Findster Duo dog tracking?

[Mrs. Jingle]

Help please, rather a long one to give background info! We are still struggling somewhat with our newest addition little Jessie labrador with her inbuilt terrier hunting traits, the speed of a greyhound and the attention span of a goldfish.

She is a true runner, we now suspect this is the reason her owner wanted rid of her. We have slowly been building up the amount of time she is allowed off lead when in our fields. She does have daily off lead runs in a rough half acre paddock at the house that has been Jessie proofed. Her general training is now excellent and she has the sweetest most loving temperament you could wish for.

In our fields it has been rather hit and miss to say the least. She did respond very quickly to a sharp whistle and come back on about the 3rd time of asking., but she is so ingrained to follow scent that you can watch her flying back towards you from 2 fields away....then suddenly throws her head in the air in the opposite direction sniffing the air and off she goes and nothing but nothing will get her attention back on you! Luckily our rather more sedate and lady like Jem does not follow her or it would be even worse to try and deal with.

So we have had her in a high viz harness to help try and see her when we let her off - water filled ditches and the thickest brambles are nothing to her when she is off on the hunt. The rougher the terrain the better she likes it, she has come back with brambles clinging to her - all sorts of unknown debris sticking out of the harness and even a proudly presented dead rat!

Today we thought we had lost her for good - she was missing for 15 minutes with no response or sighting of her anywhere - suddenly she appeared like a drowned rat with the harness underneath her and one leg out of the thing completely. she was VERY relieved to find us and quite subdued. We are guessing she had got caught up somewhere and could not get away to respond as she usually does after 5 minutes or so of freedom.

The harness will not be used again, far too dangerous - next step is a tracker on her collar. We dont think the most popular Tractive will work here - we are quite remote and often without any phone coverage so that puts me off that one. The Findster Duo looks like it might work for us - has anyone tried one, any other thoughts. https://getfindster.com/

Just to say I have owned, trained and bred working collies for several years back in the day. I have also owned several labs and other breeds along the way and JRTs......so training is not new to me but this one has me flummoxed - I can only best describe her as an overactive giant Jack with all the inherent hunting instincts but without any desire for self preservation whatsoever. I suspect she was due for a bullet at best and the pound as poor second option. Thank God she was offered to us before that happened- I will not give up on this little dog she will be staying with us no matter what. but I would love her to have the same freedom out on walks that Gem does and at least a tracker might tell us where she actually is so we can find her if this happens again. thanks for reading.

 

[MrsMozartleto]

No idea, but so pleased she found you in more ways than one.

I'll be interested in see what people's thoughts are. One of the Grots went walkabout the other week. He was a very confused soul and a lovely couple picked him up. I walked (I'd say run, but at best it was a soft-shoe-stumble) around the forest. Absolutely bollopsed.

Anyhoo, I digress. Very interested in a tracker that will work where there's almost bobberall signal, plus I'm looking at costs as would want all four dogs covered.

 

[{97702}]

You have my total sympathy MrsJ - she sounds like Millie lurcher, and I’m afraid I simply got to the end of my tether with Millie after getting several phone calls saying ‘oh we’ve picked up your dog, she is 3 miles away across several roads’ when she disappeared after deer.

It also was costing me a fortune to have her stitched up every single time (she has a whippets fine coat/skin), so she no longer gets off the lead other than in a 10 acre enclosed dog field.....

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I simply would not let her off the lead in anywhere that is not totally secure, tbh. We only let the Rotter off in a secure location because she thinks she knows better than us about recall. Having said that if Jess got a scare today she might be better about recall.

 

[CorvusCorax]

I'd keep her on a long line and only feed her by hand (weigh out her daily allowance and feed from your pockets).
Every time she bogs off is a win and undermines any other training you have done with her.
One of mine is a serious hunter, he is almost ten and never gets off the lead unless in a secure area, he's as happy as larry on a 10m flexi (although he has distance commands so not always hauling at the end of it, if that makes sense) as long as he's allowed to carry his ball!
Although tonight we also collected two cans and a bottle too, sigh.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Yes we have the extender lead - she just shuts down and barely walks 3 feet from our side when she has it on. Yes done all the long line using treats - perfect recall every time! distance commands 100 per cent on the end of a very long line indeed - can't win. All this was put in place and working perfectly before we even attempted off lead down the yard or in the fields.

