Is your fur buddy a total escape artist? Or are you just curious as to where your cat goes all day? In the same way, you can get GPS trackers for your car and for your kids, GPS pet trackers can keep electronic tabs on your animals so you can find them anytime, anywhere. Our overall best choice, the Tractive LTE GPS Dog Tracker, will update you on your pet's location as often as every three seconds. The American Humane Association estimates that one out of three pets gets lost at some point in their lifetime, don't let that happen to your best boy or girl with a tracking solution that will find them fast.
Best Overall: Tractive LTE GPS Dog Tracker
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Capable of working in over 150 countries worldwide, this comprehensive solution is a GPS-based option that requires a low-fee, monthly subscription plan. Thanks to its 3G technology, Tractive gives you real-time, unlimited range tracking of your pet, with their position updating every three seconds that you can view in the companion app or via a browser.
The unit itself is suitable for animals weighing nine pounds and up, boasts a rechargeable battery good for days at a time, and is IPX7 waterproof and shock-resistant.
As well as the live tracking that can be used when your animal does a runner, you can also use the Tractive system to view your pet's past activity and location history. You can also set up a virtual fence and receive alerts if your pet strays from a predetermined area.
Tractive's affordable outlay and low monthly cost solution have your pet-finding needs completely covered.
Best Battery Life: Whistle Go Explore
If you need to know where your dog's at all times, consider a fully-fledged, real-time GPS-based solution like the Whistle Go's Explore. Requiring a monthly data plan from AT&T, this device uses the service provider's nationwide network, Google maps, and the companion Whistle app to show your animal's location anywhere in the country. The tracker unit itself is rugged and waterproof, offers up to 20 days of battery life, and even has a built-in light.
As well as straight-forward tracking, this solution also lets you view a 24-hour timeline of your dog's activity, set up alerts, so you get a notification if your pet leaves a designated safe area, and provides health data by displaying info on your pet's licking, scratching, sleeping and activity levels.
This is a high-end solution for anyone serious about needing to track their canine companion.
Best Tracker Unit: PetFon Pet GPS Tracker
Another outdoor solution, the PetFon tracker uses GPS and Bluetooth for accurate, real-time positioning of your pet with an outdoor, open space range of three and a half miles and an urban range of 0.65 miles. The tracker itself measures in at 1.65 inches by 1.65 inches by 0.7 inches and is both rugged and waterproof. The rechargeable battery can last up to 16 hours, and the compact charging station can re-juice the tracker unit several times once fully charged.
Using the companion PetFon app, you can geofence certain areas and get notifications if your pet leaves the safe zone. We really like this solution's hardware because you can activate colorful lights on the tracker and play audio from it to pinpoint your pet's exact location when you know you're close by but can't see them because of foliage/low light, etc.
If you're looking for an outdoor solution with a few neat tricks to locate your pet in the wild, consider this.
Best Short Range: Cat Tailer Waterproof Tracker
The Cat Tailer is a small and lightweight tracker designed to go on cat's collars to give you constantly updated information on how many feet away your fur buddy is. This weighs just 0.28 ounces (8 grams) and measures in at 1.28 by 1.08-inches. This tracker uses Bluetooth to send your cat's proximity info to a companion app on your Android or iOS smartphone.
This tidy solution is fully waterproof, so it is safe to use in all weather. This device is powered by a single CR1632 battery that should offer you six month's worth of tracking. The Cat Tailer has a range of 328 feet, and you can set up alerts when your pet is nearby.
This lightweight device is a subscription-free solution to help you locate your cat in your neighborhood.
Best Locator: Bartun LTE GPS Pet Tracker
This is another GPS solution that requires a SIM card subscription, but once you get it set up, it will work in over 150 countries worldwide. The Bartun option has a capable companion app that shows your pet's location. As well as showing you where your pet is, this app can also show you where they've been, and you can also track their activity levels.
This tracker, which should fit most pet collars, has a super-useful built-in LED light and a speaker that you can activate to help find your pet in the dark or find them by following the sound if you know they're near but can't see them. This makes this a strong choice for people whose pets tend to hide when they stray. This system also allows you to set up location-based alerts.
This is a fully-fledged GPS solution that offers a handy built-in light and speaker.
Finding Fido
With 80% of lost pets never found, you really want to consider putting a safeguarding system in place for your precious pupper or much-loved moggie. A GPS-based solution is the most universally useful, with the ability to track your pets wherever they have wandered.
Our overall pick, the Tractive LTE GPS Dog Tracker, works in 150 countries around the world. It updates every few seconds so you can see, at a glance, exactly where your pet has got to. This option also offers a much recommended geofencing functionality that will alert you the second your pet leaves a safe zone you have created, so you can get a heads up that they are straying before you even start to miss them.