Quick Answer: The Wagz Freedom Smart Dog Collar is discontinued — Wagz Inc. shut down in August 2022 and deactivated the cloud servers the collar needs to function, so every unit stopped working within 24-48 hours, per the company’s own notice to customers. Listings for it still surface on Amazon, eBay, and Walmart marketplace pages in 2026, but buying one gets you a non-functional device with no support and, per multiple Better Business Bureau complaints, no reliable refund path. If you want the shock-free fence-plus-GPS combo Wagz promised, the Halo Collar 5 is the closest working alternative from a company still shipping and supporting hardware.
Wagz launched the Freedom Smart Dog Collar as a shock-free alternative to traditional invisible fences — a single collar that combined app-drawn virtual boundaries, GPS location, and activity tracking, correcting a dog with vibration and tone instead of static shock. It’s still one of the more frequently searched smart-collar names, because secondhand and old-stock listings keep circulating years after the company disappeared. Here’s what actually happened, and what to buy instead if the original pitch still appeals to you.
Wagz by the numbers
- Wagz Inc. ceased operations in August 2022 and notified customers it could “no longer support the Wagz product and services,” shutting down cloud access within 24-48 hours of the announcement.
- The Freedom collar listed for roughly $200 at hardware, plus a $10/month subscription for GPS tracking, per pre-shutdown retail listings — costs that are now moot since the service no longer exists.
- The collar had zero offline functionality: fencing, GPS, and activity tracking all routed through Wagz’s own servers, so there was no local fallback mode when the company went dark.
- Buyers who purchased a collar close to the shutdown reported refusal of refunds and no response to email or phone contact, according to complaints logged with the Better Business Bureau.
Wagz vs the alternatives that still work
| Product | Status | Fence type | Subscription | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wagz Freedom Collar | Discontinued 2022 | App-drawn (dead) | N/A — servers offline | N/A |
| Halo Collar 5 | Active | App-drawn GPS + training | Required, from $110/yr | ~$524 |
| SpotOn GPS Fence | Active | Walk-the-perimeter GPS | Not required | ~$999 |
| Tractive GPS DOG 6 | Active | No fence, tracking only | From ~$5/mo | ~$50 |
What happened to Wagz
Wagz Freedom Smart Dog Collar — Discontinued
- Wagz sent a shutdown notice to customers in August 2022 citing its financial status, and deactivated the cloud backend the collar depended on within 24-48 hours.
- The collar had no offline mode — GPS, virtual fencing, and app control all required a live connection to Wagz's own servers, so the shutdown bricked every unit regardless of hardware condition.
- Listings for the collar still appear on Amazon, eBay, and Walmart marketplace pages in 2026, sold as old stock or by resellers unaware — or not disclosing — that the product no longer works.
- Multiple purchasers reported being refused refunds and getting no response from the company after the shutdown, per complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau.
If a marketplace listing still shows “Wagz Freedom Smart Dog Collar” as available, don’t buy it — there is no way to make it function again, and the company is not answering support requests to refund it. The lesson generalizes beyond this one product: a smart collar that requires the maker’s cloud servers is only as durable as that company’s business.
Why the shutdown bricked every collar
Most GPS collars still on the market — Halo, Tractive, Fi — also depend on a manufacturer’s backend to report live location, so in principle any of them could face the same risk if the company behind it folded. Wagz’s fence feature made the exposure worse than a typical tracker’s, though: the virtual boundary itself, not just the location updates, lived entirely in the app and the cloud, with no local processing on the collar. When the servers went dark, dogs that had been safely contained by a Wagz fence lost that protection instantly and without warning, on top of losing GPS tracking.
What to buy instead
Get your replacement collar delivered before the weekend instead of waiting on a slow shipment — try Amazon Prime free for 30 days and most trackers and fences in this category arrive in two days.
For the same shock-free fence-and-GPS combo Wagz promised, the Halo Collar 5 ($524, per Halo) is the closest active match — app-drawn virtual fences, live GPS tracking, and built-in training, backed by a company that’s been shipping and supporting collars since 2020. If a no-subscription fence matters more than an app, SpotOn ($999) uses a walk-the-perimeter GPS boundary with no required monthly fee, so there’s no ongoing service to lose if the company ever slows down. If you just want reliable tracking without a fence, Tractive (~$50 hardware, from ~$5/month) is the cheapest cellular option, and see our full best GPS collar for dogs roundup for the complete field.
Halo Collar 5
- App-drawn wireless fences plus live GPS tracking in one collar, the same core pitch Wagz made.
- Active company support and a required Pack Membership from $110/year — the ongoing cost that keeps the servers running.
- Full breakdown in our Halo Collar 5 review.
The bottom line
The Wagz Freedom Smart Dog Collar is not a product you can buy today, no matter what a marketplace listing says — Wagz Inc. shut down in 2022, its servers are gone, and there’s no fix for a collar that depended entirely on them. If you already searched for Wagz because the shock-free fence-plus-GPS pitch appealed to you, that idea is still sound; it’s just built by other companies now. Start with our Halo Collar 5 review for the closest active match, or see the full best GPS collar for dogs guide to compare every option still standing.