Gun Dog Forum

Folks I have a Vizsla who is just over a year. She is doing real well and hunting hard...my problem is if I use the beeper she shuts down and becomes a boot licker. I have ignored and she will break out partially but never really like she does without the beeper. I give her commands etc... I also have run the beeper in the house. If it was just me I would forget it but I was invited to hunt with a guy who uses beepers and she shut down when she heard it on his dogs. Did I say he has access to great land so just want to get her comfortable with it. Thanks!

Try muffling the beeper and gradually increasing the velocity. You can do this by wrapping the beeper in duct tape and taking layers off as the dog becomes more confident. I hate those "bleep" beepers.

What about the dogs hearing? I am not a beeper fan.

Why would a person use a beeper when there is gps. Hate the things. I would shut down too? I like quiet when I'm hunting.

When I had beeper collars I used them solely in "Point Only" mode for the purpose of being able to find my dogs in thick cover when they were on point. I've hunted with a couple of guys that have the beeper on all the time in the field and it drove me nuts. My guess is the reason your dog is acting adversely to the beeper is because it was not properly introduced to it. At first my dogs hated the beeper. When they were in their crate in the house I would turn the beeper on and place the collar at least 30 ft away from the dogs. I'd l eave it on for maybe 30 minutes at a time. Each day I would move the collar closer to the crates until I had the collar on top of the crate. By that time the dogs acted like it wasn't even there.

greg jacobs wrote:Why would a person use a beeper when there is gps. Hate the things. I would shut down too? I like quiet when I'm hunting.

One very good reason is that Not everybody wants to spend 700 to 1000 dollars for a GPS.
I loved beepers when I could still hear them. The dogs learned to honor each other's beepers. Hunting Frozen cattail swamps was great. I just put the beepers on and let the dogs get usedto them when they were standing still, some did not like them at first but they adjusted really quick. I also ran point only so they needed to learn that the beeper came on when they stopped. I do not think I ever had a dogs hearing damaged by a beeper. Much more likely from shotguns.
They learn to honor each others beepers.........Cj

My dog shuts down when she hears the beep from my go-pro when I turn it on to film her. She will be on a spectacular point and hears that beep/beep, slinks down and turns her head to look at me, with a look" what am I doing wrong now"

I have used beepers since their inception without ever having a negative response from the MANY dogs of various breeds/breeding.
I would like to suggest you try to analyze what might have occurred that was a catalyst (sometimes, without your even knowing it was you/someone working your dog).
Mr. Hills is correct. Not everyone is in the snack bracket for a GPS system. Rarely do true "gun dogs" require a GPS. That aside, I found that my Dogtra beeper's response time was seconds faster than my name brand GPS system. That may seem inconsequential but when it applies to grouse hunting in dense woods, it can be the difference between success and frustration.
Your dog is reacting adversely to the beeper for a tangible reason. You might not know exactly why but it is indisputably, a concern for your dog.
When I have witnessed this situation, the beeper was connected with corrective action. It doesn't matter that there was a slight time delay between the beep and the stim. The dog I speak of made that connection. He knew his owner would use the beeper to locate his dog. Shortly afterwards, if the owner did not hear the beeper, he would stim the dog in the hope of getting the dog rerouted back to the handler. It didn't take long for this dog to connect the dots. When he heard a beeper he cringed!
ANY adverse experience your dog has had that connects to a beeper can elicit the reaction you speak of. The sound of a beeper itself is NOT going to elicit a "long standing" negative reaction unless it has substance in the dog's mind. Even the VERY first time a young dog hears a beeper that is introduced properly, he does not react adversely for any length of time. You have to attach a negative experience in the dog's mind for it to have a negative effect.
Try to think back. Try fading the beeper into the dog's day-to-day life right before getting fed, going for a run, etc., or something fun like that.

greg jacobs wrote:Why would a person use a beeper when there is gps. Hate the things. I would shut down too? I like quiet when I'm hunting.

I was just telling my buddy this weekend that i'd love a beeper function on my garmin. We're hunting in SD this past week and working milo stubble in snow. Garmin says dog on point 75 yards ahead, get up there and start looking around for an orange and white doge in milo stubble covered with snow. One quick beep would have made it much easier.

Didn't mean to hijack thread, but there are times a beeper is useful.

