My wife has been looking at "dog tracking" for our 2 dogs, however everything out there requires a monthly subscription. We do not want huge range and a cell tower connection.

A simple solution using Tiny Circuits would be to use a CPU board, GPS module and the low frequency board as it can do up to 1/2 mile (depending on obstacles, humidity etc..). The device would only send (less power usage). It would sleep for a period of time, read the gps and fire out the Lat/Long string.

On the other side, another CPU board with radio board in listen mode could send the received data via a BLE board to an Android phone which would parse the string and plunk the location onto a map.

Only risk is battery life on the "dog" unit, so a low duty cycle and send only would be necessary, and no UI to push.