Your Garmin Alpha already tracks your dog. We call you the moment he leaves the property.

Garmin Alpha handhelds do not call or text your phone when a dog leaves an area. Fence Alerter adds that: you draw a virtual fence on a satellite map, and when your dog's GPS collar reports a position outside it, we text you, call you a minute later, then text and call each of your other numbers, one minute apart, until you acknowledge. The handheld keeps tracking exactly as before.

Yes. Fence Alerter relays the collar positions from your Garmin handheld to a live map you can open on any phone, tablet or computer, with a trail of where your dog has been for the last minute up to 24 hours. There is no app to install on the phone; it is a website that works on iPhone and Android.

Handhelds: Alpha 200, 200i, 200 Plus, 300 and 300i, using Garmin's BaseStation mode over USB (Mass Storage Mode set to Prompted, answer No to "Use media transfer?"). Collars: every TT and T series collar the handheld tracks, including TT 25, TT 15X, TT 15, T 20, T 5X and T 5, up to 20 dogs per account. We have tested the Alpha 200 and 300 series. The Alpha 100 and the Astro 320, 430 and 900 also have a BaseStation mode and may work, but we have not verified them yet. The Alpha 10 has no BaseStation mode and cannot work. The PC must run Windows 10 or 11; Mac, Linux and phone-only setups are not supported.

Yes. Any collar the handheld tracks shows up in Fence Alerter, because we read positions from the handheld rather than from the collar directly. Update speed follows the rate you set on the handheld, from 2.5 seconds to 2 minutes.

Yes. We call and text numbers in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Pick your country when you enter a phone number. Alert numbers outside the US and Canada add $2 a month to the plan, because international calls and texts cost us several times more to deliver; the map, the fence, the alerts and the free trial are identical. The Windows client and your Garmin handheld work anywhere. If your country is not listed yet, sign up and send a note from Settings > Support; we add countries as our carrier can deliver reliably there.

You are told right away. Fence Alerter expects a position from the collar every few seconds. If the collar goes silent, the handheld is unplugged or turned off, the PC dies or falls asleep, or the internet drops, we text you and call you a minute later, so you never assume the fence is watching when it is not. When it comes back you get a text saying tracking has resumed.

Yes. The handheld plugs into a Windows 10 or 11 PC (a small always-on mini PC or an old laptop is fine) and the Fence Alerter client runs in the background. If the PC or handheld goes offline, we text you and call you a minute later so you know tracking has stopped, and text again when it is back.

Any place you can leave a Windows PC and the handheld. Common setups are a kennel building, a hunting camp, a farm shop or the house, with the fence drawn around the property, the kennel yard or the training field.

Positions arrive as fast as your collar reports, 2.5 seconds to 2 minutes. The first reading at least 20 ft past the fence, after we filter GPS jumps, triggers a text, a call a minute later, then a text and call to each of your other numbers and back to the first, one minute apart, until you press 1 on the call or reply OK, with reminder texts at 15 and 30 minutes and hourly up to 6 hours while the dog is still out. At the 2.5 second rate the call is placed within about 10 seconds of the first outside reading; how fast it rings depends on your phone network. You can also set a warning distance to be told when your dog gets near the line.

No. The Fence Alerter client cannot send training commands. It is technically incapable of it, not just configured not to, and it only reads position data from the handheld.

No. Fence Alerter is an independent product from Wiregrass Property Management LLC and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Garmin. Garmin and Alpha are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. It works alongside your Garmin equipment without changing it.

Encrypted from your PC to the Fence Alerter servers. Position history is kept for 30 days for your own review and then deleted. We do not sell data. See the Privacy Policy for details.

A Halo collar is a new $549 to $599 device for every dog plus a required membership per collar. Fence Alerter uses the Garmin collars and handheld you already own, so there is no hardware to buy: $9.99 a month for the first dog and $4.99 for each additional dog. For one dog that is about $120 a year against roughly $670 or more in the first year with a new smart collar. Halo is a trademark of Halo Collar, Inc.; Fence Alerter is not affiliated with Halo.

Order the Fence Alerter Relay: a small box with its own cellular connection that does the job of the PC. Plug in power and the handheld, and you are running. It costs $99 one time plus $10 a month for its cellular service, billed with your subscription. Request one from Settings > Support in your portal.