Adores the Frisbee so we take that with us - not interested in it on or off the lead but would rip your arm off to get it in the enclosed paddock when she knows she cant go hunting lol!

I think we are going to try with a tracker to get some idea of how far she actually goes before turning back to us and if it is calling her vocally or the whistle that she turns back for. Plus if she does get stuck we can quickly find her.

If all that fails she will have to just spend the rest of her life on the lead other than in the house paddock. Still, better than being shot or sent to the pound I guess - bit sad though.

 

[Tinkerbee]

My tractive is worth it's weight in gold (although it's not that heavy ?) but it does need phone signal so sounds like it wouldn't work. Haven't tried the Findster but I highly recommend the concept of a tracker in general, although it does sometimes take a while to connect in woodland etc.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Yes we have the extender lead - she just shuts down and barely walks 3 feet from our side when she has it on. Yes done all the long line using treats - perfect recall every time! distance commands 100 per cent on the end of a very long line indeed - can't win. All this was put in place and working perfectly before we even attempted off lead down the yard or in the fields.

Adores the Frisbee so we take that with us - not interested in it on or off the lead but would rip your arm off to get it in the enclosed paddock when she knows she cant go hunting lol!

I think we are going to try with a tracker to get some idea of how far she actually goes before turning back to us and if it is calling her vocally or the whistle that she turns back for. Plus if she does get stuck we can quickly find her.

If all that fails she will have to just spend the rest of her life on the lead other than in the house paddock. Still, better than being shot or sent to the pound I guess - bit sad though.

No worries. But when I say her food I mean her normal food, not the treats on top.

Food = life, you = food. Soon makes them listen although I appreciate it's not for everyone and hard in multi-dog and person household.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

No worries. But when I say her food I mean her normal food, not the treats on top.

Sorry I didn't word my reply clearly. I understood exactly what you meant and 'treats' was and still is a proportion of her daily feed - feed bowl at dinner time reduced by the amount used to 'treat' her when training - i.e keep her hungry and keep her keen for food sort of idea. And yes we and our sons all follow the same training schedule so no misunderstanding or cross over of ideas and intentions.

I guess she has arrived with me to finally teach me that I know even less than I thought I knew about training awkward dogs - good job we love her to bits!

 

[CorvusCorax]

No bother. I'd up the ante and do away with the bowl and see if it makes a difference.

If her hunt drive is higher than her food drive you could start channelling it with a ball/dummy/toy/flirt pole/or tracking training?
My old breed dog was brilliant at mantrailing, I'd send a willing assistant out into the woods to hide and he would go and find them.

They all have their quirks, I've never met a 'fully trained' one yet

 

[Brownmare]

I have a Findster. It's not perfect but none of these trackers are, however we have very little phone signal and nothing else would work. It has been a lifesaver at various times and for various dogs to train them out of buggering off after cyclists (collie), rabbits (whippet) and rats (jrt). It has also trained us out of worrying about them and being too clingy when we can see on the tracker they are just 50 yards away the other side of the hedge. Of course we are lucky having our own land to do this - I would never allow a dog to leave a public footpath etc. I found, especially with our first whippet who we got as a rescue with a recall issue, that if we let him have a bit of freedom to go hunting he would come back of his own accord every so often to check in with us and eventually he was able to go free range over the farm all day.

 

[druid]

If she's disappearing out of sight and not recalling then it's irresponsible to let her off lead. CorvusCorvax's "nothing in life is free" food plan works well for all but the very worst offenders I've found

 

[poiuytrewq]

As above I’d keep her on a lead. She still has a lovely life, my M-I-L had a spaniel for 15 years she was never even able to let him off the lead in the garden ?‍ He was happy as Larry though.
As for trackers, I had a cat tracker, it was a Tractive. In theory it worked very well. We were always able to check where he was and in the evening if he hadn’t come home I’d go find him!
The only issues I had was it used to open at the battery point and fall off but the ones for dogs are more tag like and fix to an existing leather collar which I imagine should solve that issue.