Tractive GPS dog tracker! The good, the bad and the ugly!  

Like others have mentioned if you hear the plastic lip click you can hang it from the charger. I rescue one dog at a time and train it and find them a home and rescue another one so a gps tracker is a must. I too like the Tractive for reason you stated. I think my favorite thing of the Tractive is the accuracy and how often it refreshes. Yes when you put it in live mode the battery goes quickly. However you can put it in live mode to get a location then switch back and then put it back in live mode as you get closer, which is a game saver. I recommend Tractive to all the people who I give the rescues too. Have even thought of requiring it but I would hate to see someone pass on a wonderful pet over a device. I tried the Fi which I love the battery life but not the use of the collar. I tried the Link I thought this was going to be my go too collar but it gives false alerts and the feature I wanted the training beep and vibration rarely works, the light is good and you can use your own collar, I like being able to store medical information on it, I do not like that I have to remove it from the collar to charge it. I also keep an Apple Air Tag on all dogs even with the Tractive or whatever location device as a back up because you cannot beat the battery life even though it relies on Bluetooth device nearby. Thank you for a comprehensive look at the Tractive. Yes you can buy the bands.

Excellent review - I love that you covered the good AND the bad. That's the value of purchasing yourself to do the review, you don't feel like you need to emphasize the positive. I really love your videos. I know how hard they are to make (I've been in production for 46 years!), so I appreciate your attention to detail. Keep up the good work!!

Thanks for the video, i bought the GPS dog4 and the Glow-in-the-Dark sleeve and the set of 3 clips and the Clip Charger & USB-C Cable.

I've been looking for the definitive review on Tractive...yours is definitely it! Thanks very much!

Thank you for your work, concrete, well-argued and useful information. It's nice to hear competent people.

Great, thorough, well-researched and well-tested review. Very appreciative. Thank you.

Hi Andrew great review as always. Good product to have for your pets to keep track of them. You make any review interesting. 🌞🇨🇦

Hi, Andrew! As always this is an honest and thorough review. Have fun with Ruger!! He is a treasure.

Good info. I've been reading up on this for my pup. Thanks.

You give the best reviews! I live in an area that says my dogs are ALWAYS on leash outside of our home. Even in a fenced in yard they must be tethered! UUGGHH!! So cruel if ya ask me! So I take them to the country several times a week so they can run free and live their best life for a few hours. They have gotten away from me a time or two so I have been wanting something like this for them!

I feel like this was a great comprehensive review 👍🏼 Answered all the questions I had

best gps dog tracker review on youtube. all the important questions are answered. key points - cell providers, WiFi, bluetooth and GPS. Also battery life, refresh/live tracking and APP features. Well done!

Good job I am glad I got after your review

Good Afternoon. Been watching several videos to get caught up this afternoon.

Great review as usual. Ruger is a lucky puppy. Hello from Honolulu. Watch your videos every chance I get. They are very detailed & also entertaining.

Thank you for the review Andrew

Your right the charging cord only goes one way but it will snap on. I have one just like it.

Purchased one for my cat… for starters… the sound is a very low one beep… can’t even hear it in my house, let alone outside. Second… there is ZERO custom service. No phone number, no email. Nadda, as in ZERO. Third, while it does track, it’s not accurate to a degree I had hoped for. All in all, it was a bad decision and cost me a total of 190.00 for the year with the tracker! Hopefully they will use the money to have at least a f’ing phone number for customers

Thank you for the review. This was very helpful!!

Hi Andrew! Thanks for the review, we're glad you're enjoying Tractive. We wish you and Ruger many happy adventures together!

Very accurate review. We have had the service for about 3-4 years. Service was pretty good first year The tracker locking up gets worst as time goes on. Rests don't last long. We can barely get it to hook up and tech supports now takes a week to get back with you.

Hey, so I have one too, and I read the instructions, so if you place the wire the correct way and push it, you will hear a click now your wire will not come off it is secured and will charge your tracker.

Great review. I really appreciate it. Thanks.

