Hi everyone! I recently discovered the Whistle 3 pet tracker and have been trying to research and find the best gps pet tracker for in case loki decides to escape . Does anyone have a gps pet tracker? If so, what brand and do you like it? Have you ever needed it? If so, was it reliable?

Thanks

I have the whistle on both of my boys. Bourbon actually had the tagg and when whistle bought it out I kept it and did not upgrade. I recently after 4 years just upgraded it to the Whistle pet tracker. This is because it seemed to be needing to reset more often and the battery was draining a lot faster than normal in the last 3 months than it had any other times in the four years. Give me a bit of time I will respond back. I also can get you a link for a 15% discount because I have the whistle on the boys and if you mention it you get a 15% discount and I think I get a free month. I believe also this has been searched / discussed on the site and commented on before maybe under whistle or Tagg. I will get back with you I got to go get some water out of my basement. Bad weather here. One link to previous info...link to whistle and here is a 2013 thread link

Try using this link it's a Google search for Tagg and GPS on the forum.  Yep, it's been discussed a fair bit over time....  while most of the world doesn't need to be concerned, be aware that with many GPS systems, they communicate with your cell phone over the cell network - no good if you're in an area that has no cell service.

ETA: Try looking at this link as well. PawTracker has done a respectable review of 13 gps/cell and gps/radio devices. Note that PawTracker manufacture one of the devices they review but it's, from a glance, a respectable review.

Nice review you linked there Al. You can get it cheaper than tehy list in the review sometimes. I am not familiar with the others but I do know that Whistle does some great sales ie $49.99 sometimes! I had a friend at Christmas get the $49.99 sale plus my 15% off coupon for it to be $85 for 2. And that they let you buy your subscription in bulk or up front for a lower price. ie I paid for 1 year of service for Bourbon and it comes to 7.95 a month ($95.4 a yr) and Vlad's I signed up for a 2 year subscription and it was 6.95 a month (166.8 subscription for 83.4 a year).
Yes it is based of the cell coverage so some do not like that. I have no problems in my area even when I have gone into the metroparks and state parks hiking. I like the activity tracking and app, think fitbit. The customer service I have always gotten has been friendly informative and great. I have called in to get some hard resets done because of glicks that stopped the notifications while it still had it GPS functioning.

The lag time with the notification could be better but it does have to report from the tracker to the base station to the app then it notifies you. Sometimes it notifies in 1 minute of breaching the imaginary line other times more like 3-4 minutes. But it is much better than not realizing the escaped. And it does track then to the right property I have had to go pick Bourbon up before!

Ack sorry I did a search but must have typoed something lol.

I live in the big city and haven't had much trouble with phone coverage. I use sprint.

Colleen please hit me up with that deal and I will love you forever, lol! Is there a certain code I need to type in?

Rumflower, there are some quirks with the search function - once you figure out how to work it you can find almost anything ....

The easiest way to get decent returns is to select advanced search, enter your search terms and then hit google search ...

http://ref.whi.st/dYedW
This is the link that gets you $20 off (currently $20 I think it changes).  You can call them if you want to see about getting the whistle I thought they were still selling the regular tracker not just the whistle 3 maybe they're only selling the whistle 3 now.
Let me add it as a link $20 off link

The Whistle 3 is a new and improved product from the Whistle

Wait you are gonna love me forever ahh sucks thanks Danielle!

Interested to hear some reviews on the whistle 3. I bought a couple Tagg units, and just tossed them after a few months of use. Very cool idea, but the battery would drain extremely fast, and I would constantly get notifications that my dog had left the safe zone, when he had never moved.

I'm thinking about getting something like a Chipolo/Trackr/Tile for their collar. Not GPS, but it may work in more urban environments.

Just saw this has hit kickstarter. Currently set to come out this December. Might be of interest to some if it actually makes its way to reality. Price will be right if it does. Not quite a tracker so much as a cheap way of knowing your dog got out while you weren't looking.

https://informu.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

I have been getting the Link AKC smart collar emails lately...

I had no problems with the Tagg but am in a great cell coverage area so that is probably why. In four years it was only at the end 4 months that it said my dog was next door when he was not. So they helped me upgrade to the Whistle. So I have two whistle dogs now. I love their customer service though. That is what has helped me the customer service. it does take a little bit of time to "notice" the exit of the property (a couple minutes) and it does not have a great "area or zone" if you have a smaller lot. The zone is a circle so that is hard to adapt to lots. They had talked about researching polygon zone but have not heard anything lately. The were also researching having two zone that you could switch between so that people that send dogs to sitters or day care can change their zones easier. Have not heard any update on that either.

I have see lots of other items out their but I have not seen the consistency so it make me curious when I see other ones.