[shakerag]

Garmin has made available a complete system---transmitter and receiver---designed to keep track of your dog at ranges up to five miles.
The transmitter attaches to your dog's 1" wide collar or harness and the owner carries the Garmin Astro 220 handheld GPS which will indicate precisely where your dog is.
The price at WWW. Orvis.com is $649---but--- it may not be that much on line at Garmin or other sources.

don

 

[murraysmom]

That's interesting- I wonder what the market is for something like that right now given the price-

 

[Oh_Doc]

The market is actually really good for them. I went to an ARHA (American Rabbit Hound Association) field trial in September. It was all beagles, I think I am the only hunter in Ohio that hunts with bassets. But a lot of the people had them on their dogs. They have so much time and money in making them a champion dog that they don't want to lose them. They are really a neat device. I am thinking of getting one just incase my girls would ever get turnaround out in the field. If I remember right I think the extra transmitter is like $150. You can have 4 to 5 dogs per garmin receiver I think.

 

[buckshot]

I own bassets and coonhounds............I am not yet sold on the first generation versions yet.

I will continue to keep using my tried and tested tracking system on my dogs when I release them in the woods.

The technology is here, but I do not think the GPS equipment is up to par to replace the current tracking sytsems on the market.

The houndsmen I am seeing on the hound forums running these GPS systems are still using their tracking equipment and tracking collars as backup.

Think I would just use the one that works instead of having to use it as a backup.

Garmins collars only have an 18 hour battey life whereas the regular tracking collars can have 4,000, 8,000 and 16,000 hour battery lives. Could be an issue for a hound that bumps trash (off game such as deer). You have 18 hours of battery life on a full charge once you turn on and release in the woods.

GPS is known to fail in heavy covering.

The antenna on the GPS collars are breaking in thick brush as well as there has been a problem with keep the collar antenna pointing up. Some are having to make and place counter weights on the GPS collar to fix this probem.

Any hound I release in the woods or field has a tracking collar on them. I will not release one without one on.

The GPS dog tracking systems have been available overseas for a few years now.........I think the next few generation models Garmin comes out fixing issues with will be a deciding factor on how we track our hounds in the future.

For me, right now, I will continue using the current tracking systems on the market................not as backup.

Just my 2 cents from a houndsmen who coon hunts.