Sportdog Collars - yay or nay?

[Tanya]

I know of Dogtra and Tritronics being good companies (and had a dogtra e-collar) but I could get a second hand SportDog1200 vibration and tone collar. Not sure on the brand (and potential for battery issues on a second hand item).

Use: I wouldn't mind, after some more training, a pager/tone collar for Penny to help on the recall. Note we've done TONS of reacll specific work. I plan to do another round (I think I just reazlied one of our issues so we'll work that out) but would like to trust her offleash (she has and can just take off).

[BaconsMom]

We love ours, and Jake recommends it to others very often. We have the 825. We love that it has 21 different levels (although we havent gone higher than a 3), a vibrate, and tone functions. Training with it has made Bacon nearly 100% on Recall, with just the tone.

We have never had an issue with ours, and Jake has never heard a complaint from anyone he has sold one to. If you to have an issue they have great customer service.

[Tanya]

how easy are the buttons? like if I chose not to "nick" can i easily avoid hitting those buttoms? Tone and Vibrate work well? easy to distinguish.

I am not sure on the distance, this one is 1200 meter range. not entirely sure that covers a penny "loop" but i guess the goal is to use it when she is in sight/hearing range anyway right.

This is a discontinued model.

Thanks for the feedback. maybe if i get a good price I can resell if i don't like

[AlexS]

I have had mine for 3 years now with no issues. I did lose some features because I added another collar when got a second dog. But still both in good shape and long lasting battery. I wouldn't worry about a large range of level like bacons mom says you rarely go up that high.

[BaconsMom]

how easy are the buttons? like if I chose not to "nick" can i easily avoid hitting those buttoms? Tone and Vibrate work well? easy to distinguish.

I am not sure on the distance, this one is 1200 meter range. not entirely sure that covers a penny "loop" but i guess the goal is to use it when she is in sight/hearing range anyway right.

This is a discontinued model.

Thanks for the feedback. maybe if i get a good price I can resell if i don't like

If you choose not to use stimulation, on our model, you simply turn the dial to VIBE and then all buttons will give you vibration only, with the pager button on the side still giving a page. There are two buttons on the front of the remote, one smooth, one with a bump. Smooth = nick or short vibration, Bump= continuous stimulation or vibration. The tone is easy to hear for the dog, however harder to hear once they get farther away. The vibration is very noticeable.

When training, we taught bacon that the tone = come. Started with the tone+come, then moved to just the tone. Now, no matter where he is, even if we arent in sight, we can page him and he will come running. We can even do this when he is in the kennel in the truck. As long as we leave the door open, page him, and he will come running, ready to work.

We use the vibration as an attention getter. Vibe=look at me. Same basic concept. Bacon+vibe, he would look at us. Then slowly removing his name. He now can stop mid retrieve and look at us.

On the range, ours has a 1/2 mile range, but we have never had him go more than about 200 meters or so.

[Tanya]

thanks

are there collars with only vibration/tone? without the shock? (or is vibration normally tied to the mechanics behind shocking).

Pen can be very sensitive so as it is I will need to be very careful....

[indybindy]

I'm not a fan of SportDog, I've just known lots of people that have had nothing but problems with them.

Really like my new dogtra Edge RT, but that's a whole Lotta collar that most don't need.

Not sure if I trust the new Garmin/tritronics collars....I've tried one of the basic models and it didn't come close to the old tritronics.

I also have a collar from E Collar Technologies...used to be the named Einstein. Those are great and affordable collars...super dependable.

Just keep an open mind on the nick vs vibration. One of my dogs is way more wigged out from the vibration than the nick. Just depends on the dog. If they are trained correctly and understand the collar, a nick won't be a big deal. You also don't want to get into the habit of nagging the dog with a vibe, cause when they stop listening to that you'll have to uo the pressure. I'd rather make a good successful correction and then hardly need to use it in the future.

Just my 0.02

[doubledip1]

Mine is the Dogtra IQ. I looked at SportDog, Garmin and TriTonics too, but the Dogtra IQ fit my needs best.

[Annette47]

. I'd rather make a good successful correction and then hardly need to use it in the future.

Reminds me of a story I heard last night in class. There’s a woman we train with, been training for years, but only recently decided to try an e-collar on her dog. He’s a rescued Border Collie who comes across as ADHD and for 5 years now he has been breaking stays by getting up and zooming around the room. She managed to get through Novice eventually, but has been stuck in Open. Dog can work a 198+ on everything else. I wasn’t there, but apparently the one day last week she went to give him a vibration correction but accidentally hit the wrong button (don’t know what kind of collar) and gave him a pretty good nick. Startled the heck out of him (and the other dogs because he let out a pretty good yelp) but don’t know you know the dog hasn’t broken a stay since?

[Tanya]

haha. True, a vibration could be as if not more startling to a dog. how do you approach this with a dog that COUDL be super timid? Pen is either a bulldozer with no fear, or a softy that shuts down?

I guess if I get a good deal on teh collar I could resell if I don't like it