I’ve recently got my hands on the newest PetSafe collar and I’m really excited to share with you my review of the PetSafe Guardian GPS dog fence with Tracking. So if you’ve recently searched for that, then you’ve absolutely come to the right place.
What we’re going to do is go through some unboxing, setup, pros and cons of the collar itself, and see if this is the best GPS dog fence can give you that peace of mind when it comes to the security of your dog.
If you like the new and improved Guardian by PetSafe you can click the link below for an exclusive discount for all of our readers.
CLICK HERE: Get my EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT for the PetSafe Guardian GPS + Tracking (applied at checkout) →Unboxing the PetSafe Guardian GPS + Tracking
Let’s take a look at what’s inside the box.
The collar — First up we have the collar. It snaps nicely to lock it in place, there’s also an adjustable cord for all different types of dogs. Based on the size it would probably work better with medium to large sized dogs but it absolutely could shrink up nicely for small dogs too. The collar looks very rugged which is great so you shouldn’t have any problems with your pup running around outside, getting caught in trees and bushes, and such.
The rest of the parts include the charging base, the USB cord and charging block, the static correction tester, and two sets of static correction prongs. So you should have these inside the box for a complete collar setup.
Setting Up the Fences
Let’s get into the fence setup. We live tested the PetSafe Guardian GPS +Tracking collar and I’m happy to report that it did work. The one thing I would say is it had a struggle sometimes connecting to the GPS, so that part did take quite a while.
Can you have that peace of mind with it? We weren’t entirely sure. My team definitely experienced a little bit more connectivity issues than what we are used to, especially like needing to reboot and reconnect the collar after changing the static correction settings or uploading a new fence. Perhaps that happens sometimes with other collars but it’s definitely not an every time thing.
However, when we did get it set up, our team went outside the barrier and it absolutely worked. In short, the PetSafe Guardian GPS + Tracking collar does work when it’s set up appropriately and when the GPS connection is at full strength.
With this GPS fence, it’s hard to know how accurate the boundary is because you’re only able to set the fences on your phone. You’re not able to actually walk the boundary and put those posts out for your fence. The boundary is relatively consistent and the alarm does set off prior to correction which is really great. There is some boundary drift however, but you will find that with the top GPS collars out there as well, so I don’t think that’s anything to worry about.
What we also appreciate about this new PetSafe Guardian is that the default setting is always at the lowest. Although the static correction from PetSafe Guardian is one of the most gentle we have tried, we still recommend pet owners to only use the static if there is a need to. Check out my review of the earlier version of the PetSafe Guardian GPS collar.
Subscriptions and Costs
One thing to keep in mind with the new PetSafe Guardian collar is it does have a subscription of $10. If you wanted to sign up for a full year, that is $90 for that initial startup, and renews for about $100 a year moving forward.
The Pros and Cons of PetSafe Guardian GPS + Tracking
Pros
Price
It’s not overly expensive. It’s priced right in the middle of the range for GPS collars out there right now. The one side of that you have to remember though is it does come with a subscription.
Reliable Feedback System
When you get it up and running, it’s reasonably reliable and the feedback sequence is also fair for your dog.
Gentle Static Correction
The static feedback is turned off by default but if you do want to use it for boundary training [1], it’s a bit more gentle compared to some of the alternatives out there right now.
Cons
Difficult Setup
Essentially the setup isn’t very straightforward and can take a decent amount of time so if you’re going to do that, leave yourself with an hour or two to be able to work on this.
Connectivity Issues
If you were trying to create a different fence or change a setting within the app, you need to go through and restart the entire app and reset all of your options to be able to do so. So it became quite frustrating and is one of the reasons why you need to allocate some time for this.
Verdict: PetSafe Guardian GPS Dog Fence + Tracking Review
The PetSafe Guardian GPS + Tracking absolutely has its place within the GPS dog fence market, but it does have some quirks and some issues that need ironing to be best of breed. We would suggest the SpotOn collar if you’re looking for the best of the best GPS fence collars right now.
Don’t forget to click the link below to get a discount for your pup on the PetSafe GPS + Tracking collar.
CLICK HERE: Get my EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT for the PetSafe Guardian GPS + Tracking (applied at checkout) →