You won’t find a better way to track your dog than the new Halo Collar 5. It uses GPS to accurately locate your pup anywhere on Earth and can show you the location on your iPhone (or Android). Plus, it offers two days of battery life.
As a bonus feature, you can set up a “fence” so the collar warns your pet to stay in its yard. And you can place virtual fences anywhere you go.
I did real-world testing of the GPS dog tracker and came away very impressed.
Halo Collar 5 review
To a dog owner, there are few things more frightening than realizing your pet is missing. Dogs can really travel and get themselves thoroughly lost to the point where you never see them again. Plus, there are the dangers of cars, coyotes, other dogs … it’s a dangerous world out there.
That won’t happen if Sir Waggington is wearing a Halo Collar 5. It lets you locate them on a map so you can go straight to them.
The new Halo Collar 5 GPS dog collar provides up-to-date, real-time location & activity tracking. The device also offers 48 hour battery life and a virtual fence system.
- Real-time GPS location
- 2-day battery life
- Too bulky for small dogs
Table of contents: Halo Collar 5 review
- A GPS collar for medium to large dogs
- World-class GPS performance
- Worldwide connectivity
- Two days of battery life
- GPS dog fence
- Halo Collar 5 vs. Apple AirTag
- Halo Collar 5 review: Final thoughts final thoughts
- Pricing
A GPS collar for medium to large dogs
Halo Collar 5 is packed with features: GPS, a hefty battery, Wi-Fi, cellular-wireless connectivity, a speaker and more. All that equipment doesn’t fit in a small package.
The main unit of the device measures about 8 inches across and is slightly curved and flexible to fit more closely to your pet. Straps connect to its ends to form a collar.
Halo says it’s compatible with dogs with necks that measure from 8 inches to 30.5 inches, and that weigh over 20 pounds. Part of that is a fib — the neck needs to be about 18 inches at the least.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
As you can see from my pictures above, the collar fits Sammy perfectly. He’s a medium-sized mutt with a thick neck.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
But there’s no way Louis the dachshund (above) could use a Halo Collar 5. He’s simply too small. And don’t bother trying it with a cat unless you own a panther. That’s not criticism — Halo couldn’t make the device any smaller — just advice to potential buyers.
The rubberized straps built into the GPS dog tracker are adjustable, and there’s a clasp so it’s easily removable. That’s important because you’ll need to recharge the device a few times a week.
For the fashion-conscious who want more than basic black, Halo Collar 5 also comes in blue, pink, yellow and orange.
Don’t worry if Sir Barksalot loves to swim. The collar earned an IP67 rating, which means it can survive in water for up to half an hour.
Photo: Halo
World-class GPS performance
Suppose Mary Puppins escapes out your back door, takes a taxi to an airport, and flies to Las Vegas. You can immediately track her exact location with Halo Collar 5.
It includes GPS so you can see your pet’s exact location. In my testing, the Halo Collar app accurately showed me that my dog was, for example, in the far left corner of my backyard. It’s far better than an approximate location, and it’s updated constantly, so I have no doubt that I’d be able to go right where he is if he gets lost.
That said, GPS signals can be blocked by buildings. During my testing for this review, I wasn’t always able to get real-time updates on his exact location when the Halo Collar 5 was inside my house. That said, it could always show that the collar was somewhere in the correct building, and that would be enough to locate my lost dog if I needed to.
Screenshots: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Worldwide connectivity
Halo Collar 5 has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for use around the home, but it also includes cellular-wireless connectivity. It can switch between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to get a signal, and then inform the app where your fuzzy buddy is. And Halo promises you can “track your dog’s location and activity anywhere in the world,” so clearly the collar can access carriers outside the United States.
Cellular connectivity is why you must have a service plan with Halo. Wireless carriers require payment, and you do so with a Pack Membership Plan from Halo. These start at $9.99 per month, or $102 per year.
Wherever I went, I was always able to locate the test collar while writing this review. The free Halo iPhone app clearly showed me on a map just where to find the GPS tracker, and also where I am in relation to it.
Two days of battery life
Halo promises 48 hours of use out of the collar, and that’s not marketing hype. If I charge my review unit one morning, it doesn’t need to be plugged in again for two full days.
I’d recommend trying to remember to charge it every day, so if you forget every now and then it won’t matter. But you really only have to juice up the Halo Collar 5 every other day.
The Halo iPhone app displays the current battery level as the number of hours left before needing a recharge. I found this to be accurate.
GPS dog fence
I suspect that a large majority of people interested in a GPS dog caller want to use it as a tracker. But Halo’s application can also be used to set up virtual fences around your home and the collar can then warn your dog not to cross them.
To be very clear, this is not a shock collar. Halo Collar 5 simply vibrates to alert your pet that they are approaching a no-go area. I tested to be sure.
What this means is that you need to train your dog to realize that its collar vibrating is a sign to stop. The Halo app gives plenty of advice on how to do this. “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan is one of the co-founders of the company, and his training suggestions are baked into the application.
Screenshot: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Halo Collar application makes it easy to set up a virtual fence around your home. Beyond that, if your dog is well trained, you can set up a fence anywhere you go, so Droolius Caesar knows to not leave the yard of the vacation home.
But this bears repeating: the usefulness of the Halo Collar 5 as a GPS fence depends entirely on you putting in lots of time training your pet. You can’t simply buy the collar, put it on your dog, then open the door and expect them to stay in your yard. But if you try it, at least you’ll be able to locate them wherever they go across town. Tracking works right out of the box.
Halo Collar 5 vs. Apple AirTag
A popular choice for pet tracking is Apple’s AirTag. For those weighing the two options, let’s consider its advantages and disadvantages versus Halo Collar 5.
AirTag comes out ahead in several categories. It’s small enough to put on the collar of a puppy or a cat. And they’re very affordable — about $25 or even less if you buy in bulk. No subscription is required. And the battery lasts a year.
But unlike Halo Collar 5, AirTag has no built-in GPS, so it can’t offer real-time tracking. Instead, an iPhone must pass near the tracker tag for its location to be shared. This can be any iPhone, not just the pet owner’s, so the device can be used to find a lost pet. But the system is not at all as reliable as a GPS dog collar.
I’ve used an AirTag to track down a missing cat, and it’s much harder than using a Halo Collar 5.
Halo Collar 5 review: Final thoughts
Photo: Halo
This is not a cheap GPS dog collar, but it’s the best. It lets you track your dog in real time, anywhere. And it lasts two days without needing a recharge.
It’s not for small dogs or puppies, though.
★★★★★
Pricing
Halo Collar 5 costs $599. Before you decide that’s too expensive, consider this scenario: Your dog has been missing overnight, you’ve looked for hours and can’t find them, and now you’re starting to fear you’ll never see them again. Would you pay $600 to have them back safe? Maybe pay the money now and have this nightmare never happen.
Buy it from: Amazon
As noted, a subscription from Halo is required. Pack Membership Plans start at $9.99 per month.
The new Halo Collar 5 GPS dog collar provides up-to-date, real-time location & activity tracking. The device also offers 48 hour battery life and a virtual fence system.
- Real-time GPS location
- 2-day battery life
- Too bulky for small dogs
Halo provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
