Help me spend my money :)

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ShearMadness
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Help me spend my money :)

Post by ShearMadness » Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:13 am

Looking to get a collar and a launcher.
Which one should I spend the money on? and which one can i save money on?
Collar, do I need the beeping function? gps? How many levels?

Launcher, should I get a remote or just go manual?

Thank you.

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isonychia
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by isonychia » Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:49 am

I am old school and like my collars separate and off my phone. The most important collar is the GPS collar, I recommend Garmin Astro 430 and collar along with a single bay battery charger and chargeable AAs (inteloop bats and lacosse charger). Second on importance is the e collar, get a mile range and then find what you prefer. I like smaller controllers and I want vibrate for silent commands, no beeper so I like the sport dog 1825. Releasers, I think I have dogtra, you can make your own and save money (do a search) but I think most of the releasers are good, I like my dogtra releasers and they are at least 13 years old.

You need all 3.

cjhills
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by cjhills » Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:30 pm

You can train your dog quite nicely with neither. But a ecollar is a huge help as is a launcher. I would buy a garmin tritronics on the low priced side. You do not really need nick or vibrate. You also do not need a ton of settings. The Garmin Tritronics field 70 has 6 and a tone. I never use the tone.This collar sells for $300. The cheaper Garmin transmitters (I think they are called Sportman, Not sure of that) function very well.
A manual launcher is a bit of a pain and you are as well off with a kick cages that you can buy for a lot less money. You can Also Dizzy the birds use neither. The problem is keeping the young dog from jumping in on the bird.
Just so you are aware the Astro 430 is not a training collar and the only value in training is to locate your dog or your vehicle. Most people on here train a lot of dogs without a tracking collar.
You can buy both alauncher and A e collar for the cost of a Astro. Train a good recall and you will be good to go..........Cj
Last edited by cjhills on Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

athomas16
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by athomas16 » Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:57 pm

This is a crazy price for a Dogtra Remote Release Deluxe Remote Receiver and Transmiter. $175 and free shipping.

https://www.homegoodscenter.com/collections/dogtra

cjhills
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by cjhills » Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:21 pm

athomas16 wrote:This is a crazy price for a Dogtra Remote Release Deluxe Remote Receiver and Transmiter. $175 and free shipping.

https://www.homegoodscenter.com/collections/dogtra
You are aware that does not include a launcher........Cj

ShearMadness
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by ShearMadness » Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:31 pm

Thank you so far.
Tell me more about the bells and whistles of the Collars. Do I "need" them. Or at least really nice to have. I'm on the east coast and I don't think my dog will be ranging too far.

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gonehuntin'
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by gonehuntin' » Tue Mar 06, 2018 6:10 pm

A collar may someday save your dog's life. A launcher wont'. Nice to have both but if you can have only one, it's a collar hands down.
LIFE WITHOUT BIRD DOGS AND FLY RODS REALLY ISN'T LIFE AT ALL.

RayGubernat
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by RayGubernat » Wed Mar 07, 2018 2:09 pm

As far as e-collars are concerned, my thinking is that you "need" only continuous stim with about 6 levels, from very slight to max. momentary stim capability is nice, but can be approximated by quickly pressing and releasing the button. I actually use the momentary stim on my unit much more often than I use continuous, but that is just what I have gotten used to.

Tone and/or vibrate functions are also nice and give the trainer options, but, again, are not absolutely necessary.

As far as range is concerned, it is well to remember that the MAX range" advertised for these units is line of sight in open terrain. Lumpy terrain or heavy cover will absolutely reduce the effective range of these devices. I suggest a one mile range(or more) for most pointy type bird dogs. As it is, even with that range, they can get out of sight in just a few seconds in cover and can get out of range... especially if they are haulin' butt after a deer, in perhaps another thirty to sixty seconds, again depending on the terrain and cover.

I also like separate GPS and e-collar units. If the battery on a combo unit croaks...you got zilch.

RayG

CZfan107
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by CZfan107 » Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:05 pm

cjhills wrote:
athomas16 wrote:This is a crazy price for a Dogtra Remote Release Deluxe Remote Receiver and Transmiter. $175 and free shipping.

https://www.homegoodscenter.com/collections/dogtra
You are aware that does not include a launcher........Cj



https://www.bbb.org/central-california- ... complaints

Warrior372
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Re: Help me spend my money :)

Post by Warrior372 » Thu Mar 08, 2018 1:46 pm

I use a Garmin Alpha along with a Dogtra T&B 2500. I also like running separate tracking and correction / recall collars - I use the beep on the Dogtra for recall - for the sake of redundancy. Garmin and SportDog also make nice dual purpose correction / recall collars with 3/4 - 1 mile range and either a beep or vibrate function. I am lucky enough to live a short 15-30 minute walk from wild quail and huns, so I have no input on launchers. I can tell you that I use the Dogtra on my Brittany 4-5x per week and have for 1.5 years and the thing has never given me a problem - it gets wet and muddy pretty much every time I use it and I simply rinse it off after each use. Based on the durability of it and the fact Dogtra makes launchers, I would gladly buy a Dogtra launcher if I was in the market for one.

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