Pod GPS Tracker & Activity Monitor for Pets

Product Description

Never lose your pet again

1 in 3 pets go missing in their lifetime...That's more than 10 million pets a year! Make sure your pet isn't one of them.

Pod is a GPS tracker and activity monitor for dogs and cats designed to be attached to any size collar. It lets you locate your pet on demand, monitor their activity and record adventures on your smartphone or computer. Our new generation Pod 2 now has WiFi, which helps deliver faster positions and offers the ability to locate indoors.

the Pod App is available on iOS (6 or greater), Android (4.3 or greater) and on any computer or phone browser

Key Features

Fully Waterproof
Smallest & Lightest
Suitable for all animals
2x Rechargeable batteries
Up to 6 days battery

GPS, WiFi and cellular network

Pod uses a combination of GPS, WiFi and cellular technology to locate your pet. Communication between the Pod and the app is handled by the 2G cellular network. The unit comes with an embedded SIM card and a mobile plan so it works straight out of the box.

Coverage: Communication between the Pod and the app is handled by the 2G cellular network. Check the coverage in your area on our website.

The Pod mobile plan is free for the first year and the following annual renewals is only $49.

Replacement & upgrade program

It's important to us that your pet is always safe and, if for any reason something were to happen to your Pod, we will happily supply you with a replacement for a significant discount.

We will also occasionally release a next generation Pod with exciting new features and our program allows you to purchase an upgraded Pod at 50% of the original price.

Top Reviews

Good product worthy of trying...
by Amazon Customer (2 out of 5 stars)
June 8, 2016

As the owner of a Golden, I wanted to share my experience with other potential purchasers of this product. Overall, the concept is well thought out and when it works, it is amazing. The key term here is: "when it works". The product allows for three ways to find your pet: Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS. In my experience of 30 days, I've only been able to locate my dog via Bluetooth and WiFi - which includes other WiFi in the neighborhood. If I understand correctly, the POD receives WiFi signals and can locate your pet by correlating known WiFi signals to a database that includes the location of wireless access points that transmit these known signals. The correlated position is then sent back to your phone via cellular. As such, the POD is not super accurate when locating via WiFi, but well within 4 or 5 homes of finding your pet. In my neighborhood, we have a lot a trees that line the roads and that could be the reason why it does not use GPS (no clear Line-of-Sight to the satellites). In addition, the POD battery, at least the two that came in the package, have lasted at the longest 3 days and typically 1.5 days. As mentioned by another reviewer, the battery does take some effort to put on and off the POD. I can see how some people may over tighten and break the battery connector. To avoid this, I take the collar off my dog so I can carefully align the battery and have not had any problems. I have also not been able to sync the Activity tracker on the phone to the POD (apparently this is done by Bluetooth). Next, plan on waiting at least 1 to 2 minutes (or longer) when you try to locate your pet. If your pet is nearby, the response is quick as the App on your phone detects the POD's Bluetooth signal and you receive a notice in a very short period of time. However, contacting the POD via cellular is an entirely different matter. And if, for some reason, the POD loses cellular connection, which also happens on occasion, you will get a notice saying the the POD is not available. Needless to say, to get this message while you're frantically looking for your pet can be disconcerting. This is not entirely POD's fault, as the cellular carrier can be the culprit. However, the antenna design on the POD may also play a role. On such a tiny device there may not be enough antenna to get a good signal in certain situations. Simply stated, what may be a good signal on your phone, could be a weak signal for the POD. POD mentions the carrier in the US is either ATT or TMobile and I have no way of figuring out which carrier it is. I live in a densely populated suburban neighborhood with supposed excellent to very good coverage by both carriers - so I'll leave this issue of "no cellular" on the "mystery meat" pile. Based on my experience, when the POD works, it is at best 80% reliable over cellular. Roughly speaking, every 1 out of 5 location requests returns an "unable to find POD" message. If you wait a few minutes, sometimes the POD picks up a cellular signal and you receive your pet's locations and other times it simply does not connect. For me, that is not good enough. When it comes to my pet, I'd ask for 95%+ reliability every time. Note that your mileage may vary. POD is a well thought out product and worthy of trying. Mine will be going back, but others may find that it serves their needs simply because the device works based on their location (i.e. urban with even better cellular coverage, less trees, etc.).
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It's paid for itself, but I think it's time to upgrade to something better
by Evilipoo (3 out of 5 stars)
October 11, 2017

As much as I have loved, and want to love this product, I must say that the current software version and what-not puts it at a solid "meh".

