What size and type of collar does Wagz Freedom work best with?
The Freedom Collar works best on 1” to 1.5” wide nylon, leather, or cloth dog collars, and can also be attached to your dog’s harness.
How long will the battery last?
Every dog’s day is a little different, so it is hard to specify an exact battery life duration. A fully charged battery can last as long as 24 hours for some pets. Other pets may only see 5-10 hours. Many factors affect battery life. The biggest contributing factors are the activity level of your dog and what type of network connection the Freedom Collar is using. When the Freedom Collar is connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, it will use less power than when it is connected to cellular because those communication paths are designed for efficiency. There are numerous ways that you can extend your battery life.
- Adjust the Freedom Collar refresh settings. You can pick what works best for you and your pup, by choosing how often your collar updates your pet’s location. Less frequent location updates will extend your collar’s battery life.
- Keep the collar on Wi-Fi as much as possible. You can add additional Wi-Fi networks if your dog spends time in multiple places.
- Turn off your geofences when you don’t need them.
- Don’t leave the collar safety light on for long periods of time; turn it off when you don’t need it.
Be sure to check your battery level on your Wagz App on a regular basis. It’s located on the status bar in the ‘My Pets’ tab of your dog’s dashboard. For your convenience, you will receive a push notification to your phone and an alert within your Wagz App when your Wagz Freedom battery is low. We recommend changing your battery as needed; we have provided two removable, rechargeable batteries with the purchase of your Freedom Collar to enable you to always have one charged and ready to go. Many of our customers find it helps to get in the habit of plugging in the battery to charge whenever they take the collar off.
We know battery life is a key feature for our customers - to ensure their dog can wear their collar for all the time that they intend. For this reason, Wagz is continually optimizing the Freedom Collar’s software to enhance battery life. As software updates and optimizations are available, your collar will receive them automatically.
How do the audible, ultrasonic and vibration corrections work?
It’s important to note that training is required for all corrections to teach dogs proper behavior. Sound and vibration training have proven to be an extremely effective and a humane way to communicate with and train dogs.
The ultrasonic correction emits sound waves with a frequency above the upper limit of human hearing, similar to a dog whistle. The ultrasonic sound will not force a dog to do anything, but much like an unexpected sound, it will capture the dog's attention and distract it from any improper behaviors it may be engaged in. The audible tone, a brief ringing sound heard by both dog and pet parent, provides a similar result.
This is true of the vibration correction as well. A brief periodic back-and-forth movement serves as a stimulus to capture the dog's attention, and as with all corrections, training is required for the dog to understand what to do upon experiencing this correction.
Corrections will automatically time out after one minute. The reason is that after one minute of corrections the dog will have forgotten what he was being corrected for, so if the dog hasn't returned to the allowed area within that time, he is not going to suddenly figure it out. Therefore, we stop the corrections and preserve battery life for the tracking functions of the collar.
CLICK HERE for tips on how to best train your dog to understand these corrections.
How do I create a geofence?
After you have downloaded the Wagz App, set up your dog(s), and have selected your cellular network subscription plan, you can pair your collar and set up multiple customized geofences to store in your App. To get started, tap “Geofences” from the Wagz App home screen. Then tap “New Geofence”; it will pull up a map (in satellite or map view). Tap “Next” and expand the area where you want to set up the geofence. Continue to tap the map where you want to create your geofence area; you will see pins and lines outlining your geofence. Be sure to connect all pinpoints by tapping the first pin you plotted. Hit “Next” and then Name, Save and Assign the geofence to your dog. You can save your geofence as a “Safe Zone” to keep your dog IN that area, or you can save it as a “Keep Out Zone” to keep your dog OUT of this area. It’s that simple! There’s no need to walk the perimeter of your property in order to create a geofence. Complete instructions on how to set up a Geofence are included in our Instructions for Use guide HERE.
What are the icons on the Wagz Freedom status bar, and what does each icon mean?
How quickly will I be alerted when my dog leaves the geofenced area?
The speed of the notification will depend on the connectivity of the Freedom Collar and of the user’s phone. If the Freedom Collar has a strong connection and the user’s phone has a strong Wi-Fi or cellular connection, the notification will be sent within seconds. And keep in mind, your collar always knows where it is and will issue a correction to your dog immediately, regardless of its current connectivity method.
Why did my dog not get a correction when he crossed the geofence?
