Imagine a brand new GPS dog shock collar. When you buy it, you click 'start recording', then proceed to walk around the perimeter of the area you wish the dog to stay inside of. You can also separately record areas within the perimeter, such as say flower beds, that you also don't want the dog to go into. Then the GPS collar will shock the dog whenever it goes into the disallowed areas.
Just be sure to turn it off when you take the dog in the car to th evet's...-- marquisdenet, Mar 13 2009 Roameo http://www.roameoforpets.com/No shock feature yet ... [csea, Mar 13 2009] Peth Path PetPath_20GPS_20CollarSame idea, I believe [theircompetitor, Mar 16 2009] You'd have to use differential GPS to distinguish anything as small as the average flowerbed.-- coprocephalous, Mar 13 2009 I learned today that both GPS and mercury switch dog collars are illegal for hunting in California. I just wanted to share that with all of you.-- normzone, Mar 14 2009 I'm giving this idea a bun, with the proviso that if a real world version were made, it would use DGPS, as coprocephalous suggested.
With DGPS, an accuracy of 10cm is possible; with only GPS, the error could be as much as 15m.
Of course, it might be even better to simply stick 3-4 radio transmitters in your yard (perhaps one in each corner), each giving a gps-like signal, with the programming device, and the dog's collar, listening to those signals. Then you no longer depend on being able to get a signal from the GPS satellites.-- goldbb, Mar 16 2009 [marked-for-deletion] same as the linked idea.-- theircompetitor, Mar 16 2009 The difference between this idea and the linked ideas is that you walk out a map, recording your GPS locations as you go, which is then stored. That way you can have completely irregular areas. As long as you record the boundary, it will be in the system. It would be a pretty simple thing really.
goldbb, the same thing applies - 3 or 4 transmitters would not give a precise map like my proposal would.
It is exactly the same as an electric dog fence except it saves all the cost of putting up the fence/equipment. It is a virtual fence. Much cheaper. AND yu can take it with you wherever you go. If you go camping - just go for a 2 minute walk around your campsite, recording as you go, and - voila! the dog is under control. You could even use it to make sure the dog stays put. Just click the 'STAY' button on the collar, then say STAY!.. If the dog moves, it gets a jolt. Training of that sort would be incredibly easy.-- marquisdenet, Mar 17 2009 [marquis] if you read my annotation for the linked idea, you will see that this is exactly how I interpreted it. Perhaps if you add automatic redirectors basedon google maps of flea infestations you'll actually have something genuinely new.-- theircompetitor, Mar 17 2009 I read it, it's close but not quite the same. You talked about mapping it out via the web. No need for anything to do with the web with my idea. Just click record on the device itself.-- marquisdenet, Mar 17 2009 Handy gadget for tracking vicars.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 17 2009 I'm not disagreeing with your idea: I'm just suggesting relying on fixed location, ground based transmitters, installed by the homeowner, as opposed to orbiting sattelites. You'd still press a "start recording" button, and walk around the perimiter of the yard, etc., but you'd be using your own positioning system, not the government's.
There've been any number of times when travelling that my GPS receiver wasn't able to get a signal from enough sattelites, and it didn't know where I was. You would be unhappy if your dog wandered off merely because dense cloud cover had prevented his collar from knowing where the boundary was.-- goldbb, Mar 17 2009 random, halfbakery