Thank you for the honest review. I read a few that I am sure were sponsored by Fi because they disclosed way less info about the tractive and at the end they had a Fi affiliate link. Thanks for helping me with my decision to get the tractive! I live on 80 acres and Remi likes to chase anything that moves! I wish they had a version that would shock as well

Man that is a nice GPS Tracker. I see the good & the bad on it. I am going to share this video with my son cuz his Lab is getting big. I am really Falling in love with his lab. He is so good & Lazy right now. The lab like to sleep with my grandsons Noah all the time. When Noah see the dog his eyes get really big but he is not scared of him so that good. Good video buddy thanks you for sharing it.

Thank you Andrew

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

Thanks! Our bull terrier needs this! We live out in the country in rough terrain. I'm more worried about a bobcat tryna drag her off than a car hitting her. And I'd worry for that bobcat. Her bite is tremendous. But yes, she can high focus ramble... completely ignore her "call and response" training. I'd like a reliable tracker. This collar seems to tick the boxes.

If that beeper can be turned on remotely, Trian Ruger to 'Return Home" up on hearing it. That is a common feature of a Training Collar . Thanks Andrew. Mike M.

Great work u did here

Excellent review. Thank you.

That tracker will come in really handy for finding Ruger.

Good review.

Thank you

I always just take the collar off and charge. And we did have to order another one because it fell off of one of our dogs and couldn’t find it. So we use a a thick band to secure it! Overall we really like it and use it all the time! The only thing is we have to charge it once or twice a week. But without it we probably would have lost our dogs!

Nice review. Thanks

I just got one had the same problem with loosing wifi randomly. It seems to have stopped after the 1st week. It also comes with insurance for the trackers. Think I pay an extra dollar. They ship you a new one. If your tracker breaks.

Great job

You can turn the safe zone/wifi zone off in the app under profile/tracker. That way you don't have to unplug your router. I wish it had a brighter light too! Thanks

You mentioned when you first got Ruger about the collar and passing and I saw the caller and thought nothing of it. It's good to hear your feedback and follow up. You have such good review of all products. Good or bad shortcomings or not? Keep it up. Andrew

I understand the charger thing but that makes it more waterproof

The charger needs to click in place to stay put! I had the same issue as you until my SO showed me

When you put it on the charger, try lining it up on the bottom and hinging it up towards the top. It should snap in like that. Other than occasionally not reporting gps and the sound finder not working any more I've been relatively happy with mine.

I have this for my GSD pup. She is a bit of a wanderer with one of our other dogs. We live on a remote 60 acres, and I have been able to locate and beep her to come back home at 5 miles away. I love this device! I now have a red zone part of our property so that if she leaves, it will notify my phone.

I currently have a Fi 2. My dog has outgrown his collar by about an inch. A new replacement collar is about $50. I don’t like that it has to be on a special collar. I’m going to give this Tracker a try

We have been looking at these for our Jack Russells. I took to RU-vid for a review and found a KCL video I missed previously lol

Great review! We also have a Ruger who we rescued. Unfortunately, he is NOT friendly with any other animal & I’m constantly worried if he were to get loose someone would hurt him because he is so aggressive towards animals. He’s great with people though🤷‍♀️ Anyways, my question is are you able to set the parameters to a small area? We live in a subdivision & don’t have a lot of land. Thank you so much for this very detailed review!

When you put it on the charger push it hard so it will snap over the line. The line holds it down.

thanks for the great review. I bought one on a recommendation from a friend and am waiting for it to come in the mail. I was wondering if I made a good choice and I think I did after your review.

Great detailed review brother...best one I could find. I am considering a GPS unit for my Beagle who I am training to go off-leash. If you know Beagles you know they follow their nose and once on a scent it's hard to get them to come back. I just want this for those times we go for a walk not to use full time since I have a very secure yard....for the most part. It would be attached to her harness not her collar. The charging setup is a bit concerning. Not sure why they went that route versus a standard USB-C port? The random disconnects is concerning too, but based on how I plan to use it...not so much. The one thing I did not get from this review is how it shows the location of the device relative to where the phone is and I have seen no other reviews that show that either. I might just pick one up and test it using a monthly plan since it's not overly expensive for the peace of mind. Thanks again....well done.

