Gun Dog Forum

Hey, sorry I was a bit late in my response to the price question but yeah that price I quoted was for the collar only. I needed the upgrade because I had the DC 20 already.

this collar does not have e-collar stimulation functionality correct?

Correct. No stimulation - tracking only.

gar-dog wrote:Correct. No stimulation - tracking only.

you had an ecollar for ginger right? did you get rid of that and now you just use this?

I'd use both an ecollar and the garmin. That way you can reach out and "touch" Tucker if you call him and he doesn't turn and come. That's the cool thing about the Garmin. You can TELL if they're listening or not.

Karen wrote:I'd use both an ecollar and the garmin. That way you can reach out and "touch" Tucker if you call him and he doesn't turn and come. That's the cool thing about the Garmin. You can TELL if they're listening or not.

i haven't seen one up close but was assuming wearing both would be too much. It's good to hear that it may not be. Are any of you running an e-collar and astro at the same time? He's progressing with his recall but not at 100% just yet and I definitely would want the extra capability if I need it, especaily after this past weekend.

I ran an Astro DC20 last year, on the same collar as the Tritronics electronics. I had to add weight to the electronics to keep the Astro somewhat upright.

I bought a DC30 this year ($50 rebate was very attractive).

I have hunted my Britt twice now with both the ecollar and Astro on her. She is a small (32 lbs) dog and has had absolutely no problem wearing both.

I put the DC20 on one of the other dogs we had along. The dog without electronics was lost for most of the afternoon. We found him back by the truck. His owner will be buying an Astro.

We hunted Sat. morning, took a break for lunch and then finished out the afternoon. According to the Garmin, she ran 20.6 miles.

I don't have to have an Astro to make a successful hunt but I can't think of any good reason not to use one.

I used the Garmin and the e-collar at the same time. 32lb dog. No problems at all.

good to hear about wearing both, thanks for the replies

I have been following the posts and as a potential buyer of this system, I really appreciated reading all your comments and suggestions!! Neil, you sold me from the start. I plan on purchasing my new Garmin next month. Thats what I like anout GDF, you would never get all the pros & cons from actual users when you go into a store or online to purchase or rersearch. Thnaks for all the info.
Bill L.

Elroy's Bandit wrote:I have been following the posts and as a potential buyer of this system, I really appreciated reading all your comments and suggestions!! Neil, you sold me from the start. I plan on purchasing my new Garmin next month. Thats what I like anout GDF, you would never get all the pros & cons from actual users when you go into a store or online to purchase or rersearch. Thnaks for all the info.
Bill L.

Totally agree!! I could never get this sort of information out of a formal review or from a store. Real world experiences are the only good assessment of a product's value.
Thanks to everybody for sharing their thoughts!!

Elroy's Bandit wrote:I have been following the posts and as a potential buyer of this system, I really appreciated reading all your comments and suggestions!! Neil, you sold me from the start. I plan on purchasing my new Garmin next month. Thats what I like anout GDF, you would never get all the pros & cons from actual users when you go into a store or online to purchase or rersearch. Thnaks for all the info.
Bill L.

Bill,

I picked one up while at the Nationals and will be giving it a test drive this weekend. By the way, I have some photos of Bandit during his run at Eureka.....I can't believe that boy found darn near 30 birds at the Region 8 and Hun and couldn't find one at Eureka.

Ken. I would love to see the pic's od Bandit if you get a chance!
Yeah, I was somewhat amazed that he came up "birdless" myself.He was a bird finding machine all fall, but that's how it goes.
Let me know how you like your new Garmin, I would appreciate your review. Talk to you soon.
Bill L.

I have been running my astro all year! I like the unit alot. I am able to keep track of the dog no matter how far she hunts from me. If You hunt switch grass and tall cover it is a must. Garmin's customer service is second to none. I always get someone on the phone that speaks english without an accent. The handheld would lose the compass bearing and the dog an compass off by 180*. The tech support answered my on-line question within 24 hrs and I was back up and running with only a master reset and an upgrade to the software all via-online. The unit never left the house! That would have been a problem for me in the middle of the season. I have hunted with another member of the club I belong to and he was running 2 dogs using a 2 DC30 collars on it and it was alot of fun to tell each other "I got a point over here while another dog was pointing in another area." His older dog that has a hearing problem got lost and tracked herself back to the car. You could see on the mapping function where the dog was in relation to where we parked the car. The dog was out over 800 yards away at one time.

