Steve's Garmin Alpha Tips

SUMMARY: If tapping the touchscreen's re-center arrow keeps dropping unwanted map pins, assign Map to a front key: pressing it re-centers the map without touching the screen.

If you're having trouble, have a customer that is, having trouble with his map. So when you move around on your map screen, either using your, up and down arrows. I'm sorry? Your positive or negative arrows there, or just moving around, you get, this return arrow right here, so, you can click on that and it will take you back to, where you are centered in the map. So customers having trouble, when he hits that, he's leaving a pin. See how I just kinda hit slightly above it and I left the pin? I'm assuming that's what's happening as far as that, which is super irritating. If you go back and then hit, you know, the, the return button there, that pen's gonna go away because you didn't do anything with it. But a trick to this, if you're having trouble with that, and that to me is just a touchscreen error, is that you see up here, I've got, my map as part of, one of my function keys here. if you press on the map there, it centres you back. if you're having an issue with that, that would be a way around using the touchscreen. Sometimes, in some situations, touchscreens can be irritating, just difficult to use. when I have that, for me, I use, my touch keys, set Them up, so that they're more convenient for me

SUMMARY: Reordering collars in the dog list (Menu > change order, move up/down) also changes their order on the tracking screen, multi-dog view and training bar.

Let me show you a quick way to, reorganize your collars. So I'm in a tracking screen right now, but I wanna go to my dog list. Alright. I have, a bunch of collars in here. some of them are mine, some of them belong to some buddies. But, one of the things that you can do with this is, you need to reorganize stuff is that you can move things around. So from this screen, select your menu. Here's a couple of things that you can do. if you only have a few dogs running and you wanna just see the dogs that are running, I have these two collars that are listed as active. one of them I don't even know if it's turned on. I was showing how to do something in a multi dog mode so I just activated one and then, this colour is actually next to me and working. But one of the things that you can do is change your devices. So this shows everything. if you want to move something to a different spot, you click on it and then you have an up and a down arrow you can change the order of your devices. You can move them up and you can move it down. And then when you're through, you hit your check Mark. Now you might ask why would you want to do that? So Right now I have blue and I have new orange. so what if I want to either get the new orange on the left or. If you're running in single dog mode, right now, blue's at the top and new orange is second. What if I want new orange in the front there? So to do that home dog list. Alright, you see where blue is and you see where new orange is. So we're gonna reorder the devices, alright? So I'm gonna scroll down here to New orange I'm going to move it up. so what I need to do to get it in front is to get it ahead of blue. now it's new orange, blue. Orange is still at the top, but it's not active. when I go back to the tracking screen, new orange is now at the top and blue is second. if I drop into multi dog mode, I've moved it around. basically, you can change the order, in your dog list, and that's going to show how they appear, in the screen. It's also going to change how they appear in your, stimulation, you, charts up here at the top. It's gonna move it around. so if you want to change the order or something, that's how you do it.

SUMMARY: A trade-in Alpha 200i was missing the nut on its SMA antenna connection. Steve swaps one in from a parts unit with an 8mm socket, hand tight only.

So here's an example of something to watch out for. This is. A trade in unit that we got in. It's. A 200 I. notice how that's, moving around such. Well, that's not good. if you look at a different garment, see that nut that's on there? So you need that in place. Not sure how that one came out, but we're gonna. This is a broken unit, so we're gonna steal this to set that one up. An 8 millimeter, socket fits this. And so, I don't use a tool for it, I just use the socket. Because you don't want to, over tighten these, you want to do these hand tight. but this is the simplest way to do it. And there you go, good as new.

SUMMARY: Set one front key per dog (tone plus stim for each) and pin the e-collar screen, so you can raise, lower and correct multiple dogs at different levels without leaving that screen.

Alright, let's look at another take on this option as far as what you can do to make the collar functionality better in your unit. So, I've gone in here and made an adjustment. You do this in the training setup. I'm running three dogs. I got the orange dog, I got the blue dog, I got the red dog. I do a lot of tone commands with my dogs. So this is a cool setup where, I know it's dog one, dog two, dog three, however you wanna go through it. But I've got tone and that, that's, that's really simple. I can tone everybody at the same time. And then I've got stimulation for each dog. Orange Dog, Blue Dog, Red Dog. And I've continued it where, they're in the same button position so that I know, you know, if I need, to correct the Blue Dog, he's gonna always be in the middle. Now I've got different stimulation settings for these dogs. so same thing is true here. When I click on it, I can raise and lower the stimulation using the side button. I can also use my selector to take me back to the tracking screen. But one of the things that you can do is you can pin your system so that it stays in the collar mode. Alright. Down at the bottom of your, Collar screen, you have this little pin. And if you turn that pin off you don't press any buttons for a period there, it'll automatically drop you back to the tracking screen. And then your side buttons, they go through your menu here. But I can see my dogs. I wanna be able to correct my dogs. I wanna be able to raise and lower stimulation on individual dogs. I'm going to. When I. It's not on time, when I go to the collar functionality, I'm gonna select it here, and then I'm going to select that pin. This allows me to keep the collar screen on my handheld. as long as that pin's locked, it's gonna stay here the whole time. It's not going to go back to, the tracking screen until I tell it to. So if I need to work on the Blue Dog, here. I can raise and lower. I can jump over to the Red Dog, I can raise him lower. I can stem, I can stem. Blue Dog needs to go up. I can stem, I can stem, I can stem. And you see, I'm getting three different levels there. So different dogs, different intensity levels. But because the pin is locked, it's not coming out of the screen. Now, when I'm ready to go back and track dogs, I can either press the side button or, if you notice, there is A, back button there. So if you wanna use the, the touchscreen, you can. as soon as you jump back into this screen, you're moving back and forth. So this is an example of just understanding how the side buttons work and. how they work in different situations.

SUMMARY: The Alpha 200/300 side keys are multi-function: on the tracking screen they move between dogs, but after a stim they raise and lower that dog's level and the select key takes you back. Know which screen you're on.

So I had a buddy of mine call me yesterday, he was frustrated with his Alpha 300 because of the functionality of the side keys. one of the downsides of the Alpha units is that you can't make adjustments as quickly as you would like in the collar settings. At least not compared to some of the, straight collar products out there on the market. And typically I'm talking about a Pro 550 or a Pro 550+. So that's the traditional Tritronics, three button operation, low, medium, and high. it allows you To rapidly increase or decrease stimulation depending on the situation of the dog. so the alphas, to me, they require a little bit more thought going into them. Now, compared to the 100, the Alphas, two hundreds and three hundreds have much more functional as far as stimulation. You have the side keys over here, it's up and down, and then a select. And these allow you to. To do certain things. But the downside of them is that they're a multi function, you know, button in that depending on where you are, they do different things. to give you an example, we're in a tracking screen right here. So this is a dog compass. if I press them, you'll notice up here at the top that my selector changes I'm on the blue dog. Now, I've got some function settings, and my buttons do that, and then I'm on the red dog. And so you have to know where you are before you can use these buttons to correctly, stem a dog. Now, by that I say is that when I press stem on this dog, now, my side buttons raise and lower my stimulation, my selector button takes me back. So see how that changed? I'm pressing the top key right now. I'm on blue. I'm increasing and lowering but then when I hit my selector, it takes me back. So that's a great, that's a great setup from the standpoint that, if I wanna. If I stem blue and then I need to, make an adjustment, I'm on blue right now, as long as I'm doing stuff, I'm staying on blue. But when I'm through, I press my selector, it takes me back. So this is an important part of knowing how the unit works knowing where you are on the unit.

SUMMARY: Updating a TT 15X collar: clip it to the charging cable, add it in Garmin Express, install the update, then unplug and watch the lights flash while the software loads and it beeps when done.

Alright, I also need to update a 15 X. This is a T T 15 X that I'm gonna be running some tests on. But I need to load some new software into it. Pretty much the same thing. You're gonna use your power cable and your clip. 15 X's can also not be updated via Wi Fi. And we're still gonna use Garmin Express. So clip it on and it's going to drop into a red light mode and then it should do the same thing on your computer. Alright, so it opens up a file here. We just close that, you don't need that. And then you go back over to here. Now, I don't believe I have this one in my system. So I'm gonna add the device. It's going to look for it, it's gonna find that it's 15 X, it's got the serial number. You say add device, it's gonna come through here and it's going to ask you about registration and offers. Don't click that if you don't want that, alright? It's going to find similar devices. Generally, unless you have a lot of stuff, it's not going to do this to you. I'm gonna replace because nobody cares. You can name your collars if you want to. And check it for updates. Same thing here. Got an update. Click Install Lawyer, Lawyer, Lawyer and then go. Alright. After it's up to date. Same thing here. You're just gonna unhook your Device and then we'll show you what it does. Alright, so unplug my device. Alright, this is the device loading software alright, you see the flashing there? That's showing that it's gonna load and then it's gonna beep at me. Alright, so that tells you that the software is loaded.

SUMMARY: The Pro 550 Plus can't update over Wi-Fi, so plug it straight into the computer with its power cable (no splitters) and update in Garmin Express. The update loads on the handheld after you disconnect.

So I need to update my pro 550+. One of the downsides of the pro 550+ is that it does not have an option for Wi Fi update. But that's okay because we've got Garmin Express. So to do this, you gotta go to Garmin and download Garmin Express. And then you gotta plug it up. So this is using your power cable. you wanna make sure that you don't have any sort of connectors in between it. And when you plug it up, you're gonna get this little symbol right here that shows up just to show that it's connected. Alright. Something else that's gonna happen is that on a P C. It's gonna open up a computer window like this. You can ignore that. That just means you're connected. I have a bunch of stuff in mine. Generally you won't. This little green dot right here shows that it's connected to my pro 550+. You click on it, it's gonna look and see and tell you that there's a software date up, update available and estimated install time to 1 minute install. Gotta deal with the lawyers. Gotta make sure that you're gonna take a second. And then it does the update. Alright? After it has installed it, then it's gonna tell you that you're up to date. It'll tell you what your software version is and then it will tell you to disconnect it from your computer. And that's it. And then when you turn the Plus on or when you disconnect it, it's going to show this little cloud download, and that is the update being loaded onto your handheld. This happens after you take it off of express. After it loads, turn it back on, you're good to go.

SUMMARY: Swapping the band on a Garmin Instinct 3 is quick: two spring-loaded pins and the included tool, no special skill needed.

Okay, so two pieces and a tool And some of the metal bands. So these are like spring loaded. Okay, that's kind of cool. And here we go. Alright, neat. I'm gonna go wash this thing off before I put the new band on cause it is it is kind of filthy. Okay, so we put that side in. And then. Where did my tool go? There it is. Ah, you do have to have at least some level of talent to do this. Don't even need the tool for that. Very cool. Take your metal rod in. She goes. Put one side in. This idiot is my knife. Be careful if you're gonna use a knife. Hmm. That's it. Brand spanking new people. So pretty happy about that. That was easy to do.

SUMMARY: Steve likes the Instinct 3 50mm watch but finds Garmin's silicone straps last about a year for him. They're easy to replace.

So this is a Garmin Instinct 3 50millimeter watch. I had this for, I'm gonna say about a year and a half, and I've been pretty pleased with it overall. I think it's a good looking watch, and it covers a lot of the stuff that Garmin watches do. And, I. I've been happy with it. it's got some really cool features and some stuff that I love. but I'm always frustrated about garment straps. So I think I should note that I am super hard on gear, and, I tend to break things that are breakable. But Garmin straps. My experience, and I don't know if this is everybody, but my experience with Garmin watch straps is that if you get a year out of them, you have done something. Now, I think these are silicone straps. And like I said, I don't know if this is true for everybody, but for me, multiple things happen. The little pieces here break, and then eventually, you know, the. The little holders here, they break. This one's,. This one's tearing on me. So, I don't know. I find it frustrating that I paid this much for a watch and the band, it is not gonna last very long, but that's my experience. But, hey, they're easy to switch out. So you just, buy a new band and you switch them out. We're Gonna show you how to do that real quick.

SUMMARY: The Pro 550 Plus and older Garmin training collars still use mini-USB. A cheap USB-C to mini-USB adapter from Amazon lets you charge everything, including TT 25 collars, with USB-C cables.

So let's talk about something cool you can do if you have a Garmin Pro 5 50+. The Pro 5 50+ and all of the Garmin training collars. So that's your Pro 5 50, your Pro 70, your Sport Pro. They use a different charging style, versus the new stuff, all the new garment stuff. Your T T. Twenty fives, your alpha 3 hundreds. They use U S B C. Chargers, which I'm a real big fan of the U S B C. It is a very common charger now. A lot of cell phones are using it. A lot of computers are using it. It's just a very standard, charging interface, and a really good one. These older units, unfortunately, use, what is called a mini U S B. So this is a mini U S B, and I don't know, the mini U S BS, to me, are not quite as, common. You don't see a lot of units. I'm not aware of anything that I own that runs, many U S B. Besides, you know, the Garmin training collars and the Pro 5 50+. it's just. It's just not as common of an interface. And I hope at some point Garmin's gonna update that and, you know, move those units to a U S B C. But I don't know when that's gonna happen. I don't know if that's gonna happen. So right now, if you're running a Pro 5 50+, And you're running, say, T T25 collars. You've got to have a U S B C. Charger for your collars, and you've gotta have a, U S B, mini charger for your, handheld. So I don't like that. So buddy of mine actually, texted me and said, hey, do you have an option so that I don't have to have two different chargers? And I said, no, I really don't. So. But let's look around and see what our options are. So I went on, the Amazon and, got me some of these. So this is a U S B C. To U S B. Mini adapter. And so just a little adapter clips on your U S B C, and then it plugs in to your profile 50+. So there you go. Now you can use your U S B C's to charge everything. So I don't sell these. I probably should, but I haven't found a source for them yet. But you can get them. You know, like I said, I got these off Amazon. They weren't that bad. I think I got four or five of them for, like, seven bucks. So if you want to do that, it's a pretty simple add on and just one less thing to have to carry around.

SUMMARY: Rescue mode on the Pro 550 Plus switches a collar to a 2-minute update rate at 25% battery to stretch battery life for a lost dog. Turn it on per collar in the menu, and update via Garmin Express if the option is missing.

Alright, we were talking about rescue mode with the alpha units. This is also an option. If you have a Pro 5 50+ you can set up rescue mode. just to go over it again, rescue mode when your collar gets down to 25% battery life, it changes your update rate from whatever you have it set at and it moves it out to the longest update rate, which is two minutes. And that's designed to extend your battery life so that if you have a lost dog your battery starts to get low, rescue mode will extend that battery life as long as possible. Going under the Assumption that you have a lost dog and you're looking for him. So to set that up in a Pro 5 50+, put your dial on in, press your tone button to go into the menu, and then you go through until you find Rescue Mode. Select Rescue Mode and select the nail and there you go. That's it. So pretty simple process. If you have a profile 50+ and you select the menu rescue mode is not an option, then you need to update your unit via Garmin Express. this new menu function has been around for, I don't know, year, year and a half? Something like that. So if you have a unit and you have not updated it, you may not have that option in your menu. So go to express And update it. And the other thing to understand on Pro 5 50 pluses is that menus are colour. So you would have to, change your collar, I don't have another collar with me. But you'd have to change to your second or third dog collar go back into your menu and set rescue mode for that collar. So if you're running multiples you wanna set up Rescue mode and Profile 50+, you have to do it with each collar. And same thing's true on an alpha. You gotta do it by collar. It's a collar specific setting. So go in, set it up. Rescue mode's a great thing to have. Comes in really handy, especially if you have a collar that's battery is getting low.

SUMMARY: Rescue mode on the Alpha switches a collar to 2-minute updates at 25% battery. Enable it per dog on the info page. Watch for jumpy, slow tracking when it kicks in, and check that the update rate goes back to normal after recharging.

Let's talk a little bit about Rescue Mode. So Rescue Mode is a safety option that you can set up with your Garmin Alpha handheld. what Rescue Mode is designed to do is to prolong the battery life on a tracking collar when the battery starts to get low. It is designed. To go with the Assumption that your dog is out, your battery has gotten low, you are looking for that dog. so what it does is it changes your update rate from whatever you have it set. Typically, most folks are gonna be running, dynamic or two and a half seconds, maybe five seconds, but. But generally folks are gonna be running a faster update. And what rescue mode does is when your battery gets down to 25% battery life, it kicks the unit into, rescue mode and changes your update rate to a two minute update. that's designed to stretch out that last little bit of battery as much as you can, going under the Assumption that you have a dog that is lost you're looking for him. So let me show you real quick how to do that. Go to the info page on your dog and then under rescue Mode, select and hit enable. And then it'll give you a check Mark here in rescue mode. Now I'm gonna show you what it looks like. When it kicks into rescue mode, your update rate will automatically Go to two minutes. so that's what's gonna happen when you kick into rescue mode. The only thing to watch out for. I guess the thing to know about with rescue mode is that, if your collar drops into rescue mode, you may not notice it dropping into rescue mode. And if that happens, you're gonna think something weird is going on. Because a handheld that is in a two and a half second, or a dynamic update, when it switches over to a two minute update, it is very odd. you know, your. Your dog, you don't. You don't get updates. so your dog doesn't look like he's moving very fast, then all of a sudden. He'll move and it's like he jumps. So you wanna be aware of that. We used to have trouble when a unit was in rescue mode sometimes when you stuck it back on the charger and it got a full charge, it didn't kick back into, A. A standard update rate. So you kinda have to be aware of that. So if you let your collars get low and they drop into rescue mode, then you wanna be aware of that check your update to make sure that it's gone back to the normal update rate when you go back to a full charge. It's a neat feature. I recommend it for folks as a safety backup, but, it's Something you have to turn on.

SUMMARY: Shipping is a big, misunderstood part of the business. GDS rate-shops USPS, UPS and FedEx to get the best price, and customer complaints are split about evenly across carriers since service depends on local routes.

So I think one of the things that we work with. With our staff is understanding that our customers do not understand completely what it is that we do for a living. most people are not in the, you know, shipping business, and that's a big chunk of what we do. You know, we. We ship stuff, and what we do for a living. And what most people experience with shipping is, you know, completely different. And they. They. They have a lot of misconceptions with the shipping. We ship, postal. We ship U P S, and we ship FedEx, and we do, what's called rate shopping. And so basically, you know, we're looking at what we're shipping you, and we're looking at the best way to ship it to you for, you know, the most affordable price to get the results that we want. And so that's something that I try to make sure that we're clear with our customers about, because I don't think it's something that people. Or as skilled in, I am amazed at sometimes when I see the dollar amounts that people spend on, shipping going through some of the places, like, the commercial places like U P S. Stores and. And, and, FedEx stores, when they could, get a much better rate, going through the postal service. There are issues with the Postal Service. I'm. I'm not under the impression that they. Are, the greatest thing in the world, but, I find that they do a. A really great job for us. so we have people that don't want us to use postal service, which I understand, and, but we have a similar number of people that will give us the same thing. They will say, don't ship U P S. They will say, don't ship FedEx. it's a similar number if you. If you track it. so a lot of it depends on your local service and, who's working your routes. I think that's a big thing. But we don't expect our customers to, you know, to fully understand, the options behind it and how it works, and so we do our best to be clear about that. as far as information that we give

SUMMARY: There is a TT 25 Mini: the electronics are the same size, but the mini flex band is much shorter, so it fits small necks. Steve prefers minis even on big dogs because there's less band to get damaged.

So the reason that some people will say that there isn't a mini is because the electronics are the same size on a regular and a mini. And what Garmin was trying to do was make less S K U's. They wanted, less items to have to be put in the catalogues and less things to ship to people. Now, twenty fives are a good bit smaller than fifteens, and they are very similar size to the 25. So the 15 and the 25 Mini are almost the same size. So there was really no need for a smaller piece of electronics. Now, here's the difference. It's in the Flex Band, and it is a substantial difference versus what we had in the regular 15 and the Mini 15. The length of Flex Band is, completely different. Now, antennas are the same size just like on, you know, the fifteens, but the length of the Flex Band is substantially shorter. So same thing here with this collar. You know, you're gonna be able to get it down to a. That's a pretty small neck, so it will. A regular will go down, you know, pretty small, on a, you know, on a dog. But there's some size dogs that it's still too big for. And so that's where this comes in. this sucker will get down, I mean, that's. That's almost too small of a neck to actually wear. It On a dog. So really, no size dog that I'm uncomfortable putting this on, you know, I guess. I mean, I guess A 8 pound dog maybe would be, you know, would be a little bit much for them, but. But for, you know, your typical hunting dogs, it's not gonna be a problem. Now, I prefer the minis over the regulars, even for larger dogs. And that's because of the size of the flex band. So your flex band has a wire that runs through it, and it goes through this piece of plastic right here. Okay. And occasionally we'll get damage, especially for guys that are running, you know, bears and cats and And the such. You know, they'll get dogs that get bit and they'll get, you know, damage to their collars. Well, the beauty of this is that it's a smaller package and it's less surface area, so you just don't have the opportunity for it to get damaged. You've also got. While there is a wire that runs, it's a substantially shorter wire, and it's in a much more protected spot. So while we haven't seen trouble out of either one of these, I feel like this is a better option because of its size.

SUMMARY: History of the TT 15 vs TT 15 Mini: the original 15 (same case as the TT 10) wouldn't fit small dogs, so Garmin made a mini on the PT 10 body with a shorter flex band. Sets up the TT 25 Mini video.

