It's time for me to buy a GPS and E-collar for my Drahthaar. I've been hunting over English pointers for many years with my uncle and he has been using a combination of the Garmin GPS collars and I believe either Dogtra or Tri-tronics e-collars. The equipment has been excellent for him year after year. I asked him recently if he had to buy new equipment, would he buy the same setup or move to a one unit/collar does all. He said he would seriously consider the one unit does all.

With that said, I'm not completely sold on the units on the market that perform both GPS and e-collar functions, so I am turning to you guys to help me out. I have a connection with SportDog brand, so I can discounting pricing on their products, but I'm willing to forego the discounted pricing if I can get a higher quality, more reliable unit.

So I ask you, what do you recommend and why? two separate systems/collars, or one unit does all? Which brand?

1) send me your discount so I can get me a tek 1.0 combo collar
2) I'm in the same boat, either I keep the sport dog e-collar and buy a separate GPS collar or I buy a combo collar. I've personally used the tek 1.0 and really liked it. I understand some of the complaints about ease of use but I think it's more a personal preference. I know some prefer to have the collars separate so they can quickly correct a dog and just use the GPS to locate but once I got comfortable with the tek 1.0 it worked great for me. It'd be nice to see where the dog has been like the tek 2.0 or the new garmin alpha but I can live without. I looked at the tek 2.0 but the handheld seems much cheaper built than the 1.0. I've never personally run a alpha but I'll get to tinker with one this season as my hunting partner picked on up. He's the one who had the 1.0 I got to use. He's older so his complaints surrounded "all the damn buttons and functions" but he has the same complaint with the alpha he just picked up. All that to say, I'm gonna try and find a 1.0 at a decent price (I hear they are discontinuing them) and run with it. I'm familiar with it, the ones I've used have been reliable and I've had zero problems with the sportdog e-collar I've run since 2009. I think it boils down to personal preference. Get a dual purpose collar and learn how to use it without having to look at it or keep the collars separate so you can correct the dogs with one remote and just use the GPS to figure out where they are. My 2 cents - don't spend it all in one place

Go with the Garmin alpha it is awesome best of both worlds and only one handheld. Garmin and tri-tritroincs teamed up together

That's what I would do if I had to start over.

It really does seem great and appears to be well ahead of anything from SportDog.

For the guys who have experience - what's better about the alpha over the tek 2.0?

I have the Garmin Alpha system. I'll never go back and use anything else, ever. Best thing on the market IMO.

That settles it!

I like the garmin service. They have improved a lot since they first took over tritronics. The alpha is a good collar. However, be forewarned; you can't correct as fast with either brand of gps combo. With a new dog I would hang on to your old e-collar and use both. The Garmin alpha is easier with one dog because you can load a training page that allows three levels of stim or vibration with one button tap---however, you need to look at the handheld and fiddle with the touch screen if you want to step up more. So, with young dogs I use two collars and drop the second e-collar when the dog is broke and doesn't need much correction.

I may be wrong but I think the alpha is a touch screen. If so that's a deal breaker for me

Why?

I have the Alpha and love it. It is a touch screen but pretty simple to operate. I hunt 6 hounds at a time in huge country and am completely spoiled. I road my dogs so I have a DriveTrack 70 mounted in the cab so I can see where my dogs are and what direction they are going without having to study the smaller screen on the handheld. (I have been known to run off the road while trying to drive and look at the screen).
Adios,
Gary

I have the garmin alpha as well, it is great.

Well for one using touch screen with gloves on is useless. Also how your handheld is stored/ hanging while your hunting will have the screen getting bumped all over. I leave my Astro on the dog/ compass screen all the time so that's the screen I want to see everytime I looked at it