Tagg Pet Tracker
Pros: helps to find your wayward pet, iPhone app, blinking light
Cons: requires monthly subscription, no sound, home zone is too large
I have an 11 year old cat who likes to wander. He became an indoor/outdoor cat when I was too young and stupid to know any better and to this day he refuses to share a litter box with other cats so he has to do his business outside. The problem is that he will happily hop the fence and then vanish for days and days during the warm summer months and then I start freaking out.
I’ve been looking for a GPS tracker for cats for years and was thrilled when I finally found the Tagg Pet Tracker last winter. It isn’t designed for cats, per se, but it can be used on cats who weigh more than 10 pounds so it works for my bad boy. It has really helped to ease my mind when he decides to go outside.
About This Product
The Tagg Pet Tracker is a GPS device that connects to your pet’s collar and can let you know where your pet is if they leave an area that you designate as the “home zone”. You will receive both email and text alerts on your cell phone that your pet has left the area and, if you press the “locate” button, you will eventually get a precise location that says something like “Bandit is within 11 feet of 123 Alphabet St”. There is a monthly/yearly subscription fee that you have to pay for as well as the tracker, dock, and collar assembly which costs about $100.
My Experience
I’ve had a Tagg GPS Pet Tracker on my cat’s collar for the past year and I am beyond thrilled with it. The home zone area must have been designed in the company’s home state of Colorado because the smallest possible one is pretty big and easily covers 6 NJ houses and a street between them. I would like the ability to make it smaller but I can’t. When my cat leaves the designated “home” area, I get alerts via email and text message. I can then try to “locate” him if I want or just let him do his thing. Presumably, with dogs, you’d only get the alert if they escaped from the yard and you’d go scrambling after them. As with any electronic item, it does need to be recharged periodically and the app will let you know when the juice is very low.
The Tagg Pet Tracker has a few bonus features as well. First, it has an Activity Tracker which tracks the motion and frequency of the motion of your pet to let you know exactly how active they have been throughout the day. You can check their “activity points” each day to see how they did. To me, at this point, it is kind of a funny thing to watch how my cat doesn’t do a damned thing from the time I go to work until the time I get home. I can also see how it can be a good thing, though, if you have a sick cat and you are trying to see if they are still having a good quality of life. The second bonus feature of the Tagg Pet Tracker that I love is the fact that the tracker will blink for 15 minutes if you press a button on the docking station. This has helped me to find my bad boy when he was under a car in the driveway or in the backyard but just not coming when I called him.
At one point last spring, the tracker actually became disconnected from my cat’s collar. I got the text message at work that “Fluffy’s tracker has disconnected from the collar”. I freaked out and was afraid that someone had taken him and took off his tracker but there was nothing I could do until I got home from work. I marched right around the block to where the tracker was and the cat came right away when I called him but I never did find the tracker. I tried going to that property at night when it would be flashing and I didn’t see a thing. It would be great if Tagg could incorporate some kind of sound component that owners could use as a last resort to try to find their pet or tracker. Obviously you wouldn’t want it combined with the blinking as a loud sound emanating from their collar would probably freak out most animals. These days the trackers come with a neoprene sleeve that you put over the collar and tracker which helps to prevent snags and disconnections.
I’ve dealt with Tagg’s customer service several times and 3 of the 4 times were great. They understand that you are a crazy pet owner and want to be able to keep tabs on your furry baby. I’ve been very happy with both the Tagg Tracker that I have on my cat and the customer service that I’ve had from the actual company.
My family and friends spent a whole day trying to find a dog who was staying here and who bolted out the door as I tried to leave for the morning. We all were looking in the wrong area and it was just pure dumb luck that I drove past a guy’s house who watched me try to chase the dog down earlier that morning. He told me what direction the dog headed in and eventually he came out of the woods for his owners. I tried to convince them to buy a Tagg Tracker for their dog but they said “but he never runs away!” I tried to remind them how distraught they were when he was missing just a day or two earlier but in their minds he will never go missing again. For me it would be a no-brainer! I was happy to see that my husband’s cousin had Tagg Trackers on her rescue greyhounds the last time we saw them.
Overall Opinion
I love the Tagg GPS Pet Tracker! It helps me to find my bad boy cat when he goes wandering and gives me peace of mind that he hasn’t been stolen or has run away. The blinking light feature is very helpful to find animals in the dark and I love the fact that I can track his movements all from my iPhone. If you love your dog or wandering cat, you absolutely should consider putting a Tagg Tracker on their collar.