So I saw a conversation on the internet the other day, and basically there was someone saying that there's no such thing as a Mini 25. And that's not true. But it's a different setup than the T T 15, T T15 Mini. They're. They're not the same. So a Mini 25 is. Is a different setup. This is a regular 25. This is a Mini 25. And I'll show you the difference there, but I wanna show you the original so that you see why people say some of the silly things that they say. Alright, so this is a T T15. It is the exact same size and design as the T T ten. So this came out in like 2,012. didn't have probes, but, but the same size. Alright. These were gigantic, and they would not fit on small dogs. So the beagle guys especially had a real problem using these. And a lot of the bird dog guys, myself included, had trouble with them because we have some smaller dogs. And the problem, you know, with a track and train style collar is that because of the probes, you've got to have good skin contact on the neck. So you cannot have something that's way too big. And I don't have a collar strap on here, but the the problem with it was that it would only get down so small. So to fix that, Garmin came out with what they called the Mini T T15. Now, if you are familiar at all with Garmin collars, you'll notice the similarity here. This is a P T. 10, which is used with the Pro 550 and the Sport Pro. And same design for the Pro 70. Well, look at the similarity there. Okay, so basically what they did was they took the design for the P T 10, and they added a flex band to it, and it's a shorter flex band. is the same size as far as the G P S. Antenna, but the flex band was substantially shorter, and this allowed the collar to go on a smaller dog. You can also see that, you know, it was a substantially smaller piece of electronics. So this worked great for beagles and smaller bird dogs and just smaller dogs primarily. And so totally different setup. What I found the most irritating about it was that it was the opposite. So you had to buckle these differently. And that drove me insane because I was used to buckle them, you know, the 15 is one way, and then I had to buckle these, you know, the opposite. Really bugged me sometimes to the point that I would ride them, probably, probably run them backwards. So this was a regular 15. This was a mini 15. Alright, I'm gonna do the next video and show you what the current mini setup is.

SUMMARY: The best lost-dog recovery device is still a collar tag with your cell number and a second responsible contact's number.

Put your phone number on your dog, your cell phone number, and then another responsible party, parents, children, your spouse, your brother, man. Responsible siblings cannot be guaranteed to be responsible. So you can watch the rest of this video if you want. Put your phone number on your dog. Put your phone number on your dog.

SUMMARY: Steve found a loose SMA antenna connection on a handheld. A loose SMA still tracks but cuts range drastically (often 100-150 yards). Tighten gently with a 10mm socket and check it from time to time.

So we were shooting a video on so I don't know something watches and I was using this handheld as a prop in the video and in a break out of habit I took off the antenna and checked my s m a connection and it was loose so this is one of the handhelds that I use in shooting videos and I think I use it in the field some too because it has this on it but I have not used it in the field in a long time and I don't remember having any issues with it but my s m a has become loose at some point I've never really been told what causes this but basically it's just come loose now it's an easy fix it takes a 10 millimeter socket it's easy to do so I don't recommend that you actually use it on a wrench you just put the socket in there and you very gently tighten it does not take a lot of force and that's it so simple fix what will happen is if this if it becomes loose you will still be able to track but your range will drastically decrease so if you run into a situation where all of your collars are losing signal typically hundred hundred and fifty yards you may wanna check that but I recommend that you check it from time to time anyway take your antenna off and just it shouldn't move at all that's it

SUMMARY: Once two Alpha handhelds track each other, you can send preset messages from Dog List > Contacts > Message, view past messages under Alerts, and set message tones/vibration in Settings on both units.

Alright after you have the handhelds where they are tracking each other then you also have the option of sending messages so in the dog list this is under your contacts and then there is message and you have these preset messages that you can send so let's just do a I'm coming and then it will appear up here on top of the other unit couple of things here you can go to your your power screen here and then under alerts you can see the past messages here so I've sent this stuff alright and then you also another spot in here where you can set the vibration and tone alerts for when you get a message go to settings go to tones and alerts and then the handheld message alerts and so here you can we're gonna say tone and vibrate you can pick the tone and there you go and then same thing you have to do this on both units so go over here to settings on the other unit go down to tones and alerts and then the handheld message alert tone and vibrate however you want it so that way you can message back and forth

SUMMARY: Pairing an Alpha 200 and 300 to track each other: turn on transmitting in pairing setup, fix ID conflicts if needed, then add each handheld to the other's contacts by entering its ID.

Alright I had somebody ask me about tracking alpha handhelds and so when I look back I've I've done a video on tracking a 300 and a 100 but I've never done a video on tracking a 200 and a 300 so let's do that real quick alright so it's in dog list and you have a couple of different sections here in dog list which the first one here is your dogs and then the next one here is your contacts now you gotta do this in both of them and you can see right here that I've got an alpha XL in this handheld but I don't have anything in this handheld what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get this handheld and this handheld to start tracking each other now you've got to make sure that a couple of things are done here so let's go to pairing set up alright right here this is key you have to have transmitting on for a unit to be trackable you you can track a unit with not having your transmitting on but you cannot be tracked so gotta keep that in mind let's go over here and make sure this one's done correctly alright so boom boom alright alright so this can happen too we're gonna have to change the handheld I D so alright let's go alright it's right here pairing setup I D alright so we're just gonna pick one that it says is available so that is the a frequency that this handheld is transmitting on alright so we've got them both set up where they are transmitting and the I Ds are good so now this is the part that I think people get kind of confused on we're going to add a handheld now you can do it a couple of different ways one of the easiest ways I think is just to enter the I D so you can go over here and you can go to pairing set up and this one is 1:19 and there she is boom and this is gonna be a we'll call this 300 excuse me 300 okay and finish alright so that one's on and then you have to go and do this one where you have to add over here and we're gonna enter an I D and this is 3:13 so slide down here give it a second there it is and this is actually a 200+ so we'll we'll put that in right here 200A B C P L alright finish okay so my transmission is off let's get it back on and we're on 3 13 so boom now we're communicating alright so you can go over here and you can see that we're tracking the 200+ it's right there and then you can go here and we're tracking the 300 so there you go pretty simple

SUMMARY: Personal: Steve's son Cooper is riding a bike north from New Mexico this summer to raise money for World Bicycle Relief (CooperSnell.com).

Hei. What do y'all do? I don't know. I'm just thinking about how cool it would be if there was an organization that could reduce school dropout rates for girls in Africa by 19%. Maybe. Yeah, I wish there was an organization that could increase patient reach in Kenya for Kenyan health workers by 88%. Wouldn't it be awesome if there was an organization that could reduce food insecurity by increasing access to transportation in rural communities? Does this conversation sound familiar? Cause I've got some big news. Hey, I'm Cooper Snell, and this summer I'll be fundraising for World Bicycle Relief, an organisation that provides life changing bicycles to students, health workers and farmers in rural Africa and South America. This summer I'll be riding north from Anelope Wells, New Mexico until my knees give out somewhere in, like, Colorado or something. If you wanna know how you can support this mission and get bicycles to these people, then you should go check out Cooper snell.com Ladies, ladies, I'm doing my work here.

SUMMARY: The Alpha only shows a dog's average speed (Dog Info > statistics). For more, turn on the speed map overlay (colors the track) and a speed alert with a threshold under Tones and Alerts > Dog Alerts.

So I had a customer that was asking about tracking speed on a dog in the Dog Info group if you go under the statistics here there's an average speed you can reset this and you know track that if you want to but this is the this is really the only place to to track speed there is nowhere that shows actual speed and that's got something to do with how they figure out speed over time but you can watch this as an average speed now that's gonna be a problem in some situations there are a couple other things that you can do as far as dog speed goes if you go to your map and then hit your menu and then go to track device setup there are some map overlays and one of the overlays is called a speed overlay now what the overlays do is that it allows you to track a a speed and then set an upper limit to that speed and when the dog goes over that speed it will change the color of the dog's track so you'll notice here that there are colors over here so you need to keep that in mind so that it's something obvious so say you know if your dog's color is say you know green and you want the speed overlay to be red that's how you do that you gotta turn that on now if you select speed overlay then you've also got to go to settings and go down here to better better better better tones and alerts and then you have to go to dog alerts and then you have to go to speed set up and so you turn speed detection on and then you pick what you want as far as tones or beeps and then you set your speed threshold so let's say that I wanna know when my dog is going 10 miles an hour there we go so what's gonna happen here is that anytime your dog exceeds 10 miles an hour you're gonna get an alert and then the overlay will also change the color on his trail so I don't know if that's something that's really useful to people I think it's interesting but but that's that's what you have to do you do have to set up both of these things you have to well that's not totally true you can do speed detection and get an alert when the dog exceeds and then you can do the overlay on the map if you wanna see where that happens so they do work hand in hand but you can get the notification without doing the overlay but I think put them together makes more sense

SUMMARY: Alphas can't tone all dogs at once, but a Pro 70 can: put up to six collars on one button and strap them to the same collar strap. Expensive, but it works.

So I spend most of my time answering questions on what products that we sell can do and can't do and then those questions bounce around in my head and sometimes I come up with workarounds so this week someone asked if they could if there was a way to tone all of their dogs on a Garmin Alpha at the same time and the answer to that is no and there's a video on that if you wanna see why so you're limited on an alpha to you can only tone one dog at a time there are some situations where people would like to be able to tone multiple dogs at the same time and I figured a workaround out it's expensive but it works so Garmin Alphas you can't set up where they'll tone all the same time but you can do it on a Pro 70 so I have six collars here and all six of them are on the same button and then if you wanted to do it that way you can get a three quarter inch strap which comes with the collars and you attach it to the same colour strap one button you can tone them all that's an expensive edition just for that but it'll work and you are not limited in the number of dogs that it'll do technically a pro 70 is a six dog collar but because we're setting everything up on one button as you can see one two three four five six I've got seven right here now there is no separating it out you can't you know you can't just buzz these three and just buzz those three they're all on you know but technically you could if you wanted to you could break it up where you had you know some dogs on one and some dogs on another it can be done it's an expensive way to do it but it can be done let me know if you have any questions thanks

SUMMARY: When a new collar's ID conflicts with an existing one, answering 'yes, this collar is mine' lets the handheld pick a non-conflicting ID automatically (it changed the new collar, not the old one).

Just added a collar and it conflicts with black which is one of my collars that's loaded onto the unit so this is something that can happen when you're adding a new collar the collar has a preset I D that it's going to to use and there's a certain you know there's a limited number of those and so this can happen so what I'm going to do there's a couple of different options here but I'm gonna track both devices because here it's gonna say communication settings needs to be changed on the collar to avoid interference is this collar yours now the reason it's asking you that is that if you're adding a buddy's collar and it conflicts you're gonna have to change the I D but you're gonna have to change it on the original handheld too so if you were to say you know if this is a buddy's collar you know you need to to deal with that this is my collar so I'm gonna say yes and this is actually a T 20 that we're doing some tests on so I'm gonna do that and I'm gonna make the what about cyan okay so the tracking on this is 2:15 let's go see what it did so finish alright black it has changed so and I'm I'm sorry it's not correct it didn't change the black collar it changed the other one because the collar it was interfering with was set on 4 14 and it is now on 2:15 so it asked me you know is this collar mine and I said yes so it went on ahead and changed it I would prefer that it say to me hey we're gonna change the ID we're gonna change it to this but but that's what it did it went in it found an ID that didn't conflict with any of my other stuff and that's what it picked so there you go

SUMMARY: Warning: changing the training default button layout (e.g., three-per-dog to one-per-dog) wipes all your custom training key setups, and switching back does not restore them.

Alright let's talk about one other thing in the training setup I kind of Learned this while I was experimenting with it and you know I'm a big fan of experimenting with your systems and going through and finding the things that that work best for you but there's some things you have to be kind of careful about so in training defaults you have an option which is one button per dog and this allows you to come into your keys and get real specific about you know how you're doing things on individual collars and one of the things that you can do is that you can have you know a three button set up where it's continuous for dog 1 and continuous for dog 2 and continuous for dog 3 and that way you don't have to change screens you can stem stem stem you can control the levels you know from that screen another option that a lot of folks would use would be you know tone for dog one tone for dog two tone for dog three so say you're running six dogs and you you do a lot of tone commands you could have it you know a page set up that's dog 1 2 3 and it's a tone for each one and then you could have the next page set up where it is you know tones for dog 4 5 6 so you know that's that's a really cool thing you can do you can also come in and set up stuff like I have here where I have a map button and an compass button and I've got the toggle screen you know for toggling the screen lock on and off I've got a setup here for Mark waypoints and I've got a zoom to a specific dog and then zoom to the other dog you know and I've got a page that's continuous in vibration and allows me to do lights prompted you know so that way I can I can press my light button and then I can tell it what I want it to do for that collar so this is a you know an incredibly versatile setup that I have here now if I come in here to training defaults and I come in and change this to three per dog this right here is the part that you need to understand this will reset the training bar so what's gonna happen is it's gonna wipe out all of that programming that I have in there and it's going to put it back to where it is basically factory and that it's gonna have a map screen and a compass screen and a Mark waypoint and then it's gonna have stem for the black dog and stem for the blue dog so it's warning you on this you say yes and then you come back over here to training keys and all that stuff's gone and the worst part about that is that it's gone and you can't come in here you know if you come back into training defaults and you say hey let's go back to you know one per dog when you go back to your training keys you know it actually did change it you know it it it removed that but it does not reset what you had so if you're gonna experiment with that setup in the training keys just be forewarned that it's gonna wipe out any work that you have saved

SUMMARY: The Alpha 100's front keys have far fewer options than the 200/300: two modes (one page per dog, or one dog per button with added pages), linear or traditional stim, and a setting to lock buttons when the screen locks.

So we have been looking at the training keys on the Alpha 200 and 300 systems let's talk a little bit about the 100 and the differences between it so the 100 has the same three buttons across the front that you have with the Alpha 200 and the 300 but you don't have quite as much control so I've got one dog in my system right now it comes out this one is set up as momentary continuous vibe so you have some control there and this is the setup you've got now you're not able to insert a page in this setup because it is one page per dog so if you want to have more than one page per dog you know if I if I had another dog in the system you know I'd have two pages but I only have one because I've only got one dog in the handheld but you have modes alright here's one option where you can swap interesting alright that's actually not for this mode alright so you have two different mode options in the Alpha 100 you have one dog per button and then you can insert pages so you can have you know as much information as you want here and then you go in and you select what you want on that dog we're gonna make this a continuous alright and then we're gonna go over here and we're gonna select the dog and we're gonna make this a continuous and then we're gonna go over here and we're gonna select dog and we're gonna make this continuous 7 okay alright and then to move back and forth you have this now the other option that you have is if you have a second dog in here you can have a dog 1 dog 2 dog 3 so that's you know that's a different you know setup if you go back to change the mode it's gonna immediately revert to the standard setup of you know one page per dog something else that you have in here is the stimulation setup is the same you've got the linear and the traditional but then button lock you have this with a 100 you can do a screen lock and keep the buttons live or you can have the buttons lock when the screen locks so that's another option here so nowhere near the versatility but there are some different things that you can do with an alpha 100

SUMMARY: More front-key utilities: toggle satellite imagery, toggle track recording, and an adjust-backlight key that switches the backlight on or off with one press, which is handy at night.

Alright let's set up the last couple of utilities here you have toggle satellite imagery you have device oops excuse me you have adjust backlight and you have toggle recording alright these are kind of handy I don't know if I like this one or not so I apparently don't have satellite imagery on this map yeah so this would allow you to turn on and off your satellite imagery I'm not really sure that that's terribly valuable it's the same setup that you have you know in your from here so I don't know how handy that is same thing there it's a way to avoid using the the touchscreen this one's kinda neat though this is adjust your backlight so this allows you at the press of a button to turn your backlight on and off this is pretty handy if you don't like the timer setup so you know you can go in on display settings display you have your backlight here and these are the options that you have and it stays on and then you've got some timers here and basically the way these work is that you know after two minutes of not touching the device it's gonna cut the backlight off that's you know interesting but this is kind of cool if you especially if you hunt at night this gives you the ability to cut it on and off and you see there's there's two options there that's a that's about a 50% it looks like and then that's 100% and so you're not relying on a timer it's strictly a you cut it on you cut it off so that's kind of handy the recording is your track log this gives you the ability to cut on and off your entire track log for your your device and everybody else I don't know if that's that's an interesting one I don't know if there's a practical application for that one either I guess if you only want really specific parts of a hunt you could use that but kind of same thing there I'm not really sure if there's a practical application for that if you have one or you think of one I'd like to hear about it you know there's an enormous amount of things that the alpha units can do some of them make sense some of them don't and so it's one of those things where I always like to hear if somebody's using something for something you know because of their application is different than mine I'd love to hear it so just some neat stuff that you can do and easy to experiment with and once again if you put something in and you don't like it you can go in and take it out

SUMMARY: For map users who don't want the touchscreen, set front keys to Map, Zoom In and Zoom Out, or Zoom to a specific dog plus zoom in and out.

Alright zoom in zoom out these are map options this is good for folks that do not you know they use the map but they don't wanna have to use the touchscreen anymore than they have to you can set up a map key and then a zoom in and a zoom out and it allows you to function on the map without having to use a touchscreen let me show you that setup okay so this is a fun one for guys that use the map a lot and don't wanna have to use the touchscreen as much so I've got a setup here where it's map zoom in and zoom out so let's jump over here real quick alright so left button takes me to the map and then I can zoom in and I can zoom out so this is a pretty handy setup especially if you're in a situation where a touchscreen is not ideal for you and then you can move through and have other setups here you know if you're using the compass but this gives you the ability to control your map without having to use the touchscreen I feel like that one's pretty handy you could also do something with a a zoom to device let me set that up alright so another option here I've put in zoom to black which that's one of my dogs and then I've got a zoom in and a zoom out so same thing here this is for folks that are using the maps a lot I'm gonna jump into a map here now my collar's right here with me but let's just say the dog was out a long way from me and I wanted to zoom to him I press this and it's gonna center the map on where the dog is and then I have the ability to zoom in or zoom out from that spot and so if he gets off screen again I simply press Zoom to Black takes me right back to him allows me to come in and out so kind of a handy setup especially if you are running one dog and you don't wanna use your touchscreen anymore than you have to that's kind of a that's kind of a neat setup I I've never used that in the field before I like that

SUMMARY: More front-key options: next dog info, cycle dogs on the compass, next in group on the map (for big packs), and toggle screen lock, the first thing Steve sets up on any new unit.

Next you have the next dog info and so that allows you to move from dog to dog to dog alright cycle dogs on tracker it is similar to this next device on map except it is designed for the compass screen and so if you have that let's go back to here it drops you into the compass and then it moves you through each dog and same thing there I don't know if that's something that's necessarily valuable it's an option I don't know a practical application for it once again you can experiment with it you don't like it remove it and then similar here we have next in group on map and if you run a lot of dogs or if you track a lot of different dogs this gives you the ability to select a group and move through that group I feel like that's something kind of same thing here on some of these other options if you're running an enormously large number of dogs experimenting with these might be something that you wanna do if you're running two dogs there's really no point in that alright the other option is utilities this is where you find the toggle screen lock so if you're interested in that that's one of my favourite options where it allows you to cut the touchscreen on and off from a button and I always set that up that's the first thing I typically do when I set up a new unit is set up the toggle screen lock that makes life a whole lot better alright zoom in zoom out these are map options this is good for folks that do not you know they use the map but they don't wanna have to use the touchscreen anymore than they have to you can set up a map key and then a zoom in and a zoom out and it allows you to function on the map without having to use a touchscreen let me show you that setup

SUMMARY: Front keys can do far more than stim: applications (map, compass, dog list, new hunt), device actions (zoom to dog, next dog on map, device info) and utilities. Experiment, and remove what you don't like.

So training keys have more versatility than just stimulation keys every Garmin Alpha comes out of the box with a map compass and a Mark waypoint but I don't use the waypoints that often at least not often enough to give them a key I do use my screen lock so I've switched this out to toggle screen there's more features like that if that's something that you want so we're gonna look a little bit training commands you know that's that's your continuous momentary tone vibration and it includes the lights even though I don't think the lights are a training command that's just where they're placed but you have three other things that you can do applications device actions and utilities there's a bunch of stuff in here map dog compass you've already got those Mark Waypoint Dog List and New Hunt these are all pretty common actions it you know it comes out of the box with Map Dog Compass and Mark Waypoint Dog List will take you into your actual dog list I don't know if I feel like there's a need for that but but it's an option you know where you can press a button it takes you right into the dog list the other one is new hunt and same thing there it allows you to set up a hunt let's go see what that looks like in in real time here so takes you right into the the new hunt function I can see where where you might like that you know to me it's an option of not having to use the touchscreen but I don't know kind of same thing there I'm not really sure that I would I would value that a whole lot but it's more of just one of your options anytime you set one up if you don't like it you can remove it so there there's nothing really you know a lot of experimentation here to me it's a question of which functions do you use the most often and you know would you benefit from having them so that's the applications the next thing is device actions so good chunk of this is mapping options so this allows you to zoom to device so it's going to zoom in no matter where you are on the map to a specific dog this function right here is next device on map that's kind of cool in that you press it and it's going to zoom to the next dog so you got multiple dogs on the screen you can move from dog to dog device info that is the same information that you get in the dog list I'm not really sure that there's a enormous amount of value with that on a button but it's an option

SUMMARY: How to control T5/T20 lights from a front key (with help from Anthony and Garmin engineering): set the default to one per dog with tone, add the T20/T5 training commands, then change the default to light. Tracking-only collars only.

