Last fall on the last full day of Grouse Camp my oldest lab somehow lost his E-Collar. I remembered tightening it a notch while hunting and figured I didn't get the prong into one of the holes in the collar properly. I thought it probably pulled off while he was hunting in the thick stuff.

That night a buddy and I went back to the area we were hunting when I last knew the dog still had the collar on. I figured I'd use the lights and tone features to easily locate it. We searched for a couple of hours and never found it. We stopped by the next morning on our way home and looked again but still didn't find it.

Fast forward to last week. My family and I are up at camp for our annual gathering and I find the E-collar sitting on a chair on the front porch. I text the guy that mows my lawn for me and he says he found it laying in the yard. We never even thought to look for it there.

I brought it home and charged it up. After laying on the ground for nearly ten months, through winter, spring and a very wet summer, it took and held a charge and all the features work.

A shout out to Garmin Tri-Tronics for making an extremely durable and rugged product.

I now have an extra unit since I replaced the old one soon after I lost it. I guess that will be my excuse to get an extra dog! LOL

I ran Garmin's with my cur, and they are great units.

The one in question was already eight-years-old and used hard before it was lost and found. Yes, great products.

very nice

we are running the Alpha 200 with the TT25 collar

get your head unit linked to a friend , and do not trust the clip get a lanyard on it.

tons of features to find collars , fewer features to find the hand held unit.
we found it , but it took waiting for the birds to quiet down and walking a grid in the dark holing the collar and stopping every 30 feet let the point beep guide us too it.

also added a phone tracker and very heavy duty lanyard , because loosing the head unit is a $$$

had we linked to a friend first they could have come out and put us on the head unit and the drive not the search would have been the long part.

Those are very nice units Pete, pricey but worth it I'm sure.

The Sport Pro doesn't have any of the features you are talking about. They are just correction collars, no tracking.

Still, at $150.00 each, it hurts to lose one.

When I bought new collar for my new pup this spring I went with Tri-Tronics. My brother inlaw has run Tri-tronics for years with good results. I haven't needed a collar myself for years, as last two dogs I hunted over were my son's. He has sport dog collars that have worked fine for what he wanted.
I figured this is probably my last pup so screw it buying last collar system too. Cry once as they say..So far I haven't been disappointed with choice.




Mac

I am not familiar with all the options , but yes
when you realize how much money , time and energy you have in a dog by the first bird he puts in the sky for you.
definitely an asset you want to keep tabs on in a field.