I did a search but didn't find anything: does anyone use a GSP on their dog's collar?

I have a 7 wk old Husky x GSD and have been reading about how Huskies can sometimes take off running and go for miles.  I'm wondering whether a GSP collar device would be a good idea for her.

We have about 400 acres of uninhabited woodland.  After our other dogs (GSD, GSDxChow, Pit mix) were old enough to be trusted(2-3 yrs), we would give them the freedom to run a bit and explore on their own.  Never had any problems with them getting off our land, and they would usually return within 15 minutes or so after we rang the large bell for them.  Of course I don't know what my pup's personality will turn out to be, but I'm thinking I may not be able to trust her on the recall, even after she's 3+ years.

I'm wondering whether to look into types GPS devices for her collar when she gets older, especially as I've read so much about huskies bolting or escaping and making a run for it.

Thoughts?

There are a few folks here who use GPS / Trackers for their dogs and several more who are constantly looking (include me in that.)

A short while back, I went looking at the GPS's / Trackers that I could find and wrote up this list of manufacturers / distributors.  It may not directly help, but it may give you a place to start looking and comparing.

I keep mine on a pretty tight leash - ie, they're with me or on lead all the time - the first Husky I had, had a habit of wandering. She was brought home by people who lived 20 miles down the road - true distance across country, I'm not sure but it had to be 10 miles or so. Like yours, she'd come home when I hit the pipe rail on my porch - until one time she didn't.

As much as we all, I think, would like to let our dogs have the freedom to roam, it's just to dangerous in today's world. I live in the middle of nowhere on 10 acres; the section on which I live has no others houses, the 5 adjoining sections have a total of let's say 8 houses but we have people who will shoot a dog - "But it's a wolf!" (none of mine even vaguely resemble wolves!) The area is a "subdivision" so we have roads every mile and too much traffic traveling too fast.

And I think you're going to find the same thing I did - GPS & trackers are designed, at least now, for folks who live in suburbia. They don't work in the city and they don't have the range to work in our kinds of country. However, let me know if you find one that looks good and doesn't cost $1,000 or more.

Squirt had a bad issue with going into the national monument and stealing food off peoples grills.. that was about 14 miles 1 direction and in a different state. I dont think squirt really paid any attention to what was Colorado and what was new Mexico. And i was in a no cell service area and very few people, but the ones out there would shoot dogs or drive 80mph on the dirt roads. In Some areas i can let squirt loose but those are very specific places and i have to at least half pay attention.

Id love the gps set up but it wont work here without very expensive equipment and a monthly charge to hook into the satellite livestock trackers

Mmmm... That explains why I haven't heard more about it. Thanks for the link; I'll definitely keep my looking for something that could work, but I won't set my hopes on it.

An idea ive thrown out before... buy a really cheap cell phone with gps attach it to the dog collar and use a find my phone app. Or think cows because what you want exists for livestock but its expensive and has a monthly fee. I dont think you need all the bells and whistles it can do and i doubt the things other then the actual tracking would work on a dog because well its it's designed for cows but what you want does exist if your willing to pay for it

Hmmm you could look into how the wildlife biologists do it!
Somehow they are able to tag individuals and track them for miles (is it a 'radio collar'?).
It can't be very expensive because they track a lot of animals, and I know biologists are not rich!
I wonder how they do it.

Yea but I wanted to add...I would probably be too nervous to do it unless I lived in the middle of a big forest...the risk of getting hit by a car is too high in normal human communities...

Oops and last edit!
my GSD x husky is not a wanderer at all. At a big fenced park offleash, he came back to my bench and checked in with me eleven times in 30 minutes. In our front yard, he walks around after me, watches me, and follows me into the house when I come back in. So yours may not necessarily get that husky wanderlust...but I'm careful anyway, mine is rarely offleash!

The wildlife collars use radio frequency and when you get within a set distance with the transmitter it starts beeping and the closer you get the faster it beeps.

And squirt is ok off leash as long as i pay attention. She wont take off unless shadow is there. Her issue is killing other animals, and i actually have 1 place they are more then happy to let squirt chase off wildlife. Last time i was there i came home with a pocket full of rocks and fossils and 5 rabbits

Hi there! Both of our huskies wear Whistle 3 GPS trackers. It works on the ATT network and is perfect because we have great coverage in our area. When the dogs are in our 'home' area (you set your area up in the app), the device is connected to your home wifi....if they leave the home area boundary it automatically switches to the cellular network and notifies you. It is a monthly subscription service. You can also track activity and set activity goals. I originally got the Whistle because I was doing off leash training and wanted a back up in case they took off on me! Their off leash is now bullet proof but they both still wear the trackers 24/7. It is nice to know that I could find them if they ever left or home or were stolen.

Yeah that wouldn't work where i live

th1921 wrote:

Hi there! Both of our huskies wear Whistle 3 GPS trackers. It works on the ATT network and is perfect because we have great coverage in our area. When the dogs are in our 'home' area (you set your area up in the app), the device is connected to your home wifi....if they leave the home area boundary it automatically switches to the cellular network and notifies you. It is a monthly subscription service. You can also track activity and set activity goals. I originally got the Whistle because I was doing off leash training and wanted a back up in case they took off on me! Their off leash is now bullet proof but they both still wear the trackers 24/7. It is nice to know that I could find them if they ever left or home or were stolen.

That's pretty cool and high-tech!
(Are they getting in their 10,000 steps per day, ha ha)

Lostmaniac wrote:

Yeah that wouldn't work where i live

Where's the "Ditto!!" emoji??

There’s a thing called “Pit Pat” don’t know if it has a GPS Tracker but i haven’t looked into it properly.

Liv, the Pit Pat is strictly a device to rack your dogs activity.  No gps or real time tracking ability at all.  I saw it but since it did meet the needs, I didn't include it on the list.

See my post here for everything on my list.

Yeah I knew it done that I didn’t know if it done GPS as I said in my previous post I didn’t look into it properly.

No biggie, I and a couple of others who don't have immediate cell coverage are always looking for an effective, relatively inexpensive option to keep track of our pups. I'm more than willing to look at almost anything - now trackers for cows, well, that's a whole 'nuther ball of wax. (( someone will know where this came from ... )

LOL

Hah, Emily, waiting for you to notice

I did with my lol. Seems like it would be a good business to start. Ill put it in the good idea folder along with everything else that really would be a good idea of the capitol was there. At least the 3d printer idea isnt outside my knowledge base the satellite tracker is an entirely new thing that i know nothing about.

If i could find the right business partner it might be worth looking into. My track record on starting businesses is 1 was very successful one was moderately successful and my philanthropic use of a 3d printer was basically a failure or whatever its called when they say we love your idea we want you on board let us know when you get the equipment and set up a non profit.

Desires:

1. GPS tracking.  
   
2. Ability to train to a designated "fence"
   
3. Report exception conditions (eg outside boundary)
   
4. Report as email or SMS
   
5. Retain 'health' information
   

I know I can think of more but off the cuff...

[quote="Lostmaniac"]I did with my lol.

Yep. That's what I was laughing about

@aljones so what you want if it could be small enough to hide would be a hit with any parent of a teenager

Several of the trackers listed here show usage by pet owners, parents and caretakers.

Some are indeed getting interesting.

Rf wont work in mountain or canyon locations one claims to not need cell and work in off grid locations but it doesnt say what it uses. A few use wifi and cell service.