Getting Feedback While Inside the Safe Zone

The only feedback your SkyShepherd collar should give while inside the Safe Zone is the Safe Tone (when enabled). If you are getting alert-zone feedback, such as vibration or e-stim, while you are in the Safe Zone, check the following:

• How close are you to an alert zone?
  • If you are within 10-15 feet of where you defined your alert zones to be, this could be normal GPS variability. If will cause a problem for regular use, adjust your boundary outward, if possible, to accommodate this area, or adjust your boundary to exclude the trouble-spot.
• Have you made a valid boundary/is the boundary corrupted?
  • Sometimes, if you make a boundary that crosses over itself, is too small, too narrow, or something similar, you can create an invalid boundary. Essentially, either a portion, or the whole of your boundary has been created either too small, or without a Safe Zone. In that case, whether for lack of sufficient space, or due to a boundary creation issue, you won't be able to use that boundary.
    • If you think you made an area cross over itself or too small/narrow, you can adjust the boundary. If you seem to have a big enough boundary, with no narrow areas, small pockets, or pinch-points, then try turning "Smoothing" off within the app.
    • If the boundary appears not to have any Safe Zone where there should be Safe Zone (the green colored portion), then you should delete the boundary and create a new one. This is also a good test to see if a boundary has been corrupted.
• Are you under dense tree cover, and/or in an environment that creates a steep bowl/canyon?
  • Dense tree cover will affect SkyShepherd's location accuracy.
    • If you have a big enough area to contain, this may not be an issue, because your dog doesn't necessarily know where the exact boundary lies, it just listens to SkyShepherd's feedback (after you've completed training) and uses that guidance. This is the reason you can bring SkyShepherd to other places and have your dog learn a new boundary relatively quickly. They don't know the new boundary in full, but they listen to guidance/feedback from the collar.
    • If this will be an issue for you, contact us and we may be able to help you by looking together at the boundary you want to create and seeing what is feasible. If nothing is feasible, we can address requests to return your device and issue a refund.
  • Steep canyon shapes can cause a factor called multi-path, which may push your collar's perceived location outward in the opposite direction of the canyon shape. This happens when terrain naturally creates a steep vertical barrier, or when next to something tall, like the side of a three-story house.
    • This may or may not be a problem, depending on how far away from an alert zone the canyon shape is. We always recommend a minimum of 50 feet of horizontal distance between any sheer, tall structure/terrain feature and the nearest intersection with First Alert Zone.
    • If you are running into a canyon-shape issue. The guidance is the same for the dense tree-cover issue. If you can, adjust your boundary outward or excise that portion of the boundary to cut off access to it.
    • If neither of those is possible, contact us for customer service help, either from right here in the help center, or by emailing support@skyshepherd.com.