Dogtra Pathfinder High-Response Tracking & Training System, Black, One Size

1yr update:Collar still works like I need it to. The cats crewed the tip off the antenna, but that never seemed to cause issues. The one con is that the plastic collar absorbs smells and has a faint hint of dead animal no matter how thoroughly it is scrubbed from my dog rolling in unknown stink.I now leave the connector on all day and plugged in. Just have to open the app to see where the dog is at. Collar still keeps a 15+ hour charge. I turn it on and place it on my dog at 630am and removed it and plug it in between 9 and 10pm when we head to bed.I use it when hiking with her because it tracks how far we have gone and the map shows trails and land marks(uses Google maps).Please be aware that having the app open can seriously drain your phone's🔋. IPhone battery life even when the app is running in the background is greatly reduced. My moms Iphone will last about 4hrs with the app on and my S9plus can last about 8hrs with it running in the background about 5hrs if it is constantly open.My dog is now never on a leash or lead at home. This was the best purchase I have ever made on Amazon. In fact, I nolonger have a lead for her even when visiting family who do not have a fenced yard. I leash when hiking or out in public with her. I still have her collar on her all the time since it is a shock collar too.Original Review:The reason I bought this collar was because I have a dog that likes to disappear for hours at a time, she always returns home and it is always just when you have finally given up on her. Oh, she only goes out now on a leash or lead but she is cunning and will wait until your guard is down and then she is off. Thankfully, I live in a semi rural area that backs up to a national park and I know she is off finding new furry friends and not harassing the neighbors but I got tired of going into work late by 5min because I was waiting for her to magically reapear. My dog is a hound and when she is on a scent nothing can break her attention unless you catch her just before she starts on the trail. I need GPS since we have no cell service and I wanted to be able to know exactly where my dog was at and where she was going each time she took off. I suspect she was never going off my property, but it's hard to hunt for a dog that is good at hunting.Pros: Very easy set up, just had to link the gps connector to my phone. To use just turn on connector, turn on collar(place on the dog) and open the app. App was very easy to use once I read the directions. Long battery life, collar can be on the dog all day and not need recharging.Cons: The tracking line cannot seem to be turned off. I can reset, but would perfer not to have a bunch of squiggly lines all over the map, makes it harder to pin point where my dog is. The other con is that it takes up to 5min for the collar to show active on the phone, dont know why, but it does. If I was rushing to use it for training, this would be upsetting. Since I am using it as a tracker, it is normally on my phone before the dog is even outside. Geo Mapping, I would set this up while walking the area if it is your yard instead of going off what the map shows. The front of the house shows as being in the middle of the road and my dog was outside the orginal geo fence I set up.Testing of the GPS range so far.... my dog has been on her best behavior even with the doors left wide open (wonderful weather this weekend). Rotton dog probably knows she is now being tracked. Tone works well for bring her back, when she has started to go further then I wanted her to on our walks.For being half the cost of the other two brands available with GPS functions and not cellular, I think, I made the right choice especially since all the features are exactly the same except you use an app on your cell than a screen built into the GPS Connector. If you dont have a newer smartphone (last 4yrs) than this isnt the GPS collar for you. If you already have a smartphone why spend double when all you have to do is download another free app? I would give it five stars if it didnt have the collar showing active delay(it really freaked me out at first because I can be very impatient and thought it wasnt working). I might try leaving the collar always on even when charging and see what that does.

I wanted to wait at least a month before I submitted any kind of review...and here's what I have.1. The collar has excellent range, I live on 30 acres of forestland and never have I had any trouble with signal strength.2. It does take a moment to connect with the phone and seems to be quicker if I connect it when I'm outdoors in sight of GPS.3. It is 100% waterproof, my dog is in the pond most of the day and I never have any problems. Also skunk proof, smh.4. While it does work on my iPad, it's obviously not optimized for it.I will add that just over a month of purchase and for no specific reason it decided not to charge one day. I have no idea why as I checked the power source, wires etc., and all were fine. I took the cover off looking for loose wires and nothing seemed wrong. I put it back together and it began charging fine and has worked fine since. I did contact customer service and they were happy to service it if I paid for shipping. I really like this unit and hope it continues to function as described. Will post an update if anything further goes awry.Update (04-12-2020): Five months out and this unit is still working perfectly. Would buy again and again...

I am very pleased so far with this tracking, correction collar. It actually works and was easy to set up. The price was fair and if it lasts a couple years or more I will be over joyed. I purchased another one prior with great reviews and it never could find a satellite signal. I love that I can set boundaries easily and don’t have to watch my dog constantly as it will correct her if she decides to cross the GPS fencing. Incidentally, the collar is really great quality very well made. I recommend.

Do not buy this collar if your primary goal is to purchase an e-collar and having GPS tracking is your secondary goal for having a collar. Timing of e-collar corrections, just as with other type of corrections, is essential for them to be effective and meaningful to the dog. The problem with the Pathfinder is that unless you have your phone in hand with the Dogtra Pathfinder app pulled up and have the correct dog selected there is no way to make a timely e-collar correction with the Pathfinder. While it likely depends on individual phones, I think it is safe to say that it easily takes 30-45 seconds to complete this sequence. The only way I have been able to effectively use the e-collar function is to wait for a second opportunity to make the e-collar correction with the phone in hand and standing by. The GPS tracking feature works fine. I do not have enough experience with the Garmin GPS tracking collars to say much about the differences. One area that I would like to see improvement is in the transferring of the files of the tracks/trails ran. I have yet to get the files to open up when I send them from my phone to another device. The battery life of the collar is around 8 hours, which is much less than my Garmin e-collar. Pairing of the phone, as other reviewers have mentioned, can be a pain until you get the hang of the quirks. I have often found that the solution is powering the power wand/transmitter off and on fixing most connection issues. The Pathfinder requires that the user have the collar, the transmitter, and a cell phone for the system to work. I think the assumption is that most would already have a cell phone with them. All and all it is a decent collar. There is a lot of room for improvement.