There are a few reasons this could happen:
- Geofences may be disabled for your pet. You can confirm that your geofences are enabled by going into the Wagz App and looking at your pet’s dashboard. Check that the Geofences button is solid blue and says “ON”:
- The geofence may not be assigned to that pet. You can confirm that the geofence is correctly assigned to your pet by going into the menu, tapping “geofences” and checking that your pet’s name appears below the particular fence in question and that the toggle shows the fence as Active:
- This could also happen as the result of a poor GPS signal. GPS technology has limitations and signal strength can vary for a number of reasons. If your GPS signal strength is poor, it is unlikely that your geofence will behave as you intended. It may alert/correct when it shouldn’t, causing unnecessary concern - or not alert/correct when you think it should. For this reason, the Freedom Collar automatically disables geofences when the GPS accuracy isn’t strong enough to rely on. This generally happens indoors, when GPS signals are obstructed by structures. When the Freedom Collar goes outside, it should quickly get a strong GPS signal and geofences will be enabled again automatically. You can easily tell in the dashboard of the Wagz App if geofences are active or not, at any time.
How should I train my dog to use the Wagz Freedom and its geofences?
All pet containment systems require a pet owner to train their dog to stay within set boundaries. Because no two dogs are alike, there is no specific “one size fits all” way to train a dog. Therefore, the pet owner needs to use a “what’s best for my specific dog” approach. The training outline PROVIDED HERE is a great place to start and is used today by many professional trainers. However, if you find that this approach does not work for your specific dog, you can research other methods of corrections training or ask your veterinarian.
I received a notification that my dog is outside of the geofence, but he’s safely inside the fence. What does that mean and why did it happen?
The Freedom Collar uses GPS Satellites to determine where your pet is located. GPS accuracy is often reduced when inside a building since the signals are blocked by the structure. For this reason, when your collar is indoors, it may sometimes report a location that is inaccurate. If the reported location is at or beyond the geofence border, your collar will trigger an alert and correction, as we want to keep your dog safe, just in case he may actually be at that location. To help prevent these inaccurate readings, it may help to extend any geofence boundary to be further from the house. The Wagz Dog Nerdz are continually working on optimizations for how we handle times when GPS may be inaccurate. By keeping your collar regularly connected to Wi-Fi, you will receive software updates automatically, as soon as they are released.
Will my dog receive a correction upon re-entry to the geofenced area?
No. If your pet leaves the geofence, the Freedom Collar will correct them while they are leaving, but they will not be corrected with any audible, ultrasonic or vibration correction when they return. We would never want to dissuade them from coming back safely! That being said, we know that you will want to know your pet is back safely, so we will send you a push notification upon their return, as well as post an alert within your Wagz App.
How frequently will the GPS refresh on my Wagz Freedom Collar?
When your dog is sleeping or staying still, your collar will go into an idle mode and will not update its location. No need to worry though, the collar will begin tracking again once he begins moving. While your dog is active, the GPS location should update every 1-15 minutes (by default). This update time will vary depending on whether the collar is connected to your phone’s Bluetooth, your home’s Wi-Fi, or its Cellular network (which it will automatically switch to when there is no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi available). That being said, we know not every dog is the same, and your needs may be different from your neighbors! For this reason, those default refresh times for your Freedom Collar battery and refresh settings are fully customizable. You can pick what works best for you and your pup, by choosing how often your collar updates your pet’s location. Frequent location updates will shorten battery life.
You can choose:
Here’s how it works:
- The default refresh rate when on Wi-Fi is approximately every five (5) minutes. When on cellular, the default refresh rate is approximately every fifteen five (15) minutes. These refresh rates can be shortened or lengthened to increase responsiveness or preserve battery life.
- Don’t worry! If you choose longer refresh time, and need to find your dog right away, you can refresh his location at any time from the Dashboard. And if your pup escapes the Geofence, he’ll still be corrected right away and you’ll be notified right away, regardless of what refresh time you choose.
- When connected to your phone’s Bluetooth, you’ll see updates much more frequently.
- Refresh times on Walks will be approximately every minute and are not affected by this setting.
- If your dog is sleeping or staying still, the Freedom Collar will go into low power mode and will not update location until the dog moves again. If the dog is active, the Freedom Collar will detect the movement automatically and should report its location to the Wagz App within a minute, whether the Freedom Collar is asleep (low power mode), connected to your phone’s Bluetooth, or on Wi-Fi vs Cellular. If the dog is active, the Freedom Collar will detect the movement and the Wagz App will refresh approximately every minute. When on cell coverage, the GPS is updated approximately every five (5) minutes.
Will the Wagz Freedom Collar work without cell service? Can I use it with just Wi-Fi?
The Wagz Freedom Collar uses both Wi-Fi and cell service. It requires connection to cell service so that it can always keep your pet safe whether or not your dog is in range of a Wi-Fi network. Cell service is also required so you can receive alert notifications on your phone and within the Wagz App. For your convenience, we have multiple subscription plans to choose from.