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Garmin vs Sport Dog

Has anyone switched from a garmin system to a sport dog system or vise versa? What were the reasons you switched?

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Shannon Robinson cell 865-696-9692 Home of High Speed Low Drag English Coon Dawgs

I switched from a Garmin to Dogtra.

I had the older Garmin without shocking / beeping capabilities. I wanted to upgrade to a unit with correction abilities.

In the end for me the Pathfinder was a much better deal.
- Much more user friendly and easy to use.
- Better maps, quality and screen size
- Maps are free, nothing to purchase or subscribe to
- Way cheaper

I owned the older tri tonics 2 mile model . It had no toner but it worked great. Unfortunately Garmin chose to discard this one Stopped selling batteries. Forced many to buy newer released models. The newer more reasonably priced replacement model 70 is advertised at 1 mile. Has a toner and remotely controlled light. It absolutely does not have anywhere near 1 mile. Matter of fact I can see my dog 70 yards away and they don't get disciplined. Had one running bad track about 100 yards one night. Had to repeatedly hit the button holding the transmitter high before I got a reaction. When you need instant discipline to an action not 5 seconds after the fact later it ticks me off tremendously.
Guy I hunt with has a Sportdog 2525.
This one absolutely works like right now.
Only thing I don't like about them are the ease of setting them up or adding collars. Garmin got them beat hands down on that respect.
,The Sportdog. has 3 different levels of stimulus on the collar and several different ones on the transmitter. I think 6 on the dial and if you push two transmitter buttons at same time it increases intensity. Has a toner and a vibration level. to me it is a little more complicated to learn the workings but it definitely IMO out performs the Garmin 70 model I have.

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IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTIME A BREED OR LINE OF DOGS GET POPULAR IT EVENTUALLY LEADS TO ITS RUINATION BY UNINFORMED PEOPLE BREEDING WITHOUT DOING THEIR RESEARCH FIRST.

Gone but never forgotten:
NtChGrCh Dryfork Punkin
NtChGrCh Dryfork Little Blue Baby Doll
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GrCh Dryfork Little Black Book
Gr.Ch. Make My Day Sunny
Gone too soon RIP my baby girl
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GrCh Dryfork Black Dog Raine
One of kind and would make a believer out of you when you thought there were no coon left
Home of:
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Gr.Ch. Batman's Poison Ivy
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Ch. Jay's Greenridge Heidi
In memory of my best friend "Jay"

I have been trying to decide on one or the other myself. Seems like which ever one people have they like. I had a 320 was pleased with it other than the subscription stuff you had to buy. My biggest issue is I’m not a fan of using my phone in the woods. I have a old phone that has no service so I’m not sure that would work with that unit....

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(252) 213-6115 call or txt anytime
email: jeremyleeharris79@gmail.com

Jeremy Harris

Ditch both of them and get the Dogtra Pathfinder. Me and a few of my hunting buddies switched and I couldn't be happier.

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Paul Frederick
319-371-6362

I had a Dogtra and sent it back and got the Alpha.

Dogtra does have better maps. But only if you have good cell signal or can download them beforehand. I didn't have it long enough or use enough to have issues other than the mapping. In my area there is little to no cell signal. If I had a separate phone that was only for Dogtra like Bruce suggested, perhaps I could load enough maps to make it useful. But my phone doesn't have the storage capability to store all the maps I would need just to hunt local spots. I really didn't like idea of going to a hunt (where you have no idea where you'll be hunting and if there is cell signal) to find out you don't have maps. Again, with a better phone, I could probably download half the state.

Another reason I switched to Alpha. That's what all my hunting buddies use. We can trade collars, chargers, antennae, whatever in a pinch.

Some guys love the Dogtra, like I said the maps are far better and with a newer model phone with more storage it might be great. But overall, I'll stick with Alpha for now.

I think it really comes down to the phone you're using it with. If you have a good quality phone you'll like Dogtra. If you're hard on phones and run cheap ones or wife's hand me down (like me) the Alpha is a better choice.

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"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

Lone Pine North

I have used the garmin astro 220 and the 320 for several years now but I am getting tired of them losing signal on my dogs and I had heard that the sport dog unit didn't loose signal .I have never seen any body using using or pushing the sport dog unit.

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Shannon Robinson cell 865-696-9692 Home of High Speed Low Drag English Coon Dawgs

I bought a Sportdog 3225 about 3 years ago.. being rather hard of hearing.and the fact that it is too complicated to set up I found it rather useless. now if you are a electronic wizard and can hear those little beeps to program the darn thing every time you go to use it fine ,but for me I will stick to a Garmin with dials to set stuff.
in fact my Garmin Pro 550 Plus is to arrive today