Retrieva GPS Collar
Retrieva GPS Tracking Collar – Review 4th January 2013
Review written by Lindsay McLennan
I have had the Retrieva collar since October 2011 and have found it excellent. I bought it as Kuma is a Finnish Lapphund and they are notorious for doing their own thing. His recall is really good for a Lapphund (thanks to Nir from Dogmore), but they go further from owners than other breeds as they herd reindeer under no human guidance! He is also a rare breed, so I was worried about him being stolen.
I looked around for the collars and had seen Retrieva at Crufts so knew how tough it was, lockable and waterproof. It also can be used with Viewranger from Ordanance Survey and you get a certain number of credits towards maps from them. Enough credits for me to cover from West to East Scotland to almost the Borders and up to just past Perth. You can buy extra map credits as well. Or it can be used by text. You text the collar (has an orange Sim card) and it replies with the location and a link to Google maps showing where he is!
Because the collar has GPS and GPRS you can use it where there is no mobile phone signal when using viewranger. Any changes made to settings are made by text. It texts you (or up to 3 numbers) when it is running out of battery and has a panic button (to be pressed by humans!) in case of an emergency.
The collar can be worn at all times, however I just put it on Kuma when we go for a walk. It can be used in a continuous track mode for an update of his location every 30 seconds (high battery usage) or roam mode for an update to location when you text it. If the collar is on the dog all the time then you can program it to switch itself off when it is in a certain radius to the charger/base station.
It is not massive and has no obvious aerial – in fact you can’t really see it on Kuma as he is black and furry. There is a picture of him on the Retrieva website on the gallery page.
It is expensive (think it was £250 including the years subscription) and £80 for the subscription each year after that. Worth every penny!
Lindsay & Kuma
Pic is of Kuma (black one) and his little brother Mikko!
http://www.retrievatracking.com/
http://retrievatracking.com/login.aspx
https://twitter.com/RetrievaLtd
