Dog GPS and two-way radios: the 2026 hunting rules

Hunting has gone digital in a few short years: dog GPS collars, two-way radios, live mapping and driven hunt apps are everyday kit on a hunting ground. Yet until the summer of 2026 the rules on electronic aids stayed tangled, and they cut hard into the use of GPS and radios during the hunt.

The order of 25 June 2026, published in the Journal officiel (Official Gazette) on 9 July, rewrites part of the order of 1 August 1986 on hunting methods and finally settles where two-way radios and dog tracking devices stand. Hunters get more room, but on strict terms: dog safety, collision prevention and whatever the departmental hunting management plan (SDGC, schema departemental de gestion cynegetique) adds on top.

For a society chairman or a hunting ground owner, the change is a chance to run safer, tidier driven hunts, as long as you know the framework and adapt how you work. This article sets out what is allowed, what is not, and what to write down.

What the new regulations say

An order that clarifies electronic aids

The order of 25 June 2026 rewrites several key passages of article 7 of the order of 1 August 1986, which governs electronic aids in hunting. The new text allows dog tracking devices outright, “solely for the purpose of locating them or ensuring their safety and preventing collisions”, subject to anything the SDGC adds.

Before 2026, in principle you could only switch the collar on after the hunt, to find the dogs or keep them safe, which left a fuzzy line between “during” and “after”. The new order wipes that line away in practice: GPS at any time, as long as it stays on safety and finding the dog, and never on finding game.

The same text redrafts the paragraph on two-way radios and adds them to the list of permitted electronic aids, while keeping the ban on using them to help catch game. The underlying logic has not changed: electronic aids are welcome for organising the hunt and keeping people safe, and banned the moment they hand the hunter a decisive advantage over the animal.

A balance between modern kit and ethics

The 2026 rules try to hold safety, efficiency and hunting ethics in balance. The State accepts that modern kit prevents accidents and lost dogs, and still protects traditional methods and fair chase.

In practice the texts always attach conditions: the use has to be about safety, it has to respect the rules on shooting and on the highway code, and it must never give direct help in catching the animal. SDGCs remain the main way to fit this national framework to each department.

Two-way radios for hunting: a clear framework at last

From partial ban to wider permission

For years departmental federations told hunters that two-way radios were allowed only on big game collective hunts, and banned on small game or fox drives. Simply carrying a radio on a small game hunt could put you in breach, even if you only ever used it to warn of danger.

The 2026 changes extend radios to every type of hunt, fox included, and keep the one rule that matters: they are for safety, coordination and running the driven hunt, never for steering a hunter onto game. So you can now put radios in the hands of your teams across the whole hunting ground, to call the start and end of a drive, flag a vehicle or a walker, or deal with an incident.

Compliant kit is not optional

On frequencies and kit, inspections are turning up more high-powered programmable UHF or VHF radios used without a licence, often bought online and liable to interfere with professional or emergency networks. To stay legal, stick to certified PMR446 sets, capped at 0.5 watts on the 446 MHz band, with a fixed antenna you cannot remove.

That keeps you inside the licence-free frequencies, with a range that suits driven hunts and wooded ground. More powerful professional sets need a licence and have to be sorted out case by case with your federation and the frequency authorities.

Practical advice for your hunting ground

• Buy clearly marked PMR446 sets and ban programmable “amateur radio” kit used without a licence.
• Write their use into your internal rules: safety, instructions, the harvest tally, but never to call out where game is.
• Teach your hunters a simple radio protocol (codes, how long to speak, which channel), so nobody talks over anyone during the drive.

Dog GPS collars: what changes in the field

A safety tool now recognised

Dog GPS collars are where the rules moved most in 2026. Until 2018, and again in 2025, the national line set out by several federations was clear: GPS after the hunt to find the dogs, or, as a tolerance, during the hunt purely to keep them safe and avoid collisions, and never to steer the hunter onto game.

Plenty of SDGCs, including several in Occitanie, went further and banned carrying or using GPS during the hunt altogether, to head off misuse: reading small game routes off the screen, hound handlers concentrating the harvest in the middle of the drive, and so on. Those texts told hunters to pick their dogs up by vehicle, firearm unloaded and cased, and shut down compass and mapping functions during the hunt.

