With advancements in animal-specific Global Positioning Systems (GPS) devices helping owners to track their pets’ movements, the previously illusive cat is being forced to relinquish some of its mystery and idle dogs are no longer able to dupe their owners into overestimating their exercise levels. Well, that’s the theory – but is GPS really the best way for owners to keep tabs on their pet and is it something vets should be promoting?
Location, location, location
When owners are questioned as to their cat’s daily habits, many will admit they have little-to-no idea if their moggy is a malingerer or whether it likes to get mobile, or where its favourite haunts are. Some (like me) may even suspect their feline is having an affair with another family. This can be an annoyance or a source of worry for conscientious cat owners and can make obtaining an accurate history particularly challenging for vets. Where dogs are concerned, gauging true exercise levels can be tricky – often there’s no way of knowing whether a 45 minute off-the-lead walk actually consisted of any walking or was just spent sniffing a tree.
Now there are a plethora of GPS devices on the market which claim to be able to make some of these issues a thing of the past. By recording pets’ movements outdoors, the data can be used to reveal their previous whereabouts and map out their routes – often by loading it onto a bespoke website. Some devices even have live tracking and real-time location functionality.
Cracking down on cats’ whereabouts
At first glance, this all sounds great – who doesn’t like to keep tabs on their pets? Especially if the cat in question is anything like mine – slinking in at 6 am, demanding to be fed and then venturing off again into the unknown. While GPS trackers may shed some light on many cats’ daily meanderings, the devices also have their limitations.
On the plus side, if a cat spends most of its time outdoors a GPS device can reveal its most frequent routes, in many cases surprising owners at how far (or how short a distance) their cat travels in a day. This may be useful in the event that the cat goes missing, giving the owner at least some idea of where to start their search. It can also be a stimulus for owners to encourage more exercise in cats revealed to be far less active than they suspected.
However, cats are notoriously good at losing their collars and having a GPS device attached could make this this even more likely. Available devices differ significantly in their size, weight and battery life; many being too heavy and cumbersome to be comfortable for a cat and some lacking the battery life to be particularly useful for felines who spend extended periods outdoors. What’s more, GPS signal can be affected by a multitude of factors – so if the cat in question slips under a car for example, or wanders out of range, then the signal can be lost. Some people even believe that having an expensive GPS system attached to a cat makes it an attractive target for a tech-savvy ‘cat-napper’.
“You don’t fool me, dog!”
The main benefits of GPS devices for dogs come in the form of being able to track activity levels and gauge how much exercise they are actually getting. This may be particularly useful for dogs that have free access to a garden during the day or like to go ‘AWOL’ during walkies. Some devices even come with an alert system for when the dog crosses a designated boundary. A device with real-time tracking may also be useful in locating illusive escape artists or may be invaluable for locating working dogs when hunting in dense vegetation or heavily wooded areas.
From a vet’s point of view, successfully recording true exercise levels may be a useful adjunct to a weight management programme and help motivate owners to get their dogs moving. However, for dogs which are under almost constant supervision, a GPS system probably has little to offer apart from novelty value.
Problems, potential and implausible possibilities
As well as limitations to battery life and coverage, some GPS devices are not able to withstand harsh weather conditions or some animals’ rambunctious roaming tendencies. What’s more, the systems are often expensive to purchase and most require a regular (usually monthly) subscription fee.
So, while it would be untrue to say that GPS devices have answered all owners’ pet tracking dilemmas and revolutionised veterinary care and advice; they probably can offer an insight into many pets’ outdoor lives and make for a fun gift for a curious cat or dog owner. That said, GPS capabilities are advancing all the time – so who knows what the future holds? Perhaps one day all animals will have microchips with GPS capabilities implanted as standard. Maybe I’ll find out whether my cat has been leading a double life. Or perhaps the economy will collapse as a result of the entire pet-owning population being unable to tear themselves away from a live GPS-generated map of their pet’s activities…
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