So this has just been a week of me getting stuff wrong we've been experimenting a lot this week and you know sometimes I I just I get them wrong so I think Anthony was actually the person that originally asked me if we could do this what he was wanting to do was set a light so that he could turn on and off I'm sorry set a key so that he could turn on and off a T5 and a T20 from an alpha you know 200 or 300 and when I tried to set it up it it didn't work and so my initial reaction was no you can't do that I kind of came up with a workaround but then Anthony figured it out and showed me how to do it and then I couldn't replicate it so I actually had to call engineering at at Garmin and say hey I can't figure this out and they figured it out for me so it's a little weird and it should be a little more straightforward and we're gonna see if we can get that fixed but what you gotta do is you go to your settings you go to your training set up you go to training defaults and you have to change it I'm not positive if you have to change it to one per dog but we're gonna do that and this is gonna reset the bar alright and then your default has to be doesn't have to be tone but let's just say it's tone alright and then you go back to your training keys and we're going to add a training command for a T20 and then we're going to add a training command for a T5 all right now if you just do it that way it doesn't work what you have to do then is go back into your training setup and then change the training default to light and then go back to your training keys and now they've got L's on them and when you go here there you go so it's it's a bit of a I don't know if bug's the right word for it but it's kind of buggy but that's how you can do that so basically you set it up as one button per dog you leave it in the default as tone you add the two collars and then you go back and change the default to light so you select what you wanna do so I'm gonna go to blink fast and then you have to press the button again so if you press the button it prompts the screen and then you can take it to off and press the button it cuts itself off so continuous press the button so there you go kind of a work around this does not apply to TT collars this is only for the tracking only collars thanks Anthony

SUMMARY: First take: you can't put T20 light control on a button the way you can on a TT 25, but a 'T20 info' device-action key takes you straight to the info page where the light controls are. (Corrected in a later video.)

Alright I had a customer asked me about controlling lights on a T20 so that's a tracking collar only and asking if you can do it the same way that you can control lights on the TT25 and that's by using a button so I have my black collar here I've got a button that's set up for lights I press the button it gives me all my light options I can make it continuous I can turn it on I can turn it off I can make it blink anything I wanna do I can control it from this button alright the question is can I do the same thing with the T20 and the answer is no but there's a work around so if you go to your training setup and you go to your training keys with this we're gonna change the action it's a training command for the black dog it controls all your things here and lights are one of the things that it controls so I wanna do the same thing on a T20 so on a T20 if I go to training command and I say change action and I say training command for T20 it selects it but it won't allow you to do anything so that doesn't really do us any good but we're going to change the action so we're gonna make this a let's say I think it's an application nope it is a device action so we're going to go to device info and for a T20 alright so now we have made it T20 info alright so over here on the black I press L it gives me my choices I say off okay so lights cut off I go to T20 info takes me to the dog info page for it the light controls are right here I can blink mode continuous I can blink mode slow well let's try that again blink mode blink slow there we go so I don't have the same thing in that I don't have a button that controls lights but I do have a button that takes me straight into the info screen which allows me to control lights so that's at least a workaround I'm gonna mention this to Garmin and see if they will add that to an improvement because it should be an option with the T20 but but that's a workaround at least for now

SUMMARY: To clear one dog's track before running another, go to Track Manager > Dog Tracks, pick the dog, and hit Reset (save it first if you want to keep it).

Alright so the question is can you clear out an individual dog's tracks before you run a second dog so let's say that you're you're running a course or you have a specific area that you wanna run the same dog in I'm not exactly sure what the customer is doing but the answer is yes so let's go to my map real quick alright so I have two collars that are active black and blue and I've already cleared out the blue track just wanna make sure I knew what I was doing before I film this video but the black track is this grey black wait line here and you can see blue they're both actually in my truck so they're right next to each other but black is there also and that line is for the black dog so let's go over here to track manager and dog tracks and the black dog is the one we wanna clear out and you have a couple of options here alright here's where if for some reason you wanted to save your track so you have three choices here when you're in the track manager this takes you to the dog info page this is distance travel time average speed this is distance as far as distance from you so and I've been in a vehicle here so it's been sitting for a long time so I don't know that's really not accurate stuff if you go over here it'll show you the track and you can also do some stuff here if you wanna save the track this is where you do that so you go in here and save the track and call it wherever you want and then you know you can also access setups and everything but we're through with this now and we wanna clear it out so we go over here and we hit reset and notice it starts all my other stuff over here again and I'm gonna go back to my map and it's gone now this blue line that's my track and you control that separately but the dog's track is now gone and so that just clears everything off and you're starting over

SUMMARY: You can't tone all dogs at once because MURS radio timing gives each collar its own window. You can create a group in the dog list and activate or deactivate tracking for every dog in it at once.

So the question here is a common one that we get it's basically is there a way to tone all the dogs at the same time that would be neat but unfortunately the answer is no there's a reason for it and I'll explain that and then I'll show you another option there's not many situations where you would wanna stem all dogs at the same time so that's not something that Garmon's interested in doing there are situations where you would be able to would love to be able to tone dogs all at the same time but unfortunately the way the radio signals work the communication is set up on a frequency that's known as MERS and mirrors is designed for two way communication and so basically when a collar is sending a signal at at you know on a certain channel the handheld knows what what time that collar is sending that signal so it knows when to look for it and basically it's designed to cut down on interference and it's designed to just keep as much interference down as possible mirrors is a public frequency thing most walkie talkies are on mirrors that kind of stuff and so basically Garmin splits up the transmission and it's done at specific times based on what channel you're set on so that's kind of a long answer as to you know to know but there is a couple of things that you can do a lot of folks wanna be able to cut on and off a lot of collars and and cut on and off it's not the right thing it's basically cut the tracking on and off I had somebody ask me about it this week and so so this kind of applies there is a way to do that so you go into your dog list and you know this is where you add dogs I've got four dogs on this handheld and I'm tracking all four of them so you know I've got everybody on here right now let's just say that I wanna stop tracking them so I could go into each individual collar and activate it you're deactivate it you know go to this collar deactivate it that's a bit of a pain so let's go show how to to do this let me go turn this one back on so blue and we're going to activate it alright so we're back here now everybody's on that one will track here in just a second alright so I wanna be able to cut everything off at the same time as far as stop tracking so we're gonna go back over here to my dog list there's three options on a dog list there's dogs there is people that's for tracking hand helds and then there is groups and we're gonna create a group I've already set up the name for it you just press create and you pick whatever name you want for it but this is dogs and I'm going to add devices and I'm gonna put all four of them in there boom boom boom alright so I've got all four of them in there go back to here now when I select this group I have the ability to deactivate the entire group so now if you go back to the compass there's nothing tracking dogs are still on my dog list but they've all been cut off now here's the other cool thing you can go back to it you go to dogs you can activate the entire group so now everything starts to track again so that's kind of a cool thing that you can do with all of your dogs not exactly what you're looking for but it's something that's kind of neat

SUMMARY: Add extra training keys per collar, such as a lights key. Setting lights to 'prompted' is best: one press brings up every light option (on, off, blink speeds).

Alright let's look at some of the options on programming your training keys so I've got two collars added and then I've got my map and compass keys along with a toggle screen lock you can add more options you know on here for just these two collars you know if you're just running two and you want to have additional keys for your collars that is an option all of the training commands are under training commands you have to pick which dog it's gonna be so let's just say we're gonna do the black dog and let's say I wanna have a setup for lights okay so I'm going to select L and then you get to pick what it does and so I'm gonna have continuous and done alright and then I want my blue collar also to have light so I'm going to say training command and blue and lights and it's going to be continuous done and then I've got a blank one here and I'm going to have a training command for my black collar and it's going to be lights and it's going to be off so now I can turn lights on and I can turn lights off so that's one setup you can do let's go see how it looks alright so I have my light set up here as an option for both both of my collars and so press the button lights come on press the button you can adjust this on the light setting by using your up and down keys over here but there's a better option really for this if you wanna keep it down to one button and that's to set it in prompt and so what happens when you're in prompt is you press the button and now it gives you the options of everything that you want so that way if you want blink slow you know you have that you know as an option so that's really a better way to do that than to set it straight for a button or it's an option you can do it either way

SUMMARY: Stim keys don't work while the screen is in battery save mode; you have to wake it first. Steve doesn't recommend battery save on 200 Plus/300 units; use the backlight timer instead on 200/200i units.

Alright so I have a question about using stim keys while in battery save mode so I have a collar hooked up here and battery save mode is a display setting alright so you go to settings and you go to display and then you turn on battery Save mode so Battery Save mode turns the screen off when the backlight times out you press the power key to turn the screen on say okay now this is tied into your timer so right now my backlight is set where it stays on I'm gonna change it to 15 seconds alright so let's go back alright so what's gonna happen here is after 15 seconds of nothing happening the screen is going to go into battery save mode which is actually solid black now I'm hooked up to this collar there we go it is dropped into battery save mode so the answer to your question is no once you're in battery save mode buttons don't work you have to tap the side button and it comes back on I am not a fan of battery save mode really for anybody if you're running alpha 300 or a 200+ there is absolutely no reason to use battery save mode speaking of which I'm gonna go shut it back off because you've got such good battery life you know with that unit battery save mode is a lot more popular with standard 200 standard 200 I users because the battery life on the handheld is 12 hours you know in a in a in a good setup I would recommend that you use your backlight you know timeout to save battery life but the battery save mode to me there's just such downside to it that you know the biggest thing for me is that in battery save mode you really can't even tell that the unit's on so you have to actually check it you know to make sure that it's on so if you're having battery issues with an Alpha 200 or an Alpha 200 I I would I would recommend using the backlight timer but I would not recommend using battery save

SUMMARY: Alpha software 8.36 adds Garmin Share. Add it as a menu application to send waypoints, tracks and courses to compatible devices like a Garmin watch.

Okay so my unit auto updated to the latest software which is 8 3 6 and one of the cool things about this is going to be Garmin Share so Garmin Share gives you the ability to share like waypoints and tracks and that kind of stuff to compatible devices so to add that go to add page it's an application and Garmin share and there it is share courses courses waypoints workouts blah blah blah yes alright so now you can send and receive stuff to Garmin share alright let's show how to do this real quick I'm gonna take my watch off alright let's show how a Garmin Sharw works real quick so I have put a waypoint in right here and then I'm gonna go down here to Garmin Share and it's got when you go into the app it's either ready to receive or to share and so I've got this waypoint right here that I'm going to share and then you hit the arrow and it's looking for devices alright so I have a watch and to access it you click on the top right here and you scan down to Garmin Share and it says ready to receive and then it's going to say Steve's now and there you go and you lose a yes and boom confirm pin matches alpha 300 I yes Download Complete that's kinda cool

SUMMARY: The pin at the bottom of the e-collar screen keeps you on that screen (and that dog) so side keys keep adjusting stim. Unpinned, it times out back to tracking. Exit with the bottom-right key or back arrow.

So the pin at the bottom is a setting in the E collar mode when you stim this screen comes up and down here at the bottom is this little pin if you select that pin it'll show with a line through it and what this does is it leaves you in the E collar screen until you take it out of the E collar screen so most people don't even know that this is here this is one of those features that seldom gets explained with the pin cut off the unit has a timer on it and if you don't once you stop doing anything it drops back to whatever screen you were in before you press the stimulation button so you know you correct your dog you release you don't touch anything else there's a a set timer on it and it's gonna go back to that screen now if you stim your dog and you select the pen now it's gonna stay in this screen and it's gonna stay on this dog so you are able to raise and lower stimulation using the side up and down keys you are able to stim use a different button you're able to tone but it's gonna stay in the screen no matter what you do it's locked into this screen now whenever you get ready to go back to a tracking screen or to change to another dog you either hit your bottom right button or you hit the the little back button there now what's cool about the pin is that if you're in the pin mode now we go to the Black Dog when I stem we're still pinned so you can set it up this way where that way if you're if you're making corrections and you wanna stay on one dog this is a good way to do it another cool setup with this if you're using multiple dogs you wanna stay in this screen is go back in and set your buttons where you have one dog you know per button and then that way you can you know work multiple dogs and stay in the screen and raise in lower stimulation

SUMMARY: Correction: with 'adjust stim each use' off, the level doesn't pop up automatically, but tapping it still lets you raise or lower stim and change the stim type, and the new level sticks.

So I screwed this one up and I call myself checking it but I I I don't know what I did maybe I had my screen locked so this is you are absolutely correct so adjust stem each use off so when you have that set to off when you stim the option to raise and lower stimulation does not come up but if you click on it there it is not only can you raise and lower stim you can also change the kind of stimulation that it is and I have that pinned so that's why it's staying on the screen there now notice this so I have raised my stimulation and I'm stemming and then I go back it's gonna hold that new number so I was incorrect on that and thank you for pointing that out so the but it looks like if you have that turned on is gonna be this so automatically comes up but if you have that off then you just have to press on it thanks

SUMMARY: Linear stim (default) is 18 levels from low to high. Traditional mimics old Tri-Tronics low/medium/high across 6 levels, still 18 total. Steve recommends linear.

Another setting that is on the the training keys set up is stimulation so this is kind of an old school process here you have two choices you have linear and traditional it's gonna come out of the box in linear and basically with linear you have 18 levels alright so that's how it comes out of the box I think that that's pretty simple and most folks can understand that and basically it is a a 5 is less than a 6 a 6 is less than a 7 and so it's linear so for most folks that's that's the way it is when Garmin bought tritronics they decided to keep the old school tritronics simulation option when they went to the original Garmin Alpha and they called it traditional and so let's go over here and take a look at it when Garmin came out with the alpha 100 they they felt like it was necessary to have the old school option of low medium and then press together high button so this is a Garmin Pro 550 but the the way the buttons on a on a 550 work is it's low stimulation medium stimulation and then you press the buttons together for high stimulation and that was a very common way that that Garmin systems worked especially the higher end I'm sorry the way Tri-Tronics Systems worked the the higher end Tri-Tronic systems all had that low medium and high setup so when they built the Alpha 100 they decided to include that as an option so if you set up in traditional mode you have less stimulation levels so you have six levels but then each level has a low medium and high option so it's still 18 levels it's just that these correspond with the old school tritonics low medium and high so basically a low one is a 1 and a medium one is a two and a high one is a three and then you go to two and it's low medium high two so the stimulation setup is the same it's not different it's just that that was the way that some Tritronic systems were set up and so they decided to to include that as an option I generally do not recommend it but if you see that and and you want to go that route you can but linear to me makes a lot more sense

SUMMARY: 'Adjust stim each use' (on by default) shows the level when you stim so you can change it. Turning it off locks keys to set levels, an advanced setup Steve generally doesn't recommend.

Alright let's take a look at one more option that you have here this one is a just stem each use it's gonna come out of the box turned on and so what this does when you are stimming when you press the stem button the intensity level is going to appear on the screen that gives you the ability to raise and lower as needed which can be pretty handy what this does in the training defaults is adjust stem on each use it cuts that option off so now when I go to stem it stays on the set level and there is no ability to raise or lower the stimulation I think that the the biggest option there would be for somebody that wants to go through and set their keys on a predictable level and let's say that you're gonna go in and you're gonna set continuous continuous continuous and you're gonna have them set at a specific number so say three five seven and then you're gonna set up a key that has you know 9 11, 13 and that way it's not gonna change it's not gonna change accidentally and you can go in and and program it the way that you want and then move through the keys to change stimulation I don't know if I advise that setup it's a little more complex than I care for but it's an option if if it's something that you want to do that's how you do it typically I'm going to recommend that folks leave that one set for adjust with each use

SUMMARY: Training Defaults control the layout every newly added collar gets: add-when-paired, adjust stim each use, three-per-dog or one-per-dog, and which stim type is on each button. Changing it also updated existing collars.

So if you don't like the standard setup the Garmin presents which is momentary continuous and tone you have the ability to change that when you add a collar and you can set it up where every time you add a collar it comes out in a formation that you prefer let's just say that you don't like tone but you prefer vibration so under training setup you have training keys training defaults and stimulation training defaults is the setup that is created when you add a collar you have a couple of options here one of the first things that you have is add when paired so this allows you to have stimulation set up when you pair a collar if you do not want that that's a toggle off so that way you can add a dog and you can track the dog but there will be no stimulation set up generally don't recommend that for folks but that is an option then you have a couple other things here adjust stem each use this is actually kind of cool I'm gonna show you that real quick but then the next thing you have is button layout so you have three per dog or you can do one per dog the one per dog setup allows you to have dog 1 dog 2 dog three across the board and so that is an option especially for folks that are running a lot of different dogs you could set that up if you're running you know 20 dogs and you want one dog per screen you could just automatically set that up the next option that you have here is the button setup so out of the box it's momentary for the left button continuous for the center button and the right button is tone but once again this is a setup that you can change and so you can pick the five stimulation setups are momentary continuous tone vibration and lights and so this gives you the ability to change that button setup for whatever you want so let's say that you prefer momentary continuous or tone so you actually want that tone to be vibration you simply go in and you change it to vibe and then when you add a collar it's gonna come up now momentary continuous vibe so if you have a setup that you prefer this is where you can make the change and every time you add a collar to this system that change is gonna happen alright let's add a collar real quick and I'll show you what that looks like alright so we've added the orange collar real quick finish alright now when we go to orange it's momentary continuous vibe now that is not something if you if you make the change I'm wrong about that look at me I did not know that so this is cool because I changed the setup it has gone ahead and switched everything that's kind of neat I didn't know it would do that so I changed the basic setup and it goes back through and changes everything that's in there is a base setting now you can go in and change this if you want to and you know have different settings for each collar but I did not realise it would do that so Learned something new myself today

SUMMARY: Overview of the three programmable front training keys on the Alpha 200/300: change, remove or add actions, and the default momentary/continuous/tone layout added for each dog.

Let's talk a little bit more about the training keys and how you set them up training keys are these three keys across the front of the unit this is going to apply for both the Alpha 200 and the Alpha 300 systems these buttons are programmable that is a big difference between the 200 and 300 versus the Alpha 100 with the 100 you have some some ability to make some changes to them but it's limited compared to what you can do with a 200 and a 300 in an earlier video I talked about setting up your screen where you could have a toggle on toggle off lock and that is an example of some of the things that you can do this allows you to lock and unlock the screen from a press of a button but there's a lot of other things you can do let's go take a look at it training keys are in the settings menu and it's got three different choices here training keys is the actual layout of your keys it's gonna show every dog that you have in the system plus it's going to show the setup that you have mine right now is set for one button for map one button for the dog compass and then the toggle screen lock the 200 and the 300 systems come out of the box with this map dog compass set up but then they have a Mark waypoint right here and I don't use the waypoints that often so I switch that out for a toggle screen lock one thing that I don't think a lot of folks realise is that you can actually remove this from the system if you want you can take those entire things off of there if you don't jump around a lot I prefer to have them in there cause it allows me to move easily back and forth but that is something that you can remove and to remove it you press on it and then one of your action choices is removed and so now it's gone if you go back there's nothing there so that is an option if you do not like having those on there and you can simply go back in and add it back this is a map so there you go pretty simple to switch those out every dog that you have in the system is going to appear out of the box it's going to be momentary continuous tone and once again it's one button one button one button so you're set up with momentary in the left continuous in the middle and tone on the right that is the standard setup and then each time you add a dog it's going to replicate that across the board so if you have two dogs in here when you add that second dog that's going to be the setup so this screen allows you to make changes to that but there is a setting in the Alpha where it controls this setup and we're going to take a look at that first and show you how you can make changes to this if you want to do that

SUMMARY: Steve asks competition users how they use the Alpha's competition timer and what to request from Garmin. The four timers can be renamed but reset when the unit powers off.

There are a lot of features on the Garmin Alpha 200 and 300 systems that I just don't use I generally have to learn about them so that I can either answer questions or educate customers on them but you know I just don't use them one of those things is the competition timer and it's right here and we have this in both the Garmin Alpha two hundreds and the Garmin Alpha three hundreds and I you know I don't compete so I don't use it I had a customer that asked me a couple of questions on it and I'm mainly trying to see if there's anything else that y'all want changed on this for the folks that use this if there's anything different that we need to add to it I'm gonna make a couple of requests to Garmin and just see if they can make some adjustments to it but I'm mainly looking to see if there's anything else that needs to be done to it while we're talking about it so what the customer is looking for you have four different timers here you can reset the time you know this one counts down these count up you've got four different timers and you can go in on the timer and you can edit the name you know so you can make this you know you can name it after a dog we'll just name it after Fred fat fingers can't type great so now this is Fred's timer and we're going to start it start sorry okay so but what's gonna happen when I cut this handheld off it's going to reset everything and we're gonna go back to timer 1 2 3 and 4 so you can't save anything in the timers you have a settings thing where you can change the duration if you need to and you can change the way that the alerts work and then you know you can set it for different you know times as far as the countdown clock but that's pretty much all you can do the menu is just a help screen so I mainly want to see if there's anything else that the folks that actually use this or if there's any use for this outside of competition work and if anybody has any thoughts on it that I can pass along to Garmin just to show real quick I'm gonna cut it off and then cut it back on so we cut it off and now it's loading up the screen and we jump over here whoop me and the touchscreen aren't working well together today and see it's just automatically going back to to that so let me know

SUMMARY: Steve's favorite tip: replace the Mark Waypoint front key with Toggle Screen Lock so one button locks and unlocks the touchscreen, making the Alpha much easier to carry and use.

