Remote control dog tracker collar

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littlebranshill

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www.littlebranshill.co.uk
My friend has a rescue dog that wanders off. It's a pointer cross - about 10yrs old. She is looking into getting a dog tracker collar so she can keep an eye on it when its off hunting in the woods. Does anyone have any experience of these and what would be a good make to buy. They start on Ebay at £65 but would prefer personal recommendation.
 
They probably don't work very well in woods, and won't work after a certain distance or in real time (they will come with a card or something you can look at later)

Would she not be better investing in a way of keeping the dog at home?
 
I don't know much about them, but I did see them for sale in a Pets Corner shop today and you could try it for 30 days for £30.

I would also walk him somewhere less exciting for a while, so she can work on his recall.
 
I must admit I would be horrified if one of my rescue dogs was allowed to wander, how about advising her to buy a long line and joining a training class so someone can help her with the recall. The longer this is allowed to continue the more entrenched the behaviour will be, this dog could get shot,stolen or lost its not acceptable to allow them to wander at will.
 
I would think for £65 it isn't going to be very good and may only work within a certain range. It definitely won't have a GPS tracker.

I had a good look at this sort of thing after I misplaced the deaf dog a couple of times and the really decent GPS tracker collars are about £250!!

Well, I wasn't about to pay out that sort of money so we started our campaign of 'focus' training, where she checks in at very regular intervals (more than the other dogs) and I haven't misplaced her since.
 
If the dog is regularly off hunting by itself then I personally would keep it on a long line and work on the recall - also I doubt that the cheaper trackers are very good long distance.
 
I used to use telemetry in falconry but as others have said, getting the signal and doing a trace is by no means straight forward, even for expensive equipment.

I do, however, have an Innotek Beeper which is mainly designed for pointing dogs. It emits an audible beep that can be heard over quite a distance and can be programme to beep on a different sequence when he dog is stationary, i.e. on point. I hardly ever use it now and would happily sell it if I knew what the price would be in he UK. I imported mine from the USA. Google will find it.
 
I have a " Retrieva" tracker collar for one of our dogs who's nose takes him out of sight. Its tough, lockable and waterproof and very effective. You simply log in and view on the mobile phone. . We have peace of mind as to whereabouts he is. In this day of dog thefts too I am happy we have one!
 
Most trackers work with mobile phones and/or wifi now so as long as you have a signal you'll find the dog.
The range of products is immense, I have one to go on horses or humans but maybe too large to go on a dog collar, depends on the size of your dog I guess.
The Retrieva as mentioned above has a good track record.
 
I havea Retrieva collar for my rescue whippet who came to me with no recall. I did not get it until I had had him a year and his recall was well and truly established with use of a long line and agility training for motivation!

In the end it became obvious that his original problem stemmed from a very strong working drive combined with insufficient exercise. It also became obvious that whenever he disappeared he was usually chewing on a rabbit in the next field!

The retrieva works really well for us as I can see at a glance where he is and I am proud to say he now does an instant recall from over half a mile away when he is too far away to see except for the marker on the map :)
 
I have looked into these tracking collars but decided in the end that I was not just happy knowing where my dog was and with him being out of site so I got an electric collar with a half mile range. I try not to let him get too far away from me before I call him back. I don't always have to use the collar but it is there as backup.
 
I agree Twiggy, I would rather a dog of mine had one than a bullet in the brain or causing a road accident.

A friend of mine has just bought one and its worked wonders, she used it on herself and was surprised at how gentle it was, she was expecting something like you get with touching an electric fencer, i think some people think they are connected to the mains.

Ive seen dogs freak out with those citronella collars so electric collars are not the worse thing in the world, for sheep worrying the traditional way is to shove the dog in with a old ram or billy goat and have 6tons of **** out of it, that to me is far more dangerous, wonder how many dogs are injured or killed using that method.
 
