Tractive Dog 4 vs Dog 6

Let’s see what has really changed

Losing your dog is something no dog owner wants to experience. But the truth is that every year way too many dogs run away or escape from their home. So having a good dog GPS tracker will be helpful.

Now if you have followed us for a while, you know that we have had the Tractive Dog 4 GPS tracker for years.

Since we got the Tractive Dog 6 earlier this year, we thought it would be helpful to share the differences and upgrades. Now let’s see if it really is worth to upgrade from Dog 4 tracker to Dog 6 model.

What is Tractive?

For those who are unfamiliar. Tractive is well known with their pet GPS trackers. Their devices attach to your dog’s (or cat’s) collar and that way you can track your dog’s location through an app.

But this is not just about tracking your dog (or cat), because Tractive also has extra features like activity monitoring, health alerts, live tracking and virtual fence..

Quick comparison

As you can see from the picture above, there are some pretty good upgrades from Tractive Dog 4 to the newest Tractive Dog 6 model. But are these upgrades big enough to buy the new Dog 6 tracker if you already have Dog 4 model?

Battery life

The Tractive Dog 4 battery is about 2-5 days, but also depends on how often you’re using the device and if it can turn on sleep mode in between usage. But Dog 6 model has a bigger battery that lasts longer. Now on Tractive’s homepage it says that the battery lasts up to 10 days.

Our dog wears the collar with Tractive Dog 6 only when we’re going out. So at home the tracker can be on sleep mode. And because of that our Tractive Dog 6 battery even lasts about 3-4 weeks, which is actually pretty awesome.

Charging Dog 4 vs Dog 6

Dog 6 is the first Tractive pet tracker that has an universal USB-C port. And I’m not gonna lie, it is very convenient.

Of course the charger comes with the device, but when it would break, it wouldn’t be a hassle, because we could just use our phone charger that we already have at home.

With Dog 4 and other Tractive pet trackers, have a unique charger, which means that if anything would happen with the charger, you would need to spend more money to buy a new one.

Health tracking

Health tracking is another feature that got an upgrade with the release of the new Dog 6. But there are a few things we have an opinion about.

Firstly, if you want to see your dog’s wellness score, your dog needs to wear the tracker at least 7 day straight, otherwise it won’t be able to calculate the score. And since our dog only wears her tracker when we’re leaving the house, then we won’t really get anything from this feature…

We did test it though, but not worth it enough to let our dog wear her collar for 24/7.

Secondly, keeping an eye on your dog’s activity levels and being able to monitor your dog’s barking is cool. But again, if you know that your dog gets enough activity and long walks, then this would only confirm it. Other than that, the health tracking feature is rather in the “nice to have” category.

Light and sound feature

Both Light and sound feature both got a pretty good upgrade. With the Tractive Dog 4 you could bare hear the sound and the light was super tiny. So it definitely wouldn’t be helpful spotting your dog in the nature. With Dog 6 the light feature has improved a lot.

You could even use the light during night time walks to keep your dog visible for drivers while crossing the road etc.

The sound does seem to be better, but it would be more helpful inside finding the device from the closet.

The outside noise is mostly too overpowering for the tracker’s sound to be heard clearly enough.

Design

Now you know the saying “to each their own”. I would say the same goes for the design of Tractive Dog 6 and Dog 4. We have our opinion about it, but that should not be the deciding factor for you to buy or not to buy the device.

The Dog 6 has more modern look and cool texture. But the case itself feels more plasticky and boxy. The Dog 4 had a simple clean looking case, just very light white, black or pinkish colour, but the case and the whole device felt more sturdy and better quality.

You can get a protective silicone case too if you want. It would help to protect the device case getting scratched.

Our Dog 4 model did and even though it doesn’t bother too much, then when dirt gets in between the scratch marks, then the device always looks like it’s dirty.

To buy or not to buy?

If you have had your older Dog 4 model or older dog tracker from other company, then thinking of an upgrade wouldn’t be a bad idea. Now let me explain why.

Especially with Tractive’s newest model compared to the older one has made quite a few big upgrades to the device and their app as well. Which means that the tracker tracks your dog better, but also all the extras have gotten bigger, better and faster.

We started thinking about getting a better device, because the battery of the Tractive Dog 4 got worse and charging it after every few days didn’t seem good to us anymore. Also the light feature was so tiny that it was barely visible and all the extra features it had, weren’t really that useful to us anyway.

So if you have had your dog GPS tracker for about 4-5 years, then getting new one with better battery, new and improved functions would be a good investment into your dog’s safety. It’ not just about the look of the device, but what it can do.

If you can rely on the new dog tracker more, then in our opinion, having more pice of mind while being outside with your dog is totally worth it.

Haven’t heard about Pocket Puppy School before?

Pocket Puppy School is a completely free dog training app. Our mission is to make information about raising dogs accessible to everyone in the world.

But in addition to our app, we have a blog (that you are currently reading 🤓) where we talk all things about dogs.

We post some informational and fun content to our Instagram page and believe it or not, we even have a merch store. 🥹 In the store you can get a t-shirt or a hoodie with your own dogs’ picture that we will make into an awesome design.

Feel free to check out all of our channels, and if you have any questions, leave a comment down below.

Thank you!