My dog new nickname is "Sputnick" with as much "Bling" as she wears(e-collar and Astro) but it has come in handy when I had to look for her when the wind was howling and she could not hear a whistle. She got out over 300 yrds away. I dont run a beeper on her anymore.

I also hunted her in the National Forest in WI for Grouse in Nov and never lost her or me in the woods. Second best invention for owning a dog since the modern e-collar.

Me

I wouldn't leave home without mine. Love it!

Only glitch was one hunt it was beeping and the message read "arriving at Ginger" whenever we were close to each other. (Like somehow it was tracking her). that hasn't happened since.

Has anyone else experianced what gardog did in the post above? I used mine on the first hunt and it id the same thing. It drove me nuts. Thanks

My husband says, off the top of his head, that you have it in "Go to" mode. He's not sure on the actual terminology, but it's like if you are out in the middle of no where, and want to get back to your truck. The garmin will guide you back to your truck, and when you get there tell you "arriving at so and so". At least that's what he thinks you've got going on, and you can turn that mode off.

Has anyone had the issue with their Garmin where it won't link to the dog's collar?

I was using mine this weekend and it would never synch, and it never even displayed a ? in place of where it usually displays the dog's distance on the Dog screen. The collar was blinking fast as if it was indeed linked to the receiver, but the receiver wasn't getting any information from the collar. GPS reception wasn't a problem.

phermes1 wrote:Has anyone had the issue with their Garmin where it won't link to the dog's collar?

Check to see if the you have it assigned to track the collar.

1. Press "Dog" to get to the dog page
2. Press "menu"
3. Arrow down to "Dog List", Press "enter"
4. Arrow down to the Dog whose collar you are having trouble. Press "enter"
5. Verify "Show Info" is highlighted, Press "enter"
5. Press "menu"
6. Arrow down to "Start Tracking", Press "enter"

Remember this sequence because if you download your dog tracks to your computer, it makes it cleaner if you "Start Tracking" at the beginning of your hunt and "Stop Tracking" at the end.

Az Draht wrote:

phermes1 wrote:Has anyone had the issue with their Garmin where it won't link to the dog's collar?

Check to see if the you have it assigned to track the collar.

1. Press "Dog" to get to the dog page
2. Press "menu"
3. Arrow down to "Dog List", Press "enter"
4. Arrow down to the Dog whose collar you are having trouble. Press "enter"
5. Verify "Show Info" is highlighted, Press "enter"
5. Press "menu"
6. Arrow down to "Start Tracking", Press "enter"

Remember this sequence because if you download your dog tracks to your computer, it makes it cleaner if you "Start Tracking" at the beginning of your hunt and "Stop Tracking" at the end.

I THINK I've tried that, but without the collar in front of me, I can't be sure. I'll give it a shot. Thanks.
If it's not just broken, then it's got to be something simple like that. Everything else seems to be working perfectly.

I like to start both my collars on the tailgate and then turn on the reciever and lay it on the collars.
I then get the dogs out and everything is ready to go....

I did hit "stop tracking" once and it seemed to make it loose the collars and I had a heck of a time getting
them sync;d back up.....Not exactly sure how I did it but I think I went all thru the set up screens again to
assign the collars to each dog .....since then I have not hit "stop tracking" again.

Im sure all was my lack of understanding but it gave me a fit for half and hour or so.

I believe two quick blinks is the collar having been located by the sats not the collar linked to the reciever.

Az Draht wrote:

phermes1 wrote:Has anyone had the issue with their Garmin where it won't link to the dog's collar?

Check to see if the you have it assigned to track the collar.

1. Press "Dog" to get to the dog page
2. Press "menu"
3. Arrow down to "Dog List", Press "enter"
4. Arrow down to the Dog whose collar you are having trouble. Press "enter"
5. Verify "Show Info" is highlighted, Press "enter"
5. Press "menu"
6. Arrow down to "Start Tracking", Press "enter"

Remember this sequence because if you download your dog tracks to your computer, it makes it cleaner if you "Start Tracking" at the beginning of your hunt and "Stop Tracking" at the end.

It worked! Thanks, man!!!!

I am having an issue with mine not alerting me when my dog is on point. I believe I have it set corectly to alert on point. It won't show the dog pointing icon either. Any ideas?

