Most of my dogs have "disappeared" once in their hunting career. Always at one year of age and every time they were at the truck waiting for me to return. Time out of touch never exceeding 30 minutes tops.
The GPS collar precludes even that from happening (well at least you can watch it happen). If a dog gets mixed up and moving in the wrong direction, you can quickly get a strategy to change it. If they decide to go back to the truck, you know.
Pointing dogs especially benefit from the GPS collar since they go quiet on point and in thick and/or high cover will "disappear". Calling them off point is NOT the answer.
I have rescued a couple dogs that were lost with no owner within a mile. A young GPS ... found owner a couple miles away. A young lab ... brought to a nearby farm and they thought they knew the owner. Both were long before internet and when cell phones were just phones. Neither dog had a collar on
I always say I could forget my gun or my Garmin Astro. Forget the gun - I would just run the dogs. Forget the Astro - I am going home.
I have never used corrective (e... shock) collars on any of my Britts. The only time I have considered it was when one dog I had like to chase deer (out grew it once birds became its passion) and if I ever decided to snake train my dogs. I get why the pros use them ... very time efficient when training many dogs each day / week / year.
Hope someone honest finds this young Britt and returns her.