In the wake of the Beast from the East, we have had the absolute pleasure of a few warmer spring days this week. Perfect for a test run of the new Tractive GPS tracker. We chose Chester as our test doggy this time, mainly because he does love to pose for a photograph.
The tracker itself is relatively small, only weighing 35 grams, and clips onto a collar (for speed we attached it to a second collar, then popped it onto Chester at the beginning of the walk). It survived the usual hurtling across fields and rolling on grass that our dogs enjoy, and emerged from a swift dip in stream completely unscathed. Chester seemed completely oblivious to it, which was a plus! He had a beautifully sunny (but windy) walk, with lots of bounding about and some rough and tumble with Bear, Monty, Poppy, and Paddy.
Probably the most testing part of the experience was us attempting to use the phone App. The live tracking actually worked remarkably well, it was quick to find itself and did appear to update every few seconds as claimed. We even managed to get a little pink squiggly line showing Chester running around in circles. The GPS seems to have good resolution, enough to track a detailed route even within a small area. However it didn’t keep drawing the route after about 10 mins of the walk, and only the live tracking (the blue paw-print marker) kept going for the hour. I think this was 100% down to user error though…
All of our dogs actually have really great recall and don’t tend go out of sight. However we can never be sure that one won’t get stuck somewhere, or run off chasing after a deer. The live location information will put our minds at ease, making us prepared should the unthinkable happen! Next time we will track the whole walk, so keep an eye on the blog for updates!
P.S Always remember to switch your tracking device off after a walk to avoid mapping yourself!!