Garmin ALPHA 100 Handheld Only

This combo works as it should. It's a great do it all collar that is great for training and tracking.

I have used the Alpha 100 for 3 years. I like it because it’s easy to track and train the dogs. The battery lasts all day. I always charge after a full day to be sure. I have tried the Alpha 200, but found myself going back to the 100. I use this Garmin with mini tt15 collars and they have worked well together. I never hunt or train without them!

Great outfit really enjoying using this product.Very happy with the ordering process,received the item quickly.

Has everything you need. Tells you where your dog is. How far away, which direction he is, if he is on point. I like that it tells you the dogs stats. I was shocked to see my dog ran 16 miles my last hunt. I am mostly glad it has the vibrate feature to get my dogs attention. Then I only need to use the shock if he does something bad. Definitely the best collar I’ve ever seen.

I've been buying and using training collars since Tri-tronics was a standalone product. I've also depended on Garmin GPS products nearly as long. The merger of these two great companies has given dog owners the best of both worlds. More recently, I've owned both Dogtra and SportDog collars. Both brands have their strong points and weaknesses.

The Alpha 100 and TT15X are a big step up. The construction is heavy duty, the daily compass calibration is quick and easy, the collar-handheld range is way beyond any distance I will ever need, and I appreciate the collar's strobe lights that allow me to keep track of my dog in my large pasture at night. I no longer need occasionally to shock my hunting dog in the field because the vibration function is strong enough to get his attention. There's also a tone option. Updates are simple: Download the app, plug the units in and follow directions.

I have mounted the short antennas on both the collar and handheld. As a partial test of the effective range between them I left the collar on a table and drove away with the handheld. They were still communicating with more than two miles between them. There is also a longer set of antennas included in the package.

The handheld is feature rich with as many functions as any GPS user could ask. I have little or no use for many of those options, but found it easy to set up an initial waypoint (to find my way back to my truck), played with the option to record my dog's actual tracks on the hunt and, most importantly to me, set up two different displays to keep track of him in the field and to alert me when he's on point.

When I visit my rural property for an extended stay, I routinely keep the collar on my dog as insurance that I won't lose him. The batteries have been reliable from dawn to dark before needing a charge.

I've had the unit only a week or so and am still discovering new features. What I haven't found are any negatives. I do wish, though, that the "on point" alert remained longer on the display.

When un-packing and inventorying the package I found the Y-adapter was missing. Gun Dog Supply sent a replacement cable the same day.

EDIT: After six months of use, I can confirm my initial review with the following exceptions:

1. After performing a software update, all the handheld data fields disappeared. My call to Garmin's support team confirmed that this "hiccup" had been seen previously; the remedy was to do a hard reset, after which the handheld had to be setup from the factory settings all over again.
2. The handheld was on a lanyard around my neck when the display swung into the side of my vehicle, resulting in a very small impact mark on the screen. Afterwards, the display remained frozen and the unit was unresponsive. Garmin had me send it in as a swap for a used (re-certified) replacement at a cost of $200+. So, I'm deleting "...Bulletproof" from my review heading. I now have a protective screen cover installed on it.
It's still a 5-star product; just fix the updating glitch and recommend a protective screen cover.

Only limitation is it is difficult to change correction levels on the e collar.

This makes keeping track of dogs easy. I love how easy it is to program.

Little bit of a learning curve, now I know where he is in the fields. I will use it to break him from running Deer.

It does all that you need to know. Versatile!