Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have used trackers for my dogs over the past 15 years. I started with the first trackers for hunting dogs that Garmin put on the market before the era of cell phones. They were built to last a thousand years and were using the same GPS satellite signal but connected to base over short-range radio frequencies. And they were very expensive. When similar devices started to appear with world-wide cellular connections, I researched every new one and tested a few. After my Garmin experience, they all fell short in one way or another. Until Tracki came along. I have used it now for close to nine months. It always works. It is very easy to set up and use. It shows its location on half a dozen different backgrounds—street map, bird’s eye view of the terrain (where I can actually see my truck in my driveway), and combinations of streets and terrain photography. These maps do not have to be purchased (unlike Garmin’s), they are just there. I can adjust the location update frequency from one minute up to hours (if I want the battery to last for weeks, for example). With one update every minute, the battery lasts for several days (I had to charge Garmin’s Astro every night). The accuracy is within a few yards. The unit is very light and very small. My current dog is large, but this Tracki unit will fit fine even on a cat’s collar. Unlike Garmin’s Astro, this system stores maps of many days in the past, so I can review my dog’s walks from weeks back. By default, you see only the current location, but with a frw mouseclicks on the computer, or taps on a tablet or phone, I can see the entire route, with points spaced at one-minute Intervals. For other uses, the device has an unexpected feature: three buttons that send back signals, a different one for each button, so if my dog could push a button, I would immediately get an email that days “left button pressed on Sasha’s Tracki.” Wow. One wish for the future enhancements: the beep that the unit produces when I push a button on my phone or computer should have adjustable volume. Right now, it is too quiet. I lost my first Tracki on a lawn covered with leaves, and although I knew, within a few yards, where it was, I could nit find it, and the beep was to soft to hear out in the open. I had to buy a new unit from Amazon, and called the Tracki 24/7 support to ask if I could replace the lost unit without losing any settings. The support service is first rate. First I talked to a woman whose name I do not remember, and she walked me through the steps. Then I talked to a man named Liam who set me up with a lifetime warranty that will replace my unit if I ever lose or break it. For free. These units are very affordable, but I still feel lucky and appreciated. The cell service is only ten bucks a month. I forgot to say that if this unit is close enough to your wifi or bluetooth connection, it will use those to communicate with you instead of the cellular. This saves battery life, I think. Updated 2 years later. Still in love with the device, use it on my dog every day, And after the 3G cell connection started feeling outdated, what with the 5G on my phone and all, I called Tracki, immediately got a real live person named Kay, who replaced my 3G version of the unit with a 4G replacement, free of charge.