Alright let's take a look at training keys on the Garmin Alpha units I'm gonna show you a real quick trick this is still one of my favourite things to do with a Garmin Alpha unit the biggest complaint that I think people have with the Alphas is that because it's a touchscreen it gets banged around and the the screens can get reset you can end up in places that you didn't intend to be and so it it causes some frustration with folks especially if they're not as comfortable with the unit and they end up in all these different screens and you know a lot of it depends on how you carry the unit but there's a real simple fix for it so to to cut off the the issue with the touchscreen you can lock the screen now what most people do to lock the screen is they press a quick press on the power button and you have two options here you can lock the screen and you can lock the keys and when you go back over here that locks the keys and so you have to go over here to unlock the keys and then it also locks your screen you can't do anything with your screen so you have to go over here to unlock your screen so you you can do either one of those but that's a bit of a pain what I like to do is make it so that you have a button that locks and unlocks your screen so let me show you a real quick how to do that go into your settings menu and go to Training Setup alright then from there go to Training Keys and we're gonna talk about all of this but this is what controls these three buttons across the top here and when you get a new unit this is one of your options here you have a map button you have a compass button and you have a Mark Waypoint well I don't use Mark Waypoint that much so we're gonna change that we're gonna change the action this is a utility and it's toggle screen lock alright now you go back and we'll go up to here alright so now we have map we have compass and then we have toggle screen lock alright when you see the the lock open that means that the screen is locked can't do anything to the screen okay press the button now I can do anything I want to on the screen but very quickly now it's locked this is a great way to make your alpha handheld substantially more user friendly

SUMMARY: On the Alpha 100 compass screen, Menu > Small Numbers shows up to three dogs at once instead of one big readout.

Alright big numbers small numbers is a setting on the compass screen and it allows you to either see one dog at a time or to see three dogs at a time from a tracking standpoint so in the compass screen hit your menu and right there is small numbers and that switches you over I've only got two collars in this handheld so it's you know that's what it's showing but if I had a third it would show right there and then if you have more it will allow you to scroll across you know to see them now what it doesn't do is keep things synced up here so you've got your momentary continuous and tone set up you know you still having to move back and forth between that but this allows you to see multiple dogs on the compass screen at one time

SUMMARY: When TT 25 or T20 collars update over Wi-Fi, the software installs while they're on the charger, so you never see the white light sequence you get after a Garmin Express update.

One last thing to mention on Wi Fi updates on the collars I showed you earlier after you update a collar on Garmin Express the software has to load and so when you take a collar off of Garmin Express and you have just put new software on it and you turn the collar on it's gonna go through a series of light flashes they're primarily white and they do several flashes and it it takes you know 30 45 seconds something like that that's loading the software if you're doing updates via Wi Fi that's not gonna be something that you ever see because the software the end of the collar you put it on the charger it's gonna go online it's gonna see if there's an update it's gonna download the update and it's going to install the software while it's on the charger so you if you're using Wi Fi updates I don't care what handheld you have but if you're using Wi Fi updates on TT25 collars or T20 collars you will never see the software load so just something to be aware of in case you think your collars are not updating they're doing the loading of the software while they're on the chargers so you'll never see that light sequence that you get if you use Garmin Express

SUMMARY: A Pro 550 Plus can't show which software a TT 25 is running, so Steve set the collar up for Wi-Fi in Garmin Express, let it update on the charger, then confirmed version 3.23 from an Alpha's About screen.

So this is sort of frustrating I'm running a Pro 5 50+ and I've got a Garmin unit Garmin t T25 which I've set up on Wi Fi with Garmin Express and I wanna update it which it's running older software it's currently on 2 2 4 which I think we're like 3 2 3 now so I'm gonna run an update on it but the issue that I've run into and I don't have a good answer for is that if you're running a Pro 5 50+ there is no way to identify what software you are running without using Garment Express and the number of people that we deal with that don't have access to a P C or Mac computer that they can update stuff on is is kind of it it throws me a little bit but a lot of people just don't need access to it they do most of their stuff on their phones so I'm gonna like I said I set this colour up on Garman Express I'm gonna throw it on the charger and let it update but I think it's something that we need to address and I have I've already spoken to Garman about it and it's definitely something that needs to be looked at alright so I've taken my collar off the charger one thing you've got to keep in mind is that you need to to be able to check the about info on a collar you've got to be connected and the collar has to have a signal so we are in the dog list this is our collar hit menu come on snow there you go alright and then go to about and takes a second and there we go so the firmware has updated to 3 2 3 so I set it up on Garment Express it's now set up to update on the Gundog supply Wi Fi when it's on the charger the only issue here is that if you're running a Pro 5 50+ which I am with this collar there's no way to tell that the updates are done but the updates are working so that'll be just one last thing I have to do so we'll see if we can get that addressed with the garment

SUMMARY: The Alpha 100 can't pair to a phone, but under Contacts > pairing setup you can turn on transmitting (broadcast) for watches, drive tracks or other handhelds. It uses one of the 20 tracking slots.

So Bluetooth on the alpha 100 is very limited and different from it is on the two hundreds or three hundreds on a 200 and a 300 you can actually connect your unit to your phone and so that's the primary use of Bluetooth from the Alpha app standpoint but with the 100 you don't have that option but you do have some broadcasting options and they use Bluetooth for that so if you're doing like a a watch or you're doing a a drive track but you need to turn on broadcast which is similar so to find that you go to contacts it's kind of in an odd spot this is where you track other handhelds and under the pairing setup they have transmitting and that's what I believe you're looking for and so this is an either on or off you turn it on it takes up a slot if you're tracking something just like a collar does so the I d that I'm transmitting on is 2 dash 2 so that is one of the 20 that you have available to you so keep that in mind if you're trying to track other hand helds now you can Bluetooth to you know a a drive tracker or a watch and that's not going to to set up a slot but if you start tracking another handheld that will take up a slot but you have 20 so and then update rate update rate is same thing you can control this this is how often they communicate back and forth and so two and a half seconds is generally what I'm gonna recommend but that's something that you can pick and change as needed and that's it

SUMMARY: Two trade-in Alpha 100s compared: one in good shape, one with rubber worn off. Garmin no longer repairs the 100, so a beat-up unit gets a much lower trade offer, like trading in a car.

So some more trade comparisons here these are Alpha 100s Alpha 100s are a little different nowadays because it's tricky to get them repaired Garmin has stopped doing repairs on these because they don't have the components and there's some stuff that some other folks can do you know doing a screen replacement is a you know is something that's doable and there's some folks that will do that for you but as far as getting the body of a unit replaced it's a little trickier so this is the the expectation that we have when we take a trade on an alpha 100 this is the expectation of of what we're looking for this unit has obviously been used it's got some wear on the rubber but overall you know it's in it's in pretty good shape this one also works you can see a little bit more wear on the screen but it's not crazy that's not really the problem on this one you can see a difference in the color you know it's definitely been out you know it's been exposed to the elements here's the problem with this one you know it's been it's been used and so the rubber on it has actually worn down to the point that you know it's coming off I haven't seen one I really haven't seen one in this kind of shape this one's beat up pretty bad now it works it'll track dogs but I could not sell this as a you know as a used unit you know on Gundogsupply.com I just wouldn't be comfortable doing it and nobody that that does business with us would would buy this and be happy with it we did make an offer to the owner of this unit and he didn't seem to understand what kind of condition his unit was in and didn't like our offer and so that's fine we're gonna send this unit back to him but you know you just gotta kind of see the the damage you know you can't expect to get much for a unit that's in this kind of shape especially one that we can't get repaired so just part of it it's a lot like trading a car I think that that's probably the best thing that you can describe it to you know there's certain things on a car that are just you know there it's you know it's stuff that we can fix it's stuff that we can replace pieces and parts and you know I might be able to pull this rubber off and replace it but it's gonna cost me time and money to do that so the expectation of getting you know full dollar for something like this that's just not gonna happen so if your units look like this you know you're gonna get top dollar but if they look like this you know you're not

SUMMARY: Pro 550 Plus owners can still get Wi-Fi updates on TT 25 collars: add the collar in Garmin Express, enter your Wi-Fi network and password, and it updates itself on the charger.

Alright so I run a pro 550+ and I run TT25 collars the pro 550+ cannot update via Wi Fi but the TT25 collars can so one of the ways to set it up or the the way to set these collars up since you don't have an alpha is to do it via Garmin Express so hook your collars up using the charging clip just like you would charge it and then we're going to here it is my bad alright so we're adding this device don't need to worry about that similar device found yeah we'll replace it why not I don't care about a nickname Wi-Fi networks so here is where you can set up your TT25 for Wi Fi so click Find Networks we're gonna be doing the GDS Wi Fi and then you enter your password so put your password in and click save alright so now we are in the Wi-Fi network now there is a software update that is available but I wanna do this one on wireless so I will come off of here and set it up and let the Wi-Fi do it

SUMMARY: Check software on an Alpha 100 under Setup > About.

So to check software on an alpha 100 you go to setup and then you scroll down to about give a second and this unit is on software version 8.6

SUMMARY: Updating a Pro 550 Plus in Garmin Express: connect with the charging cable (no splitters), add the device, and install any update.

Alright we're gonna do an update on Garmin Express for a Pro 5 50+ so charging cable make sure it doesn't have any sort of splitters or anything like that just hook it up it is a little different from the Alphas in that this is the signal that you get when it's connected alright and then you can see here that they found a new device so click on that let's go look for my device it's a Pro 550+ we're gonna add the device I am not interested in that similar devices found you shouldn't see this unless you have something else I'm gonna have it replaced just cause I always have all sorts of different units in mine alright so my setup is now complete and I am running the current software so nothing else to do there now I wanna show you what you can do if you are running a Pro 5 50+ with TT 25 collars so this unit does not have an option to update via Wi Fi but your collars do

SUMMARY: Change any collar's button layout under Settings > Training Setup > Training Keys, for example swapping tone to vibrate or momentary to tone.

Alright so they come out as momentary continuous tone but you can adjust this you go to your settings menu and you're looking for training setup click on that and then you've got a couple of different options here and I'm gonna go into this in detail soon but for what you're trying to do you click on training keys and then this is gonna show you everything you have programmed into your handheld if you've only got a couple of collars I've got a bunch of collars in here you'll have a bunch of blank spaces but let's just say on this black collar I wanna change this tone so we're going to adjust and then we're going to move it to vibration and we say don't and then let's just say you don't want momentary you want to adjust and we'll make that one tone done so now on this one I've got tone continuous in the center and I've got vibe in the back you get out of here and go back and now it's tone continuous vibe

SUMMARY: TT 25 flex bands (the GPS antenna plus wire) are user-replaceable with two screws. To troubleshoot a collar that won't get GPS, swap the flex band from a working collar to see if the band is the problem.

So I had a customer who I've had a conversation with on one of my TikToks here and it went back and forth he has a TT 25 it's having trouble acquiring a G P S location and in the past we have had systems that this is a a TT15 and it's stripped down a a t T15 should look like this okay it has this this flex piece here and what that's designed to do this is your G P S antenna right here and there's a wire that runs through that rubber flex band that goes down to the electronics of your unit this one has is old and has rotted and it no longer works now it looks like there's not there doesn't appear to be any damage to the wire but typically what happens on a collar if you if you lose or you can't acquire G P S is that this wire gets damaged or broken and so this is an example of of what the older collars look like so TT 10s and TT15s and 15 X's this can happen so the 25s are a little different and this is an advantage of the TT 25s that a lot of folks if you haven't messed with 25 may not see and I think a lot of folks aren't even aware of because if you buy the collar it it comes set up and you don't have to do anything with it and so I think a lot of folks might miss out on this so on a TT25 this is your G P S antenna and there's a wire that runs through here that connects to your electronics and they come in a couple of different versions but this is a short flex this is a regular flex you can see the difference short flex versus regular flex but they do the same thing so this is the piece now what's different about twenty fives is that this is a removable and user replaceable piece and so there's two screws right here and all you do is pop out those two screws and it comes off like this and then you can see this is I believe it's called a pogo pin and that connects over to here let me let me so you can take this off and like I said it's just two screws you know little mini screwdriver pop it off take that out replace it with that what is cool about this besides the fact that if you get a damaged flex band you know you can buy one and replace it yourself it doesn't have to go back to Garmin but that's not really the cool part I mean that's cool but it's not the cool part the cool part is this let's say that you have four collars alright so I have these four collars right here okay and this one this green one is not picking up G P S signal and you've gone through your troubleshooting you've deleted the collar you've re added the collar you've done a master reset on the collar still will not pick up G P S signal and let's just say that you don't have an extra flex band this collar and these two other collars all work great they work fine so what you can do is remove the flex band off of a working collar and replace it on the non working collar and that way you can determine if you have a damaged flex band since this collar is getting G P S signal and working correctly we know this flex band is good you know this collar that's not getting G P S signal the Flex Band might not be the issue but it could be and so you can very easily just pop this one off all it takes is just a small screwdriver and you know put it on this non working collar and then if this non working collar starts to work then great you just need a a replacement flex band and they're easy to come by we sell them and you know we'll ship them to you and there's nothing to it so that is a cool cool thing about the 25 collars they are you know the flex bands are user replaceable and if you get one that's broken or damaged or if you screw one up or if you just start having trouble with one for no unknown you know just reason you can replace it yourself doesn't have to go back to the factory

SUMMARY: Two Astro 430 trade-ins side by side show why offers differ: a sun-faded, worn unit gets less. It will be refurbished by Garmin or sold as-is on eBay.

Alright let's talk a little bit about our trade in program so we take trades on pretty much well the majority of Garmin products that have been out over the last number of years and we have a range of prices that we give for units and there's a reason for that this is a Astro 430 and wanted to kind of do a side by side comparison here both of these units work they work exactly as they're supposed to their keys are in pretty good shape but you can see a difference in these two units this unit has had some some use in the field but nothing like this unit so this unit has been out and you know that's sun damage is what that is I mean look at the difference in the coloration there now you got a little bit of damage in the button there but it still powers on and works correctly you've got you know some wear and tear on on the unit I have not cleaned this unit yet so I could probably make it a little bit more presentable just with a good cleaning but I'm not gonna be able to bring the color back to it I mean look at the difference in these two so this is an explanation as to why we give different amounts you know this unit is pretty close to brand new as far as as that goes and I have not I don't believe I've nope I haven't cleaned this unit yet so you know you can see somewhere on the screen where you don't have quite as much here but we're not gonna give you the same dollar amount you know for this unit as we're gonna give you for this unit it's it's just part of it the folks that are buying stuff are expecting you know units that are gonna look more like this if they're paying you know they're paying retail for it now we will either I'm not sure what we gave for this unit off top of my head but we'll either take this unit and have it refurbished and basically what's gonna happen there is that Garmin is gonna take all the guts out of it and put it into a new body and so it'll you know it'll basically be like a brand new unit that'll be a refurbished unit or we will take this unit and I sell stuff on eBay and that way I can take an individual picture of this I can show it as exactly what it is and I'll price it accordingly and so whoever's buying it you know on eBay will be able to see the exact unit they're buying the condition that it's in and a representative price that will go with it when you buy from you know when you when you buy from us and you do a trade in you gotta understand that if your unit has been you know used at this level you're just not gonna get as much of a trade

SUMMARY: Calibrate the Dogtra Compass by holding the front-left button and moving it in a figure 8, away from vehicles and buildings. Check the north indicator in the top right; it sometimes recalibrates itself.

So I had a customer ask about calibration on the Dogtra Compass so this is the Dogtra Compass you can see it is a directional arrow system it's also an e collar system and I've been pretty pleased with them but to calibrate you hold down the left front button and it kicks into calibration mode and then you want to move it in a figure 8 type motion now that's kind of like this and then when it's done it will tell you that the calibration has been adjusted and hit your okay button and something else to keep in mind if you are unsure if your compass is calibrated correctly appear in the top right that's a a north indicator and so it always helps to know which direction is north so that's that's north so that's that's north so that tells me that my compass is correct couple of other things on calibration you want to be outside and away from a vehicle and a building so you need to be you know within I don't like to be within you know 20 or 30 feet of of anything like that cause it can screw up your calibration the other thing is that the Dogtra units will sometimes go into a self calibration mode and there's an internal compass in it and it knows when it's when it's off or when it thinks it needs to be adjusted and so you can do a self calibration you know by holding this front left button down and it'll drop into that calibration mode but you sometimes will have it go into that by itself and it'll it'll just drop into that calibration mode if it needs to reset the compass

SUMMARY: Only TT 25 (all versions) and T20 collars update over Wi-Fi. Older collars like the T5, TT 15X and minis still need Garmin Express or Web Updater, even with a Wi-Fi-capable handheld.

Alright so I added my TT 25 collar to Wi-Fi and then I hooked it up to my charger and that collar didn't need much of a charge but it shortly you know it it got all the way to green and I take it off the charger and I pull out my unit here and I let it get a connection again and then whoop go to the menu go to about gotta be connected and there you go firmware is 3.23 so pretty simple stuff if you take your handhelds and you take your collars and get them on Wi Fi you really don't have to worry about updates anymore the units will do this for you now I left out an important piece of information when it comes to updating collars the only collars that you can update via Wi Fi are the TT 25s and the T20 alright so TT25 & T20 now you can update TT25 extended extended Minis you can update the TT 25 with the beeper collar so any of the TT25s can be updated via Wi-Fi you just have to hook up each collar to your Wi-Fi network now alpha 200, alpha 200i Alpha 200+ and Alpha 300 Alpha 300i all of those can be updated online but if you have collars say you have a T5 collar you're gonna have to update it on actually it'll have to be updated on web updater where if you have a t t 15 x you can update it on Garmin Express but even if you have a 200 I and you've got it set up on Wi Fi and you're running t t 15 x collars you're not gonna be able to update the X collars on Wi Fi so you know same thing the minis you know if you're running a 300 and you've got Mini 15s you know you can update your 300 on Garmin Express you can update your 300 on Wi Fi but you can't update the the 15 minis on Wi Fi you are limited to the TT 25 & T20 collars for collar Wi Fi updates

SUMMARY: Add TT 25 collars to Wi-Fi from the Alpha: Dog List > collar > Menu > Collar Wi-Fi Setup, then pick the network and enter the password. Check the collar's version under About; it updates on the charger.

Alright we have talked about adding a alpha 200 or an alpha 300 system to Wi Fi to get updates it just disappeared but you could see it there these are my collars I'm running currently a black and a blue collar this one's black and for some reason the blue collar is currently green I think I'm testing a collar strap but I have these two collars and I need to get them on Wi Fi so collars are a little bit different because you have to add them to Wi Fi through the handheld so this is in the dog list you click on your collar and then you click on your menu and you have collar Wi Fi set up click on that so now the collar is looking for a Wi Fi network and it has found the available networks and we're gonna do GDS Wi Fi so you click on that network and then you add your password and now it is connecting to the Wi Fi and the Wi Fi setup is complete now to check your collars to see what a collar has as far as software you go to “About” collar has to be on and close by so this collar is currently on 2.22 and that is old software and if I go to if I go back to the blue collar here it is “About” same thing here to get the about info you've got to be online I'm sorry you got to be turned on and connected and that collar is on 3.23 which is the current software so we're going to you can see that also that the black collar is currently telling me that there is an update available so now we've got it online all we've got to do is hook it up and it will start to update

SUMMARY: An Alpha 200 gets about 12 hours on a charge (or less with older batteries). Stretch it by setting the backlight timeout to around 15 seconds, or with battery save, but watch that the unit doesn't look turned off.

Alright I had a customer that messaged me about battery issues with a 200 and he's running at night and he's only getting about 8 hours of run time out of a battery on a 200 so this is a problem with the 200 and the 200 I units that Garmin addressed with the 300 300 I and also the 200+ and that's battery life on the handheld typically on a on a alpha 200 you're gonna get in the neighbourhood of 12 hours of run time off of a charge you may get a little bit more you may get a little bit less depending on some settings and what you do with your display setup and and the life of the battery so you know some of the you know we're seeing some probably what 5 6 7 year old batteries that are in some of those units so you know they're starting to you know fade a little bit but there's a couple of settings that you can do so on your main menu here go to set up and go to display and there's two things to look at here backlight timeout so I've got mine right now on stays on so as long as the units turned on the backlight stays on you can set this where when there's a period of no activity it shuts itself off so 15 seconds is what I use and what's gonna happen is after 15 seconds of no buttons being pressed or no screen activity the backlight is going to just shut off and see there you go it just dims itself you can still see stuff but it's not as bright and so that is a big time battery saver so very important the other and then when you tap the screen it comes back on some people may find that that's too fast for them but you have a lot of different choices in there as far as 15, 30, 1 minute 2 minute so you can find the right one that that works for you the other thing that you can do is battery save so when you turn on Battery Save when the backlight times out it actually shuts the screen down so let's do that one real quick so you gotta wait for a second alright so the backlight timed out but instead of it just dimming it shuts the screen down to get it to reactivate all you have to do is quick press on the power button and then you're back to it so that's another really good option for saving battery life the biggest thing to watch with that is that the unit looks like it's turned off and if you don't pay attention to it you could forget that your unit is actually active and leave it running so keep that in mind but two ways to save on battery life

SUMMARY: All Alpha 200 and 300 handhelds can update over Wi-Fi: Settings > Wi-Fi, add your network, and it checks for and downloads new software.

Alright we've talked about updating Garmin units using Garmin Express let's talk now about how to update them using Wi Fi all of the alpha 200 and 300 units have the ability to update over Wi-Fi go to your settings menu go down to Wi-Fi turn your Wi Fi on it's gonna tell you the current software version that you have loaded and then it's gonna give you the ability to set up networks so to set up a network you hit add network it's gonna search for networks in your area we're gonna add my house Wi Fi right here here you enter your password alright so after you put your password in it's gonna say network added and we are connected alright so once you get connected to Wi Fi it's going to check and see if your software is up to date so this one has 8.26 which is the current but I've got a this is a 200 and it also has Wi Fi options in the setup menu alright so this is on 9.3 which is not the current so I'm gonna add it to the network and then we'll update software alright so we've added the network and just like that it goes to grab the software

SUMMARY: After a Garmin Express update, the first time you power on the Alpha it asks to install the new software. Say yes, let it restart, then confirm the version under Setup > About.

