- I think the idea of losing your dog
is every dog owner's worst nightmare,
so when the company Tractive sent us one of their GPS
real time pet trackers, I was pretty excited.
The idea of fusion of technology
and dog care was pretty cool to me.
Now, for complete transparency,
this isn't a sponsored video.
Tractive did send us one of these devices to check out
and to test out and it's gonna be a completely unbiased
opinion, so what I wanted to do today,
was to show you what you get when you purchase the Tractive.
I'm gonna do a quick unboxing and then we're gonna talk
to an instructor who has lots of experience
with different GPS pet trackers.
She's used the Tractive, but she's used
all of its competitors as well and see
how does the Tractive stack up against those other devices.
Today we're gonna talk to instructor Carol
who's used this, traveled all over North America with this.
And you're really gonna find out whether it's valuable.
Is this the right pet tracker for you and your dog?
I'm Ken Steepe and welcome back to McCann Dogs.
(guitar strumming) (dog barking)
So let's see what they give us in the box here.
So on top, we see what looks like the collar.
We see, is there anything else in here?
Okay, so that's just the collar, I'll take that out.
It looks like some charging cables.
That's an interesting charging cord.
This is kinda neat, it's like this little clip
charging port, I don't know if I can get that to focus.
There we go.
And then we have our North American plug in attachment.
As well as a couple of clips and these'll be
for clipping onto your dog's collar, so it can go
on a variety of different collars and harnesses.
Well, while I have a look at this manual,
let's charge this thing.
Put this here, you line it up, you can see it's charging.
It's sort of a neat way to charge it.
Let's talk to instructor Carol.
Now instructor Carol you may have seen on the channel,
she has a deaf dog named Thorpe.
They're actually four time Disc Dog World Champions,
but she travels all over the place with her dogs
and she does use GPS tracking devices.
Now she has used the Tractive as well as several
different GPS dog collars, so let's talk to her
and find out what her opinion is.
How the Tractive stacks up against it's competitors.
Today I wanted to talk to you a little bit Carol,
about this Tractive GPS collar.
Now the people at Tractive sent us a collar
and I really wanted someone who has
lots of experience with it.
So Thorpe's a unique case.
So maybe tell our viewers what the use case was
in your situation.
- I originally got one because Thorpe is deaf
and I was worried that even if we were separated
a short distance, if he couldn't see me,
he'd quickly be lost, so I got one.
I also have an older Jack Russel
and a brand new dog at the time
who didn't have any training.
So all four of my dogs now have the Tractive.
So, especially when I'm traveling,
if something were to happen while I was in the vehicle,
the dogs got loose, I can track them through my cell phone
and it's been really handy, great app and great device.
- What other use cases can you think of?
Is there something where you thought,
oh this would be perfect for this kind of dog
or this kind of dog owner?
Are there other situations pop in your mind?
- It's definitely good if you were to be separated
from dogs, if you're suddenly missing your dog.
Or like I say, in a car accident where you were hurt,
your dog escapes or if you're traveling
and you're in a whole different area,
you can very quickly find your dog.
It also comes with an app so you can do,
which I haven't used, but you can track their exercise.
Their number of steps and distance covered
when you're getting them out for exercise.
- Very cool, I know Kayla and I have traveled a lot
all over the world and we were looking for a great solution
and when Tractive sent us this, I thought,
man, this might be the perfect thing.
But I wanted to know, what are the main pros
that you've found with it in terms of its use
and maybe something that the average dog owner,
maybe not a professional dog trainer,
but the average dog owner would find beneficial?
- I definitely wanted one that was reliable.
And I found this one quite reliable.
It was well in the ball park cost wise.
The other thing for me having a nine pound dog,
is I wanted one quite small.
So this was one of the smaller devices.
I do really like the way it connects
onto a collar or a harness.
So you can really connect it very quickly, very easily.
Doesn't seem to fall off, like I say, four dogs
and it's been able to hold on even through
going through bush and doing hikes.
I also wanted as good a battery as I can get.
So I can get a full day out of this,
so it's no good if they only last a couple of hours.
Especially not if you're traveling.
If you were just hiking, one that lasted
a few hours while you're out there might be fine.
- Now you'd mentioned that there's,
is there a replacement policy on the collar?
- They do come with the initial warranty,
as well, you can buy an insurance type policy
for I think it's two dollars a month
and if you lose one or damage one, they replace it.
- What are the cons, is there anything you thought,
geez, I wish this collar did this thing
or have you found any parts maybe of the country
or in North America that it didn't work?
Have you had that experience?
- It does need either cell or GPS.
It tries to use both, so sometimes,
it'll tell you it can't quite see where.
None of them are perfect.
It depends on the reception.
However, it will let you track the history
which helps, if you lose your dog,
it certainly can get you closer than nothing
even if it doesn't give you the exact location.
The other thing I like about this one is
it's waterproof and shockproof.
So, especially waterproof, my dogs spend a fair amount
of time in the water in the summer.
- Yeah, especially anyone with an active dog,
maybe you go hiking with them and I would hate to be worried
that they're going to see that pond
or stream or something like that.
- Take off, right.
- For sure, now using the app.
How have you found using the app.
Was there a steep learning curve?
- Not at all, the app was really easy.
I signed up when I got it.
They sent me an email, so I could
right then, hook up my account.
I downloaded the app, entered my account information
and I'm up and running.
So it allows you to put a picture of each dog if you want.
And you can also set information so you can set,
let me know if my dog was going at a certain speed
or out of a certain boundary.
So it has some options like that that I have not used a lot.
But the app is great, you essentially go on.
You can see a map.
You can also put it into a tracking viewer,
shows location more often.
- Oh neat, now you mentioned to me earlier
that you have used a few different tracking devices
and you found this one to be the best.
- Yes.
- What advantages did this have
over the others that you used?
- Certainly, one was just not reliable at all.
Failure rate was high, they did replace them
but it took forever and no good having
a device I had to keep sending back.
Some are larger, battery life is key.
This one just seemed to be the mot reliable overall.
Which was really what I was looking for.
All seemed to be about the same in size and price.
- And you have traveled all over North America with this
and it seems to have worked everywhere.
- Absolutely, I had not found a specific place,
so whether it's down South in the US.
Whether it's way up North in Canada,
it seems to be covering everywhere I've gone.
- I do love the idea of the combination of technology
with the dogs and some of the points that Carol told me
about the GPS collar, if you travel or if you maybe,
live somewhere where you're worried that you could lose
your dog for any reason, I love the idea
that you can keep track of them.
Or if maybe you have a dog walker and you wanna know
that your dog walker has taken your dog out
at whatever the scheduled time is and know exactly
where they go, this is a great option.
Now, I'll post a link in the description below,
an affiliate link if you would like to check out Tractive.
I can post it on our Amazon affiliate account.
Beside me is a playlist that will help you to build
more value and have more reliable response to your recall
if that's something that you're looking to train.
Now if this is your first time on the channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
We publish new videos every single week
to help you have a well behaved four-legged family member.
On that note, I'm Ken, happy training.