Following our recent fright with Hendrix, we have now fitted trackers to the collars of our two boys. Just in case anyone else is looking at something like this, I thought I'd let you know how we are finding it.
They are pretty accurate as we took one on a drive and recorded it on the app and it was pretty precise as to where we had been.
This is what they look like when being worn as modelled by Jagger:
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They weigh 29g and it pretty much reminds me of a mountain rescue St Bernard with its cask of liquor round its neck!
Basically you can set a safe zone and if your pet goes out of that zone, you get a warning (as long as you have the safe zone turned on). This does use up the batteries, but it does last a working day and I have it on that setting all day. If they are indoors napping the Pod knows this and kind of shuts down, saving the battery life. You can also locate them at any time if you want to. There is also a function to record 'adventures' and then you can see exactly where they go which helps to set the safe zone. Whilst in this mode though you won't be notified if they go outside their safe zone and will only know where they've been when they're home and you can download the recording - the Pod needs to be within a few meters to do this. If I'm going to use this mode I do it at the weekend as that really uses the battery life up and it will need to be changed during the day. They come with two batteries each and a charger.
It also acts a bit like a Fitbit and will tell you how active they've been, how many minutes walking or running etc.
Its a god send for me right now while we look to move house - somewhere I can put up cat fencing as that isn't really possible where we are now for various reasons. This isn't the only reason we are looking to move though - that would make them very expensive pets
Hendrix made it very clear within two days of being home he wasn't staying indoors, as he managed to slip past me when I thought he was otherwise occupied and then had me chasing him around the garden with my dodgy knees. Little rascal.
So now, with the combination of my cameras indoors and these Pods, I can pretty much see where my boys are at any time.
I think they are really good - the only issue right now is Hendrix who is a bit stroppy about wearing it, but Jagger didn't blink an eye and is absolutely fine with wearing it. But Hendrix was like this with a harness, and was initially a toad about his collar as well - even though that collar pretty much saved his life!