Most Common Questions

• Will the Freedom Collar work in my area? I’m not sure if cell coverage near me is good enough.

  • The Freedom Smart Dog Collar uses cellular connectivity to keep you connected to your pet when your dog is not in range of a Wi-Fi network. If you do not have good cell reception in your area, your collar may go offline and not be able to communicate with you. If this happens, your dog will still receive geofence corrections, but you will not be notified on your phone when it happens. You will also not be able to track your dog’s location. The Freedom Smart Dog Collar may use a different cell network than your phone does, so coverage may vary from what you experience with your phone. We recommend that you check cell coverage in your area to see whether the Freedom Collar will work well for you. To check coverage:

    • • Go to this link, type in your address, and then adjust the filter to Show: LTE Cat M Only.

      • Bright Pink means that your area has sufficient cellular coverage for the collar to work reliably.

      • Light Pink indicates that the collar may only be able to make a Roaming connection. In these scenarios, the collar should still work, but there will likely be some delays in location and status updates.

      • If you see White, that means there is no coverage in your area; the collar can still be used for geofence containment but will be unable to communicate status or locations with you when your dog is outside of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth range.

If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to contact our Wagz Dog Nerdz and they will happily assist you in determining if the Freedom Collar will work for your area.

• What size and type of collar does the Wagz Freedom Collar device 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. 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. We also offer the Freedom Boost Battery, which provides nearly 3x the battery life of the standard Freedom Battery that is included with your Freedom Collar. You can purchase this accessory at wagz.com.

• • Troubleshooting:

    • 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.

        • Keep your Wagz App updated and automatically receive software updates and optimizations as they are available.

• 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 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 beeping sound heard by both dog and pet parent, provides a similar result.

  • This is true of the vibration correction as well. The vibration correction creates a buzzing sensation as another way to get your dog’s attention when reaching a boundary. Think of this like your cell phone ringer when it’s on silent mode. 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? 

• • The geofence itself is created through the Wagz App using drag and drop pins that act as virtual fence posts. There’s no need to walk the perimeter of your property to create a geofence. Instructions on how to set up a geofence are outlined below and detailed in our Owner’s Guide HERE.

  • Once it is created it uses Wi-Fi and service from your local cell towers to contain your pet. See how easy it is HERE.

  • 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.

      • 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”.

      • Name, Save and Assign the geofence to your dog. It is at this time that you will designate whether this is a “Safe Zone” or a “Keep Out Zone”. 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!

• 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. If cellular or GPS conditions are not optimal, you can expect more latency. Be aware that strength of cellular service or GPS can be impacted by weather, buildings, trees or obstructions.

• 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.

  • If you have the “Indoor Correction Reduction” setting enabled, your geofences will be disabled automatically when your collar is connected to a Wi-Fi network. If your geofences aren’t working when your dog goes outside, it may be because your Wi-Fi network has a large range and is still available near the edges of your fence or property. To check this, disable that setting and try again.

• How should I train my dog to use the Freedom Collar and its geofences?

  • All pet containment systems require a pet parent 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 parent needs to use a “what’s best for my specific dog” approach.  The training outline provided HEREis 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?

  • 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 your pet from coming back safely!  We will send you a push notification and post an alert within your Wagz App upon your dog’s return, so you know he’s back safely.

• 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).
  • 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 (15) minutes. These refresh rates can be shortened or lengthened to increase responsiveness or preserve battery life.
    • Don’t worry! 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.
    • 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.

• Will the Wagz Freedom Collar work without cell service? Can I use it with just Wi-Fi?

The 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.

• Why does my collar show an offline status sometimes?

  • When looking at your Wagz App, if you do not see status bar icons and instead see a message about the collar being offline, that means your collar is not connected to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or the cellular network. This may be because your collar battery is dead and needs to be charged, or it could be a connectivity issue.
  • To confirm your collar is on, press the gray button on the back of your collar, in the middle of the clip. If this causes a short beep and some colored lights, that means your collar is in fact on. If there is no beep, it is likely that your battery is dead. Please recharge your battery and try again later.
  • If your collar is on and you are seeing the offline message, we recommend the following:
    1. You may be away from your Wi-Fi network and in an area with poor cellular coverage.  In this case, it is normal and correct to see this message.
    2. Make sure your phone’s Bluetooth is turned on.
    3. Keep the Wagz App open in the background when you aren’t using it.
    4. Add any additional Wi-Fi networks that you have access to that are near where your pet spends their time by going to the Main Menu and tapping Devices.
    5. If the status bar appears and disappears every few seconds or minutes, then it may be because the collar is still doing its initial update (section 6 step 2).
    6. Your home Wi-Fi network may not be configured properly within the Wagz App.  This can occur if your Wi-Fi network credentials have changed since you originally set up your collar. If that is the case and you can no longer get online, we recommend performing the following steps:
       • • Go into the Device Settings screen for your collar.
         • Remove all Wi-Fi networks from this screen.
         • Add your home Wi-Fi network again, following the instructions from pages 5.1 (iOS) or 5.2 (Android).
         • Navigate back to the Dashboard screen and select your pet’s card.
         • Wait a few minutes for the Collar Status Bar to appear.

• Why does the “Refresh Location” button on my map screen sometimes not work?

  • In order for the location to be refreshed, your collar must have both a GPS signal and an active communication method. This can be either Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or Cellular. At times when your dog is away from home, the collar is most likely to rely on a cellular connection for communication. If you live in an area with spotty cell reception, it can be challenging for our collar. When you press the refresh button, the Wagz App will attempt to make a connection to the collar for up to four minutes. If it cannot contact it, the command will be canceled. When the collar comes back online, it will send up its location automatically.