Garmin Alpha question

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Bears76
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Garmin Alpha question

Post by Bears76 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:22 pm

I’m looking at buying the Alpha how does everyone like it and is it easy to use?
Thank you

mgrucker
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by mgrucker » Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:09 am

It's a painful purchase, especially if you have more than one dog, but now that I have it I really like it.

If you've ever used a Garmin handheld GPS it's exactly the same menus and functionality with the addition of the dog features. There are three physical buttons for the training feature that can be programmed however you want. There is no wheel to adjust stimulation level, that's a touchscreen +/- button that pops up once you press a physical button. I don't view it has a great training collar, it's too difficult to adjust quickly.

How I use mine, with two dogs, is I have 1 button set to continuous stimulation for one dog and another set for continuous stimulation for the other dog and that's it. You can make multiple pages of button configurations and scroll through them but I don't want to have to look at the screen to go through menus. All I need is the very low stimulation to get their attention and I can do that by feel by knowing which button is which dog, nothing fancy. If needed I could then ramp up the level of the dog I am stimulating using the touchscreen.

The GPS tracking part is really cool. I usually leave it on the compass view which just has a line pointing in the direction of each dog and shows their distance. Switching to the map to check trails or borders is easy, there is a toggle in the corner that flips between map and compass view.

One complaint I have is that the regular TT15 collar is absurdly large and I constantly had problems with it rotating on my dogs neck and tearing him up. This year I've switched to the TT15 mini collars and am much happier with them. I was up in northern Minnesota grouse hunting this weekend in thick woods and had no issues with the mini's GPS reception even though the transmitter is more on the side of their neck vs on the top with the full size collar. For reference here my larger dog is a 65lb pudelpointer.

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Settertude
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by Settertude » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:39 am

Pretty much what Mg said.
I have two collars and use it as was described. I would not want to be without it. It reduces stress over a dog that can't be seen and is a safety tool as well.
Its very easy to use...just study it up some.

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gonehuntin'
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by gonehuntin' » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:56 am

It is a difficult accessory to master to be sure. If you are running two dog's, you have to toggle between the two then hit the right correction button. If you want to up the intensity, it's a major deal with gloves on and slow.

In my view, it's a great hunting collar if your dog's are mostly trained.

It is a horrible training collar.

I have mine set to continuous on the first two buttons, one on 2 low the other 3 medium. Third button is tone which I use in place of a whistle for silence in hunting.

As per usual, Garmin's instructions on using it suck the big one. They say to change levels to hit the PLUS sign under each button, then change. There is no PLUS sign. Took me an hour to figure out I had to swipe down from the button with my finger to open the menu and get the plus sign. One lousy, stinkin' sentence was all they had to add to the instructions.

Other problem is the rechargeable batteries. Kind of. Garmin doesn't offer a charger for the Alpha unit battery. I have three batteries for it so have to tie up the Alpha hand held to charge a battery. I'm going to Batteries Plus to see if they can help me with that one.

I'm 73 and the other problem is the small writting on it. Wouldn't bother a young buck, drives me nuts.

Now I've vented and all that being said, It's a good unit for a hunter.

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Settertude
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by Settertude » Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:44 am

Hey gonehunting...maybe I can clear part of this up for you.
You can easily assign one of the buttons for a particular dog.
First 'Add a Dog'
Then hit 'Setup''.
Then 'Training'
Then 'Training Buttons'
Then 'Change Mode'
Select the + sign under the key you want to assign a dog to.
Select the dog for that correction key.
From there you can choose correction type and intensity.

Do the same for the other button, but remember you have to have already added a dog.

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gonehuntin'
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by gonehuntin' » Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:55 am

Thanks Settertude, I realize that. But if I have ONE button for each dog, I can only use one level of stim and tone for one dog.

I prefer having one dog listed and having two levels of stim + the tone for that dog. I think that's what you're saying. My biggest problem came finding the + sign. Nothing in the instructions said you had to swipe down to get to the plus sign. Grrrrrrrr.

Thank You. Us old guys need all the help we can get. Now, if you know how to make the letters bigger............

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Settertude
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by Settertude » Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:37 am

Yup---you can do that, but then you have to switch dogs. I use it in the manner I described...a button for each dog and then the middle one assigned to one of the two dogs as I see fit at the time.

Pedro
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by Pedro » Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:52 pm

I run two collars. Astro and an e-collar. Not for everyone, but works for me.

