Dogtra Pathfinder Reviews

Bought this system 6 months ago and it’s been immensely frustrating. The collar just doesn’t consistently connect and I’m really worried about using it this year for hunting. I will spend days trying to pair it with no success. I’ll walk outside and try, uninstall and reinstall DogtraPathfinder , try and find answers online but to no avail. I know it works because sometime it will just randomly connect.

Then to make it worse I called customer support to see if there were any tips or tricks and they were extremely unhelpful, telling me to maybe go outside. Wish I could just return it at this point and get a Garmin.

If you rely on this system every day, do NOT install the Apple Watch update yet! Last night DogtraPathfinder worked perfectly fine. I updated it, and now it does not recognize the receiver. It’s like the update made DogtraPathfinder forget the receiver and collars and now won’t let me pair them back. DogtraPathfinder settings say it is paired, but I get a prompt saying I need to pair a device. Or a prompt saying there is no Bluetooth connection. I rely on the dogtra system to keep one dog from running away and/or attacking livestock and another dog from wandering off.

EDIT: After two hours, it’s working again. I don’t know what happened. I might need to buy a new receiver if if was not DogtraPathfinder itself. I think it will be expensive, though. I don’t know what’s wrong with it. I can track one dog but randomly stop tracking the other. I hope it is just this receiver and not a common dogtra issue.

This collar is incredible for the price. Being able to track my dog without cell signal or not needing a stand alone GPS unit is incredible value for the money.

Cons: Some disappointments are I thought the “geo-fence” ability would stimulate the e-collar if my dog steps close to the set boundary automatically. There also is no “vibration”, it’s stimulation and an audible beeping tone only. I liked the vibration ability on other dogtra offerings and rarely ever using the stimulation.

I’m training my dog to return using the “beep”. A vibration ability like the other dogtra collars would have been awesome.

If you had that in mind for the geo-fence e-collar, keep in mind you’ll have to manually correct your dog. I also wish it had proximity where I’d be alerted if my dog moves say 100ft away from me....while I’m moving.

It just seems like there should be more training possibilities with DogtraPathfinder. But....it’s still really nice for now.

I’ll give it 3 stars for not having these other features.

I’ve had the Pathfinder for around a year, and I have no regrets whatsoever. I hunt in northern WI, and having GPS tracking ability in thick cover like that is invaluable. The equipment is excellent overall.

The biggest drawback for me is that there are no hard buttons to use for the collar functions. When it’s cold and I have to wear gloves, I’ll actually run my dog with my old e-collar along with the Pathfinder so I have buttons I can push if needed. This may be impossible to change, but is certainly a downside if you’re considering various collars.

I agree that Apple Watch integration would be phenomenal! Most often you just need a direction, distance, and tone/nick options. A quick glance and you’re on your way. Being able to do that instead of unlocking your phone would be a game changer.

I would have gave it 5 stars but I hate the color choice of lettering and numbering on the screen when tracking a dog. Very hard to see the dogs name and distance with that color combo for the letters and numbers. Would be 💯 better if the numbers and letters were just solid white. I hope to see this change in the near future. That’s really the only complaint I have with it. Overall very pleased. I will never go back to a Garmin.

For the most part I like the Pathfinder system very much. My biggest complaint by far is the time it takes to sync with the phone. I would also LOVE to have a watch app that would show pointing and running notifications and most important 2 buttons for tone and stim so I don’t have to fish out my phone to give a tone. Now I know this is only practical in a situation like mine with 1 or possibly 2 dogs. But I’d give a decent watch app 6 stars.

I love that I have a watch app that when it works works very well. However after some update the logo no longer shows up on my watch it’s just to dashed lines. It also quit working on my watch, and I had to delete the entire app on my phone and reinstall and repair. That did not fix the logo not appearing on my watch but it did make it work again.

I really like this collar system. I have 4 of them for my hunting beagles. We hunt public land frequently...

Would it be possible to put “layers” on your app, similar to “on X hunt” app? This way you could have the public and private land boundaries show on your app while running dogs without having to rely on “your guess” of setting up a geo-fence, or bouncing back and forth between apps?

Thanks for all your hard work. I look forward to what developments you have in store!

I love this system. It's very easy to use and I like the variety of the maps available and some of the other features offered.

I had no problems with DogtraPathfinder while using my old Samsung Galaxy, however after switching to the Iphone X, the system will occasionally make the screen go black and the screen won't come back on for approximately 1-2 minutes.

Like a previous reviewer stated, it'd be nice to be able to program the volume up /down buttons as tone/stimulate buttons. Would save time and increase convenience if correction is necessary.

This is a great app. However it would be helpful if it would remove old truck markers when it is closer, or better yet ask the user if they want them removed, as this can be confusing at times.

