Is the Tractive GPS Tracker for Cats a Good Value? That said, as my pet moved around, I could see the tracker pop up on the map and get an idea of where my pet was and what direction they were headed. This is to be expected: If you can’t use your cell phone in an area, chances are you won’t have good performance from the tracker either. The collar did pretty well, although there were times I loaded the map and it wasn’t able to find the tracker for several minutes. I live in a very rural area with fairly spotty cell reception. It isn’t very loud, but loud enough to hear several feet away outside after dark over most ambient sounds. You can use the app to activate a light on the front of the collar (quite bright at dusk or after dark!), or an alarm that repeatedly plays a very distinct series of tones. The tracker has two features to help you overcome these last few feet, however – a light and an alarm. Don’t expect this to tell you that Fluffy is sitting right behind you, just that you’re in the correct general vicinity. GPS devices are generally only accurate to within 2.1–6 feet even when all conditions are optimal. While that kind of accuracy is cool, it’s not necessary for a device like this to work well. Location accuracy is not as good as my iPhone, which can tell me where I am accurately inside my home.

The device immediately activated and I could see its location on the map. Set up took me approximately 5 minutes, including the process to update the tracker itself from my phone. The device does not come charged enough out of the box to set up, and needs to be charged for a couple hours before setup. I did it by downloading the app to my iPhone, but it can be set up on the website as well. The Tractive GPS Tracker is easy to set up.

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