Remember that high-tech collar worn by Astro, the talking dog on the Jetsons? Now we know what it was — a GPS from Garmin for tracking him down when he got lost in space. And now you can get one too, especially useful if you have a dog like my ol’ Lab Mocha, who delighted in disappearing in the tall grass to track down a squirrel, coyote, or foxglove (a sure sign of summer).

The Garmin Astro system includes a handheld GPS device and the DC-30 collar, which has a GPS transmitter and is weighted in such a way that the antenna always points skyward. To use it, you haul the two pieces outside, turn on the handheld and transmitter, and wait for satellite signals. Then you attach the collar to your dog and turn him or her loose.

Every few seconds, your pup’s position is transmitted to your handheld, and you can see his or her current position on the map page of your handheld. A Dog Tracker page provides current status: whether the pooch is running, sitting, on point, or bounding around the base of a tree.

If you have multiple dogs, you can track them all on a single device — up to 10 at a time — at a distance of up to seven miles away (depending on what the terrain is).

Rat Raway, Reorge!