One addition that would be outstanding is support for smart watches that would allow a handler to use the tone and stimulation from them. The tracking functionality on the phone is fine, but in the field a phone is cumbersome in the heat of the moment when you need to reach out and touch your dog in a hurry.

We love our pathfinder and have recommended it to several friends. I joke that it saved my relationship with my Vizsla. We live on 5 acres and often visit hunting property and this collar makes it possible to keep track of her wherever we may go.
The only thing that would make it better is an option for automatic tone when she goes outside of the geo fence. Precious time is lost between the notification that she is out, getting the phone out, getting to the e-collar screen and hitting tone especially in the winter months with gloves, etc. Totally understandable that there is not automatic stim but I see no harm in a automatic tone option.

I have had my Pathfinder for 2 years now and couldn’t be more pleased with the system. Have 5 collars and DogtraPathfinder makes it super easy to connect to the system and super easy to use. I like how DogtraPathfinder is really simple and easy to use, I have let first time people use mine while out running and they can easily use it and have purchased their own. I love the fact that you can share collars and location of each user, makes it much safer when we spread out on rabbits hunts. The maps are great and keep them up to date. There are sometimes some glitches in DogtraPathfinder just like in any app on the market, Dogtra does a great job with DogtraPathfinder and keeping up with it.

I love the product withe a few pet-peeves; I loose my history every month with the updates, I have to repair after each update because the e collar function goes away and lastly my application does look remotely like what is advertised. I don’t see the collars on the compass just in the map. I would like to recommend a short cut option for stim on the ecollar. There have been times to needed to stim quickly and then lost the opportunity because I had to switch screens. I am on a K9 SAR Team. The history is a great way to show previous searches and coverage. Wish there was a back up option. Thanks! I do love the product don’t want to change. Just have a wish list.

Any chance of getting access to the hard keys on a phone for tone and stimulation? Only grumble is having to use the touch screen for those.

Love this collar! It is great for keeping track of my dog in the field. The one thing that would make this the absolute perfect app would being able to set and use the volume buttons to run the e collar. While DogtraPathfinder is easy to use to pull my phone out and glance at it, it is hard to use for purposes of correcting my dog or using the tone feature or stim while in the field. Being able to set a hard key like volume up for tone and volume down for constant stimulation would be great. I wouldn’t have to take my phone all the way out l, take off my gloves etc to correct my dog. I often don’t have time to do that.

I was thrilled to see an Apple Watch app for this but was very disappointed when I learned that you still have to have your phone with you. I have an Apple Watch with cellular and it would be really nice to not have to bring my phone when we go out. Sorta annoying having to carry the receiver and the iPhone just to use your watch…

This a great affordable gos unit. My only complaint and what mag make me switch back to garmin is the gos dot with the extremely small direction arrow , is EXTREMELY hard to follow your tracks back out with a dog on a lead in one hand a shotgun or rifle over your back and watching for tree limbs and etc. your position NEEDS to be a solid arrow or big triangle. This is the one and only flaw that i have found. I have found myself walking in circles and have to really stop and study what im doing to get back out of unfamiliar territory. Very hard to stay on track

I started running the Pathfinder Mini 2 years ago on my hard hunting beagle Lucy and my cur Champ. For me getting into running dogs without really any mentor a collar system was a must. I needed something that got the job done but wasn’t complicated. The Dogtra App delivered and I’ve since added more beagles and run 4 collars. We now run big ground twice a week without a lot of roads and the Pathfinder App gives me real piece of mind when I’ve got em on the ground. One of the smartest hound related purchases I’ve made.

I’ve been using a Pathfinder collar since 2017 as a tracker for our dogs while they hang out on our 2 acre property. We live in a rural area and have no fence. Using this collar I can keep track of the dogs and am alerted if they leave the geofence which we set to match our property boundary. We also use it while hiking and visiting other locations. At home we use DogtraPathfinder on an IPad Mini 2 for the larger screen size. Unfortunately this week DogtraPathfinder stopped working on the iPad after the most recent iOS update. Will there be an associated update to the Pathfinder app?

I had some issues syncing initially. The directions could be clearer about that. Hit the pairing button on DogtraPathfinder them connect on the GPS receiver. But afterwards the product has worked flawlessly. I love being able to view the track history and total distances by you and your dog. Once they make an app for the Apple watch this will make use even easier as there will no longer be a need to pull out your phone.

The Dogtra Pathfinder is the way to go for an affordable training system that is very easy to learn and utilize. Our squirrel dogs respond well to the collar and I enjoy the fact that I have many more useful features to fiddle with than more expensive systems along with better control of our dogs. Shadowtail Kennels would highly recommend this training & tracking system to anyone. This product is much appreciated.