I just got the system for Christmas, and so far, it is working great! I have always had magellen gps units, but the last couple we have had have been nightmares as far as software is concerned. I have a question regarding the size of the collar, though. Is there a way to make it smaller? It says that it fits necks as small as 10", and I've got it as small as it will go, and it's still pretty big for our little Brittany's neck. It just hangs there, and doesn't stay under her neck the way it should. It kind of slides around so it's on the side of her neck. It still says she's pointing, running, etc, that all works, it's just loose and I don't want to lose it. I've measured her neck at 12". Any ideas?

gspdog wrote:I am having an issue with mine not alerting me when my dog is on point. I believe I have it set corectly to alert on point. It won't show the dog pointing icon either. Any ideas?

Press "Dog"
Press "Menu"
Highlight "Dog List", Press "enter"
Highlight the Dog you are having trouble with, Press "enter"
Highlight "Show info", Press "enter"
Press "menu"
Highlight "Change Dog Unit Type", Press "enter"
In the drop down menu select "Pointing Dog", Select OK

I need some help with the Garmin. As I stated in the previous post, we just got it. It seemed to work great the first day, we put it on the dog and let her run around the yard. It showed where she was going, when she was "on point" and seemed well. We only tested it out for about 10 minutes outside because it was getting dark. So today I thought I would really test it out and take the dogs out for a run. Got it all turned on, the GPS unit said it was "talking" to the collar, had the dog's name on the screen, hit the "Start Tracking" on the menu page. It showed her running ahead of me, then I whoaed her to see if it would say Dog on Point. It did, so I released her, and she kept moving. However, it never updated her position or her status. It said she was still on point 50 yards back. Like it was froze up. So I let her run around a few more minutes, then called her in. It never changed. I took the collar off of her, turned it off and turned the gps off as well. Started them both back up, just as before, they seemed to be talking to each other again. Put the collar back on the dog, and sent her away. It once again showed where she was going. I whoaed her again, it said she was on point. I walked up to her and released her, it still showed her in the same spot on point. Is this operator error or do we have a funky unit that needs to go back?

SierraMtnBrits wrote: Is this operator error or do we have a funky unit that needs to go back?

OK just to llet you know, and if anyone else has this problem, we figured it out. Last night when my husband came home, he figured out that the day before when he went fishing at the lake, he switched it on to "battery saver" mode. Once he switched it back to regular mode, the collar & gps were able to communicate with each other just fine. I will try it out a gain today just to make sure, but once agiain all seems well! Here I thought I was the one who screwed things up!

I have one other question on the Garmin.

I just spent the last week hunting quail in Texas, (and I do mean hunting, not shooting - we had a very hard time finding any).

Is there any way to save an entire hunt? I can go to 'Tracks' and save the track of the handheld. I also know I can download the dog's track from the collar to my PC. I can get those tracks separately without a problem, but what I'm looking for is a combination. For a particular hunt, I want to save, as 1 package, where I went and where the dog went. From what I can tell, the only way to match my track to the dog's track is manually using the timestamps recorded with each reading. It seems like there would be an easier way of tying the two together.

It seemed at the end of each hunt, I could save off my path and ensure it wasn't deleted. I couldn't figure out how to do the same with the dog's track. At least, not without a PC. I figured on just letting the collar store it all until I could download it.

Sierra Mtn, For smaller necks (my Britt is about 32 lbs), you may want to put it behind the E-collar. That is what works for me. For the tag end of the collar, I just double it back up thru the buckle. I kind of like the fact that it doesn't have to be really tight on her.

I've noticed that it doesn't seem to sit perfect, gets a little to the side, etc. but works well. It has even worked well in heavy woods.

I remember one poster, a long time ago, that said he didn't want to chance losing the collar and wasting $200. Another poster pointed out to him that the Garmin would easily take him right to any collar that came off his dog.

Good luck with it. I don't think it is perfect but I'm very happy with mine.

Buford Boone wrote:Sierra Mtn, For smaller necks (my Britt is about 32 lbs), you may want to put it behind the E-collar. That is what works for me. For the tag end of the collar, I just double it back up thru the buckle. I kind of like the fact that it doesn't have to be really tight on her.

I

Pick up a rubber "O" ring at any hardware store as a keeper on the tag end of the collar so it will not be as likely to be frayed, at 65 bucks per, you want to extend the life of the collar.

Neil

I found if i didnt tighten the collar down it always ends up on the side and also
chafes the dogs neck.....I tighten mine down nice and snug so the antenna stays
above the dogs head, this also put an end to chafing the dog.

This held true on a 55 lb dog as well as my 38 lb dog.


On the whole Ive been very pleased with my unit.....