Why You Can Trust CNET Halo Announces Its Third-Gen GPS Dog Collar With AI Smarts, and My Dog Loves It
Keep your dog close even when you're away from home with this wireless fence collar.
- 6 years working professionally in the 3D printing space / 4 years testing consumer electronics for large websites.
Keeping your dog safe when they're out in the yard is an important part of dog ownership. For a lot of people, that job is made harder by a lack of fencing around their properties. Traditional invisible fencing requires you to dig wires into the ground around your home to act as a barrier that your dog's collar can detect, but it can be labor-intensive and only works in one place.
Halo makes a different style of invisible fence using a GPS-tracked dog collar to keep your dog within a set boundary. Today, the company announced the next generation of its Halo GPS collar, the Halo 3 for $699. I've been using it for a few months and it's been pretty great.
Indiana Bones is beautiful and deserves to be free to run.
As you can see from this photo, I have the most beautiful dog in the world. Indiana Bones loves to run and our yard is plenty big enough for him to do that. Unfortunately, we live in a homeowners' association that doesn't allow fences along the edge of the golf course, so he can't be allowed to roam free. When we first moved in, Indy had to have a 10-foot tether to keep him safe, which didn't allow him much freedom.
The Halo 3 allowed me to draw a border around my home, including the front and side yards, so he could move around and run like he was supposed to. The Halo 3 uses just about every type of wireless system you can imagine, including Wi-Fi, GPS and universal cellular connectivity to keep constant track of where the collar -- and by extension your companion -- is at any given moment.
This also works away from home, so when we go to our local campground, we can create a virtual fence around our site and keep Indy in there, too. This feature alone makes it far more versatile than any invisible fence that requires wires. And, because everything has some machine learning in it now, the Halo 3 uses AI to detect false GPS signals caused by reflection to give a more accurate reading.
Look at his little white booties! Oh, and the Halo collar is nice with a yellow cover.
When it comes to using the Halo on a daily basis, some training is required, for both your dog and you. Once you've signed into the app, Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer himself, helps take you through the steps to get your dog trained on recognizing the signals given by the collar -- beeps, vibrations and gentle taps, not shocks -- and knowing when to turn away from the GPS barrier. The training took longer than I thought; Indy struggled for a couple of weeks to get the hang of it, but once he got into the rhythm he started using the full space allotted for him.
The collar is supposed to have a 20-hour battery life, but I found that to be a little less depending on how good the signal was. If the collar was constantly searching for a signal it lost a few hours of battery. It also means you don't want the collar to be on your dog all day. I have it hung up near the back door so when it's time to go out and play I can turn it on and put it on him. It lasts several days that way.
Both Indiana Bones and myself have enjoyed using the Halo 3 and if you're looking for a way to keep your dog safe, but free to play, it's a good choice. Note, however, you do need a subscription to the Halo service to get the most out of your collar. Prices start at $6 a month, so you'll need to factor that into your budget when looking for a good fence system.
The Halo 3 is available on Sept. 1, from the Halo website, for $699.