Good review. Unfortunately I don’t think Live can work in power saving mode because the cell and gps transceiver is powered down for efficiency, so there’s no way to activate Live. In power saving mode it only seems to ping the servers every 12 hours. I think the logic is if it sees the wifi you shouldn’t need to use live, because your pet is in the safe zone any way. I think it’s just one of the tradeoffs driven by price, size, and battery life. I’ve had the same issue with the network dropping out and requiring a reboot a couple times a month, my roommate’s gf got one and it hasn’t happened to hers though.

I use Fi and it's amazing!! Don't get Fit Bark it sucks!!! We had so many issues even after trying to work with them for a year! I might have to share a video and do a screen recording on how it works with Bruce he is my Service dog and he is a Lab German Shephard mix. One Feature I like with Fi is that you can adjust how large of area is the home area with in the app that Bruce is suppose to be with in its really cool in that aspect..

The charger clips on. There is a little lip that secures it and it's shown in the instructions

Have a black lab. I love the bright light on his collar. Without the light he is invisible at night. With light on I can see him quite easily - even far away. I don't call him unless he is crossing boundaries. Last winter the light was invaluable.

Andrew, Another great honest review very interesting Thank You for the video.

Thank you for the detailed review. Will this tracker work for when I want to check on my dogs while I'm on vacation in another state? Someone will be caring for our dogs, but I'd like a backup for piece of mind and know where our dogs are by checking the ap.

Awesome review! I have 1 question, If you set the no go zone outside of your wifi range, and the collar is set to every 3-5 mins, Does that mean it wont realize the dog is in the no go zone until it hits that 3-5 min mark? (cuz itll be on gps at that time)

Hello! Thank you for the great informative video! It's been a year since posted... but I'm considering purchase, and I wonder if live mode now works on WIFI? I haven't been able to find much info on it...

Can you tell me what wifi extender you use? Thanks!

The charger is not just magnetic. It has a little tab that locks it in place. Just need to put a little pressure on it

Hey the charger cord snaps in, just push it down. Kinda on top of cord the bigger end.

Going to try, I had 3 fi collars in 1 year. They keep falling off and breaking apart. I had the whistle collar and that keeps falling off. Hopefully this works

I bought this tracker and the way that it clips onto the collar needs to be redesigned can be ripped off very easily and then it needs to have sound location so you can find it whenever it does get ripped off I've spent all day trying to find this thing and it keeps telling me it's somewhere along the side of my house but I can't find it something to think about

I have cat one on inside the house is all she has been, and the the holder broke...it just a thin rubber thing that holds it. What is the fix for that?

So the virtual fence only notifies you that your dog got out of your zone, it doesn’t stop the dog from leaving your area like buzzing the collar or a light zap that would make the dog think twice and turn around? Im thinking about getting one for each of our Dachshunds. They’re so fast that by the time we’d get the notification they could be 5 acres away on their way to who knows where.

This is a great video and he makes a great point about the Wi-Fi except I have what I feel is a better suggestion than the range extender that he mentions. Spend some more money on a more permanent and stable setup. Ubiquiti makes amazing outdoor-rated reliable equipment. The second thing is I would look into an indoor/outdoor mesh system instead of a bunch of range extenders. If you want reasons why there are plenty of videos already out there that explain it. I myself went the cheaper route and went with Google Wi-Fi Pro. I built a custom plastic birdhouse. It's actually for one of the Google Wi-Fi points. It's on a small tower on the roof of my house and covers my entire years with Wi-Fi. Much cheaper solution but I did have to get creative. FYI it makes a big difference if you insulate the roof of your birdhouse. Summer heat can get a little too hot and the insulation keeps a little bit of heat in in the winter time. I've had - 40 wind chills 4 days with no issues and it's been 110 outside for days with no issues. That's Fahrenheit of course 😉😅

Great video. Ruger is one lucky boy.

