by Steve Smith
We go hunting, many of us, partly to get away from it all. Just us and our dogs and acres and acres of uninhabited prairie or creek bottom or clearcut. Unless we’re, I don’t know, in our late fifties or sixties or older, and we just came from an appointment with the cardiologist. Then it sure would be nice to know where we are for sure and – better yet – nice to have someone else know where we are. That’s where the new Alpha 200i/TT Mini Bundle from Garmin shines.
You know of the Alpha units. They combine the best of GPS tracking of the dog – dogs, really, because you can tie a lot of them into one unit – with the exact location of where they are, where you are, and, in my case, where I left the truck. But with this latest unit, and by tying into a subscription service called inREACH, you can: pair the device with a cell phone, but also send and receive text messages that even your cellphone can’t because you are tied to a satellite and not a cell tower; use GPS coordinates to find your way to the location of someone sending you a text message; get a weather forecast; and, best of all for some of us, tie into the SOS Rescue service to come get you should you need to quickly revisit that cardiologist, break a leg, or something else that makes getting back to the truck impossible.
You can also tie into a service that will show you a satellite map of where you are, similar to what you get from Google Maps. Garmin explains this function like so: Pair with the Garmin Explore app on your compatible smartphone to see real-time dog tracking information, save collections of dog tracks, and replay tracks to see exactly what happened during your hunt.
Of course, tracking our dogs, knowing where they are and to a certain degree what they’re doing, is combined with the ability to send corrections at various levels as well as tone and vibration, just like the earlier Alpha. That’s the heart and soul of the unit and has been since its inception. The other attributes, bells, and whistles as outlined above have brought the 200i into the true age of communication as we have come to appreciate it.
Something else I appreciated, which is the new 200i has a larger screen – 3½ inches – that makes reading it easier, and I could read it without resorting to reading glasses, which, with the old Alpha, I sometimes had to do if the screen held a lot of information. That new screen can also be read in daylight, another new wrinkle.
It’s also nice to see that the unit comes with the TT15 Mini receiver collar, a small unit I find preferable to the larger “regular,” as Garmin calls them, TT 15 collar.
The Alpha 200i retails for $749.99.
Another Garmin unit, the Alpha 10, is a simpler model, a small handheld that when paired with a collar(s), allows for tracking and training. It can be connected to a cellphone and then used to call up the Explorer app for map viewing.
This unit, however, is physically smaller and you go through the menu and choices via a toggle Garmin calls a Thumb Stick controller. What I liked about this unit when I used it is, after a little practice, you can do what you need to do with it using one hand. Too often, the touch screen controls force me to try to juggle my shotgun and the handheld device; and in some models, the touch screen doesn’t work when I’m wearing shooting gloves, which I always am on account of briars and my tendency to bleed easily. With the Alpha 10, that’s gone. One hand, use the thumb thing, and I know what my dog is doing and where she’s doing it. For even more detail, you can use the Garmin Explore app mentioned above.
In reality, the Alpha 10 is a miniature version of the larger Pro 550 Plus, a unit that also allows one-handed use for tracking and training. I’ve used the 550 while retriever training where hand signals and instant corrections often have to happen at the same time. It’s a very nice unit. What follows is the way the company’s website pretty well sums it up:
The Alpha 10 “is a compact, versatile tracking and training device for outdoor enthusiasts and their dogs. This new unit incorporates Garmin’s proven sporting dog technology in a uniquely designed form factor, making it Garmin’s smallest and lightest dog tracking and training solution. The Alpha 10 also provides easy-to-use, versatile operation as a stand-alone unit, paired with a compatible smartphone or tablet for enhanced dog tracking, or paired with a compatible Garmin device as a buddy-tracking system.”
The Alpha 10 retails for $399.95.
If the prices of these or other, competitive, units, seem a little steep, let me say that every hunting season, I see or receive reports of dogs that are lost. They’ve simply run off and can’t be found. I don’t care if it’s in a Nebraska plum thicket, a Montana coulee, or a Wisconsin clearcut, there are times we lose sight of our dogs for longer than we’d like, and if they’re wearing a bell, they’re often out of hearing, too.
Invariably, at least the BOL reports I’ve seen, the owner tells a potential finder the dog is wearing an ID collar or a beeper collar or a bell or an ecollar – nary a mention of a GPS tracking device like the Alphas or Garmin’s Astro or Pro 550 units. Forget the fact that we love these animals; when you factor in training time, vet bills, the cost of food, and all the rest that goes into owning a bird dog, one of these devices is cheap protection for your investment – and your peace of mind.
