The Garmin Alpha; An Expensive Mistake
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:28 am
The Garmin Alpha; An Expensive Mistake.
I'm an old duffer so I'm always trying to increase efficiency and simplicity when I hunt. I was running multiple dogs with three collars on them: Astro 320, Pro 100 and an ID collar. I could easily have omitted the ID collar but I'm lazy and it doesn't interfere with anything so I generally just leave it on. With that combination when I hunted I had to carry the 100 transmitter and the Astro receiver, and the dog's had two collars on, one training, one locating. I thought that there must be a better way for both of us. Enter the Alpha, the all in one, do-it-all unit. I read the reviews and instructional DVD's and headed off the the store with my $1,100.00 (the base unit an two locator collars).
I have used Astro's since their introduction and TriTronics ecollars for over 40 years so learning the Alpha was reasonably painless though typically, they are short on instruction on some programs. I set the unit up for two dog's and happily bounced off to the woodlands. I knew the dog's would appreciate having only one instead of two large collars clanking around their necks and I was happy with only one transmitting-receiving unit. So I thought. Problems from the start.
I set the unit up with one screen for each dog. On each screen I had two different levels of stimulation and a tone button. Seemed foolproof until I started into the woods. I carry the Alpha in a shoulder holster so I can hear the beep on windy days. Great system and I've done it that way for many years but not so great with the Alpha. The Alpha is a touch screen unit so every time the screen is touched, it changes screens. When it does this it may delete a dog, may change dog's, may change to any one of a number of different screens. If you go to correct a dog, you may be correcting the wrong dog.
The answer to these woes is to LOCK THE SCREEN. This works very well except that then to change dog's or screens, the screen first has to be unlocked. This makes the unit very, very, slow to use and many times correcting at the instant of infraction is impossible. It is also reasonably difficult to change levels of stimulation being a touch screen and not a toggle.
Now, think winter. Try operating the unit with gloves on. It is nearly impossible. I ended up taking off my gloves to operate the unit, a real pain in the posterior. It seems this unit was designed by a person that has never hunted or trained a dog in their lives. Nothing about the unit is user friendly. All Garmin would have had to do was simply make the screens operate by toggle and not by touch. The touch is a massive mistake.
Now, I'm stuck with an $1,100.00 mistake. If you only have one dog and if that dog is trained, the unit is great. Just lock the screen and go. If you have multiple dog's you are going to be a very unhappy person. As a pure training collar, it's a piece of garbage. I've thought of selling mine and going to the 550+ but I need GPS so I'd be right back to carrying two units and the dog's wearing two collars.
All in all, this is a very poorly thought out unit for the multi dog person.
I'm an old duffer so I'm always trying to increase efficiency and simplicity when I hunt. I was running multiple dogs with three collars on them: Astro 320, Pro 100 and an ID collar. I could easily have omitted the ID collar but I'm lazy and it doesn't interfere with anything so I generally just leave it on. With that combination when I hunted I had to carry the 100 transmitter and the Astro receiver, and the dog's had two collars on, one training, one locating. I thought that there must be a better way for both of us. Enter the Alpha, the all in one, do-it-all unit. I read the reviews and instructional DVD's and headed off the the store with my $1,100.00 (the base unit an two locator collars).
I have used Astro's since their introduction and TriTronics ecollars for over 40 years so learning the Alpha was reasonably painless though typically, they are short on instruction on some programs. I set the unit up for two dog's and happily bounced off to the woodlands. I knew the dog's would appreciate having only one instead of two large collars clanking around their necks and I was happy with only one transmitting-receiving unit. So I thought. Problems from the start.
I set the unit up with one screen for each dog. On each screen I had two different levels of stimulation and a tone button. Seemed foolproof until I started into the woods. I carry the Alpha in a shoulder holster so I can hear the beep on windy days. Great system and I've done it that way for many years but not so great with the Alpha. The Alpha is a touch screen unit so every time the screen is touched, it changes screens. When it does this it may delete a dog, may change dog's, may change to any one of a number of different screens. If you go to correct a dog, you may be correcting the wrong dog.
The answer to these woes is to LOCK THE SCREEN. This works very well except that then to change dog's or screens, the screen first has to be unlocked. This makes the unit very, very, slow to use and many times correcting at the instant of infraction is impossible. It is also reasonably difficult to change levels of stimulation being a touch screen and not a toggle.
Now, think winter. Try operating the unit with gloves on. It is nearly impossible. I ended up taking off my gloves to operate the unit, a real pain in the posterior. It seems this unit was designed by a person that has never hunted or trained a dog in their lives. Nothing about the unit is user friendly. All Garmin would have had to do was simply make the screens operate by toggle and not by touch. The touch is a massive mistake.
Now, I'm stuck with an $1,100.00 mistake. If you only have one dog and if that dog is trained, the unit is great. Just lock the screen and go. If you have multiple dog's you are going to be a very unhappy person. As a pure training collar, it's a piece of garbage. I've thought of selling mine and going to the 550+ but I need GPS so I'd be right back to carrying two units and the dog's wearing two collars.
All in all, this is a very poorly thought out unit for the multi dog person.