Why I say, No Way, to SportDog
So you like to go hiking with your dog or would like to have an idea of where your dog, is in the unfortunate event they would get out? I did too. I’m sharing my experience in hopes that it helps someone else down the line.
I like to take my dogs hiking and in places that it is acceptable have them off leash. I wanted a peace of mind knowing I could find them in any situation. So I started looking into tracking collars. It’s overwhelming; trackers that are geared toward cell phone tracking and some that favor satellite. In the area where I live cell phone service is questionable at best in some locations, so that ruled out trackers like, Whistle, AKC Link, Fi Smart.
I started to look at satellite tracking collars, the two that seemed to have the best reviews, Garmin and SportDog. Garmin is well known in the tracking industry and is priced accordingly. SportDog is a smaller company and seemed to have good reviews. I was thinking, I only need to track one dog, do I really need all the bells and whistles Garmin offers? I don’t need to track 20 dogs at one time, with this in mind I bought the SportDog Tek 1.5. A decision I would regret later down the line.
The track and train system worked wonderfully for 2 months until the ecollar option stopped working. I called the company and after trying everything to fix it; I was told a new collar would be sent to me under warranty. It would take 6-8 days, great…except that wasn’t what happened. I waited a month, thinking due to COVID-19 shipping times are running behind. I called after a month and spoke to a representative, I was told the item was on backorder, they weren’t sure when they would be back in. I continue to wait, I still have yet to receive a new collar.
The above reasons believe it or not have nothing to do with the fact that I don’t recommend SportDog. The reason I would not ever recommend this collar is because it did not perform when I needed it to. My dog went out of sight and the tracker read she was 200 yards away, okay, no big deal. Then she was right behind me, then she was 700 yards, then she was 2 miles. The point is the entire reason I purchased the collar was to be able to find my dog if I ever needed to, and it failed miserably.
We have since ordered a Garmin Alpha 100. Hopefully, this device with all the “bells and whistles” will be of more use to us.
