phcaan Loc: Willow Springs, MO

My two English Shepherd dogs occasionally disappear for some hours, usually late at night or very early in the morning. When I get up at 0500 and they don't come I worry about them.
On Friday my son gave me a Garmin Astro 320 dog tracker for my birthday.
Mystery solved, at least for one night so far. I put the tracker on Honcho and this morning I used the map to track where the adventurers spent their leisure hours.
780 yards North----a really premo dead coyote.
690 yards South----an old tractor with a mouse nest.
325 yards West----- empty dog food sack.
400 yards East ------ attempted excavation of a ground hogs home.
This morning my neighbors saw me driving my quad all over the place and came out to see what I was doing. When they found out they all want to borrow the tracker to see what their little helpers are up to all night.
It looks like my son started quite the thing, this afternoon I will be showing everyone how to use the tracker and soon there will be no doggie secret adventures anymore.
Also when the next hunting season comes I'm sure I will get to find every really tasty deer cleaning spot within 5 miles.

krgatlgm Loc: Las Vegas, Nv

What an amazing application of technology! I could have used one of those on my kids when they were growing up!!! People would have probably objected to the kids wearing the collars.
I don't have a dog but think the idea is great! Thanks for sharing. Here is some more info on the system:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=89564&ra=true

4dogsken Loc: NE Ohio

Used to use the Garmin GPS with the pack ,but once they started roaming over 1/2 mile away from us on hikes, decided to put them on a shorter leash. There were..."incidents". You can also get critter cams that go around their neck for as little as 50 bucks that will show you EXACTLY what they are up to. Sometimes you just don't want to know.

phcaan Loc: Willow Springs, MO

I know what you mean, where I live however, there is plenty of space for the critters to roam, I just want to know where they are in case they get into trouble. Last week Hanna didn't come home for 14 hours. I took Honcho and Jake and found her about a quarter mile away caught in a broken fence. I freed the dog and repaired the neighbors fence and there was a happy ending. Now however I can easily see where the dogs are and find them.
In the daytime they stay around the place, but at night they do their patrol.
Last night they never got over 700 yards from the house but covered over 20 miles.

Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

There are also devices that use GPS to alert you where the unit is located. If I still had children, I might consider getting one for each of them. Twice while camping, my son wandered away from the camp site and became lost in the dark. Thankfully we found him within a few minute but they were anxious minutes.