Dogtra Training Flags for GPS Fence/Smart Fence – 50-Pack Neon Orange Boundary Markers – Flexible, Weather-Resistant Yard Flags for Wireless Fence Training, Pet Containment, Safe Outdoor Setup

Works great on a Labrador retriever but has some caveats
2 year old male Labrador retriever. He’s a knucklehead and a lovable goofball.We have a fenced in yard at home but our cabin in the mountains, it’s just less than an acre of open property. In previous trips, I installed a cable runner but hated having to tie him up. Just about every chance he could get he would slip away and run off to a neighbors several acres away who have a female beagle he is enamored with and proceed to mark his territory all over their porch and crap in their carport. I don’t know much about the courting ritual of labradors and beagles, the first part I can almost understand but the second part I don’t see how it would impress anyone. This would happen several times a week. Needless to say I didn’t have a happy neighbor and it’s quite embarrassing picking up poop while being yelled at by a cranky old man who was rightly aggravated.So this trip I knew something had to be done and researched GPS dog collars. There are so many to choose from from $100 to $1000 with varying features and product ratings. What I wanted was a simple, affordable solution to keep the knucklehead on his own property where I didn’t have to pay 10 or 20 dollars a month for an app as we would only use it a couple months a year while at the cabin. This Dogtra GPS collar fit the bill perfectly.When we got to the cabin, I unboxed it, put it on the charger, downloaded the free app (no monthly fees either) and easily set up a perimeter fence in the app with zones for beep, pager, and 2 correction levels. When the dog reaches the fence set up in the app the collar beeps, if he goes 15 feet past the collar vibrates like a pager, 15 feet past that correction 50% level 1 and 15 feet past that correction 100% level 2. You can adjust all theses settings and correction levels in the app as you want. Thats just what I started with.Once I thought I had it set up correctly and the collar was charged, I put the collar on doggo and went to take him outside to train. He immediately bolted to the neighbors and didn’t stop and yup I had to pick up dog crap in my neighbor’s carport. I was disappointed but learned two important lessons, one you have to take the collar outside and wait for it to connect to the GPS satellites and two it needs to be tight on the dogs neck so the correction points are firmly on his skin. Not too tight but enough so you can barely slip two fingers under the collar. It was not the equipment that failed, I just didn’t follow directions.So after reading the directions we tried the flag training with him. But he’s an easily distracted 2 year old knucklehead lab and wanted to learn the hard way. So I just took the leash off and yep you guessed it bolted toward the neighbors. He ignored the beep and buzz but once he hit that first correction level let out a yelp and came to a dead stop. I called him and he came right back. This happened 2 or 3 more times over the next day or two but dang it worked. I lowered the correction settings so it was a milder yelp when it happened. The app allows you to synch the history so you can see where he went when he passed the fence line and when he came back.Over the next week, he learned how to stop at the vibrating pager buzz. It’s been 2 weeks and he doesn’t leave our property. Dang it worked. No more worrying about him running off or putting him on a runner. He is happy having full run of our property and I’m happy he doesn’t run off. We now have enough trust to let him out on his own unsupervised. This solution works great for us.Pros:- cost effective at $200.- no monthly app fees- easy to use app with plenty of adjustment settings- it works with knucklehead teenage male Labrador retrievers.Cons:- need to take the collar outside first, turn it on, and wait for it to connect to satellites which takes about 30 seconds. Walk dog out on leash and then put the collar on.- does not show location on app unless you are in Bluetooth range of the collar. I knew this before I bought, that’s what the $600+ collars are for.- battery life is about 24-36 hours so you have to charge it every night.- collar is a buckle type which is hard to get on an excited dog, a quick release would be helpful

Great Value For Price
This is a great value for price!It doesn’t have many functions, so if you are looking for a high tech option that will let you be constantly connected to your dog, this isn’t for you. It has no live tracking and the fences can be tricky to set up since they run off of Google Maps, and in a really rural area, you won’t be able to see your property lines. It also has a lot of GPS drift, about 3 to maybe 7 yards of drift in areas.That being said, this is an excellent basic containment system that Actually Works Effectively. It has 4 fence levels that a dog would have to cross before escaping, with increasing correction levels starting with a simple vibrate. My dog has never needed to encounter the backup fences, the warning has worked great.Since there is a lot of GPS drift, the app allows you to set any of the fences at No Correction. For instance, if your dog is getting corrections while playing politely in your yard, you can turn off the warning zone or even the first fence.It’s worked really well for me and I live in a very rural area with a lot of trees.I strongly recommend this product for people with wandering dogs who aren’t prepared to pay for a super premium fence system like SpotOn or Halo.The only drawbacks are the battery life isn’t that great, roughly 20 hours or so, and it takes about 2 or three hours to recharge, and setting up a fence using Google Maps can be a little tricky in rural areas where there aren’t many landmarks.I’ve been using it for about 6 weeks now and it has kept my Irish Wolfhound at home 100% effectively.Truly excellent basic system that doesn’t require you to pay a subscription fee.