tv for pc community utilized by Garmin InReach gadgets is usually extra correct at pinpointing a canine’s location than a Bluetooth enabled system.
Sure, you’ll be able to observe your canine through smartphone when you purchase a GPS monitoring collar or system that’s appropriate together with your smartphone. Lots of the pet-focused collars, just like the Fi Sequence 3 collar I examined, require a smartphone app for monitoring.
Why Belief Out of doors Life?
Since 1898, OL has been a number one authority in testing and reviewing searching gear, fishing deal with, weapons and capturing gear, and far more. We’ve greater than a century-long historical past of evaluating merchandise, and we’re now bringing that experience to on-line evaluations. Our editors are skilled outdoorsmen and girls, and most significantly, we’re skilled journalists. We prioritize subject testing and goal information when reviewing merchandise. We conduct interviews with gear producers and engineers in addition to out of doors specialists in order that our readers have an understanding of how and why a product works—or doesn’t.
Promoting doesn’t affect our gear evaluations and it by no means will. Whereas we at all times focus our protection on standout merchandise—as a result of we wish our readers to pay attention to the newest and biggest gear—we additionally cowl the failings and quirks of any given product.
Ultimate Ideas
There’s a variety of GPS canine collars on the market and every is designed for a selected kind of canine and canine proprietor. Regardless of when you’re on the lookout for an on a regular basis monitoring system or the perfect GPS canine collars in your pack of hard-hunting hounds, you will discover a GPS collar for you. They may appear costly, however simply bear in mind: Your canine’s well being and security is value far more than the price of a GPS collar. So do your self a favor and put money into one. The following time your pup breaks out of the yard or vanishes into thick cowl, you’ll be glad you probably did.
