To know how to find your dog with GPS, you need to know two things: how GPS works and what devices are currently available to allow locating through this technology. Nowadays it’s widely used; the location services on our mobile phones are always active in the background and a lot of machines come with a “black box” which records everywhere we go.
How GPS technology works
GPS technology actually has a military origin and it’s just one of the many tracking systems out there; in particular it’s the technology offered to the world by the United States of America. In orbit around the Earth is a whole constellation of satellites which, using a special calculation, allow a device’s location to be determined by using the position of these satellites. Now when we’re wondering how to locate a dog using GPS, the first thing to do is to get a device which can communicate with these satellites and calculate their coordinates accordingly. The GPS tracking system has been improved over time, with the implementation of several measures to ensure that communication with the satellites is as fast and accurate as possible in every condition and situation. Over time, GPS has been joined by GLONASS, which is the corresponding Russian tracking system, to obtain increasingly accurate results.
Once the location has been determined, it must be transmitted to a device which can read the coordinates and display them on a map. There are several solutions. The version with a handheld device takes advantage of radio-wave communication to contact directly with the locator and obtain the location: a solution which avoids the cost of subscriptions or SIMs but which has a problem in terms of range: however wide it may be, it’s still limited.
The second solution, which is more common nowadays, is to allow the same GPS device to send its position via GSM Telephone Line. So some devices require the additional purchase of a SIM while others have a GSM module integrated within them so they can use whichever operator has the best coverage in the area.
Now you know the basics of how to locate a dog with GPS, you just have to buy one of the devices we’ve described above – trust us, you won’t regret it.