Best GPS Pet Trackers

Like a huge number of American families, mine got a dog during the pandemic.

Luna, our 45-pound Sheepadoodle, is a delight. But because neither my wife nor I had ever had a dog before, Luna is not especially well-trained. We’re working on that. In the meantime, we worry she might run away when we take her to the local park for exercise and play, so we decided a GPS pet tracker might be the answer.

Pet trackers are small devices that attach to your dog’s collar and, typically, use a combination of GPS and cellular signals to keep you apprised of your pet’s whereabouts in real time. If your dog goes missing—or if you just want to know where it is, whether it’s roaming your yard or in the company of another caregiver—you can use the tracker’s smartphone app to locate it on a map. (Trackers that don’t use both GPS and cellular may be enticing because they don’t impose a recurring cellular service fee, but they have far more limited tracking abilities, which I’ll address below.)