I have a large (20#) cat who will not convert to indoor only. Can't blame him. We recently moved and I wanted to be sure that he was not going to wander off and do something dangerous, so I researched a bunch of trackers. Pod 2 was a little expensive out the door, but included tracking for a year and was not overly huge, so we gave it a try.

Initially, it worked quite well. Then it seemed like every other software update would hose some feature that I had come to rely on. For instance, it used to be that the pod worked great to pinpoint my cat's location even while he was on our wifi network. Now, (for the past month+), if the tracker is on our home wifi, it just shows him in the house. We have a strong network and it does me little good to know that he "might" be in the house, or he "might" be halfway down the steep bluff behind our house, or he "might" be halfway down the driveway!

I think the final straw was when he came home limping severely last month. I quickly synced his Adventure (we record one every day to see what he is up to) and it came up blank. I reached out to tech support (who are always responsive, regardless or whether or not they can help. One star is just for them) and was told that I needed to perform a locate once I start recording in order to make sure that the GPS is tracking appropriately. OK, that is fine, but it's interesting that in a year of use, this has never been mentioned as something that I needed to do. So I don't know where the injury happened, which is kind of a big deal.

OTOH, We used this to locate him the other day when he was out late, and it was able to accurately find him to within a few feet. So it has paid for itself.

Unfortunately this current version absolutely chews through battery. A charge that used to last a full 12 + hours while recording an Adventure now is at 30% after a mere 5 hours. I understand that battery life is going to deteriorate over time, but this has happened over the past month, not gradually over the past year. And both batteries show the same behavior.

Short story long, I really don't want to be the beta tester for this. I want to find my cat reliably when I need to. In the past year, some competitors have come out with upgraded versions of their trackers. I will be taking a hard look at them to see if a better option is available.
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WORTHLESS, WORTHLESS, WORTHLESS.
by S. Scott (1 out of 5 stars)
April 24, 2017

I was reluctant to write a negative review because I loved the product even thought it kept breaking. It broke twice in the area that the battery twists on. The first time I only had it a month and the company said they knew about the problem and would send one manufactured by a different company. Well that one broke within a month as well. They offered a pod3 as a replacement but failed to mention that it hadn't been made by the manufacture or sent to them yet. This was in April '17. Its now Aug. '17 and the Pod3 is still not available. I complained numerous times and said I wanted a refund. "Oh we still have some pod2's available in the US" I caved and accepted. Mind you I have had to continue to tape my battery onto the pod from April-July until tape wouldn't even hold it together anymore and the batteries themselves broke. In the past month I guess 2g has disappeared from my area (the pod rep said that by 2020 it would phase out, that is why I took another pod2). Now I have nothing. I spent almost $200 for a product that has been replaced twice and now I cant use at all.
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Battery Life is a Whopping 4 Hous. And Batteries are out of Stock.
by karenn (1 out of 5 stars)
August 14, 2018

I really wanted to love Pod Tracker. Even though the initial setup was kludgy, once it was synched and working, the results were very precise. So far so good...for about 4 hours. Cuz that's how long a charge lasts. We have to track down the cat and switch out the battery midday to get coverage all day. Sure, it sucked but we went along with it. Until the battery casing on three of our four batteries cracked and we could no longer afix them to the transponder. We limped along on one battery, leaving it off in the morning, then putting it on for the afternoon. Grossly inconvenient and ineffective. If we discovered that the cat was missing, we'd have only a few hours of signal during which to track him down with before the battery died. So I went to their website to buy new batteries. Every battery is sold out. Version 2 is no longer supported, and v3 batteries won't work if you have a v2. I sent two messages to support to find out how to identify what version our unit is... if I had a v3 I'd go ahead and search eBay/Amzn for batteries. But I never got a response. Given that most every item on their website is out of stock, I suspect they may be going out of business.

So, yeah, the lifetime of coverage is great, but a pet tracker has to work for more than a couple of hours at a time to be of use when your pet goes missing. We have a Tab Cat that lasts many weeks on each battery. Love Pod Tracker's concept, love the technology, but requiring battery changes every four hours is a non-starter.

