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Going forward

Going forward
Nancy, George, and Isaac running at Vipond Park with their friend Alex, June 2024.
This post is part of the Nancy and George's Wilderness Walkabout series.

After a bunch of research and discussions with some people with experience using GPS dog tracking technologies (thanks, Klaudina!), this morning we ordered the equipment that we'll be using in wilderness areas going forward to assure that we always know where all of the dogs are.

Overview of the equipment we'll soon have: a Garmin Alpha TT 25 tracking and training collar for each dog, and a Garmin Alpha 300i handheld tracking device for each human.

Here are a few of the features of the system we've ordered:

  • We can track the location of the dogs up to 9 miles away.
  • No cell coverage is needed for any of the functionality. This equipment never uses cellular signals, even when available, and it will work anywhere in North America. Including Vipond Park, Nancy!
  • Megan and I will have 2-way communications based on Garmin's inReach satellite technology (the same reliable technology we used to keep in close contact all last week while I was searching in areas with no cell coverage).
  • Each of us will have Garmin's SOS feature, which is like being able to call 911 from anywhere on the planet by simply pressing a button.
  • We'll be able to see the location of all three dogs (as well as each other) on a topographical map, a satellite image map, or as directions and distances.
  • The system tracks and stores the routes each dog or human travels, so we can go back and look at where everyone has traveled during an outing if we'd like.
  • The collars have a wide variety of training functionality built in, including 18 levels of electric stimulation and non-shocking vibration or sound tone options.
  • The collars have multi-color LED lights that are controlled from the handheld device. For example, in low light or darkness we could turn on a white light on George's collar, a blue light on Isaac's collar, and a flashing red light on Nancy's collar, to spot and distinguish them from far away.
An example of what Megan might see on her handheld device, showing the direction and distance in feet to each of the other members of the pack.

We're excited to get these state of the art devices in our hands soon and start learning how to use them effectively! We don't plan to ever trust Nancy off-leash in wilderness areas again, but it will be nice to know that if she did get off-leash somehow accidentally, we'll know exactly where she is.

One final note on the features of this equipment. This is not an announcement of any future plans we may have, but FYI the tracking devices we've ordered have a maximum capacity of up to 20 dogs at a time. 🤣

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Nancy and George, snuggle buddies