Gun Dog Forum

I have a 1-year-old French Brittany that I'm trying to train as a bird dog and I'm on a tight budget. Is the Sport Junior really all that terrible. I know a lot of you recommend the Basic as a minimum, but the $70 difference could pay for other supplies I need. Any experiece with the Sport Junior, negative or positive, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

the sport JR will not do you well in the field at all...it is for the house and little fidos. A good collar is one place that cutting corners and going cheap will cost you far more in the long run.

Has anyone here ever had a bad experience with this particular model?

I have personally seen where a dog learned how far out the Junior would not reach and would bolt to beyond that distance and blow the owner off...I have got to see this with quite a few of the house trainers...where people didn't want to pay the extra. and those collars run far short of what they say. The distance a collar states is clear line of sight with no objectives in the way and this includes over head lines which create some interference.

Just to let you know I live and work on a pheasant preserve so I see people and their dogs on a much larger scale then most people. So I do get to see a lot of stuff happen from people just plan allowing it to never getting control to cheap products which fail them.

Well, I definitely wouldn't want that problem. Thanks for the info. In your experience does the g3 Basic do pretty well in the field?

yes the basic does do better it reaches out better plus it uses the regular receivers so if you ever do decide to go to the next level you can just get the transmitter as the receiver will be programmable to the new transmitter.

The receiver is rechargeable and if you purchase a top of the line 9 volt battery the transmitter battery will last about a year and that is with a lot of use..so change to a new battery at the beginning of the season and your good to go

my biggest set back on the SD which maybe they have gotten better is it seems the transmitter and receiver had to be charged every 2 weeks The TT the receiver lasts a good month as lng as you turn it off when you are done

I have a GS basic which is about 5 years old I have abused it on purpose it has been tossed in the mud to left in the sun rained and snowed on left in the bottom of the training bag for a while pulled out and works like a charm..I finally got some of the dials to roll a bit easier but can still feel them set into position on the number dial

the ability to be a 3 dog unit ...I have always used it for 2 collars all the way up collar one and all the way down collar 2 neither the SD or TT is great as a 3 dog collar as the third dog is not easy to just set dial to with out a little effort of taking eyes off the dog

Not to derail, but there are good deals to be found on used collar setups... Just watch the classifieds.

I had good results with my Sport Upland, but I'm ditching the beeper and upgraded to a Pro 200.

I had a friend come out for three seasons and that's what he used until he got a second dog and then upgraded. He probably puts in about 40 days in the field a year. He has a lab so range was never a problem, don't think he used it much in the off season.

I have a JR and we tested the range and it will work out to about 150 yds at most. Other than the range problem we like the collar. We call our JR the dog park collar and use it at the dog park and in the house only. We will buy a pro 100 or 200 when we ever get the funds.