How Virtual Fences help you keep your pet safe with Tractive

Virtual Fences let you set up safe areas for your pet or mark spots you want them to avoid. You’ll get an alert if your pet crosses those boundaries. With Tractive, you can set these fences up easily in the app which gives you peace of mind while letting your pet explore.

What is a Virtual Fence?

A Virtual Fence is a digital boundary you create on the Tractive map to help keep your pet safe. You get notified on your phone whenever your pet enters or leaves these zones, so you always know if your friend goes somewhere unexpected. Virtual Fences can be set up as:

• Safe Zones: Areas where it is fine for your pet to be, like your home, garden, or a favorite park
• No-Go Zones: Spots you want your pet to avoid, for example busy roads or places with wild animals

In the app, Safe Zones appear in green and No-Go Zones in red. You and anyone you have shared your tracker with will get notifications if your pet crosses a Virtual Fence boundary. This helps you act quickly if your pet wanders too far or heads into a risky area.

How do Virtual Fence notifications work?

When your pet crosses into or out of a Virtual Fence, Tractive sends an alert to your phone. Anyone who has shared access to your tracker will also receive the alerts.

Here’s what you can expect:

• In default tracking mode: Tractive checks your pet’s location about every two minutes, so you will usually get notified within a couple of minutes
• In LIVE Tracking mode: updates come every two or three seconds, so notifications are nearly instant

Troubleshooting Virtual Fence notifications

If you aren’t getting alerts or if you’re getting false notifications:

• Check notification settings in your app and device.
• Avoid overlapping fences.
• See our articles Why am I not receiving Virtual Fence notifications? or How to fix false Virtual Fence notifications for more help.

How to set up a Virtual Fence

You can create, customize, or delete Virtual Fences in the Tractive mobile app.

Steps to create a Virtual Fence:

1. From the Map, tap the plus icon in the bottom right corner.
2. Select Add Virtual Fence.
3. Choose between a Safe Zone or No-Go Zone.
4. Pick a type for your fence, such as Park, Home, or Office.
5. Customize the shape and size of your fence. See the graphic below for reference.
   • Circular fence: minimum size is 100 meters diameter (50m radius)
   • Rectangular: minimum size is 100 m²
   • Custom: the app will say if it’s too small to provide accurate notifications
6. Continue and give your fence a name.
7. Review your fence settings, then select Create to finish.

Avoid overlapping your Virtual Fences as this can reduce the accuracy of notifications.

How to deactivate, reactivate, or delete a Virtual Fence

Temporarily turn alerts off for individual fences, or delete fences you no longer need with just a few taps.

To deactivate or reactivate fences

When deactivated, you will not get alerts for that fence. You can reactivate it any time.

1. Go to Profile.
2. Under Safety & Location, go to Virtual Fences.
3. Select the fence you want to manage.
4. Next to Active, tap the switch to deactivate or reactivate.
5. Save to finish.

To delete fences

Deleting a fence will remove it from your list. You’ll have to recreate the fence to use it again.

1. Go to Profile.
2. Under Safety & Location, go to Virtual Fences.
3. Select the fence you want to delete.
4. Tap the trash icon in the top right corner.
5. Delete to confirm.