So you update on Garmin Express and it puts the software you know on your handheld but the first time you turn it on it has to actually install that software and it's gonna ask you that so after you take it off of the computer and you you know turn the unit on it's going to pop up a screen that you're only gonna see if there's software alright so new software found continue installation so it has put the software on the unit but it has not loaded it all you have to do is tell it yes and it's gonna go through and you know do your update it doesn't take very long and it loads the stuff on here real quick just give it a real quick second then I'll go over and show you where you can see on the about page so this will only happen you know when you load new software you notice the unit kind of powered out and it restarts itself this is a alpha 200 I but this is the same on all of the alpha 200 and 300 units nothing different here it's got a little progress bar and it's just dumping that software into your system this unit's in pretty decent shape got it on a trade alright after the software has loaded it starts over again just like new and back at it to to see if your software is loaded go over to setup and then slide down to about and the about screen will show you software version 9.9

SUMMARY: An older Alpha 200i showed 21 updates in Garmin Express, mostly small language and map files. Click Install next to the device software alone if you don't want to wait for everything.

And here's something else I just kind of want to show I'm updating an older alpha 200 I there are 21 updates available for this device that seems kind of crazy but here's let's take a look at them the first thing is the device software that's the most important thing we're updating the 9.9 that's gonna take about a minute that's just getting us up to the current software this is a unit that we took in on trade and I just haven't updated it alright here's you know where it says there's 21 well it's updating the Spanish the French the German the Italian Portuguese Danish you know you keep on going here you know you don't have to do all those it's got a time zone map you you don't have to do that unless you want to now if you click install right here it's gonna install everything and it says one minute you have to watch this sometimes because those are really small files and so I don't mind doing them but occasionally it'll be a lot of files and if you've got time that's great it usually those are map updates and so that takes a a lot longer but this is gonna take a minute to do all that stuff so I'm just gonna go ahead and do them all actually let me show you let's go back and view the details if you don't want to do all of this stuff okay let's just say that it says it's gonna take four hours and you don't have time for all that but you wanna update your device software if you just click the install next to that it'll only install that software lawyer lawyer lawyer and here we go and see how fast it goes boom boom boom alright up to date let me show you real quick what happens on an alpha and how it installs software

SUMMARY: Remove old devices you no longer own from Garmin Express by right-clicking and choosing Remove.

All right if you have a bunch of stuff that's in here so you got something old let's just pick on this drive track 71 let's say that you have traded that you don't have it anymore and you want to get this off of your Garmin Express if you will right click on it it allows you to remove it and it'll ask you if you're sure and boom it's gone

SUMMARY: After a Garmin Express update, a TT 25 flashes white for a few minutes while loading software, beeps, then flashes yellow looking for GPS. That's normal.

Okay this white light is what you need to keep an eye out for when you you disconnect it's going to come on white and it's gonna flash and go through a bunch of stuff all this is is showing that the software is loading onto the unit and then that beep tells you that it's done another white light but every time you update software and when you disconnect it from the system it it generally will be turned on and it's gonna run through this so this is a normal part of it and it doesn't tell you anything but it just runs through and series of white light flashes takes a few minutes it's kind of boring I'm gonna film the whole thing though cause I wanna see you the yeah there you go see the the rapid flash that's the final on it and then it goes green and it beeps again and now it's turned on and it's back at a yellow flash now so it's looking for a GPS signal and that's it we're up to date

SUMMARY: Updating a collar in Garmin Express: clean the contacts, clip it on, close the drive window that opens, add the device, install, then disconnect to load the software.

When you hook a collar up it doesn't have the exact same sign but the Power Light should come on as you can see my collar is kind of dirty you do wanna make sure that your charging contacts are clean alright this is something else that can happen too so this opened up as a folder and so basically this is the folder that has all my files in it and so it's showing it as an F drive you generally do not need to mess with this occasionally when we're doing experiments or running like prototype software Garmin will send us stuff and we drop it into these files but don't mess with this just close that out alright Garmin Express found a new device and it's asking if you want to add that to Garmin Express you can either click that or you can click add new device but let's click this one so it goes through and it grabs it this is the unit and I'm gonna tell it to add device several things are gonna happen here you can register the product with Garmin this is a good thing to do early put your email address in there they'll send you offers and promotions if you click on that you can name your devices if you want to you can also hook up to Wi Fi networks we're gonna talk about that in a minute because you can do Wi Fi updates with some of the new stuff but we're gonna talk about that later but this is a way to do it alright again they'll ask you if you want to set up Wi Fi we're not gonna do that right now alright so a new software came out for the t t twenty fives yesterday so it is there once again install time is one minute this is the software version and you click install same thing's gonna happen here the lawyers have got to you know show that they exist for a reason and then they'll tell you not to mess with the unit while it's doing it relatively fast as a general rule once it starts to update you'll see some movement on the progress bar here and when it's done you'll get the you're up to date it'll show you your software version and then it'll tell you that to update your device you have to disconnect it from the computer alright we're gonna show you next what happens when you disconnect

SUMMARY: Garmin Express basics: badge numbers mean updates are available. Use a data-capable USB cable with no splitters; when connected, the Alpha backs up waypoints and the computer sees it as a drive.

Alright this is Garmin Express I've got it opened up you will not have all this stuff on here when you open yours up I update a lot of software on this particular computer and so it saves every unit that you put in it will ask you if you wanna replace it like I've got two different alpha 100s and all sorts of old stuff on here you can go in and clean this off I'll show you how to do that later but if you've only got a few units it'll have them on there and it'll show you stuff about those units these numbers here tell you that there are updates and so basically that means that an update has come out and it has not been installed on this unit so that way you know you can open it up and look to see if there's an update available alright let me show you a couple of things about what you need to do to hook your unit up as a general rule you're gonna have a USB and you're gonna use your power cord to do this so I'm gonna be doing a alpha 300 I and so this is a USB C plug that goes into that and this is a charging cable for that something you wanna watch is if you have like a splitter cable that kind of stuff you can't have that in line so if you're using your charging cables to do your updates you gotta make sure that it's just cable straight to unit not all cables work most of them do but not all of them do and if you're having trouble it might be your your cable I'm gonna show you what happens when you plug a cable up and it works correctly so when you hook the unit up it should power on and then for an alpha unit it should drop into this so it's saving your waypoints and your routes and so that's basically backing up the unit before you do anything and it'll do this all your alpha units will do this you'll see a little bit different on a Pro 550+ your computer should recognise it as a separate device but that doesn't really have anything to do with updating that will at least tell you that it's connected to the computers recognising it

SUMMARY: Correction: Channel View shows busy channels, but nobody can track your dog from that. Tracking a collar requires its six-digit track code, and controlling it requires the separate control code.

Alright I wanna clear up something that we that I screwed up when we were talking about channel view yesterday one of the comments was asking if yeah I was showing how you find a a handheld by looking at channel view and seeing what channels are busy if you have a lost handheld and someone asked if you could do the same thing with a collar and my initial response was yes you can actually do the same thing with a collar and they were like well that's not good because now somebody can come and track my dogs and so I had to stop and go wait a minute that's actually not how collars work so when you go into channel view I'm running a couple of devices right now and I'll see if they pick them up but I've got a handheld and a collar running so let's see what's out there alright so I've got on channel 1 I have 1 11 which is active that's my handheld and then I have 1-19 which is this handheld and then on channel 5 I have 5 18 active so I'm assuming that this 5 18 is this collar so if let's now take our separate handheld here we got a dog list and I know that this dog is broadcasting on 5 18 okay I also have a 5 12 active and I'm not sure what that is I've got another collar that's running in the area so I know it's either 5 12 or it's 5 18 and that's it so we go over here to another handheld and we go to dog list and we go to add dog so there's three ways to add dog you can pair it so that way you know if you have the collar you can enter the track or control code or you can receive from a handheld so if somebody figures out hey you're broadcasting on 5 18 I'm gonna go track your dog you can't do that with a collar because you need the track code alright you don't need the channel so if you're not familiar with a track code let's go over here and let's take a look at a collar real quick so dog list alright so this dog right here this is a different collar but still you have two different numbers on collars the track code which is a six digit code and then the control code which is also a six digit code that these two things track code allows somebody to track a collar so you can actually type in that six digit number and you'll be able to track that collar but what you can't do is use the e collar functionality you actually have to have the control code to use the e collar functionality so if somebody is trying to track one of your dogs they're gonna have to know this code it's not something that you can just guess at where with a channel you know there's a limited number of channels and you can guess at it so I was incorrect when I was talking about that just want to clear that up you don't need to worry about somebody using Channel View to be able to actually track your dog

SUMMARY: To find a lost Alpha 300 with transmitting on: use Channel View on a 300/200 Plus to find its ID, then track that ID as a contact from a different handheld (a regular 200 works).

So I had a buddy call me tonight and had dropped a 300 while he was out hunting today and he has a general idea where it was but can't find it and doesn't have it synced up to anything and so I think we have a way to find a lost handheld using Channel View now the Assumption is that he has his broadcast turned on which that's you know that's where this is this is where your handheld will transmit its location now if that's turned off and it you know on the I d screen there it says off this isn't gonna work so I don't know if he has that turned on or not we're gonna find that out but if it's on there I think you could find a lost handheld using channel view let me show you how alright go to the home screen and then you should have channel view alright this is going to look for any devices that are running in your area alright so on channel 3 it's got one person using so I click on it and it says 3:19 is active and that it's busy which means there's something broadcasting on 3:19 it's this handheld so to find this lost handheld you need to go through and just let it look for any channels that are open and then you know if there aren't any other collars in the area you should be able to you know see this and then what you're gonna need to do is go track that device alright so after you have found the I d that the lost handheld is broadcasting on then you would go back and track that with your handheld so but there's a problem with this so you go to dog list and you go to add and this is the 200+ that I used with the channel view so it knows now that there's a 3:19 broadcasting so it won't let you search for it so you need a different handheld fortunately I have a regular 200 here now a regular 200 doesn't have channel view so it has no idea so I go to dog list and I'm already on the people there I go to add I go to enter ID and there it is add it as contact alright so we're now tracking 3:19 finish let's see if I can get it to pair up so we have communication and then there it is I think that'll work

SUMMARY: TT 10 and TT 15 collars (and Astro 220/320) need Garmin's Web Updater instead of Garmin Express. Search 'web updater' on gundogsupply.com for the tutorial; use Express for anything it supports.

If you have TT 15 collars or TT 10 collars you will need something besides Garmin Express go to Gundogsupply.com search for web up dater web updater is the software that you use to update older systems right here we have a update the Alpha 100 you can actually do a 100 now on Garmin Express but this is a tutorial for how to get web updater same thing here you go to Garmin’s website and you download Web Updater and you can use that for Windows or Mac you download the software and then you go back to Gundogsupply.com and we will walk you through the basics web updater is not as good as Garmin Express and so if you have anything that can be updated via Garmin Express you are better off to update it via Garmin Express the only really stuff right now that's active I think Astro 320s and 220s you still have to update on Garmin Express and t t 15s the minis can actually be done on Garmin Express so t 5 so some of the older stuff has to be done on web Updater but if you can update it on Garmin Express do it on Garmin Express

SUMMARY: Search 'Garmin Express' on gundogsupply.com for the update tutorial, download Garmin Express (Windows or Mac) from Garmin, and update with your charging cable.

Alright let's talk a little bit about updating collars so one of the things you have to do with Garmin GPS units is update software and it's a problem for a lot of folks just because they don't wanna do it but it's important and it should be done especially in certain situations we have a tutorial on Gundog supply.com and if you will search for Garmin express it will get you to that tutorial alright this walks you through everything that you have to do to update an alpha unit and it's the same for collars it's all all the same to get Garmin Express you have to go to the garment website and this allows you to download Garmin Express it will work for Windows and for Mac used to not work for Mac but now it does and they tell you how to install it and they've got all sorts of different things here but the first thing you have to do if you're going to update through a computer is go to our tutorial go to the Garmin website after you've downloaded the software come back to the tutorial and I'll walk you through it basically you're gonna be using your charging cables to connect some cables work some cables don't we'll talk about that a little bit and then you go to Garmin Express and you go through and do the updates we'll show you how to do one of those in just a second but the first thing to do go to Gundogsupply.com search for Garmin Express and then download the software from garmin.com

SUMMARY: Older Garmin collar straps absorbed water and bubbled apart, sometimes needing to be cut off. Newer straps fixed this; replace old ones with better straps.

So this is something that we don't see a lot of anymore but I I run into it because of we take in used stuff and it still has some straps attached to it and this is the this is what happens when you have a cheap product fortunately Garmin has fixed this problem but when they first came out with stuff they were using these cheap collars and basically what happens is is that it's not sealed at the holes and the material absorbs water so the lining the interior piece absorbs water and then over time it degrades and the plastic is just not that good and you end up with this bubbling effect it's very irritating when you're trying to take a collar strap off you end up having to cut the collar strap in multiple places fortunately we don't see this a lot anymore but if you've got an older collar this is gonna happen you can buy better collar straps and replace them if you run into this it's very frustrating

SUMMARY: Sale: the Alpha 200 Plus (same hardware and software as the 300, older screen) is $499 through 2/23/2026, $200 off. A steal unless you need the best screen for detailed maps at night.

So I generally don't push a lot of salesy stuff but this may be the greatest sale that Garmin has ever had maybe let's talk about it so Garmin contacts us when they're getting ready to have a sale we generally don't have a enormous heads up but we typically get you know a short heads up maybe early January they told me that we were gonna put the Alpha 200 Plus units on sale and when I saw the numbers on it I was like this gotta be wrong it's gotta be a mistake because there's no reason to discount this unit this much so this is an alpha 200+ it is the exact same system as the Alpha 300 it does not come in an I option so there is no 200+ I it is a 200 only so it's it's the exact same hardware and software as the Garmin Alpha 300 normally it is $100 less so it's $699 typically where a 300 is gonna be $799 the only physical difference in these units is the screen the screen is the older 200 screens so not quite as nice of a screen as the 300 screen but it's not that different if you're running a lot of really heavily detailed maps and you run at night it may not be worth it but today is the 18th of February this sale runs until the 23rd so today's Thursday you've got until Monday it'll run you know through the weekend and Monday it's $499 I I don't understand it it's $200 off the normal price if you need a handheld and you track in the compass view or if you need a handheld and you track in the map but you use hunt view cards or you don't use the the most detailed version of the maps or you don't even download maps and you just use the regular topo map that's included this is a steal it's an absolute steal so I haven't pushed it incredibly hard Gun dog supply.com but we have them and it's you're not gonna get a better deal than this I just I don't understand it so $499 today is February 18th 2026 that runs until the 23rd so February 23rd, 2026 don't miss it

SUMMARY: Handhelds on older software suddenly struggled to get satellite lock. Update to current software (8.26), and switch Settings > System > Satellite from GPS Only to Multi-GNSS for an immediate fix.

Alright we had a bunch of units yesterday that are having trouble acquiring satellite it is a combination of things but the biggest issue is it's a software problem there are a lot of folks that are running older software and something changed with the satellites yesterday and it caused an old problem to resurface and so if you're not running current software you're gonna have an issue alright first off to see what your software is let's go click your home button click your settings button and then go to the bottom and there's an about page this about page will tell you what you're running this unit has 8:05 so it's not even up to date 8 2 6 is the current version so you need to go update your software if you're not running something that's in the eights especially a lot of folks out there still have software that's in the sixes and that's part of the problem but the other way to fix it is I'm gonna go back to the map here alright go home go to settings go to the bottom and system go to satellite and then you should if you haven't changed this already you're on G P S only click on that go to go to Multi G N S S what this does is it changes the number of satellites that you have available to you and that should fix your issue immediately so that's all you gotta do

SUMMARY: An interesting trade-in Alpha 200i in good shape except the middle button is worn almost flat from heavy use. It'll go to GDS's eBay store.

So we get in interesting stuff in our trades this is an alpha 200 I and it's in pretty decent shape for a you know for a used there's really doesn't have a antenna attached but you know it's in it's in really good shape except for this I have never seen the middle button is like worn down to like almost flat still works and it it's got a good click to it so I don't really think it's worn out in any way but I mean it's whoever was using this has flat used it I mean he was making some corrections so fascinating we won't be selling this on the Gundog site we'll probably be selling this on our eBay site but it'll be a deal cause that's that's I've never seen it before

SUMMARY: TT 10, TT 15 and TT 15X collars look identical. The only sure way to tell is the sticker under the strap (ridges hint at a newer 15 or 15X). TT 10s and older TT 15s need Web Updater, not Garmin Express.

So I had a call yesterday from a good friend of mine who has been running Garmin collars probably, I'm gonna say, since 2007. And, he was having trouble updating his TT fifteen X collars on Garmin Express. I have a lot of friends who have my cell phone number and are technically challenged, so a lot of times I get calls and I help people when I can. But this has been going on for about two weeks. And, he had reached out to me and I told him what to do, and that didn't work. And he'd actually even reached out to Garmin, and they worked with him, but were unable to get it done. And so he called me back and just said, it's not working out, you know, what's the deal? And I finally said, are you sure those are TT fifteen X collars? And he's like, yeah. And I was like, let's double check, because these three collars look the same. They look identical. If you can see a difference in them just from here, I'd like to know what it is. But they look the same, but they're not. The only way to truly tell physically on the collar if it's a TT fifteen X is to take off the collar strap and look at the sticker that's underneath the collar strap. And a lot of y'all might not even know this is here cause you've never taken your collar Straps off. But on the bottom, underneath, you know, on the opposite side of the prongs, you have a sticker and it has your serial number and it tells you what kind of collar it is. Alright. This is a TT fifteen X. There's one other physical thing. On a 15 X, you see these ridges right here? If it has these ridges, it might be a 15 X. All the 15 X's have these little ridges that it's an improvement in the, Protection of the wire. But this collar also has ridges. But it's a TT fifteen. So newer TT Fifteens have the ridges, older ones don't. This collar is what my friend had. It's a TT ten. The last time they made these was in 2,012. Now it doesn't have the ridges, it's flat. But the collar looks the same. It's the same case. These will not update with Garmin Express. You have to use Web Updater. These will not update with Garmin Express. You have to use Web Updater. These will. So if you're not sure, take off the strap, take a look.

SUMMARY: Introduce a beeper like gunfire: start quiet (tape over the horn, low volume), play it around the yard and at feeding, then pair with birds and raise volume gradually. Never start at full-volume hawk scream.

Alright the other thing is introduction of a beeper to a dog probably one of the hardest things for me in testing this product was the fact that I had to start over with beeper introduction to my dogs the oldest dog that I have right now I think is eleven and so I haven't run beepers in almost 20 years so my dogs never heard of beeper before they had no idea what it was and you don't want to take this and strap it on a dog and and start using it without conditioning them to it I relate it very much to gunfire conditioning it is very similar in how I go about it this beeper has a low medium and high option so that's great but I'm still not gonna strap it on a dog and turn it on and let him you know just see what happens there's there's no value in that and so I'm gonna do a couple of things I don't know if I can do this and film one of the things that we used to do with beepers is that we would take tape you know and we would cover the speaker horn and then you know we would that's tone that's not a beeper so you know just by covering that speaker horn that's a very significant reduction in the volume I actually introduce beepers typically in in the yard and when I'm feeding that's not how I do gunfire but it's you know it's one of those it's an easy way to do it where I just turn the beeper on and I stick it in the backyard and I let them listen to it where they just get used to it where it's it's just not that big of a deal and then I'm gonna use some birds and I'm gonna you know I'm gonna gonna control the volume and like I said if I've got a dog that's a little bit more on the sensitive side I'm definitely gonna cover the speaker horn with some tape I'm gonna use the lower volume and I'm gonna gradually increase it as the dog is comfortable with it I'm not going to just expose him to it and see what happens I've got an article on Gundogsupply.com about how I go about doing this I'll see if I can share that link I probably need to update it because I probably wrote it in 2002 and so so it might need a little a little tweaking but like I said it's very similar to gunfire you don't wanna just throw this on a dog and and start you know start it at full volume with a full blown hawk scream you know that's that's just a silly way to to go about it so let's not do that

SUMMARY: Tone is a quiet sound mainly for the dog, heard about 20 feet away, which Steve uses as a 'look at me' cue. A beeper is loud and audible hundreds of yards away. Dogs can learn the difference with training.

