Putin dog’s nephew gets first sat nav collar

Russian engineers have designed a collar which will allow caring dog-lovers to track their pets using the GLONASS satellite navigation system. The first dog to put on the device is a four-year-old Labrador named Sheldon. He is the nephew of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Labrador Koni.

The dog accessory is made of expensive black leather and comes in three varieties with different battery capacities.

It’s designed to track the movement of a dog online using data supplied to he owner's pocket PC, notebook or communicator.

"We have designed the world's first tracker collar with a tiny navigation module that can receive signals from the world's two operating satellite navigation systems: Russian GLONASS and American GPS," Aleksandr Gurko, the Director General of M2M Telematics said.

The designers say mass production of the collars will not start until they're sure of demand, with each tracker costing around $ US 500. (9.11.2008) http://www.russiatoday.com/scitech/news/30254