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fishpond
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by fishpond » Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:55 pm

Pedro wrote:I run two collars. Astro and an e-collar. Not for everyone, but works for me.
+1

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mtlhdr
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by mtlhdr » Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:05 pm

fishpond wrote:
Pedro wrote:I run two collars. Astro and an e-collar. Not for everyone, but works for me.
+1
+2

reba
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by reba » Thu Sep 20, 2018 2:08 pm

Bears76 wrote:I’m looking at buying the Alpha how does everyone like it and is it easy to use?
Thank you
If you have big running dogs in ruff terrain it is the BEST.

In the beginning it can be complex to use, (to many nerdy functions).

Some folks don't seem to know how to adjust the training stimulation function.

I have had mine since they first came out. Updates are easy to do online.

If you want really simple the Garmin Pro 550 PLUS may be better for you. I reviewed it, but it just didn't have some functions I want.

birddogger2
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by birddogger2 » Fri Sep 21, 2018 2:24 pm

Since I compete with my dogs, I use the Astro as a GPS and a separate e-collar for training.

However, if I hunted more, I could seriously be interested in the newer Garmin 550 plus(??) which has the e-collar features of the 550 and the locator arrow of the Astro on a small screen.

I have never really used most of the features on the Astro, like tracks and maps and average speed and such. When I look at the screen I need to know where the dog is, which way he is going and that is about it.


To me the bells and whistles are an irrelevance and an annoyance most of the time.

I guess I'm being an old curmudgeon, but in reality I have always disliked having to go through menus of useless(to me) nonsense to get to the thing I do need. I want my devices to be simple and straightforward to use and user friendly. I am a user...not a programmer.

RayG

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gonehuntin'
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by gonehuntin' » Fri Sep 21, 2018 6:40 pm

birddogger2 wrote:Since I compete with my dogs, I use the Astro as a GPS and a separate e-collar for training.

However, if I hunted more, I could seriously be interested in the newer Garmin 550 plus(??) which has the e-collar features of the 550 and the locator arrow of the Astro on a small screen.

I have never really used most of the features on the Astro, like tracks and maps and average speed and such. When I look at the screen I need to know where the dog is, which way he is going and that is about it.


To me the bells and whistles are an irrelevance and an annoyance most of the time.

I guess I'm being an old curmudgeon, but in reality I have always disliked having to go through menus of useless(to me) nonsense to get to the thing I do need. I want my devices to be simple and straightforward to use and user friendly. I am a user...not a programmer.
RayG
You're right, "Old Curmudgeon".

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gonehuntin'
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Re: Garmin Alpha question

Post by gonehuntin' » Wed Sep 26, 2018 6:35 pm

Here's some more things I have found different about the Alpha.

For it to be accurate, you MUST calibrate the compass before each use (if you've moved a long way from last calibration). If not, the unit may point 180 degrees different from the dog. Good thing is, it is very fast and easy to calibrate compared to the older 320.

I''m fairly old, 74, so I switched the lettering to LARGE lettering. Now, that's great, but when the compass comes up, you will have to sync it to the dog's or the compass won't switch from one dog on point to the other.

Be careful! Though the compass may say one dog's name, the unit will CORRECT THE DOG SHOWN AT TOP MENU, even though the compass shows a different dog.

Be very careful issuing a correction, it is VERY easy to inadvertently switch from one dog to the other and correct the wrong dog. Member Settertude had a good solution to this. He programmed two of the top two correction buttons so each button was for a different dog. Only problem with that is, you can only tone one dog if you use tone instead of whistle then have to change the dog at top. You'll have to decide which way you like better.

To program each dog, YOU HAVE TO SWIPE YOUR FINGER DOWN THE SCREEN UNDER EACH BUTTON YOU WANT TO PROGRAM. That drove me nuts becasue it doesn't say that in the instructions.

I bought an extra collar so I always have one fully charged.

I bought two extra unit batteries so I could switch if the unit was getting low on charge. About $30.00 each.

The antennas are long on the units and can't be repositioned. My dogs also wear orange collars with a large 0 ring on the back. The 0 ring always rides up on my dogs. By tucking the antenna through the 0 ring, the antenna sticks up in the air and doesn't slap the dog in the side of the face.

All in all, I really like the Alpha BUT, you DO have to concentrate on it to use it. If a senile old duffer like me can learn it, most of you should have no problem.

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