I belong to a community page on Facebook. They are constantly posting lost dog posts . I am going paste this link on the posts. You need to put this kind of stuff in your Amazon store page.

My 5 month old puppy just went missing in the bush for 4 days. We found her but I’m just wondering. Does it work in low cell service places?

Thanks for the video. I currently have the Fi and it only updates my labs location every 15min. My pup can cover a great distance in that time. What is the refresh rate on the tractive?

Hi Andrew, thanks for the review. I am new to any of these trackers so my question is, when you walk your dog, guess it will drain the battery more? Also, if when I go on vacay and take my dog to a dog sitter, can I add the dog sitter's wifi network to the app? Thanks.

Are you planning to get Roger the XL when he gets bigger? Or will you stick with the regular one?

Does this work hiking deep in the forests of BC with no cell service present?

Can two dogs (with two separate devices) be tracked simultaneously with the app?

At the rate he's growing, you're gonna spend quite a lot on new, bigger collars:)))

Hello I just bought this and it’s coming in the mail in a couple days. My phone that i will be using to connect to the tracker is an old phone that does NOT have a SIM card. The phone does NOT have a phone number, which means it cannot receive calls or text messages. But the phone has access to WiFi internet connection. My question is, will that phone be able to receive location from the Cat Tracker? I understand that the tracker itself has a built in sim card, but I don't know if a Phone with No Sim card will connect and work with the tracker. A response would be SO helpful and i will be very grateful! thank you and have a nice day.

I can’t find it explained if work gps for real without any cell towers. I’m in mountains and woods. No cell service and WiFi only covers 3 acres. My cat leaves and goes in the mountains. Every since she was bit by timber rattler 2 weeks ago (yes, got her to the vet within 2 hours for anti venom, she’s like nothing ever happened now.) but I worry when she’s gone so long. I couldn’t find her today and now she came home with one paw twice as bit as other. Crazy cat. Sooooooo, will it track in the woods?

How accurate is gps while out of zone? Is it like our phone gps accurate, you can see the dog moving and stopped?

What type of WiFi repeater do you have?

What Wi-Fi booster do you have?

It gave you a monthly pay option? It’s making me pay for the full year/2 years/or 5 years.

Just got mine yesterday. Today he chased my mom as she left my driver way which was a good test for the collar. It wasn’t connected to my WiFi and it wouldn’t connect to the gps when I tried to go live. Did you ever figure out what caused the issue? Pretty disappointed it didn’t work on the second day considering I just paid $250 for the tracker and subscription.

If my cat roams at our house and I'm in another city could I still track from gps?

Have you thought about or researches an air tag from Apple? I’ve people use those for pets

Is the app tell you the battery % low or high

We need to get one to put on Chris.... 🧀🪤.... All this cheese is getting expensive 🤣

Have you had anymore random drops?

So, if your dog is lost outside Wi-Fi range for more than a day…you’re SOL?

does the collar notify you immediately if your dog leaves the zone you've designated as the invisible fence? or does it wait to notify you until the 3-5 min refresh?

What about going vacation like to a beach house?

Amazon offers a 2 pack, can I hook both devises up to 1 suscription? That way I can always have 1 charging and 1 on the dog. Also...what router do you use that gives you such a great radius?

Finally a review from somebody off the countryside! I purchased 2 while watching the video for my small hunting dogs. They chase game for miles so this will be a big help for me. And also for making sure they don't go after the neighbors chicken and get their butts kicked by the livestock guardian dogs in this area. I hope these devices will give me some peace. Thanks for the review!

If the geofence is accurate

If my dog wont wear a rainbow tracker will you cancel my dogs subscription?

Place the bottom of the charging connector in place and pivot the top of the connector firmly in place and you will notice that it sorta snaps over a small little tit that holds the connector firmly attached.

Ha, Ruger, my dog's name is Remington. 👌

👍💞

thats bigger than my Chihuahua's head lol

Oh he'll NO!!!

If you have to charge it every single day, you better not have your dog gone missing for 2 days. 😂