Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi all! I am curious if anyone has used GPS Tracking Collars for dogs in foster. I have been trying to find collars that require no subscription and are reasonably priced. When a dog first arrives and comes into foster, they are often very timid and may have a flight response.  The most likely time for a dog to run away is when it has first arrived, and unfortunately has not had a chance to bond with the foster yet.  

Thanks so much!

There aren't really any I know of that don't have a subscription. I know about Fi, Tractive, and Halo as GPS collars, but they all require a subscription.

It depends where you are - I live in a city and was also looking for a tracker with no ongoing fees, and ended up going for an AirTag collar.  It uses the Apple AirTag to send updates for where your dog is. It's good in larger cities with lots of Apple devices, but not as effective in rural areas.

It's worked relatively well for me (granted, I've never had to rely on it to find my lost dog), and it's definitely better than nothing. Doesn't require charging or other hassles, so works well.

If you are looking for a proper GPS tracker, I'm afraid most (if not all) of them have monthly fees.

Hi all! I completely understand your concern-those first few days in a foster home are such a high-risk time for timid pups. To help mitigate that, we partnered with Fi through their Rescue Collar Program, and it's been a game-changer for us.

Fi provides GPS smart collars and charging bases at no cost to eligible rescues and shelters. What's great is that you can manage all your collars under a single rescue account, while also giving each foster access to track their assigned dog in real-time through the Fi app. I can personally monitor the location of any of our foster dogs on my phone at any time, which gives incredible peace of mind.

I highly recommend checking them out.

Just want to say thank you to everyone who has posted out here!!!  We are so appreciative of the support from this community.   We have some work to do on research and procurement, but hopefully will get this GPS tracker sorted out in the near future - feel a lot better having this community to bounce it off of.  Hope you all have had a great long weekend.

Thank you , great information. I am going to check it out. 

Hi Jenn,

We use a tracking collar that doesn't have a subscription. It's called Pit Pat and we've been happy with it. 

https://www.pitpat.com/us/