Pepper's new collar has been doing its job. Well, Pepper has been responding, it's not just the collar. Today (Tuesday), Pepper's feedback response rating is 90%. We're so proud!
Monday was stressfull for Farmer H. You'd think he was a proud new papa, from the way he carried on about Pepper. It started with a text at 11:58.
"Have you seen pepper says he was out of satellite area"
"I'll look out. Says battery is low."
We check on the phone app randomly, to see if Pepper has breached the fence, or where he might be on the property. I saw that the battery symbol showed an hour left. That was unusual. It's usually got 36 hours with a full charge. We take the collar off every evening, and charge it for an hour. It shouldn't have been so low at noon.
I went to the kitchen door and called Pepper. Jack came wriggling around the corner, thrilled to see me. He got pats while I waited on Pepper. The last location had been out in the Shackytown Boulevard area. I don't know if Pepper came from there, or out by the carport. But he DID come running. Both dogs got a treat, and I took off Pepper's collar for charging. I sent Farmer H a text so he knew that all was well.
We are not happy with that collar battery! THIS TIME, we think it might have been the slow internet on Sunday. Maybe the collar kept trying to connect, and when it couldn't hold the signal, it switched to the GPS signal. Which also wasn't strong, because of clouds.
Right now, it's 2:19, and the collar shows 9 hours left. We charge it around 4:00, so that's fine. It also has a strong wi-fi and GPS signal at the moment. Pepper is out behind the garage.
I know Farmer H has been checking on Pepper all day. He said he was going to keep an eye on the battery life. I tried to tell him that it's not the end of the world if the battery goes dead. Pepper doesn't know it's dead. Pepper still remembers getting shocks. He's likely to avoid those areas. And even IF he would leave our fence area, he won't go far. The worst that could happen, I imagine, is that he goes to the neighbor's house, where he may or may not make their dogs bark, and may or may not be seen by them. It's not like Pepper is a wandering Scarlett.
Disappointing about the collar battery, but by now at least Pepper knows his limits, or most of them.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
DeleteI guess the collar people think dog parents bring their precious pets in every night to sleep, and don't have a problem with charging the collar. It's not like you can get a second collar or battery without BUYING a whole collar. For $500! I'd think this might be a problem for farmers who use these collars on herding or guard dogs who roam MANY more acres than Pepper. Of course they have to feed the dog, but I don't know how they can take an hour to charge the collar every 36 hours. They might have several collars, and just switch them out. Multiple collars are cheaper than paying a person to do the dog's job!
Never a dull moment!
ReplyDeletejj,
DeleteThat's for sure!
From my experience Farmers whose dogs are trained for herding and guarding also have them trained to stay in the home paddock when not working, that's what is was like when I briefly worked on a sheep station anyway. These days much of the herding is done by motorbike.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
DeleteI can't imagine how to train a dog to stay within the boundaries of a large ranch. According to the Halo 5 Collar info, the maximum size of a fence could be:
Maximum total area: About 3,156 sq. kilometers (over 1,200 sq. miles or 780,000 acres)
I can't wrap my head around driving a dog to each part of the boundary to train him, when a collar would do it quicker.