I have about 400$ to purchase a ecollar for my dog. I am leaning towards sport dog wetland hunter but I am curious where everyone gets there hunting dog supplies. Also if you have a better option than the wetland 1825 for the same price point I would be interested to hear your suggestions. My dog is a GSP who needs a little help remembering her recall when she locks onto any birds.
Use a garmin sport pro seems to have everything on it i need power adjust nick ,beep and vibrate plus can add collars onto the same remote.My GSP responds to vibrate now as the nick only had to be used couple times.Think it was around $400 from Cabelas
Because I use my dog for upland hunting, as well a for waterfowling, I wanted an e collar that had a beeper on it,,,not to be confused with a tone function that a fair number of collars have like the model suggested above. The Garmin Sports Pro does NOT have a beeper function,,,,it has the tone function which only the dog can hear unless you happen to be within 10-15 yards of the dog.
I wanted the beep function so I could locate my dog when she was out of sight but also to call her back in from hundreds of yards away. Three beeps means the same thing to her as three sharp tweets on the whistle. The beep function is supposed to be good out to 400 yards on the model I got but I suspect that's in prairie-like terrain. I haven't heard mine from that distance so I have no way of knowing if it's even going off. I have heard it from half that distance, though, but we have more rugged terrain here in BC so the sound might not carry as well.
The beeper can also be set to go off every 8-10 seconds when she goes on point. There have been times with all three of my pointing dogs that I've owned over the years that there were times when they had gone on point ten yards away from me in heavy cover and I didn't have a clue they were that close to me. Now the beeper on her collar will tell me my dog is right under my nose when she's in cover where I can't see her.
So I bought the Dogtra 2500 B&T (Beeper and Trainer). Doesn't have a vibrate function but I find that with the setting set low I'll just use the nick button to get the same results. It also has a continues stimulation button which is great for training and corrections.
I bought the unit for $300 USD shipped to the border from a dealer. Up here in Canada they're quite a bit more even after you work in the exchange compared to US prices. If you're running two dogs then you would need the 2502 model.
Last edited by mastercaster; 02-22-2020 at 02:46 PM.
I heard that, too, Jim, maybe it was ion this site but I think Garmin has worked most if not all the kinks out of their e collar products the last couple of years. Of course that could just be the purchasers opinions. I have heard good things about the 550, though.
Just the same, I think if I didn't own a versatile and had a retriever I probably would have gotten the Dogtra RT Edge or if I wanted to go one step lower for less distance coverage, the 1900 (instead of the 2500 B&T). Heard very good things about both of them.
Thanks for all the info so far, it seems everyone has Dogtra or Garmin no one is using Sportdog? Also any good places to buy ecollars other than online I am a little old school and still like to get some customer service.
When I got my present Lab 7 years a go this June I bought a Dogtra 2300 NCP, nick, constant, page(vibrate) and it still works great. He wears that collar all the time and I can't remember the last time. Oh ya the first day of water fowling in Alberta, he was breaking when I stood up to fire at ducks in a marsh, so 2 or 3 times of no ducks coming and just making like there were, and I would stand up to fire and he broke, just nick 2 or 3 times and that was the end of the breaking for the rest of the trip. I love that collar and so does he, because when he's wearing it he knows something good is going to happen.