I've hunted with people that used them. Drove me crazy. I personally like quiet when I'm hunting. That's just a personal opinion of course.

Pedro wrote: I was just telling my buddy this weekend that i'd love a beeper function on my garmin. We're hunting in SD this past week and working milo stubble in snow. Garmin says dog on point 75 yards ahead, get up there and start looking around for an orange and white doge in milo stubble covered with snow. One quick beep would have made it much easier.

Didn't mean to hijack thread, but there are times a beeper is useful.

An orange vest would solve that problem.

Dakotazeb wrote:

Pedro wrote: I was just telling my buddy this weekend that i'd love a beeper function on my garmin. We're hunting in SD this past week and working milo stubble in snow. Garmin says dog on point 75 yards ahead, get up there and start looking around for an orange and white doge in milo stubble covered with snow. One quick beep would have made it much easier.

Didn't mean to hijack thread, but there are times a beeper is useful.

An orange vest would solve that problem.

My dogs feel vests make them look fat, so that's not an option.

You have had good help in what you can try in order to fix that problem. That is not an unusual problem as a beeper can cause all kinds of problems. I only use it for an on point situation or for a locating feature if I have lost my dog.

Sharon wrote:You have had good help in what you can try in order to fix that problem. That is not an unusual problem as a beeper can cause all kinds of problems. I only use it for an on point situation or for a locating feature if I have lost my dog.

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Me,too. But lack of a beeper at the right time can cause all kinds of problems, too. DakotaZeb has good advice about accustomization above.

I agree! I don't normally need it but heavy cover and goes on point in milo impossible to find. I also didn't want to go point only when constant scared...figured I didn't want to spook when on point.

Pedro wrote:

greg jacobs wrote:Why would a person use a beeper when there is gps. Hate the things. I would shut down too? I like quiet when I'm hunting.

I was just telling my buddy this weekend that i'd love a beeper function on my garmin. We're hunting in SD this past week and working milo stubble in snow. Garmin says dog on point 75 yards ahead, get up there and start looking around for an orange and white doge in milo stubble covered with snow. One quick beep would have made it much easier.

Didn't mean to hijack thread, but there are times a beeper is useful.

The Astro addresses all of these issues, does it silently and causes NO problems. When it beeps you look at the screen, arrow points to the dog, you walk to the dog. All in silence. I know some drag their feet at paying the price but trust an old dog, there is nothing like it. Astro is easy to learn, Alpha........not so much.

Unfortunately , until very recently , a GPS unit is illegal in Ontario.I'll be looking into the new Astro 900 from Garmin, (which is now legal) soon,

Sharon wrote:Unfortunately , until very recently , a GPS unit is illegal in Ontario.I'll be looking into the new Astro 900 from Garmin, (which is now legal) soon,

Don't be afraid of an older 320 Sharon, they are very reliable units. Don't know what the difference is between they and the 900 but I will tell you this: The new ALPHA is NOT a user friendly unit.

I started out with senses keen enough to use nothing but my eyes and ears. Then I went to Bells, then point only beepers, now GPS.

Wow is GPS so much better! I am surprised at how many folks do not consider how piercing that beeper going off just behind the dog's ear must be for the dog. Weed seeds getting into the sound chamber causing malfunctions, high winds in tall CRP with the dog downwind making the beeper impossible to hear or accurately locate. Beeper going off each time a dog comes in for water, takes a dump, or delivering a shot bird...

I was thrilled to ditch the point only beeper and move on to GPS, especially when it was combined with an excellent ecollar. Loving the 550 Plus in all ways is what you will hear from me on that.

I find nothing about owning and hunting a birddog to be inexpensive. Wearing out a pickup, tires, fuel, motel, guns, shells, vets bills (have been to the vet on 4 of 6 overnite OOS trips this season so far), training equipment, training birds, clothing ... The initial cost of buying a GPS, particularly a used one, is not a high hurdle at all in the over scheme of accounting for the total costs of hunting wild upland birds these days.

Like a few others in this thread, I will not hunt with someone running a beeper. We run silent in my crew and love it.

Thanks for all the replies. GPS seems like overkill to me for the number of times I deal with the situation. Glad it works for others just if I was going spend that I would go to South Dakota to hunt...will keep working. Thanks again!