Tractive Dog 6 review

When it comes to the world of dog GPS trackers, Tractive is a pretty well-known in that sense. We, in Pocket Puppy School have been using Tractive Dog 4 tracker for about 4 years and have been very pleased with it so far.

This time we are happy to have partnered with them, to test and review their newest release - Tractive Dog 6 GPS tracker. Let’s give it a look!

What is Tractive?

If you are new to GPS dog tracking devices, then Tractive specializes in pet tracking devices that allow you to monitor your dog’s location in real time via a mobile app.

They have a few different types of devices to choose from, depending on your dog’s weight, size and everyday activity. Tractive dog trackers have features like geofencing, live monitoring, light & sound with worldwide/ very large coverage.

Tractive Dog 6

Now let’s jump into the review part. The Tractive Dog 6 has made quite a big jump from their very first dog GPS tracker. Let's have a look on some of the features and improvements they have made with their newest dog tracker.

• Light feature - improved quite a lot (compared with their previous devices and even with other trackers), with this, you can actually see your dog when it is dark outside.

• Longer battery life - up to 10 days with battery saving mode (compared with 2-5 days for their Dog 4 GPS tracker).
  

• Waterproof - good feature to have, especially for these dogs who love to play in the water or wander around in the nature.

• Geofencing and safe zones - when your dog is wandering around in the garden, you can mark it as a safe zone. So once your dog tries to escape, you’ll get notified right away.

• Improved connectivity - Dog 6 tracker has stronger signal coverage, which help you get faster and more accurate updates about your dog’s location.

• The charger (usb-c) - great improvement, because their other devices all have a special charger (they do include them with the device you’re buying). But if you lose the charger or it breaks… So usb-c is great!

• Sound feature - not too strong, but better than previously. Helpful finding the device, but a bit weak for finding lost dog in louder environments.

• Barking monitor - the Dog 6 GPS tracker has a special sensor, which detects a change in volume levels. Good feature if you want to see if your dog is barking, when you’re not home etc.

• Separation anxiety monitor - This is another new feature that puts together data from all of the other sensors and figures out differences in your dog’s behavioural patterns to figure out if your dog might be having separation anxiety.

• Health and activity monitoring - a nice to have feature. But if you want to see the wellness score, then your dog needs to constantly wear the tracker for at least a week.

Since we live in an apartment, then we take our dog’s collar off once we’re inside. So to test this feature out, we especially kept it on our dog for a full week, to get the score.

Tractive vs Halo, Fi Collar, Doglo GPS trackers

Often times price is a big factor on making the final decision, especially when there will be extra cost because of a subscription.

We have gathered some of the dog GPS trackers and compared their subscription prices, device prices and a 5 year extra cost.

It’s hard to pinpoint the price for each tracker, because all of them offer different subscription packages (Basic Vs Premium etc) and depending on how much you are willing to pay upfront, the price also differs.

But no matter how we look at it, Tractive is the best priced mobile GPS tracker.

Pros and Cons

As always, listing the facts is one thing - but let’s also go over what we think are + and - of Tractive Dog 6 GPS tracker.

+Affordable (compared to competitors)
+ Light & sound feature
+ Real time tracking with unlimited range
+ Good battery life

+ Barking monitor
+ Longer battery life than previously (up to 10 days, depending on usage)
+ Waterproof
+ USB-C charging
+ Charges really fast
+ Power saving mode works really well

- Compared to the other models, this new design now stands out. It’s sleek but it doesn’t quite match the feel of the others. I would say that it’s new look is quite hit or miss.
- The website tractive.com lost functionality, more (but not all!) functionality is now in the app.
- While their app does have good ratings, we encountered at least two places where we had to ask help from their support. You can’t choose the language in the app, it’s always based on your phone’s closest language. And you can’t migrate ownership of trackers in the app.

Is it worth to upgrade to the new Tractive?

If you already have one of their previous models (like the Tractive Dog 4), like us, then upgrading to the newest Tractive Dog 6 GPS tracker would be a good idea. It’s battery is better, it has more features and we would say that it tracks better.

So far we have really enjoyed testing out this device and have been very pleased with how it’s working. Plus we were super happy to see how good the updated light feature is. It is big, bright and visible in the dark.

There’ll always be the money question, because it is an extra cost. But luckily you can always choose based on your own wallet. Also for subscriptions, there are different plan options available.

If you want to upgrade your device or it will be your very first Tractive dog GPS tracker, then use our code PPS2025, to get a better deal! ☺️

Thank you so much for Tractive for working with us and for sending us these devices to review. We have used them already for many years and we will continue to use them for many-many more.

Haven’t heard about Pocket Puppy School before?

Pocket Puppy School is a completely free dog training app. Our mission is to make information about raising dogs accessible to everyone in the world.

But in addition to our app, we have a blog (that you are currently reading 🤓) where we talk all things about dogs.

We post some informational and fun content to our Instagram page and believe it or not, we even have a merch store. 🥹 In the store you can get a t-shirt or a hoodie with your own dogs’ picture that we will make into an awesome design.

Feel free to check out all of our channels, and if you have any questions, leave a comment down below.

Thank you!