So let's wrap this up:
1) ZERO CUSTOMER SUPPORT / SERVICE. You won't hear from anyone at Pod Trackers. Your pleas for help will fall on dead ears.
2)The technology works really well, although it's kind of a moot point, since you only get 4hrs of battery life with each charge.
3)If you own a version 2 unit, you're hosed. It's unsupported, you can't get replacement batteries, and it's not compatible with the current version.
4)If your cat weighs less than about 10 pounds, it's a pretty hefty item to carry on his neck.
4) If your cat likes to lose collars, this is probably not a good solution for you. Mine has ditched his collar a half dozen times.In all cases, we had to use Tab Cat to track the collar, since the Pod Tracker battery was dead.
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Lives up to the hype!
by Naomi (5 out of 5 stars)
April 8, 2016

As the founder and manager of the Israeli Center for Lost and Stolen Pets, I am pleased to give this product my seal of approval. Although version 1 (which is no longer being sold) was a little buggy, version 2 has been perfect. In fact, this is the first pet GPS that I have ever given 5 stars, and the ONLY pet GPS that is cat-compatible that I have EVER given more than 1 star.

I left the Pod on my personal dog for 6 months. I have several dogs in the house and they play rough, but the Pod survived everything they threw at it. In fact, it had a serious bite-mark in its shell, but still remained sealed, waterproof and working.

It's definitely waterproof. My dog has gone swimming in the ocean numerous times with Pod, and it continues to work perfectly. Sand and salt? No problem!

The dual battery system is really the most impressive feature of the Pod. Whereas most pet GPS's require you to periodically remove the dog's collar, remove the GPS, charge it overnight and then return it to the pet's neck, Pod comes with two batteries and a tiny USB charger. Whenever the Pod app tells you that the battery is low, you switch the empty battery from the Pod with the full one from the charger. This prevents the serious issue of forgetting to put the GPS back on the pet after charging.
29 grams, the size of a wine cork... my cats don't mind it at all.

In conclusion, as the founder and manager of the Israeli Center for Lost and Stolen Pets I can honestly say that this is the first ever pet GPS that actually has lived up to the hype.

I was not given a Pod for free, but rather purchased mine.
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this thing disappointed me so much
by mia67n (1 out of 5 stars)
November 26, 2016

Well, this thing disappointed me so much, it finally spurred me to write my first review...I had such high hopes, and really needed and wanted it to work. I spent the better part of a day researching, and settled on the Pod due to its great form factor, waterproof case, long battery life - and most importantly, the ability to swap batteries on the fly, instead of removing it from the dog and charging the whole unit.

Some of the disappointments, I can live with. The battery doesn't last as long as they say it will, the app is clunky, and there is no option to just turn off the every-three-hours self locates (which drain the battery) and just do locates when I ask. Also, even though it's collecting locations every three hours, you can't actually GET that information. No, if I need it, I have to contact customer service and they'll give it to me. Huh? Why waste battery collecting data I can't even have...and why not allow me to turn it off?

But there's another HUGE problem I cannot live with: the GPS just flat out does not work, about 75% of the time. This is out in the country, only sparse trees, no other GPS item I own has the kinds of problems this does. Time after time, I query the unit, it spins the app for 5 minutes, then declares there's no GPS. Truly worthless. I wish it weren't so. The manufacturers need to go back to the drawing board on this. Instead, they have customer service spewing BS like "it must be the clouds!" But clouds and rain do not affect GPS. Stop blaming the weather, and get to work fixing this. There are many great things about the design, I hope someday it's ready.
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Wouldn't want it for free...
by Martin L (1 out of 5 stars)
August 24, 2016

Ok: this is definitely my last review of this darned thing.

After only a few months of use the bracket that holds the battery broke. Let me say this again: the bracket that is meant to hold the battery of the electronic device that's meant to help me locate my pet in an emergency broke. In other words, this device can't and won't provide peace of mind. I don't think this is material fatigue but a fundamental design flaw! If the break happens when your pet is out and about or in danger the device suddenly becomes a worthless piece of plastic hanging around their neck. It's better not to have it. (See picture)

This is a brief update on my experience with Pod Tracker. I first used Pod Tracker earlier this year and for my cat and his hiding places it was less than ideal. PodTracker as a company made every effort to help me out. Today I received the update of their latest Beta Software. It makes me feel proud that I gave as much feedback as I did to them (I'm sure they might use other words than "proud" when reminiscing on the long email exchanges I put them through) and now to see the outcome and the beautiful new software they've delivered. Seeing this much progress in such a short time puts this company above and beyond their competition. Where before I had some reservations about recommending them I now give them a whole-hearted thumbs up!
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If you are switching from Tagg/Whistle, know what you are getting into...
by yovinman (3 out of 5 stars)
September 15, 2016

As a former Tagg/Whistle owner, there are definitely pros and cons to switching to this product:

Pros:
1. 2 batteries included. I really liked this feature and makes it a breeze to keep the unit working on my dog's collar while still charging the other battery.
2. The interface on the app and web are better. Really like the overall ease of use of the app and does a really good job at tracking.
3. Superior and responsive customer service. The customer service has been great - all my questions answered quickly. My pod tracker arrived with a defective 2nd battery, which they replaced quickly and without cost or issue.
4. The monthly cost for monitoring is currently lower than Whistle. While the upfront cost is higher, it includes the first year of monitoring.