I was probably the first person to import an electric collar into Scotland forty years ago. I've had at least a dozen models of four different makes. Yes, they can and do screw dogs up mentally. So I am not entering into an argument on this subject with people who clearly have very little experience. I am very proud to claim that I played a small part in getting them banned in Wales, with the rest of the UK soon to follow. No decent self respecting professional trainer uses them and they are banned by the police, armed services, prison service, etc, except under special licence. Could that be because wiser heads than yours know they are not only unreliable but unnecessary because there are better methods?
 
Dry Rot said:
I was probably the first person to import an electric collar into Scotland forty years ago. I've had at least a dozen models of four different makes. Yes, they can and do screw dogs up mentally. So I am not entering into an argument on this subject with people who clearly have very little experience. I am very proud to claim that I played a small part in getting them banned in Wales, with the rest of the UK soon to follow. No decent self respecting professional trainer uses them and they are banned by the police, armed services, prison service, etc, except under special licence. Could that be because wiser heads than yours know they are not only unreliable but unnecessary because there are better methods?
Click to expand...

Currently (excuse the pun) electric collars are not illegal in England, Im sure over the years their design have been modified and toned down hence why my friend was pleasantly surprised after trying it on, perhaps in your day they were a lot stronger.

Wiser heads than mine including the police, that would be the police who regularly leave their dogs in vehicles and get cooked on a summers day, the police dog trainer who took on a rescue Springer and after running off once let it off again for it to do it again and it had no tag on its collar which is an offence I believe and then had 3 police cars looking for it, yes wiser heads lol.

Perhaps wiser heads than yours have actually used it without screwing up a dog mentally, I dont own one or never used one
but I know people who have and far from their dogs having their brains fried have had wonderful results with no side effects, their dogs are obedient,responsive and just regular dogs and these are dogs that live in homes not kennels so they can be regularly and reliably monitored. These collars have been only used once maybe twice and in the grand scheme of things there are far worst things going on out there.
 
Dobiegirl said:
Currently (excuse the pun) electric collars are not illegal in England, Im sure over the years their design have been modified and toned down hence why my friend was pleasantly surprised after trying it on, perhaps in your day they were a lot stronger.

Wiser heads than mine including the police, that would be the police who regularly leave their dogs in vehicles and get cooked on a summers day, the police dog trainer who took on a rescue Springer and after running off once let it off again for it to do it again and it had no tag on its collar which is an offence I believe and then had 3 police cars looking for it, yes wiser heads lol.

Perhaps wiser heads than yours have actually used it without screwing up a dog mentally, I dont own one or never used one
but I know people who have and far from their dogs having their brains fried have had wonderful results with no side effects, their dogs are obedient,responsive and just regular dogs and these are dogs that live in homes not kennels so they can be regularly and reliably monitored. These collars have been only used once maybe twice and in the grand scheme of things there are far worst things going on out there.
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I am not going to bother arguing with you. You have no first hand experience of using them and clearly don't know much about dog training either.
 
Good, Im glad you are not going to argue, I hope your dog training skills are better than your people skills as you come across as very rude and arrogant, Ive noticed anytime you disagree with anyone you always descend into insulting them, the minute you do that you've already lost the argument.
 
For me it's a question of ethics, is it ethical to use electric shocks to make an animal do what I want ?

There is no substitute for good training and there is always a way of training a dog to do what you want it to do without giving it electric shocks.
 
Teaselmeg said:
For me it's a question of ethics, is it ethical to use electric shocks to make an animal do what I want ?

There is no substitute for good training and there is always a way of training a dog to do what you want it to do without giving it electric shocks.
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are you also against the use of electric fencing to keep livestock in?
 
Electric fencing is fixed and an animal has a choice whether to touch it or not.

Electric collars were banned in Wales after widespread consultations with experts who have knowledge to share. Similar consultations have taken place in Scotland and, I believe, in England but these bans can only be introduced when Parliament has the time. I am on that list of experts and was pleased to give an opinion based on over 40 years of practical experience.

