Tractive Sucks

For those of you not in the market for a pet tracker, this may not be the post for you. For those of you seriously considering Tractive or other brands for keeping tabs on your wandering furbabies, you might want to stick around. Warning: this will be a rant. There may even be some swearing. (Probably not, as I'm considering posting this everywhere, I'm so fed up with this.) There is a TLDR at the bottom of this if you just want a brief overview.

Let's start at the beginning...

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know that I have four furbabies: 3 cats and 1 dog. The dog was the first to get a tracker on him when he turned about a year old, and that is a Fi tracker. Unfortunately, Fi did not have a cat/small dog option at the time that we purchased the dog's tracker. Therefore, after our eldest cat (C1) took off, we decided to get a Tractive collar for our new kitten (C2).

The problems with it became apparent immediately: we couldn't track him. For those of you unfamiliar with pet tracking collars, they all work relatively the same. First, you'll plug in the tracker. While it is plugged in and turned on, it will seek a wifi signal. Through the app, you connect your wifi to the tracker. This action creates your Power Saving Zone. In this zone, while the collar has a wifi connection, you're supposed to lose battery life less frequently, because the collar will supposedly track your animal based upon the wifi signal rather than a satellite. After setting up the Power Saving Zone, you'll create your own Safe Zone(s). These are areas you assign on a map that indicates the location and size of the area that you want your animal to remain in. If the critter moves outside of that zone, you are supposed to get an alert. Now, the thing with most trackers is that they have an automatic size assigned already. This is because, the bigger the area, the less likely they are to leave it, thus less notifications. What is irksome about this is that you then have to find the setting that allows you to customize it. In the case of Tractive, it kept wanting to fight me on the size I wanted to shrink it to, because the automated safe zone is way too large (and my yard is not small by any means).

Within the first hour of getting it all set up and on C2, we realized that tracking him while he was in the PSZ was literally impossible. Live Mode would not light up at all. Even when I shrank his SZ to the size of the house alone, it still wouldn't allow it because he was still in the PSZ. The only way to be able to track him in the yard would be if I disconnected the PSZ completely (aka, cut the wifi connection to his collar) and shrank the SZ to a speck on the map. We decided against such drastic measures because, at the time, we liked the Radar feature. As long as we kept an eye on him while he was outside, it didn't bother us too much to have to use Radar rather than Live Mode. Having a Light Mode and Sound Mode available didn't hurt, either. We soon learned the errror of our ways.

Radar works only so long as you're in bluetooth range. Roughly thirty feet. If that. Guess what? My yard ... WAY bigger than a 30-foot range will cover. Also, you can have an idea of where the cat is based on if the circles start filling up, but you have to be right on top of the collar before the rings actually show that you're close. Oh, and the light and sound features? Only available if you're in Radar range or in Live Mode. In the PSZ? You're SOL. It will not allow you to press either button in the app if you're outside your bluetooth range, but your cat is still in the Power Saving Zone. So, if you have a big yard and your cat has decided to hunker down in the weeds anywhere on the property, you can't turn on anything that might help you unless you can guess correctly the area in which he might have chosen to hang out in. Even then, the sound is so quiet that chipmunks and birds can easily overpower it. "Okay, so if it was immediately flawed, why keep it?" Good question. The answer: we already paid for 2 years of the subscription service. Turns out, you can adapt to pretty much anything if the hassle of fixing it appears too daunting. Plus, that was a lot of money that we paid right away. And, besides, what other tracker were we going to put on him? Fi was too big for his teeny, tiny body, and nothing else seemed as good. And this is definitely a cat that requires constant supervision outdoors. He's crafty like that. Therefore, we kept it.

Cue the sudden, unexpected, miraculous reappearance of C1. After an 8-month hiatus, our eldest cat returned home to us. I ordered him a Tractive collar the very next day. (If not that night.) The reasons were the same: it worked ... fine. We were now familiar with its features. We knew what it could/couldn't do. Oh, and there were not a lot of other options. So, we got him a collar and a two year plan. BACKGROUND/CONTEXT:

C1 has been an indoor/outdoor cat his whole life up until the point of his return. He would go out at night and come back in the morning. (Until he trained my potty-training puppy to wake me up in the middle of the night so he could slink inside a few hours before dawn. Kuddos, you clever SOB. Kuddos.) He was born feral. I captured him when he was about 8-10 weeks old after his mother basically ditched him. He got neutered at the ripe old age of 6-7 months. (Not soon enough, much to my dismay. But that's a story for another post.) By the time he pulled his great disappearing act, he was at least seven years old. Living outside was not a daunting life experience for him. You know what is a trial? Supervised outside time, a collar he has to wear 24/7, and a tracker that assists in preventing him from going on necessary adventures. Darn, you'd think he was a prisoner, wouldn't you? C2 was also born to a feral lady. Somehow, however, they were separated when he was only 4 weeks old, and he came to live with me. (Again, full story in a previous post.) Around 8 weeks old, he developed a desperate desire to be outside all the time. It was at this time that we began researching trackers specifically for cats. It was also around then that his dad built the first catio, and subsequently went on to plan the expansion packs. That was when we also began supervised outside time. It was because of this that we needed the tracker. We knew that C1 could handle himself in the wild; C2 most definitely could not. He needed our protection and constant vigilance. END CONTEXT

Within the first couple of days after getting the new set up, the tracker impressed us and the collar disappointed us at the same time. You see, C1 was understandably skittish at being allowed back outside for the first time in days. (He wasn't allowed out until he had a tracker on him.) The Tractive collar came with a breakaway collar (now standard for most cats) and a plastic little holder. In the box was also a silicone holder for it, but I knew I already liked the plastic one for its accessibility for charging. We set up the holder on the collar, clicked in the tracker, and strapped it onto C1 before letting him loose.

