Dog GPS - Garmin Astro 320
I love dogs.
I love running, especially running with dogs.
I love writing, especially writing about dogs, and most especially writing about running with dogs.
How lucky am I, then, to be able to combine all my loves into an upcoming article for The Bark Magazine?
It's about using the latest GPS technology to record all sorts of fun data - Finn's and my own - while we're out running trails.There are many GPS dog tracking units on the market. However, most only tell you where your dog is at a moment in time, e.g. if he's lost. They don't record his distance, speed, elevation change, time spent moving or stopping, and all the other variables we running geeks love to know about our runs. I discovered that Garmin is one of the few companies that makes a dog GPS system that collects all that data. I contacted Garmin and asked if I could try their Astro 320 for a Bark Magazine article. They were happy to supply me with one, and boy have I been having fun with it ever since. It's cool to upload my route to a map, then look at Finn's route with all his minor diversions after small, fast moving critters. (The system is designed for hunters and their hunting dogs. But it works just as well for those of us who love to take our dogs along with us running, mountain biking, hiking, walking, on vacation...wherever you want to safely let your dog roam off leash.)
I don't want to spoil things; you'll have to read the full article when it comes out in the September/October 2012 issue of The Bark.
In the meantime, because many of the trail running photos I'll post here of Finn will have him wearing the Garmin DC40 collar - with one of its antennae sticking up over his neck, making him look like a big bug as it transmits his information to my handheld Astro 320 unit - I thought I'd better offer an explanation.
I love running, especially running with dogs.
I love writing, especially writing about dogs, and most especially writing about running with dogs.
How lucky am I, then, to be able to combine all my loves into an upcoming article for The Bark Magazine?
It's about using the latest GPS technology to record all sorts of fun data - Finn's and my own - while we're out running trails.There are many GPS dog tracking units on the market. However, most only tell you where your dog is at a moment in time, e.g. if he's lost. They don't record his distance, speed, elevation change, time spent moving or stopping, and all the other variables we running geeks love to know about our runs. I discovered that Garmin is one of the few companies that makes a dog GPS system that collects all that data. I contacted Garmin and asked if I could try their Astro 320 for a Bark Magazine article. They were happy to supply me with one, and boy have I been having fun with it ever since. It's cool to upload my route to a map, then look at Finn's route with all his minor diversions after small, fast moving critters. (The system is designed for hunters and their hunting dogs. But it works just as well for those of us who love to take our dogs along with us running, mountain biking, hiking, walking, on vacation...wherever you want to safely let your dog roam off leash.)
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| Finn wearing his Garmin DC40 collar; the GPS antenna is the curved black casing. The purple loop is my own addition, something to quickly grasp or attach a leash to. |
I don't want to spoil things; you'll have to read the full article when it comes out in the September/October 2012 issue of The Bark.
In the meantime, because many of the trail running photos I'll post here of Finn will have him wearing the Garmin DC40 collar - with one of its antennae sticking up over his neck, making him look like a big bug as it transmits his information to my handheld Astro 320 unit - I thought I'd better offer an explanation.
 |
| Here you see the rest of the orange DC40 collar, with the longer, thin VHF antenna riding over Finn's neck, casting a shadow behind his ear. |