Cons:
1. No base station. I list this as a con because you have to manually switch on and off the "Safe Zone" of the Pod Tracker. With Whistle, this was automatic. If the base station could not detect the Whistle tracking unit on the collar, the tracking unit would automatically switch to higher power when it was out of reach of the base station. On the Pod Tracker, this is not the case. You have to open the App and turn on the "Safe Zone". What this does is to switch to pod tracker on the collar to check location every 5 minutes to ensure your pet is within the pre-defined safe zone. If Safe Zone is turned off, it checks your pets location once every 3 hours!! So you may ask, why not just keep safe zone on all the time? The answer to that is battery life. If you keep safe zone on all the time, you get only about a day and half of life from the battery before you have to swap it for the 2nd battery. As a former Tagg/Whistle owner, this is a bit of a hassle since it was pretty much done automatically by having the base station and the Whistle battery pretty much lasted 6 to 14 days in this mode. I did not realize this until I got the pod tracker unit and read how everything works. I may have reconsidered before purchasing. After using the unit for over a week, I am still not sure the pod tracker is a better solution.
2. No text alerts. All the notifications come through the app on your smart phone. If you don't have the app, you are not going to get alerts. Tagg/Whistle gave you the option of getting alerts and tracking via text. This not that big a deal for me personally, but not sure how important this feature is for others.
3. Synchronization between web interface and smart phone app: This is a big deal for me - if you make a change to the status of the pod tracker on the web interface, it does not seem to stay in synch with the app on the smart phone. Here's an example: Before going to bed, I log into the pod tracker web site and turn Safe Zone off to conserve battery since our dog will be in the house at night. Next morning, my wife goes to let the dog out into our enclosed yard, she checks the pod tracker app on her smart phone and it says that the Safe Zone is on, so she lets the dog out. Now why is the app on the smart phone saying the Safe Zone is on when I turned off Safe Zone from the web the night before? Is this a bug or is it just the way this product works?
4. Activity monitoring. This was not an important feature for me, but with Tagg/Whistle, this was done via the base station which automatically sent activity info to the Whistle smart phone app. With pod tracker, you have to manually do a bluetooth synch with the app on the smart phone to get activity data.

Overall, I want to like this product, but I am still dealing with how I have to manually manage the Safe Zone function to maximize battery life and I am a bit concerned about the apparent lack of synchronization between the web interface and the app that runs on the smart phone. If things improve, I will up my rating. If my user experience is due to me not using the product correctly, I am all ears and I will update my rating accordingly.
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Not perfect but...
by Seeley (4 out of 5 stars)
October 2, 2016

This cat tracker isn't perfect. But it does actually work not too badly. It works better than I expected. I couldn't get some of the features to work very well, just as the safe zone or the adventure tracking. Also, it does take about 5 minutes to locate the pet, and the location isn't that precise. With those caveats though, it does actually massively help me find my cat. I get a pretty good idea now where he goes when he is out. And if I do need to go out looking for him, the pod takes me reasonably close to where he is. Then I just call him and he comes to me. I also really like that it comes with two batteries so I can always send him out with a fresh battery. Overall, this pod really gives me peace of mind.
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Second reason was the extra battery and easy battery exchange
by Ryan (3 out of 5 stars)
July 12, 2016

I searched and searched for "dog trackers" and finally settled on this one for a few key reasons. Within the first year its the same cost as just about all the other brands doing the same thing and every year after it's about $50 cheaper with subscription costs. Second reason was the extra battery and easy battery exchange. I like this because I don't want to worry about not having my "tracker" charged when it needs to be, this way I just change the battery when the app reminds me too. Because lets be practical, I'm not going to remember to put it on the charger every single night, especially when the batteries last up to 6 days (more like 4 days)... However, I did have a few problems; water leaking into the battery connection point causing corrsion and an O-ring problem with one of the batteries. The Customer Service was great and shipped me out an updated model right away. This also does not have live tracking and it can take a while to "locate", but I really don't care. I just need it for that one time!!

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