Electric collars are already banned by the police, armed services, prison service, MOD, etc. except under special licence. Professional trainers very seldom resort to them. If they are so wonderful, why is no one on this forum advocating their use on horses?

Using hearsay and anecdotes to support an argument against first hand experience just makes a poster look rather immature and silly. Stating the facts is called speaking the truth and the truth often offends. I have no social skills whatsoever and have never pretended to have any, but I try to be accurate with my facts and I do speak the truth. Electric collars are unreliable, can cause permanent damage, and are unnecessary. There are better ways of training a dog. Sorry if DG finds that idea offensive.
 
1 in 4 dogs showed signs of stress compared to less than 5% of dogs in the non-electric shock collar control group (Defra commissioned study AW1402, 2007)

1 in 3 dogs yelp at the first use of electric shock collar and 1 in 4 yelp at subsequent uses (Defra commissioned study AW1402, 2007)

73% of the public disapprove of the use of electric shock collars on dogs (Kennel Club commissioned survey, 2014)

You only have to look at some of the youtube videos showing dogs trained with such collars to see the impact they can have on their mental well being - that is assuming you can read the body language and know what stress signs dogs commonly exhibit.

To those that say they would rather use a collar than have a dog worrying sheep/bogging off and causing a car accident, then either keep it on a harness and long line and only let it off in securely fenced venues AND/OR rehome to an area where there are no sheep. This is something I had to do years ago with a dog I couldn't trust with individual moorland sheep at a distance; I could walk him through a flock off lead at heel but he proved he was not trustworthy when working 100 yards or so away and encountering a single ewe. It broke my heart; he ended up in a nice home with nice people and did working trials. I did contemplate using a collar on him and did quite a lot of research into it at the time but am soooooo glad I chose not to go down that route - if I had have done, it would have been for my benefit, the benefit of my ego alone and not for the benefit of the dog. Just my opinion.
 
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Teaselmeg said:
For me it's a question of ethics, is it ethical to use electric shocks to make an animal do what I want ?

There is no substitute for good training and there is always a way of training a dog to do what you want it to do without giving it electric shocks.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Teaselmeg......

Using physical punishment DOES work..... but I feel its a quick fix and at what cost?
Dobie girl says "I know people who have and far from their dogs having their brains fried have had wonderful results with no side effects, their dogs are obedient,responsive and just regular dogs ...."
A dog in fear of the pain or discomfort from the shock can appear "obedient" as it can be fearful of receiving that negative experience of the shock by doing anything..... so they will do little or nothing and wait "obediently" until asked to do something to which they can respond....so appear responsive. I personally would rather have a proactive dog....one that tries and offers behaviours to get a reward.
Also with some dogs they get used to the sensation from the shock so the handler is then required to turn up the level to achieve a result. How can we really judge what sensation the dog is feeling. You say it hardly feels like anything when tried by people but we all have different tolerances to pain. If the sensation is so mild then perhaps it would be less effective so the temptation is to keep raising the intensity in order to achieve an effect?

If these collars have been banned in Wales and other countries then surely they had justification to do so?
 
Dry Rot said:
Electric fencing is fixed and an animal has a choice whether to touch it or not.
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very true and I am not wanting to get in an argument, for me electric collars have a very limited amount of situations they can be of use in and I mean really really limited, my own experience with an electric collar is very limited I make no secret of that, my lurcher though now believes that cats cause electric shocks if you try to bite them, she received two shocks on the same occasion and she now is not fearful of cats and will still chase if not under close control but she will not attempt to make contact.
I believe they are not for anything other than aversion training in very extreme cases-my lurcher will never have the experience of one again, and it was over 5yrs ago she received a shock from one.
So in essence my dog learnt that if you proceed to try and bite a cat she got a shock and she can aviod that experience for me the same as an animal that is restrained by electric fencing-in fact my dog has received more shocks from fencing over the years as she is a bit of a twonk at times
 
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