The next big question that that we see is is this tone so tone versus beepers is something that has has always been confusing to to folks so tone is a a beeping sound that's at the collar but it's relatively quiet so this this is the upland beeper from Garmin and it has tone so this is tone now you can hear that depending on how good your hearing is you know you can hear that I can hear it it probably 20 feet let's say depending on the wind and depending on you know what's going on but it's really designed so that the dog can hear it and you can train things with that I use it as a look at me command so my dogs are taught that when I beep at them they need to turn and see where I am and then at that point I'm gonna give them a command whether it's a hand signal or whether or not it's a recall a lot of people use tone as a recall some people use tone as a warning not a big fan of that but that's a different conversation but tone and beepers are not the same so this is tone that's the beeper so I'm using the locate feature here and you know I go back to beeper so significantly difference in the volume of them and so you know I can hear a beeper depending on the wind and depending on the cover well I used to be able to hear it at about 4 to 500 yards I don't know if I can do that anymore cause I'm older than now once again it's been 20 years since I actually ran beepers so it depends on your hearing it depends on how bad your hearing is but you can hear this at a distance because it's loud it were tone you can hear at a much shorter distance once again depending on your hearing now tone commands and beepers are a tricky combination and I'll be completely honest I don't remember when I was running beepers if my dogs were taught tone commands I I I feel like they probably were but but I really don't remember it the last time I ran beepers was like 2007 so I I don't remember clearly you know if I did that tones a big deal for me nowadays now you can have dogs they can handle both they can handle the difference between a tone command and a beeper it just has to be taught it's not something that they're gonna understand if you don't teach it to them and so that requires a certain amount of exposure and it requires a little bit of training but dogs can differentiate between sounds and they can differentiate between this is a this is a command and this is you know something totally different

SUMMARY: The TT 25 Upland Beeper is a beeper collar for pointing dogs: different sounds for running and on point, plus a locate button, for thick cover where you can't see the dog. It's an extra collar, not a TT 25 replacement.

So it's been almost 20 years since I actively ran beepers and we've talked a little bit this week about the new Garmin Alpha beeper collar and there's been some questions that have resurfaced that I probably didn't cover in the original stuff just because I haven't really thought a lot about beepers since G P S collars came out for the vast majority of customers G P S has replaced the need for a beeper collar but there are certain situations where they're valuable the biggest thing I think that a lot of folks don't understand is exactly what this product is so a beeper collar is primarily designed for people that are running pointing dogs and it makes a loud sound that you can hear at a distance and it allows you to tell what the dog's doing as far as if he's moving it makes one sound if he's on point it makes a different sound then you also have the option of being able to press a button and do what's called the locate and so that way if you if you don't wanna run the beeper continuously you can just use locate mode and when you wanting to see exactly where your dog is you can press that button and it's gonna it's gonna make a sound that you can hear now a lot of people will say well why would you need that you have a G P S collar that tells you exactly where the dog is and that is true but this is for folks that are hunting in in situations where the cover sometimes is so thick that at very close distances you can't actually see the dog and you really don't want to have your hands on a Al you know a looking at a transmitter you might be able to press a button on it but you don't necessarily be looking at it that's a small subset of hunters there's a lot of people that that that run upland run pointing dogs that don't wanna go back to beepers and that's fine. this is not a replacement of the TT25, this is an additional collar so if you already have a 25 or if you're gonna buy a 25 you don't have to buy a beeper collar so you know let's let's keep that in mind but it is for a specific set of customers and so you know that that kind of covers the what is this

SUMMARY: Field test showing how quickly the beeper switches from the run beep to the hawk scream when the dog points; slightly faster than the handheld.

So that gives you a feel for how long it takes for it to kick in I went from a a beep mode to a hawk scream on point so it's a little bit faster than the handheld just a smidge

SUMMARY: On the Pro 550 Plus, control the Upland Beeper from the accessory (A) toggle position: off, run mode and locate. Set run, point and locate sounds and volume under the dial's N menu > Beeper Settings.

Alright on the Pro 550+ which is very popular among the bird dog folks you also have the option to run the beeper alright so on your handheld you have an accessory setting so I'm in the middle dog position and I'm currently in the a position which is the accessory position and so that allows me to control the beeper and you're not in using the buttons so that is an option and so you have an off and then you have a run mode alright but then you have a locate you also have the ability to control the settings so turn your dial to end and it's the second choice here under beeper settings and you hit select and then you get to pick your run sound so same choice here you've got the low beep triple beep double beep single beep you've also got a point sound you've got a locate sound and you have the ability to control the volume so same setup on the Pro 550+ as you have on the Garmin Alpha

SUMMARY: Demo comparing the Upland Beeper's low, medium and high volume settings.

So I don't know if you'll be able to tell here we're gonna do some volume alright so that's low Change it to medium okay so there's the change over alright and then let's try high it's a pretty significant between low medium and high I'm not sure if you're gonna be able to tell really on the video

SUMMARY: Demo of the beeper sound options: hawk scream, single, double, triple, low and high beep. The low beep can be easier to hear for people with high-frequency hearing loss.

I got your hawk scream that's the single beep that's the double beep that's the triple beep alright so this is the low beep and that's a high beep so low versus high I find that sometimes you know if you've if you've got some hearing loss you have a harder time with high frequencies but the low frequencies may be easier for you to hear so that's the idea behind that

SUMMARY: On the Alpha 200/300, adding the beeper puts on/off/locate on the training bar, and the dog info page gets Beeper Settings for run, point and locate sounds and volume. Update software first.

Alright so when you add the beeper to your system it is gonna give you some options that are gonna appear on your training section here and so you've got a on and an off and a locate and you have some control over those under the training page you need to make sure that you're running current software a Garmin actually installed this software a few months ago so if you've updated recently you should have the software and when you add the beeper your handheld will recognise I'm running 8.2 which I think is the most current software so check your software before you add your beeper alright you have some control over the beeper and you'll notice if you go into your dog info page here we have a new section here if you have a beeper this will not apply if you don't have a beeper but if you have a beeper we have beeper settings alright so we have some different sounds there's a single beep there's well a double beep a triple beep a low beep and a hawk scream alright that's the run sound and then we have a point sound where same thing here you have all of these different choices as far as when the dog is on point so that way you can have if you want to hog scream while he's on point or if you want to have a single beep while he's running and a double beep while he's on point just makes it easier to differentiate and then we also have an option on the locate sound same thing here so we'll go through and play all of those for you here in just a second there's also a volume control and so we have a low a medium and a high volume that you can control from your handheld

SUMMARY: The Upland Beeper is a TT 25 extended-battery collar with a speaker horn mounted under the neck. Buy it complete or as a battery/horn add-on for an existing TT 25. Ships with a regular flex band.

So let's look at the collar it is a TT25 collar it is the size of the extended battery setup so if you're familiar with that it's a little bit deeper than the regular t T25 the speaker horn is attached to the front of the collar so it extends out it's gonna be underneath the dog's neck which I don't know if that's ideal but that's kind of how beepers are being done nowadays dogs have been doing that for a long time this is the first time I think that we've had one that's a that's a Garmin unit pushes the sound down I I I don't know if I like that or not but it you know it keeps everything in one unit which I think that's important there's two different options as far as how to purchase this if you already have a t T25 you can actually buy the piece that has the speaker horn attached to it and then you just remove this top plate off your t T25 pop the battery off and attach the battery and speaker horn or you can buy it as a put together system my current understanding is that it's gonna come with the regular flex band that's is a little bit concerning seeing how this is a bird dog product we're gonna probably try and offer it with a a zero flex band but I don't know if that's gonna be an option for us yet I was still waiting to learn still waiting to learn about that but it's a pretty complete package some folks might feel like it's a little big for your average bird dog but it's it's not back in the day they carried a lot more than this so so it's a good solid package and I'm pretty happy with the performance as far as the size and the ability to hear the sound

SUMMARY: New from Garmin: the TT 25 Upland Beeper, a TT 25 with a speaker horn, controllable from the Alpha 200/300, Pro 550 Plus (accessory function) and Alpha 10. Aimed mostly at ruffed grouse hunters.

So here's a product I never thought I would see this is the Garmin t t 25 Upland Beeper so we now have a t T25 collar that has a speaker horn on it and it's a beeper it is a remote control option you can control it from your Garmin Alpha 300 Garmin Alpha 200 you can also control it from your Pro 550+ using the accessory function and then you can also control it from the Alpha 10 using the sound function folks have been asking for this for a long long time and in a lot of situations with G P s you you really shouldn't need a beeper beepers are kind of old school compared to to G P s tracking but there are some situations where they come in pretty handy I think that the grouse hunters and by that I mean the ruffed grouse hunters primarily are the folks that are looking for this product but I grew up you know running with beepers and even after G P S came out I felt like there was some times where I could use the beeper well if you're running a Garmin G P S system now you've got the option

SUMMARY: New Alpha handhelds now ship with the battery installed and a yellow tab covering the contacts. Open the back, remove the battery, peel off the tab and reinstall.

Okay here's a change on Garmin Alpha handhelds because of batteries so when you get a new handheld in if it's got this sticker on it you got to take the battery out and remove a cover watch closely so undo your back piece and you see this little yellow tab right here that's covering up the charger ports on the battery pull out the battery peel this sticker off put the battery back in you're good to go

SUMMARY: Change the Alpha's language under Settings > System > Language; no reset needed.

So I mentioned doing a hard reset to change the language on a unit but it's actually took me a second to find from your menu go to settings and then go to system and there it is language pick whatever you want

SUMMARY: Tracking a contact handheld: the Alpha 100 shows it only on the map, while the 200/300 shows it on the map and compass (switch to 'show dogs only' to hide it). Messaging works between them.

Alright something else that's different in the tracking contacts in between a 100 and a 200 or 300 if you'll see there the contact is on the map alright so you can see the contact on the map hard to see it cause we're so close to each other right now but that's how it works now on the compass you got nothing alright on the 300 you can see it it's right there it's a little green arrow but you can also see it on the compass so that is a difference now if you don't want to see contacts on your compass you can go over here and go to show dogs only and it'll disappear but show all devices and there it is so that is a difference between the two but beyond that they track the same and you can message if you want to you go over here let's go here go dog list message it has you know and there you go so that's kind of cool neat stuff so this is pairing contacts it's a little different between a 100 and a 200 300 but they they you can track them and they you know they do the same stuff so kind of neat

SUMMARY: Yes, an Alpha 100 and a 200/300 can track each other. Turn on transmitting on the 100 under Contacts > pairing setup, then pair each handheld to the other; you have to do it in both directions.

Alright the question is can you track a 100 and a 200 the answer is yes this is actually a 300 but the setup's the same and I don't have a 200 with me so we're gonna do a 300 alright they're in a little different spot on the 100 they're under contacts where on the alpha 200 alpha 300 it's under dog list and then here your dogs are on the left and your contacts are on the middle okay alright so we're gonna do an add and a pair now let me show you one thing real quick you do have to alright on your 100 you go to setup you go to contacts you go to pairing setup and then you need to make sure that transmitting is on if your transmitting is off it won't work so we're gonna go to on you can also control your update rate here and that just determines how often you would get an update two and a half seconds it's fine alright then go back to contacts and then on your other handheld alright it's add pair so we're going to add on this one are you near the handheld yes and then on this one you select pair alright so okay alright so we have added the 300 to the 100 and the update rate is five seconds okay what we have not done is added the 100 to the 300 and it's kind of odd in that you to me you should just do it once and they both connect but that's not how it works so on the 300 we're gonna hit add and we're gonna pair a handheld and then we're gonna select pair over here so it's the opposite and there you go now you can come in here and name this if you want to we'll make this the 100 and boom and finish and there it is and we're communicating

SUMMARY: Range problems: first test with multiple collars and handhelds to find the culprit. A handheld limited to about 200 meters usually has a loose SMA antenna nut. Tighten carefully; it's delicate.

Okay range is a tricky thing in that you can have a lot of things that that can cause range issues you wanna first test your handheld with multiple collars and if you're having the exact same range issue with multiple collars or if you're taking collars and they work fine on one handheld but you're not getting any range on another handheld then that way you've narrowed it down to see that the handheld is the problem typically if we have a range issue with a handheld and the 200 meters that's about 200 yards for U S folks that's a number that's pretty common and it's your s m a connection so you unscrew your antenna and you check this now Mine's solid it's tight you see a little nut there's a little nut down there what can happen is this can get loose and if it's loose it'll rock back and forth now you won't be real careful cause you can break this but if it's loose then you need to tighten it up there is a there's a nut that'll fit that or a you know you can get a a screw head that'll fit that I just use a pair of needle nose pliers myself but be careful this is not a piece that you wanna mess with it's kind of delicate but if it's loose that's gonna cause you range issues

SUMMARY: Collars on the same or closely related IDs (same second digit) interfere because of timing. Change one collar's ID from its menu, and update any other handhelds tracking that collar.

So the issue here is that you have either really closely related I DS or you have the exact I d on both of the collars and so there's there's there's five different channels and 20 different I d's and you you cannot have a collar that's on the same I d or on the same of the the 20 different I d's that you have like if you have a A1 like this one right here you know is a is a 1 dash 0 you don't wanna have a 2 dash 0 because that's a timing factor the way the 20 works the second digit the way it works is that's the timing as far as when the handheld in the collar communicate with each other so you wanna avoid having anything that's on the same second digit so what I would do is I would go in and look at the two collars that you're having trouble with and see if they match up exactly and if they do then you need to change one of them and so to change you hit your menu there and you hit change I d and then it's going to look for what IDS are free and so it'll go in here and make an adjustment to it now the thing you have to watch for is that now once you've changed an I d if it's on another handheld so say if you changed your buddy's I d it won't track on that handheld anymore so you have to make sure that any handhelds that are tracking those collars know that the collar has switched to a different I d so be careful about that you don't wanna change it on one handheld and not change it on the other but that should fix your issue

SUMMARY: A linked Garmin watch gives dog alerts automatically, but to see direction and distance you open the dog widget. Adjust alerts under its Settings > Dog Alerts.

Okay so that's probably what you're getting right there so the watch will give you notifications as long as it's connected to the handheld but if you wanna see direction and distance you actually have to go to the widget and select it and so that shows you direction and distance but even if the widget is not turned on it'll still give you notifications now to adjust your notifications go down here to settings I believe and then under Dog Alerts you select that and you pick what you want that's it

SUMMARY: Fixing missing training keys for a dog: check that Training Defaults > Add When Paired is on, then add keys manually in Training Keys (momentary, continuous, tone) or delete and re-add the collar.

Okay so I'm tracking these two dogs and I have now recreated what you're saying you've got so I have the blue dog for stimulation but that's it but I'm tracking both dogs so let's go back over here and I'll show you real quick first to check and see what's causing it and then how to fix it alright so under training setup if you look first under training defaults there should be a thing here that says add when paired and so that's gonna give you this setup and we'll go through and talk about how to do this in a different video but if that's turned off that explains why it's happening alright let's fix it real quick so you go to training keys and once again you'll see I've got a bunch of different things going on here these are other dogs that are in my system but I'm not currently tracking so that's why they don't show up when I scroll through the training keys but this collar down here is a red and it's actually called a red regular so you see this number seven here I am able to add an item so you click on that and then it gives you some choices training commands are what we're dealing with here we get to select the dog so it's red regular and then I want the left side to be momentary so that's done alright middle key Training Command Red regular I want it to be continuous and so you see how it's kinda automatically doing it this is how my unit is set up and then this one should be tone Training Command Red Regular and it's automatically set up as tone now you can change this let's just say I want this to be vibration yeah you can make a selection there and change it do that just for kicks alright so now on line seven here I have these three things so let's go back and boom and then there she is so I don't know exactly what caused that to happen if your unit is set up correctly where it's going to auto add them you could also just delete the unit and then re add it and it should repopulate but if it's not doing that then you need to go in and check and see if your settings are correct

SUMMARY: Part 1 of fixing a missing dog on the training bar: every active collar should get its own keys, controlled under Settings > Training Setup (Training Keys and Training Defaults).

Okay so this is gonna take a couple of videos possibly to show but what you're looking for here is that you you have training bar at the top alright I only have one dog active I've got this red collar let's go let's go turn it on real quick so it's a red regular should pop up really fast alright so now when I go back I now I'm tracking both dogs and I've got both dogs at the top so that's what should happen when you add a collar it should give you a standard setup which most of them it's momentary, continuous, tone that's that's how it comes out of the box but you can make adjustments to that but what you're saying is that you you only have the blue and you don't have the second dog or you you have one dog but not the second dog so there's a couple of things that could cause that let's go over here real quick go to your homepage and then you go to settings and training setup is where this is all controlled so the buttons across the top here are referred to as training keys and then training default is how you control everything so under training keys you'll see everything these are all the collars that I have loaded into this system even though only two of them are active right now so I'm going to shoot another video that shows you I'm gonna delete this one and I'm gonna show you how to go in and set it up

SUMMARY: The backbone mount on Alpha handhelds is very secure. To remove the clip, lift from the bottom and slide it down. Steve recommends a tether in addition.

One of the cooler things about the Garmin Alpha series and this is true on the Alpha one hundreds two hundreds and three hundreds Alpha 10 also has this is the backbone system and so the backbone system allows you to connect to the handheld and it allows you to carry it in all sorts of different ways the this is extremely secure and you know it it comes with this particular clip when you buy an Alpha unit but there's also a bunch of different variations on this that Garmin sells if you're looking for different ways to carry the unit now I recommend that you have some sort of tether for it that is still tied to your body and that way if you're on a you know if you're attached on a clip it doesn't if it gets knocked off you know that's something to be aware of so we definitely recommend the tether the issue that people run into with this is that they never quite grasp how to remove this piece so this piece is removable from the backbone it's not quite as self explanatory as I would like so let me just show you real quick you lift from the bottom and you pull down and it slides off so this is actually the backbone and so the pieces clip onto it and they're extremely secure now once again it's on your battery piece back here so you've got to make sure that you have this locked down you know because that will come off but

SUMMARY: Outdoor Maps+ gives higher-resolution downloaded imagery and more map layers but is a yearly subscription. HuntView cards cover a whole state with no downloading but get fuzzy zoomed in and are state-specific.

So it's tricky I think to show maps on you know on the video the Outdoor Maps Plus has the advantage that you're gonna be able to download some higher resolution images compared to the hunt view maps and so what you'll find with the hunt view maps is that as you zoom in you have a tendency to it gets real fuzzy because it's a lower resolution map now it covers the entire state so that's the advantage of it the the other advantage is that you don't have to download anything you know you plug that chip in and it's gonna have the entire state but the resolution is gonna be more like a medium resolution compared to a higher resolution with outdoor maps plus the downside of outdoor maps plus is that you gotta go in and download you know the images that you want now you can download images with a alpha 300 without having the outdoor maps plus so it's not something that you have to have for outdoor maps plus the other side of outdoor maps plus is that you get a lot of other map options and I think that's probably where the biggest advantage comes in and that may not be exactly what you're looking for now you mentioned that you travel a bunch so the thing about the hunt view maps is that they are state specific and so that's just one of those things where it depends on you know where you're going and how many states you wanna buy the other thing that you've got to keep in mind about the outdoor maps plus is that you can't you know they're they're time specific and that you buy them for a year and then you know you're you're still gonna have those maps but they don't update so that's kind of the downside of it so it really just depends they're similar but they're not the same thing

SUMMARY: On the 300's compass, other handhelds (like an Alpha XL in the truck) show alongside dogs. Choose 'show dogs only' to hide them.

So under contacts I have another one of my handhelds plus my Alpha XL which is in my truck we're gonna turn it on and go back to the compass and there she is now notice that the blue collar and the Alpha XL are in the exact same spot because the blue collar is at my truck and so the blue line and the green line are on top of each other but if I jump down here and I say show dogs only there she goes

SUMMARY: With the map's 'direction' indicator you see which way a dog is running, but it won't show a point symbol (you still get the alert). Switch Dog Display > Indicator to 'status' to see points on the map.

So cowboy's running I got a jump line where my truck is but that's cause I turned it on at the truck and last time I had it on was at half the house I have running pointers on which that allows you to see the direction that the dog is running in you can see that cowboy this is the direction that I'm facing I'm the big triangle cowboy is the little black triangle and he's made a cast and he's kind of working back this way but one thing the Blue Dog is on point but when you have running pointers on it does not show a point indication so you actually have to go back over to your compass to see point now if you're looking at the map you're still going to get a point notification but it's never gonna show you the image of the dog on point now if you if you wanna change that you can see it right there Cowboy's on point but nothing changed but if I jump over here now he's moving again alright so I have running pointers on and let's go change that so you go over here to track device setup and dog display and the indicator is what you're looking at there I've got direction you change it to status and now it shows him on point and with a cowboy it shows that he's running personally I like the direction indicator better I I just wish it would show a dog on point when it stopped that's one of those things that we've been trying to get fixed for a while

SUMMARY: Compass view while hunting: distance, direction and on-point alerts per dog. Check as you walk in, since a dog that relocates and re-points is usually on running birds.

Let's take a look at what the compass is gonna look like so under menu you've got dog compass and there you go it shows the two dogs I'm running I've got a black and a blue Cowboys over here with me is 34 yards the blue collar is on point at 425 yards and as you can see there's the compass that's dead on so you know when a dog goes on point you're gonna get a point indicator notice and then you're going to get a you're gonna alert and then it's just gonna hold that arrow and you go straight to him there is the alert right there alright actually that's cowboy who is standing at my feet want to know why we're standing around instead of quail hunting but that's pretty much just how it looks on to me you just walk toward it one of the things that you wanna keep in mind is that I check mine as I'm going toward it especially if I'm dealing with running dog I'm sorry if I'm dealing with running birds you know dog may relocate a lot of times I'll have a dog go on point and he'll be on point for a second and then he'll come off a point and he'll go back on point again that tells me he's on birds that's a very common thing especially with western birds that run a lot

SUMMARY: Pro View compass on the Alpha 300 shows dogs on point (really 'stopped'), in multi-dog or single-dog mode. The clock icon reflects dynamic update rate, which updates less when a dog is still to save battery.

