GPS tracker

andyrpsmith

Decided to order a Pawtrax gps locator and tracker (£125), it sends a text with a link to Google maps to your phone showing the location of your lost critter! Anyone tried one of these?

My whippet is driving us insane by escaping on a regular basis. Yesterday she lead astray one of our other dogs and they were out for 5 hours before coming back. The minute any door is open she's gone hunting.

At least with the gps we will be able to tell where she currently is and where she has been.

krlyr

Better than not knowing where she is, but it's not going to stop her running in front of a car or getting otherwise injured (or worse).

It's a sticking plaster on a serious injury. You need to tackle the problem at the origin, which is the ways she's managing to escape. If she's escaping the garden, you need to improve the fencing. If she's darting out of the front door, you need to make a system using interior doors or babygates to create a bit of a safety porch so she can never get to the front door unless she's on a lead. If she's running off when you take her on walks,s he needs to be kept on a longline.

There's only so many times you'll be lucky enough to get her home unscathed. You're playing a dangerous game of russian roulette - and not just with your dog's life but with that of drivers on nearby roads too. I drove home the other day to spot a dog darting infront of the 3 cars infront of me, I luckily was safe to brake and tried to catch it but it darted off towards the main road. The police wouldn't come out as I couldn't report an exact location for it, and it was starting to get dark. I could only hope it ran home or the owner found it before it caused a serious car crash.

With a dog like this I would say it's also imperative to have health insurance, incase it hurt when loose, and also 3rd party liability cover incase it did cause serious damage to someone's car or other property. Neither would probably be much comfort if you were to get the news that your dog had been killed, or killed someone in a car crash, though.

(and before I get accused of scaremongering, I know of two dogs through a local dog walking group I attend who have escaped in the past year and both ended up killed in RTAs, two dogs through a FB group who were killed this week after a stray dog chased them out of the woods they were walking in, infront of a car, and seen several other cases through dog forums I use - it does happen, sadly)

andyrpsmith

Thanks and yes you are right on all accounts I must admit. We have spent a lot on fencing, the garden is about 2 acres and there are many trees and bushes which make it very difficult to have a strong continuous fence, also other animals are good at digging under it and Deer can jump over it (over 5ft). The other two dogs are very good and will come back when called and not run off at every opportunity. I am hoping that if she does manage to escape at least we can find her quickly.

krlyr

Have you looked at something like deer fencing? You could use this just inside the existing fence, and it's a little cheaper than panel fencing. Sometimes two lots of fencing can foil dogs a bit more than a single fence too as they struggle to get a run up to jump out.

Another option to consider is sectioning off part of the 2 acres that you can fully secure. I had to do this in my old house as the garden was too large to fence in completely (layout of the garden would have meant 6' fencing would have been a bit obnoxious too), so we sectioned off part of the garden for the dogs. One of the dogs started jumping the 6' fence so I had to put an inclined topper on it - I was glad to only have to do it to this dog-section rather than the whole garden! If he had access to the remainder of the garden, then he was on a harness and longline to prevent him escaping.

krlyr

Another reason to get to the root of the escaping is so you don't fall foul of the law. You know your dog can get loose and if it's repeatedly spotted loose you may find you're guilty of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control in public. A dog doesn't have to be aggressive towards humans to be deemed a dangerous dog - if it injured someone, even in play or as an accident, you could be in trouble. The law even applies to a dog behaving in a manner that worries a person - not even having had any physical contact.

Plus if your dog can get out of your garden, it could get into other people's gardens. Do you know how it would react if it jumped into a garden where someone's rabbit was loose? Or if it came across someone's cat? You could get in trouble with the law if it were to attack or kill someone's pet, even moreso if it were in their own garden.

The Dangerous Dogs Act is being revised and made more strict, including prison sentences, so it's something you need to take seriously. You have a legal responsibility to keep your dog under control, and since you're aware of how frequently she escapes, you may well be found negligant in your duties.