The order of 25 June 2026 cuts through it: a hunter may use their dog’s GPS at any time to find it, keep it safe or avoid a collision, with no need to show the hunt is over. Federations keep the right, through the SDGC, to rein that in where they see abuse, above all for upland game or on sensitive hunting grounds.

One ban stays absolute: locating game

One point has not moved an inch: GPS must never be used to locate game, or to justify a shot on the grounds that mapping showed the dog on point. Using the collar to close in on an animal from its GPS position is an offence, and a heavily punished one. The texts separate two uses: protecting the dog, yes; hunting with GPS, no.

Go over the rule at the start of every season, above all with beaters and hound handlers. A clear briefing stops the practice drifting by accident and keeps the collar what it is meant to be, a safety tool rather than a source of arguments.

Good practice for GPS collars

• Set the collars up so positions read cleanly, and leave off the extras that pull the device away from its safety job.
• Say it again before every driven hunt: the mapping follows dogs, not game, and shooting from a vehicle is still banned.
• Check what your own SDGC says about GPS, in particular for small game and woodcock.

What it means for hunting societies and landowners

Three priorities for your hunting ground

For a hunting ground owner or an ACCA (municipal hunting association) chairman, the new rules are a chance to put driven hunt safety and organisation on a proper footing. At last, what happens in the field can match a legal framework people can actually read.

Three priorities stand out:

• Update your internal rules and your driven hunt protocol to cover radios and GPS collars, in line with the SDGC.
• Train hunters in good radio and GPS habits, hammering home the difference between dog safety and locating game.
• Use solid digital tools to see stands, drives and hunter positions, without piling on technology for its own sake.

Mes Chasses and running a modern driven hunt

Tools like Mes Chasses show each hunter’s GPS position live during the driven hunt, on a map of your hunting ground with the stands, safety zones and drives. The app also handles invitations, sign-ups for the day and the archive of each event, which gives you traceability and a clean record if an inspector asks.

Put that together with careful use of two-way radios and dog GPS collars and you make movements safer, cut down on dangerous moments, and can show, if there is an accident, that real measures were in place on your hunting ground.

If you run a hunting ground with several driven hunts a season, try a tool like Mes Chasses to see your stands, safety zones and teams live, within the new rules.

How to stay on the right side of the rules

Buy the right kit

• Go for certified PMR446 radios, limited power, fixed antenna, and ban programmable multiband sets used without a licence.
• Buy GPS collars from brands that make them for hunting: reliable tracking, no pointless gadgets.
• Check the kit meets European standards and will not interfere with professional or emergency networks.

Put it in writing

• Add an “electronic aids” section to your internal rules, saying what is allowed and what is not for radios, GPS, beepers and the rest.
• Cite the national texts (order of 1 August 1986 as amended, order of 25 June 2026) and your own SDGC rules.
• Say plainly that using any electronic aid to locate game is banned.

Train your hunters

• Hold at least one meeting before the season on the new rules, what they allow and what misuse costs.
• Agree a simple radio protocol (main channel, standard messages, what to do in an incident), built on what actually happens in the field.
• Make sure beaters and hound handlers know the GPS line: safety first, never game.

Use digital tools sensibly

• Mark stands, drives and safety zones clearly on IGN and cadastral base maps, as Mes Chasses does.
• Track hunters during the driven hunt to make the day safer, without drowning your teams in information they do not need.
• Keep hunt logbooks, stand diagrams and reports in one app, so you have something solid to show after an inspection or an incident.

Use the off-season to go through your stock of radios and GPS collars, replace anything non-compliant and write a protocol every hunter can read in two minutes.

Conclusion

The 2026 rules on two-way radios and dog GPS are a turning point: they accept that electronic aids help you run the hunt and protect the dogs, and they redraw a clear line between helping with safety and helping to catch game. For hunters and hunting ground owners, the job is no longer to work around rules nobody believed in, but to fit the kit properly into how you handle safety, records and compliance.

Update your rules, buy compliant kit, train your teams, and the new framework works in your favour: fewer lost dogs, fewer arguments, a more modern and responsible face to the public. Back that with tools like Mes Chasses for mapping, driven hunt management and hunter tracking, and your hunting ground gets clearer and safer while staying well inside the law.

Take half a day before next season: reread your SDGC, map your hunting ground, go through your radios and GPS, and draft a few pages of rules on electronic aids. Then pick a driven hunt and mapping tool, and let the technology work for your safety and your standing as a hunt.

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