So I had someone that asked me about looking at a dog on point on the compass setups on the Alpha 200 and 300 it's pretty much the exact same setup so this is a 300 I but this compass setup is gonna be virtually the same so this is a showing that I have a dog on point he's 74 yards in front of me it's actually just my truck I have the collar just sitting in my truck I wanted to be able to film some stuff without having to have it on a dog so the thing about point indicators is that it doesn't necessarily mean the dog's on point it just means he's stopped and so that's what this is couple of different ways to look at it alright and see you're gonna get alright so Cowboy's here with me and now he is stopped so he's moving now so you'll see it come off point here in just a second we'll talk a little bit about how long that lasts and I'll show you some different options as far as what you can see let's do that real quick so right now I'm in proview and I'm in multi dog mode but you can turn it to proview single dog mode and so this just gives you a bigger screen option you can still see dogs on point and then that little time clock that's there that is the update rate I'm running dynamic and so you're gonna get a little different setup with dynamic the advantage of dynamic is that when a dog is stationary it doesn't update as often if he were to move it would update quickly but that saves you some battery life and since the dog's not moving there's really no need to update constantly

SUMMARY: The Dogtra Compass has a Level Lock button so the stim dial can't be bumped, plus a programmable boost (e.g., +10 or +20) for quick jumps above the locked level.

So while I was shooting a video today on the Pathfinder I found an answer to something that several folks had asked me and I just completely missed occasionally it helps to read the instructions and sometimes I don't so I've talked about how you can customize all of the buttons and it's it's pretty easy setup as far as you know how you wanna do it but one of the things it mentioned was level lock so one of the things about this unit is that it has a stem dial and the STIM dials are a reohstat so you know if you're depending on how you're carrying the unit you could get you know the levels to change and so if that's something that you're concerned about this is where level lock comes in so I have set the unit on level ten I've got my four buttons programmed top left is continuous bottom left is level lock and then I've got a boost of 20 and then I've got tone so I set the level on 10 and then I press the level lock alright so now it's locked does not matter how much I turn the dial it stays on 10 so with this setup I can stem it 10 and then I've got a boost that I've set it 20 and so I can jump to thirty what's cool about this boost is you can set that number to whatever you want so if you wanted just to say a 5 jump or a 10 jump you can do that something else you can do if you don't use to say tone is that you can set a level and then you can set a boost and then you can set another boost and so that would give you the ability to stem increase increase so that's kind of a cool option and the other neat thing about it is that with the level lock set this way if you need to change the stem level all you have to do is press and now stem level changes and I'm I'm moving the dial and so the other thing that's cool about your boost is that you know say you're on 20 now your boost takes you to 40 so that's another cool feature on the E collar set up for the Dogtra Pathfinder Compass

SUMMARY: Holiday office goofing around with a Dogtra Compass.

Cool about what? Very cool. Did someone say very cool. Hahaha. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you. Are you gonna track me with a compass? I'm gonna shock you with a compass.

SUMMARY: In the Pathfinder 2 app you can switch the Dogtra Compass from one-dog-at-a-time to assigning each side button to a specific collar and function (e.g., purple continuous, orange tone).

Alright so the setup out of the box you know is gonna be four buttons and it's one dog at a time so that's kind of cool but there is a way to set it up where you get to select which button goes with which collar so let's do this in a two dog mode and I'll show you how to do this so we're gonna go over here to receiver selection type alright so we have the standard setup I'm gonna do this where we select collars so this gives you the ability to override and change everything alright so now we get to pick which dog it's gonna be so I'm gonna have purple on the left and I'm gonna have a continuous alright and then I'm going to have purple and I'm gonna have tone alright harder to do one handed than it should be alright and then we're gonna have orange and we're gonna have continuous and then we're gonna have orange and we're gonna have tone alright so now save alright alright so purple orange he he he purple orange purple tone orange tone I only got two dogs in here so but if you had say four dogs in here you could have it set up in this and you could move through it and once again you have it set up where everything's right there and you're not limited to this being continuous and this being tone you can set it up however you want pretty versatile

SUMMARY: Customize the Dogtra Compass's four side buttons in the app (Device List > Compass > e-collar buttons): continuous, boost with a set jump, pager, tone and more.

Alright in the app go to menu and then go to device list and me that's the compass alright and then you select your screen layout and e collar button and the first thing that comes up is your e collars okay so we're going to change the E collar setup so we're gonna select and then we have all these options here so you select on a button and you can change it to anything that you want so I'm going to change it to you know I'll change the top one to oh no let's do continuous on the top and then we're gonna do I'm not using vibration right now so I'm gonna do we will do boost and then you can control the boost oh that's kind of neat alright so I just want a little jump so we'll do 10 if I can do it okay so 10 alright I'm not using the lights so I want that to be tone and let's make the top one Pager how about alright alright so I've got continuous I've got boost I've got pager I've got tone I safe alright now we jump over here alright check it out so boom boom alright so I'm on twelve now I've got 22 I got a 1 0 I got ten I go to 37 35 45 alright and then over here I've got vibration and I've got tone so it's super customizable depending on what you want and then when you hit your next button same thing now it's just on a different dog so that's pretty neat

SUMMARY: Dogtra Compass e-collar basics: the rear dial sets stim for all dogs, and the side buttons default to continuous, vibrate, tone and light. In multi-dog layouts the Next button moves the highlighted dog.

Alright let's look at the E collar mode alright so I'm in the one dog on the screen the dial that's on the back controls the stimulation level for everybody alright you can raise and lower that as needed and then you have your buttons on the side and the way I'm set up right now I've got continuous I've got vibration I've got tone and then I've got light okay and that's an on off on the light so that's how it comes out of the box and if you move to the next dog notice how when you stim it shows you the name of the dog that you're stimming so I'm on orange now I'm on purple okay so the buttons move as the screen moves now if you're in a multi dog mode it's gonna be a little different so let me jump over here and do a multi dog mode real quick device list me screen layout setup and 2 dog okay so now I'm in a two dog see how the purple is highlighted so I'm in purple and then when I go next the orange is highlighted so that's how you deal with that and same thing is true you know you can do you know a four dog setup you know right here we'll jump to that alright so in the four dog setup it's gonna be the same thing you know you're gonna stim in the orange you're gonna next if you had four dogs in here you know it would move all the way through so that is one of the options let me show you how to change the e collar settings though

SUMMARY: Change the Dogtra Compass screen layout in the Pathfinder 2 app (Device List > Me): one, two, three or four dogs on screen, plus names, marker colors and track settings.

Let's take a quick look at the Dogtra Compass and show how you set up and customise the screens alright let's take a look at a couple of things on the handheld I don't currently have a signal even though my collars are right here cause I'm inside so won't be able to see a few things I have it set up right now in the one dog on a screen at a time which kind of depends on how many dogs you're running if you want that let's show you real quick how to switch this to a multi dog mode where you can see both dogs at the same time so to control most of the functions on the compass you will do this through the app so on the app you select menu and then you select device list alright I have two collars and then I have me which me is the compass so you click on the compass and then this is gonna show you some information as far as you know stuff you can change the name you you know this has your battery your G P S you know there's there's a little bit of data on here but marker color is gonna be what your trail's gonna show you can control whether you show a track line you can share your location it keeps up with you know your speed and how much you've travelled that kind of stuff but this is where the the coolness begins alright so couple of different things that we can do here this is where you go in and set the e collar buttons and then this is also the screen layout setup so let's go to that first alright here are all the options this is the one dog mode that I'm currently in so it's gonna show one dog at a time and you move through them we have a two dog vertical click on that and notice how quickly it changes alright we have a two dog horizontal we have a three dog which I've only got two dogs in the system right now but the third dog would go into that into that empty square and then there's the four dog same thing there only got two in the system so it shows where the two others would be now the four dog is what you're gonna wanna be doing if you have a bunch of dogs I think so you'll be able to see four at a time you are able to go in and change names you know I've got mine right now as dog well I'm sorry I've got mine as they're out there in the colors but you can select the color and you can select the dog name so that's kind of how you keep up with that so very easy to set up and very easy to change to find exactly what you want so once again after you've done all that if you wanna go back to what you had originally there it is super quick

SUMMARY: Outdoor demo of tracking on the Dogtra Compass: direction and distance per dog, Next button to switch dogs, and treed/pointed status based on collar position.

Alright so we're outside now and I'm far enough away from the collars that you can see what the setup's gonna look like so this is in single dog mode where you're viewing one dog at a time and then by hitting the next button it takes you to your other dog so it's direction and distance and you can see both dogs at the same time still have stem options here you move to the next dog control your stimulation there's a lot of different screen setups this is in a single dog mode so I've got two dogs on the system and I can you know move back and forth to see the individual dogs and that allows you to change the training also so whichever dog is on the screen you know that's who you're working with there are other setups and we'll go through that but with the app you can have a 2 up or you can have a 3 up or you can have a 4 up where you can see four dogs on the screen and then you have the ability to control how your buttons are set up we'll go through all of that but that's just your general idea of what's going on there and then you also I've got the collars laying down so they're showing as treeing it it's a little different from you know what else is on the market because you don't set it as a treeing or a pointing it bases it off of the position of the collar but that's that's about it and once again I'm running this independently right now of the app

SUMMARY: Once set up in the app, the Dogtra Compass works without your phone, giving direction, distance, stim and point/tree alerts. The phone adds maps and settings.

The other thing that's really cool about this is that you can use the compass independently from the app so if you wanna run dogs and you don't want maps then you can completely remove this from the equation and you can strictly use this to track your dogs you've got stim vibration all of that independent of the phone now you cannot do all of this without the phone in that to set everything up you're gonna need a smartphone and you're gonna have to download the app so you do have to have them to work together you do not have to have them to run dogs you can actually once everything's set up in the way that you want it done you can you don't have to use the app at all now I I can't really think of a good reason not to use the app because it's got the mapping functionality but it's not required you know as far as if you wanna you know open the app and stick your phone in your pocket and not refer to your phone until you you know wanna see a map that's fine it'll work the the handheld device will work and it will give you direction and distance tracking and it will tell you if your dog's on point or it will it will tell you if your dog's treed without having to do anything with your phone so that's a nice feature for folks that that don't use maps currently or don't care that much about maps you know if you just want to track using a compass you know feature as far as an arrow telling you you know how far your dog is it'll work great for that the phone allows you to do a lot of things as far as being able to control how the setups are and so a lot of different things that the phone will do for you so once again you do need a a smartphone with the app set up to be able to use this system but you don't have to have the phone on and constantly be referring to the phone while you're running dogs the compass will operate independently on that let me take some outside here real quick I'm gonna go set some collars out and just show you what the what the tracking looks like on the compass

SUMMARY: The Dogtra Compass handheld replaces the yellow Pathfinder 2 receiver and adds real buttons, a stim dial and per-dog e-collar control. Existing Pathfinder 2 collars and app work with it.

So what you need is a way to use an e collar without having to interact with your smartphone you know having a a flat screen here you know touchscreen only device it it's just not good and so I've always said that if I was gonna use Dogtra I would use it as a tracking system and I would have to use something else as a training system which you know we we used to do that for years so you know that's that's a thing but it's just not it's just not gonna work for me now this device is where I think the weakness is because you can take this device and you could add functionality to it from an e collar standpoint and I've thought about this for a long time well Dogtra made it so that is where the Compass comes in so this device is a four button on the sides two function buttons on the front stim dial on the back G P s receiver now you're like oh great another device so I've got all of this it's not how it works this device replaces this device so we take that out and we put this in so now this is your G P s receiver the collars send the signal to this this sends the Bluetooth information to your phone so you no longer need this device and the good news for those of you that already have a Dogtra Pathfinder 2 so you know if you're running this right now all you have to do is buy this piece and this piece replaces this piece so don't need this anymore you won't have to buy anything else your Pathfinder 2 collars work with the Dogtra Compass and so your app will also work with it you'll have to go in and you know resync this to your app and delete the other one but this device will replace the yellow device and what's cool about this is that now we have individual dog functionality we also have e collar functionality you don't have to jump over here to see it you know you still have e collar functionality you know right here and you have the ability to control stimulation from the dial you've also got vibration tone and then you have light functionalities there

SUMMARY: Pathfinder 2 overview: collars talk to a small GPS receiver, which Bluetooths to your phone app for maps, tracking and e-collar. Great tracking and maps, but correcting dogs on a phone screen is its weakness.

Alright let's talk a little bit about the dogtra Pathfinder so this is the current setup on the Dogtra Pathfinder it is a G P s track and train system that is designed to be used with your smartphone it'll work with any of the iPhones it'll work with any of the non iPhones but basically you just need a smartphone with a screen it's an app but the collars don't communicate with your phone the collars communicate with this receiver so this is the device that picks up the information from the collars and it communicates with the collars so it is a G P s receiver and your collars are G P s receivers and so the collars are picking up signals from the G P s satellite this handheld is picking up signals from the G P s satellite and they're talking to each other but this device doesn't really do much else it's it does have one button on it and you can set that for a very limited function you can you know you can tone it you can you can stim with it but it's a one dog only sort of setup so Super Limited doesn't really do you a lot of good everything is done on the phone okay so you've got you know your E collar set up on the phone you've got your tracking on the phone you've got your map on the phone okay so it's a very phone based and what's happening here is that this device is bluetoothing to this device and then you've also got G P s on your phone so you know the G P s little blue dot that's you so that way you know you know how everything goes together so basically it's a collar transmit signal to handheld handheld transmits signal to phone that's pretty much the overview of how this works now from a tracking standpoint I have always been very pleased and impressed with what Dogtra has had it tracks great maps on your phone or phenomenal it's very easy to work with it's super intuitive you do everything from the app you know all your functionality and stuff is from the app you know works off your smartphone so it's got a lot of advantages because it's using a smartphone and it's got a it's got a a much you know the screens are hard to beat on you know on a modern smartphone it does not require any sort of cell service or anything like that to work but the downside of it is this right here using an e collar with your phone is not easy and so that's the the weakness

SUMMARY: A line you can't clear on the Alpha XL map is probably a navigation route. Tap the X on the main screen to stop navigation.

So not exactly the same thing but what I think you've got there is a navigation line so this is a route line that I just set up and if you go to your settings you know and you go to dog tracking and you clear tracks on map you say yes and then you go back to the map still there so either you've got a route line or you've got a navigation line and you may have set it up accidentally it's not terribly hard to do with a touchscreen map but if you go back to your main screen here if you look at this little X right here that's gonna stop your navigation so if it is in navigation mode it's gonna be black and if you hit stop on that it'll turn to a gray and it's gone try that

SUMMARY: Jump lines on the Alpha XL come from collars that weren't tracking while you drove. Hide all tracks, or set dog tracks to show only the last five minutes; the full track stays saved underneath.

Alright so here's another jump line this is just a dog so left the house it wasn't tracking because the collars in my box now that I'm stopped I guess it's had enough time to locate the signal on it but that's why you got a jump line so you notice it doesn't follow the highway exactly alright so there's a couple of ways to deal with this under settings and under dog Tracking if you have dog tracks on map I have show all listed that ends up creating an enormous amount of garbage on the map unless you are starting new hunts or clearing out your tracks you can hide all and you can go to map and they're gone but that'll hide them completely five minutes is what I typically use let's see what that gets me so there you go now that's just gonna show the last five minutes and as that five minutes wraps up the line will continue to get shorter and shorter and shorter so that's a way just to have the minimum amount of information on your screen so that you can only see what's going on right now and it keeps your maps nice and clean now what's cool about that is that because I haven't cleared them out go back to dog tracking go back to dog tracks on map go to show all save go back to view map boom so if you change the timing that it shows on the map it does not delete the track and so if you need to see the entire track or if you need to see a longer version of the track so you wanna go to 10 minutes or you wanna go to 30 minutes you can do that the information is still in your unit it's just not gonna show on the map so that's another way to deal with it but so go to five minutes same thing here though you clear tracks this will clear them all then that's it

SUMMARY: The Alpha XL doesn't record its own track automatically. Start and stop the Track Recorder from the menu (pick a color), and saved tracks appear under Saved.

Alright this orange line is the track line of my Alpha XL now the Alpha X L doesn't create a track line in the same way that an Alpha handheld creates a track line because the Alpha is a car G P S it doesn't create a track unless you tell it to so that's a little bit of a of a difference in the Alpha versus an Alpha XL versus an Alpha handheld but if you want this track line you have to go set it up so let's go show how you do that alright you go to alright a lot of times you know you have a settings menu but this is also a menu click on that alright this shows you all sorts of cool stuff that you can do with your Alpha XL gotta go all the way down here to track recorder so the track recorder is what's creating that orange line for me and it runs as long as you tell it to so only setting I think you have is the color so you can select whatever color you want on there and I'm done with it so I'm gonna stop it alright I have no need to save this but you can save it and and stick it over file let's just save it alright so we'll save it as we're just gonna name it as that and if I had to guess one of the things you can do here is you know it's a it's a track detail so you can you can go back and follow it and I bet you it's gonna be in saved which was right there saved and click on waypoints and it's gonna be all and there it is right there okay so that's it right there so if you want to save a track that's a way to do it alright go back to track recorder and when I go back to my screen here you'll notice that it's gone I picked up a jump line though and I'm no longer tracking so it is a on off setting I go back to track recorder and I start and that's how you get a track line for your Alpha XL

SUMMARY: On the Alpha XL, Settings > Dog Tracking > Clear Tracks on Map also clears the handheld's track, but not the Alpha XL's own recorded line.

Alright so we drove a little bit more and the green line here is my alpha 300 the orange line is my Alpha XL I did not get in like a jump line because I tracked the entire way that I was here it's hard to see the green line so there's the green line alright now what some folks are trying to do I think is let's go over here you go to settings and you go to dog tracking and you go to clear tracks on map alright this is only dog track log so if you say yes and then you go back to the map well I was wrong about that so that did clear the handheld for me okay now what it didn't clear is my alpha xl one alright so you can clear tracks that way I'm not showing a dog track right now because the collars while they're active they're in my dog box and they're not going away so even though it says clear dog tracks it's clearing handheld tracks too so as you can see here both of my collars are still over there alright let's go show how to do this line and how to clear this line off

SUMMARY: Jump lines on the Alpha XL map come from a handheld that was turned off and moved. Starting a New Hunt and clearing tracks removes them; the XL's own track line is handled separately.

Alright this is you can refer to him a lot of different ways jump lines is something that I have heard before basically what is happening here is that and you can see it a couple of different things here where you know I was out way out in Texas and this orange track is my Alpha XL track and the green line is my alpha 300 and then I have some other you know I have these other lines here now this is not showing dogs alright so I have dogs you know right there and so this is happening because I was tracking and then I cut the unit off and then I moved you know hundreds of miles it can happen you know anywhere where you know up here I was I was hunting up here I had my XL on I cut off my handheld so the last known location of the handheld you know was up in North Mississippi and now I'm back in you know it's not really central Mississippi but you know I'm I'm 100 and something miles you know away from where I was alright so these are not dog lines so these are this is a handheld line so if you go over here and you do new hunt and you say clear tracks and statistics and you start let's go see if it fixed it alright that actually got it because it's my handheld and so by starting a new hunt it cleared off the handheld now this line is different this is my Alpha XL line and so that is a little different ball game on the Alpha XL let me show you how that works as far as if you want to have that line it's not automatic and how to clear it off

SUMMARY: Find the Alpha 200/300 About screen under Settings (bottom) for software version, unit ID and serial. Steve may ask for a photo of it when troubleshooting.

Okay the Garmin Alpha units also have an about screen and this is going to be the same on the 200s and the 300s go to your menu and then go down to it's actually settings and then at settings slide all the way down to the bottom and there it is about and so same thing here it's gonna show software version your unit I d which is actually your serial number and then just a bunch of other stuff here and once again this is not something that you're really going to need unless you're having trouble with a unit it is something that's you know Garmin will ask for or if I've got a question on a unit and need to ask somebody about it you know I'm gonna ask you to give me a copy of your about screen one thing that you can do with this is if you have a question as far as you know if a unit is the same software version as another unit so if one's doing something different than another you know you can just jump in here and you can see your software version really quick

SUMMARY: Find the Alpha XL About screen under Settings > Device: hardware and software versions, GPS firmware and mount version. Useful for troubleshooting.

If you're having trouble with a Garmin unit one of the things I'm gonna ask you to to send me a picture of is the about screen this tells us pretty much everything that we need to know about your unit and every Garmin handheld has an about screen but most people either don't know about it or don't know how to find it let me show you real quick how to find it okay to get to your about screen go to settings and then slide down to device and then there is your about screen and the about screen is gonna tell you your hardware version and software version software is the biggest thing that I'm looking for but it also has information as far as the G P S firmware and this just kind of tells us what's going on you know with the unit it's really not that useful outside of troubleshooting and so if you're not sure if you're on the most current software version you can always go and try and update it but this will tell you you know right here that's that's 6.2 is what this software version is and then on the Alpha X L you've got the mount version which you know the mount is the actual Alpha brains you know this is just the screen but this is the brains and so what you do when you update the screen it will then update the mount

SUMMARY: Pin the e-collar page (the pin at the bottom) so side keys keep raising and lowering stim on that dog instead of cycling dogs. It stays pinned until you unpin it, so don't get stuck there.

