The new Collar 5 features 48hrs of battery life with just a 1hr quick charge! That is an incredible improvement that makes using the Collar 5 just better. One of the more cumbersome things about the previous Halo Collars was the relatively short battery life and long charge times. Lets face it, there are so many things to remember to plug in these days that the quick charge is huge. It just makes life so much easier. You can toss your Collar on the charger just before you take a hike or top it off in the car on the ride. But that isn’t all, lets take a closer look at the Collar 5 GPS tracking and training collar.
Key Improvements
- Improved GPS with 20 location updates per second
- Also AlwaysOn GPS
- Dedicated individual Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signal chips for better results
- 48 Hours Battery Life
Improved Performance with AlwaysOn GPS
What stands out from this latest version of the Halo Collar is the improved GPS tracking performance. The Collar 5 features dedicated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signal chips for better tracking results and the improvement is real. With 20 GPS-based location updates per second the Collar 5 leans on Artificial Intelligence powered signal processing to provides quicker more accurate location updates. Even without a WiFi or Bluetooth connection the Collar 5 defaults to cell signal to provide seamless tracking. Cell signal tracking leans on whatever network is present worldwide. So you don’t have to be a customer of that cellular service on your phone, this has to do with connectivity that you pay for through you subscription on the monthly.
Click here to skip to the Halo subscription info.
Halo Collar has provided us with the Collar 5 so that we could provide hands on review coverage of the GPS tracking dog collar and our experience with the hardware to our readers.
Better Battery Life
Further improving the battery life of the Halo Collar is essential for convenient use. It’s no fun grabbing your Dogs tracking collar and realizing it’s dead and having to wait hours for it to charge up. From 30 hours to 48 hours, 2 days worth makes it much more convenient in real world usage. Life is busy and you’ll probably still let it run down and die regularly, but what’s nice is that this thing will fully charge up in just 1 hour. In a pinch you can grab some good battery life from 20-30 mins or even top it off on your drive if you’re traveling for a hike or trip etc.
Even with the increased communication of 20 location updates per second the Collar 5 still manages to increase battery life to 48hrs.
Activity Tracking
The improved tracking on the Collar 5 provides additional benefits like documenting your dogs behavior. The app will tell you have often your pooch stayed or didn’t stay within the boundaries of your virtual fence. You can also track how active he or she is; how long did they walk around, or just lay down. Additionally the app will tally how many times you or the AI gave feedback to the dog through the collar; Warning, Boundary, Emergency, Whistle, Custom 1 and 2. As you walk your doggie you can also enter that into your activity statistic to add that metric to your dogs overall statistics to get a better overhead view.
Training
With the improved connectivity, this makes this Collar much more effective as a training device over previous versions. Everything works much more consistently with the constant updates, AI, dedicated Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chips and lets not forget cellular connection. When you lose connectivity due to range, that’s where the cellular connection kicks in. This keeps your tracking pretty solid. What this translates to is consistent connectivity so the AI can send the Collar 5 feedback responses for behavior in/out of your Virtual Fence.
The virtual fence sends automatic messages of Encouragement and Prevention based on the dogs proximity to the fence. The sounds plays directly from the Halo Collar. But when you’re training the dog you can also send him audible cues manually via 6 preset buttons that you assign. There can be slight delays sending commands when on the Halo 5 Collar is leaning on just the cellular connection.
You get a batch of prefabricated responses to choose from like “good boy, good girl, whistle, kiss” etc. The 2 custom buttons just say Custom 1 and Custom 2 on the front end of the app. It would be nice if they could display the action you assigned on the button the same way it shows on the setup screen when you’re assigning sounds. I have to keep looking back or just test what sound I have assigned there to remember.
The Sub
Unfortunately there isn’t much that is connected that doesn’t carry a monthly subscription cost with it. With the AlwaysOn tracking, cellular connection is a necessary evil. You can opt to go to a Apple tag style tracker but you’re relying on the fact that there are iPhone users with Bluetooth turned on within proximity to provide any network tracking updates. So if you’re off on a hike or out in more of a rural area, this may not be such a helpful alternative. Your subscription pays for your Collar 5s cellular connectivity.
“automatic network switching on most cellular providers (AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile, and dozens more worldwide), so you can have continuous GPS with real-time location tracking and alerts.”
The bronze level at $9.99 a month gives you what you need to track your pooch. If you pay 1 year $8.49 ($101.90 annually) and 2 years at $7.99/mo ($191.81 bi-annually). There are also Silver and Gold tiers that give you some extras but we just don’t feel there’s a whole lot more value there except maybe the Q&A sessions. You should be aware that the Q&A sessions are done on a pick and pluck question basis, meaning you cannot ask questions live, just watch the responses from questions that Halo users submit, but are selected by the Halo team to answer. Cesar Milan does seem to make periodic appearances through videos but there’s no direct interaction with Cesar that we have seen.
What’s in the box
Comes with the Collar 5, Fabric sleeve of your color choice (Sunburst, Midnight, Orchid, Graphite, Blaze), USB-C to USB-C charge cable, magnetic charging adapter, Contact blanks and tips (for static collar feedback), Clipper and crimper tool, with metal ends to custom fit the Collar 5. The Collar 5 device isn’t cheap and at this price point I’d love to see the indoor beacon included again. It was included with the Collar 3 but not the Collar 4/Collar 5. Fits dogs 8″ to 30″ in size.
Sizing
While the Collar 5 is better with the segmented design it still slightly bulky for him but for that reason we don’t typically keep it on him full time when he is inside. Physically it hasn’t changed from the Collar 4. Large dogs probably won’t notice much, Medium sized dogs we like to keep on an as needed basis. Depending on how medium your dog is, it is reasonable to keep it on him full time if he’s one of those outside doggies. However for really small dogs, I’m not sure that the Collar 5 will be very comfortable.
Co-Founded by Cesar Milan & Positive Reinforcement
If you’ve never watched Cesar in action, it’s a must. Cesar is the real deal. At some point the thought passes through your mind that he’s found the mathematical formula and just goes through the motions with all the dogs; but there are so many curve balls that get thrown his way, and Cesar is able to train even the most stubborn of pooches. His dog whisperer abilities are quite uncanny and it’s quite amazing to watch. There’s definitely something to it, positive reinforcement over negative. This is oversimplified but it seems to work.
Keep in mind, that the problem is not the pooch, it’s YOU! Your dog wants discipline, and it doesn’t mean you have to bring it to a military level. What Cesar promotes is positive reinforcement and consistency. Through repetition your puppy can learn quickly. Puppies want to listen and be rewarded, they really do. So take the opposite angle, instead of getting upset at him/her for behaving badly, reward those good behaviors. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar!
Wrapping Up
Adding a fence to your yard isn’t very cheap to do, especially lately with all the inflation and shrinkflation. Halo’s Collar 5 lets you create a virtual fence that you can take with you wherever you go. Improved 48 hour battery life, IP67 waterproof, 1hr quick charge and lets not forget the 20 location updates per second that vastly improves tracking makes the new Halo Collar 5 one of the best consumer level GPS dog collars around. If you’ve got a runner, this is fantastic to track him with.
You can purchase this directly from halocollar.com or Amazon.com, Chewy.com, Walmart.com, Best Buy and Scheels.
$599 Halo Collar 5