Something spooked him. He booked it for what he considered accessible cover: the field behind the garage. He darted through the field and ended up in our neighbor's lumber yard. After rounding up the dog and C2 and getting them back in the house, the bf joined me in the hunt for our wayward child. Because our Safety Zone ends at the edge of the field, we were able to enter Live Mode almost from the second he crossed the boundary. The accuracy was spectacular! I could see his little dot moving around me, and saw the direction it was heading in. Then I made the fatal mistake of turning on the sound. This freaked out C1 so badly that he popped that breakaway collar off his neck in an instant and took off again into the woods. Thankfully, he didn't go far and came right back to me after a short while. I ordered him a custom leather collar on etsy that same night. For around a year, the collars worked how we'd come to expect. There would be about a week between needing to charge them. The radar worked ... fine for finding them in the yard. Notifications reached us quickly if they crossed a boundary. All pretty standard stuff. Until it wasn't.

At about a year after getting the second tracker, it suddenly had a problem charging. I would put it on the base and wait for the red light to come on indicating it was charging. It didn't. I snapped C2's collar onto the charger and it worked fine. I switched between them a few times. Still no charging light. Fine. I contacted customer service about the fact that the collar wouldn't charge. They asked for video proof. I was annoyed, but then had an idea. Maybe it wasn't the tracker but the charger? I dug out the one that had come with the second tracker and plugged it in. Lo and behold, it worked for both trackers. Guess I didn't need to replace it after all, even though the battery was still draining faster than it should be. We moved on. Then, suddenly, the tracker was getting constantly disconnected from the network. How do you provide proof of that? The only way to fix it was to hit the power button and wait for it to reconnect. Or you plug it in. Since I had to constantly plug it in anyway, this typically reset it and it reconnected to the network. Still, nice to just be able to hit that little power button. Until we couldn't anymore. Somehow, it got stuck and wouldn't work at all. Cool. Finally, when we were three months out from that 2-year deadline on the second tracker, it suddenly stopped working right altogether. We no longer got notifications that C1 had left the yard. Live Mode would suddenly become an option, which we knew meant that he was not in the PSZ, but the tracking itself only led us back to the router. It would take more than an hour before we would get the notification that he had left home and for Live Tracking to suddenly tell us where he was. And even that was delayed by two minutes. After two very frantic experiences, we decided that was it and we were going to get him a new tracker. Luckily, by this time, Fi had already released the Fi Mini for cats and small dogs. I got him that. Guess what? It lets me find him in my yard. So, yeah, a Fi review is also in the future, but I'm going to give it some time so I can truly get in the pros and cons. Oh, not only was the tracker easily "broken" by normal usage on a cat, but the holders that keep it on the collar are also dismally weak. C1 has broken 2 plastic holders and the elastic covered one was easily torn when trying to remove it to charge the collar. None of the options were durable.

Now, this is all the experience based off of one of the two collars we have. The other is still working normally and as intended. That said, the intended use sucks. The tracker has popped out of the plastic holder. The plastic on the back of it has already broken in one place, making it sit really lopsided on his neck lately. Overall, the tracking capability is spot on ... when it works. And that's the problem. There should never be a qualifier. It should always work. Even at home.

TLDR:

Good:

• Pin-point tracking that will allow you to get right on top of the collar. Stellar accuracy!

• Sound option that wil emit continual noise until shut off via app

• Radar system that allows you to know if you're getting closer to the collar

• Bluetooth pairing (?? Never used it; couldn't tell ya how it works)
  

Bad:

• Tracking only activates in Live Mode. Unable to find collar at all when in Power Saving Zone

• Power Saving Zone includes anywhere your wifi can reach, even outside of the Safety Zone you've set up

• Sound only available if in Radar range

• Sound will only shut off if in Radar range

• Radar range is very tiny. Must be within at least thirty feet before Radar will appear as an option, and you'll have to be almost right on top of the collar before blue circles begin to fill.

• Delayed notifications

• Not durable!!

• Light option supposedly available. Never used it. Can't use it unless in Radar range or Live Mode is on

• Terrible holders for the trackers; easily broken/torn

• Terrible replacement policy, despite it being part of the premium subscription

• Constantly disconnects from network; will only reconnect when charging

• Live Mode "directions" highly inaccurate; mostlly lead right back to your router

• Safety Zone setup more complicated then it needs to be; default area too large for most residential lots/apartments (I have a large yard, and it was too much even for us, and the app wanted to fight me in reducing it.)
  

Disclaimer: All of this is from my own experience having two of these trackers in my house over the course of two years. Most of my issues are undoubtedly due to a damaged tracker that could/should have been replaced some time ago. I take accountability for choosing not to go through the process of getting it replaced after my initial interaction with customer service. However, I maintain that it shouldn't be so easily damaged in the first place. The damage also does not negate the fact that the tracker simply does not do its job. NOT A GOOD TRACKER FOR INDOOR/OUTDOOR CATS!

Alas, my verdict is: Tractive Sucks.