Alright let's talk a little bit about the E collar page when you are working a dog on a Garmin Alpha so this is true on any of the Alpha 200 or the Alpha 300s the setup is it is identical so when I compare the alpha say to a pro 550 + I talk about how the pro 550 + is an e collar with tracking where the Alpha is tracking collar that has e collar functionality and that's true but some of that comes down to how you do the setup and there's a couple of tricks that you can do with the alpha units that will make it function more as an E collar so let's take a look at that alright so I've got my dog here I'm in the compass screen this is the same if you're on the map screen there's no difference here you got your training bar across the top here so I've got tone I've got continuous and I've got momentary which that's pretty much how it comes out of the box we'll talk about adjusting that later alright when you are in this mode your side buttons will increase and lower stimulation so if you need to raise or lower stimulation quickly you can do it from your side buttons but you have to be in this screen so you can use your side buttons when you're in the training screen to raise and lower simulation levels but when you're not in the training screen and you try to do it it's a multi function and so the side buttons cause you to move from dog to dog or to your function setups here so that can be an issue especially if you are you know in a training situation and you you need to be able to react quickly so what you can do is when you go into a training mode down here at the bottom there's a pin alright so the normal setup is for it to dive back to tracking watch as it dives back to dragging okay but if you want to stay in the training mode this pen down here at the bottom you select it and now it's gonna stay in your training mode and the big advantage here is that you can raise in lower stimulation you can use momentary you can use continuous you can use tone but you're gonna stay on this dog the entire time so you need to keep that in mind if you accidentally hit that pin but if you are doing training and you're on one dog and you wanna stay on that one dog selecting that pin is the way to go now when you get through with that and you wanna go back you just hit there and you're back to tracking one thing to keep in mind on the pen is that once you select it if you go back to tracking and then you go back to training it's still selected so you're gonna stay in training until you intentionally go back so this is a good setup if you're doing a lot of training but it is something that folks I've seen folks get stuck on this page before and weren't sure what to do so that's the way you pin the page

SUMMARY: If the training bar disappears from the map screen (e.g., after an update), turn it back on under the map Menu > Map Setup > Show Training Bar.

So I got a customer question on he did an update on a 100 and his training bar across the top is missing on his map screen now and he's saying he has to go back to the compass to correct his dogs he could probably correct his dogs you know from the map screen but he just can't see it so that's the training bar let me show you real quick how to fix that okay so your training bar is missing that's what shows across the top on your map screen hit the menu and then go to map setup and then there should be a thing that says show training bar I cut mine off just to shoot this video but you turn that on and then you go back and there she is

SUMMARY: Steve's Pro 550 Plus setup: dog 1 in the top toggle position and dog 2 in the bottom, with continuous stim, so he can switch by feel without looking. Dog 3 (middle) is for an easy dog.

So one of the complaints about the Pro 550+ is the toggle switches now I prefer toggle switches on a unit versus almost any other way to change things on a Pro 550+ you've got two of them the top one changes your dog so it's 1 2 and then your lower toggle the bottom position is continuous stimulation the upper position is momentary stimulation and then in the center you have what is referred to as an accessory feature and that's for turning the lights on and off so I run mine dog one which is all the way up and then I run continuous and I rarely change off a continuous so my bottom toggle you know stays that way and what technically the 550+ you should be using your fingers with your thumb on the back to work the dial and so I always know where I am so dog one is always gonna be in the up position and continuous is always in the bottom so if I ever have a question about where I am it's always up down as far as which way the toggle switches are now I typically run two dogs and what a lot of people will do is they'll run a black collar and a red collar and as you can see there it's black red blue is how it's supposed to be set up and a lot of people will run their second dog in the number two position and so you have to go from one to two and I don't understand that I keep my one in the top position two's in the bottom position so it's dog one dog two and I can do that and I like said I'm normally holding it like this so I can with without having to look at it you know I can feel up down up down that way I know where I am you know as far as which dog I'm working with so if I'm running three dogs which is rare for me then I'll use that you know the red position as dog number three and that's gonna be a dog that either is a flushing dog or it's gonna be a dog that just does not require a lot of correction because you know you can do it and it it takes a little muscle memory you know to to catch it but in the heat of the moment I wanna be able to go dog one dog two so that's my recommendation set it up as Top Dog 1 and Bottom Dog two

SUMMARY: If you use both Garmin Express and Web Updater (for TT 15s) and collars aren't recognized, turn off Garmin Express's auto-start settings so it doesn't hijack the connection.

If you're having trouble with Garmin Express and you're also still running Web Updater so web updater right now the only people that should be using web Updater are folks that are still running t t 15 collars but if you're running t t 15s and you're also using Garmin Express to update some of your new stuff if you're having trouble getting either one of these to recognise a collar one of the settings that you need to look at I'm sorry on the top here there's this little settings wheel click on that alright you've got a couple of things here that that you wanna watch and Garmin Express has a tendency to wanna take over and so it'll try and hijack stuff from web updater so I like to keep those cut off and then the downside is that when you plug up a unit you're going to have to start Garmin Express but it will keep Garmin Express from being able to hijack stuff

SUMMARY: Don't leave tracking collars on dogs in a metal dog box: Steve's box blocked GPS so the handheld showed them 11 miles away, and it took over a minute to relock after release. Wait for lock before turning out.

Should you leave your tracking collars on your dogs when they are in the dog box that's the question today so we're gonna take Cowboy and Freddy and we're gonna throw them in the truck here real quick and I'm gonna show you what happens cowboy come on ready come so I've lost signal on both collars both dogs are in the truck but I don't have a signal and it's currently showing them where they were last alright so now I am at the office and as you can see the handheld thinks that the collar is 11 miles away when it's not it's in the truck so this is what stainless steel will do for you alright I'm gonna turn him out and we'll see how fast it takes for it to hook up what you doing now I have communication in that I'm able to tone him and you know the collar is doing that but as of right now I still don't have G P S signal and we're 40 seconds in so you kind of see what I'm talking about here I don't do this there's nothing good about this you know he's over here you know I've got fences so I'm not terribly worried about it he's not going anywhere but you know a minute and 20 seconds I still don't have signal hey stay over here this is not a very exciting video we'll watch Freddy first so I think that kind of covers it I'll give you a feel for how long it took but you know I don't do this now keep in mind that that some trucks aren't gonna do this if if you're carrying your dog in a in a crate you know and you got signal and it's picking up G P S satellite that's fine but but you just need to know if your box does it or not and if your box does do it I wouldn't turn a dog out until you have satellite lock

SUMMARY: Duplicate of the dog box video: a stainless dog box blocked GPS, and the collars took well over a minute to relock. Wait for satellite lock before turning out dogs.

Should you leave your tracking collars on your dogs when they are in the dog box that's the question today so we're gonna take Cowboy and Freddy and we're gonna throw them in the truck here real quick and I'm gonna show you what happens cowboy come on ready come so I've lost signal on both collars both dogs are in the truck but I don't have a signal and it's currently showing them where they were last alright so now I am at the office and as you can see the handheld thinks that the collar is 11 miles away when it's not it's in the truck so this is what stainless steel will do for you alright I'm gonna turn him out and we'll see how fast it takes for it to hook up what you doing now I have communication in that I'm able to tone him and you know the collar is doing that but as of right now I still don't have G P S signal and we're 40 seconds in so you kind of see what I'm talking about here I don't do this there's nothing good about this you know he's over here you know I've got fences so I'm not terribly worried about it he's not going anywhere but you know a minute and 20 seconds I still don't have signal hey stay over here this is not a very exciting video we'll watch Freddy first so I think that kind of covers it I'll give you a feel for how long it took but you know I don't do this now keep in mind that that some trucks aren't gonna do this if if you're carrying your dog in a in a crate you know and you got signal and it's picking up G P S satellite that's fine but but you just need to know if your box does it or not and if your box does do it I wouldn't turn a dog out until you have satellite lock

SUMMARY: 'No available window' when transmitting means the handheld's ID is on a similar timing slot as one of your 18 collars. Change the handheld's ID to one that isn't close to any collar.

So what I think is going on is that we've got interference between the transmission ID of your handheld and one of your collars. You're running 18 collars and so there's a lot of opportunity for interference. So let's change the ID of your handheld. Alright from the power screen click on my ID click on your ID number and then choose an ID. What I think is going on is that the ID of your handheld is not the same as the ID of a collar but it's close enough that they're on a on a similar transmission time. And so when it says that there's not an available window it means that it's listening for another one of your collars or it's transmitting to that collar as far as sending a correction. And so that that particular timing window is reserved for the collar that's in there. So you need to find a transmission ID that is not close to one of your collars.

SUMMARY: The Pro 550 Plus shows a north indicator at the top of the screen. If it's wrong, calibrate, then update software; if that fails, the internal compass is probably bad. Always know where north is.

So same thing here with the 550+ this is the this is the screen on the 550+ and up there at the top it has a north indicator and so this unit is dead on the collar you know it's 24 feet from me sitting in my Jeep and that is north and so you know as I spin you know it's still very accurate dead on and so same thing there if if you're 550+ if that north indicator is not accurate then you need to calibrate is the first thing that you need to do and if if it if calibration doesn't fix it and a software update doesn't fix it then that means that your internal compass is broken typically and so so that's just something to keep in mind but I think a lot of people don't even realise that that's what this is and so like I said it is an indicator that points in the direction of north and if it's off then something's wrong with your handheld so that's just one of many things that that people need to keep track of so that they know what's going on so don't become so dependent on your G P S system that you don't know which direction is north that is one of those things that you just kind of need to keep an eye on because these are electronic compasses they can get off and if you if you need to you have to go in and calibrate them but if you don't know which way north is that's not gonna do any good

SUMMARY: If an Alpha points the wrong way, check its north indicator against real north first. Modern units self-calibrate, but a wrong compass means wrong directions to your dogs.

Alright something else that I run into occasionally is people will talk about the accuracy of the units being off and they'll be like you know my units my my dogs in one direction and the units pointing in another one that can be a couple of things the Garmin units have a a electronic compass that's inside them and the compass resets itself so you typically don't have to do a lot of calibration with the modern units back when we had the the Astro 220s we had to calibrate pretty much every time and nowadays most people don't even know how to calibrate the units because they just generally don't have trouble with them but the thing I like to point out to everybody is that your map has a north indicator and if you start seeing issues with your unit the first thing you wanna check is your north indicator because if your if your handheld doesn't know which direction is north then it's not gonna be able to track a dog accurately you know it's gonna track the dog but it's gonna be pointing in the wrong direction so you wanna know that you know in your if you're using a pro view compass as you can see up there at the top I've got you know you've got an indicator and so I'll do a little spin here real quick so you can see it it changes so one of the first things that you wanna know when you're tracking a dog without your without your unit you need to know which way you know north is so keep that in mind if you start seeing trouble with your unit the first thing you wanna check is is your unit accurate as far as reality and this one is as you can see you know it's pointing north and it's easier to see it on the map actually and I know that's for that that's north so this unit I feel pretty good about let me show you what a five 550+ looks like

SUMMARY: Steve's own operator error: his Alpha battery drained fast because he'd accidentally set the backlight to 'stays on.' Check your settings before assuming something's broken.

About operator error is that it is not limited to people that are inexperienced with the with the use of a of the Garmin Alpha units I have been using Garmin tracking systems since 2007 I am not the most knowledgeable person in the world about them by any stretch but I consider myself to be incredibly competent when it comes to using Garmin units and so I was out hunting a week or so ago and I typically charge my units every night no matter how much they get used if I'm running tomorrow my stuff goes on the charger tonight alright and so I've been running today and I went to charge my units that I had charged the night before and this I'm running an Alpha 300 this is actually a 200+ but I should get four days run time I should be getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 50+ hours of of run time and if you jump over here you'll see right now I'm at 27% I've been running this for a couple of days doing a battery test but I noticed the first day that I hunted that my batteries had dropped significantly they were down in the 20% but we'd only been running maybe eight hours that day so I was like nah that's not right I was like well maybe I didn't charge it up the night before stuck it on the charger charged it up checked it the next day it's at 100% we run it that day at the end of the day it's down into the 20s again and I'm like what is going on so I immediately contacted somebody over in Garmin engineering and I was like hey have y'all checked battery number since the last update so we just done an update and one of the things about updates is that sometimes things change that we don't intend to change and so they'll do an update and they fix something and sometimes something else might change and so my my concern was the battery draw had drastically changed and so they're like now we haven't seen any problems but but we'll run some tests and I was like well I'll run some tests too so I started testing the unit well come to find out it wasn't that it was that I had made a change on mine so if you go in here to settings and you go to display you have a backlight timeout and so I normally keep mine on about 15 seconds and so the backlight should cut off you know with it with without use it should cut off within 15 seconds well I had set mine to stays on so my backlight was just burning the whole day no matter what I'm doing and that was sucking the battery dry so these sort of things can happen and you just kind of gotta you know keep an eye on it if you see something weird before you just assume that something's broken you wanna take a look and see if you've changed something unintentionally

SUMMARY: You must be in communication with a collar (it can be at a distance) to change its update rate.

Something that you need to know about update rates is that you do have to be in communication with a collar to be able to change it you can do it at a distance but you do have to have communication to be able to change the update rate and so this collar is about 20 feet from me so nothing to it

SUMMARY: Common operator error: a buddy's 'inaccurate' Alpha was on a 30-second update rate changed by an accidental touch. Check the update rate first; use dynamic or 2.5 seconds.

So let's talk a little bit about my favourite subject when it comes to problems with garment units and that's operator error vast majority of the time that we have trouble with a garment unit it's operator error and it's not that garment units don't fail they do but a lot just the majority of the time that I have somebody contact me it's one of those things where they they either have a setting changed or they they they've changed something and it it either it happened accidentally or they did it and just didn't realise it and I'm gonna talk about a few of those things and I'm even gonna talk about one that I did last week where I kind of caused a a little bit of an incident because of operator error alright right now I am I am tracking a stationary collar and it's in the direction that it's in and in the distance is right but occasionally you'll you'll see times where your directions off and your distance is off I was hunting with a buddy of mine last week and he was having trouble I think he's running an alpha 200 and he was having trouble with it and he was going like man this thing's just way off you know my dog's over here and the unit says the dog's you know in a in a different spot at a different distance and it just doesn't seem to be keeping up with the dog you know something's not going on right here well the first question I asked him is hey what's your update rate and he was like two and a half seconds and I'm like well check it and so to check your update rate and if you're on a compass screen you just click on the dog and update rates right there alright his update rate was supposed to be two and a half seconds but it actually changed to I believe he was on 30 seconds this collar that I'm running right now doesn't have 30 seconds as an option so update rate is how often the collar sends a signal back to the handheld to tell you where you are and if you have an extended one even a 10 second one will look like the unit's lagging really hard because 10 seconds dog can cover a lot of ground in 10 seconds two minutes is crazy if you have a dog that's running and you've got a two minute update I mean it's gonna look like the unit is completely broken so this is one of those really quick things to check to me you should if you have dynamic as an option that's the best choice if not two and a half seconds is the best choice because it's gonna be updating the unit more often

SUMMARY: Behind-the-scenes outtake of Rob directing Steve for the TT 25 sale video.

I feel like I'm being harassed. Look, look. Say it. I don't say it to the camera. That's the camera. That's that. You save 50 bucks. You save 50 bucks on a TT. Twenty five. That's all you have to do. Anybody can do that. Can the pretty guy do it? Come on, let's go. Action! And pretty boy. Rolling. I'd like. I'd. I'd like that. Please, I. I'd like that. Rolling

SUMMARY: Sale: save $50 on Garmin TT 25 collars through 1/1/26.

Here are 50 reasons to get a new TT twenty five Collar. Big Sale day sale one! Go! Here we go! The TT twenty five is my favorite Garmin collar ever. For a limited time, save $50 on TT twenty five collars!

SUMMARY: Some USB cables only carry power. If the Alpha just charges and doesn't go into data/backup mode when plugged into a computer, use the original cable or another data cable.

So we are updating some software today when you hook up to your computer on an alpha you should get this information you have to be careful some cords are not data cords they're just power cords and if you hook up and it just starts charging but it doesn't start saving away points and and dropping into data mode then you're not gonna be able to update with that particular power cord the cords that you got with your unit when you bought it should work but I know a lot of times we don't always have those but then it should also drop into this which basically means it's hooked up to a computer now it is charging when it's in this mode and and you can charge this way that's fine you don't have to you know you hook up to a computer it's gonna start charging but it's also gonna drop into data mode it's gonna try and you know pick up data.

SUMMARY: Mark a road or trail on the Alpha 300: clear your current track, walk or drive the route, then save it in Track Manager, give it a color and set Show on Map.

I had a customer ask me if there was an easy way to set up a road on, on your map. so I'm gonna show you one of the quick ways to do that. We're gonna use our track to set up this road. so that blue line that you see right there, that is my track. so we're gonna first go delete my track. I am at the location where I want to set the road. And so now I'm gonna go and delete my track, so that I can set a new track. Alright, so to do that, you go over to Track Manager, you go to my track, and then we're going to stop tracking and we're going to discard. So we're going to clear the current track. So everything that I have in my tracks are going away. Okay, so now if you jump back onto the map, you can see that the blue line is gone. Alright, let's set the new track now. Okay, so now I have walked this trail here. You can walk it or drive it, especially if you're trying to do a road, but either way, you can see that I have this blue line here, and that is my trail. Alright, let's go back to our track manager. we go back to my track, we're going to stop, instead of discarding it, we're going to save it. And now It gives me all sorts of interesting options here. So this is my track. I want to save this, so I'm gonna hit the little save button here. Okay, now I go back to my track manager. Alright, there she is. now I had not saved any other tracks in here. this is the track. So I click on it. if you're wanting to do something like a road, first we're going to change the colour of it so that it's different from your other track. And then the show on map is the other option here. So there we go. Alright, then it has a bunch of other little things to it. if you decide you don't like it, you can delete it. you can save it. So we're gonna save it. Alright, looks like I saved it twice. But I did save it twice. So we're gonna delete this one. Delete, delete. Alright, so there it is. It's got the color, it's showing on the map. Let's go back to the map now. There it is. Alright, so that's gonna stay on my map until I come in and delete it. But if you wanna Mark a trail, you wanna Mark a path, something like that, this is a way to do it. I'm gonna walk here for a second, just so you can see what's gonna happen now.

SUMMARY: The Alpha XL's data field bar at the bottom of the map (speed, time, etc.) can't be removed, as far as Steve can find, but you can change which fields it shows.

So we talked about data fields on the Garmin Alpha 300, but we haven't talked about them on the Alpha XL. Alpha XL is a little bit different in that it is also a vehicle GPS system, so it has some stuff on it that you, you can't necessarily remove. data fields. This is the piece right here that. that they were asking about the data field. so this, you know, if you go into your map, it disappears. if you touch your map, or if you, try to, to expand your map, change something on it, it will disappear then. as you can see, you're not This arrow right here indicates that you're not on the map. So you go back and there it is. So I haven't found a way to get rid of this. If you click on the menu for it, it has a lot of different options, but and you can add stuff, so like, up ahead, so there's things that you can add, but that really is kind of makes it worse. So, the customers want to get rid of this whole screen, I haven't found a way to do it. But what I have found is that you can adjust it. So you've got a lot of different things Here that you can make, changes to, time of day recording track distance. That's interesting. you know, I've already got time of day on there. I've got speed. but you can go in and add some other stuff to it if, there are things that you want. I'll dig in on this a little bit more and see if I can come up with another alternative. But as far as I can tell, you're kind of stuck with this. the best bet is to really just set it up, how you want it. so I don't think I want that. You like elevation? That's kind of cool. Alright, so something that's just sort of part of it.

SUMMARY: On the Alpha XL, ending a hunt lets you save it. Saved hunts live under Saved > Collections, where you can view each dog's track, rename, share or export as a GPX file.

So there's some differences in the alpha xl on the new hunts, and it's kind of cool. I would like to see this added to the Alpha 300, and we're gonna see if we can push for that a little bit. But it's kind of neat in that the way it does devices is similar, but it gives you a couple of options, where you can either make it automatic that it clears your stats and your tracks, and automatic where it saves the location that you're at, for your vehicle. one of the reasons that this is not as big of a deal with the Alpha XL as a general rule, Alpha XL is, you're in a vehicle, tracking dogs, so you really wouldn't need to Mark a current location. But the way I use an Alpha XL since I don't hunt out of a vehicle, I like that. although it wouldn't do me a lot of good but So that's one of those things that you can make that a permanent setting. So that's kind of neat. but what's really cool about it is that when you end a hunt. Let me just show you real quick. we're gonna start a hunt, and then we're going to end the hunt. And when it says, end the hunt, you say yes, and then it asks if you wanna save it, you say, Save. And then, hunt saved. And it's gonna put, today's date and you go. Great. Alright, so now to look at a hunt, you go over to saved and then I've saved two hunts today. I have saved Hunt 1 and Hunt 2. Hunt 2 is the one we just did. There's not gonna be anything on there to see, but let's take a look at the first hunt. Alright, let me show you how to find this real quick. a lot of times you're gonna A lot of times it's unsaved. And, a lot of times you are gonna have your waypoints be the main screen that comes up. But if you'll click on waypoints, it takes you to all of your options. hunts are saved under collections. And so let's take a look at this particular one. This was this morning. these were the three items that were tracked. And that is my truck, so that is what I ran. and you can see you've got some options as far as if you wanna look at the track and see what time you were at and how far, that was. let's go look at a dog real quick. So I ran the Black Dog. And so you can see that it's kind of a similar track. kind of same thing there. You can look up times and distances. and then another thing that you can do with this is you can export it. So if you wanna take this out and do it as a G P X. File or pop it onto a memory card, you can do that too. So that's kind of neat stuff. you can name hunts, and you can share them, and then you can sort them. all sorts of really interesting things there, that you can do on the alpha excel by saving a hunt.

SUMMARY: Starting a new hunt on the Alpha XL vs the 300: the XL can be set to always clear stats and tracks and mark the truck location automatically.

This is yesterday's hunt but as you can see we drove a bunch yesterday road miles are on here we didn't actually run 380 miles yesterday but we drove probably 300 so miles we're gonna take a look at this but we're also gonna take a look at this so on the Alpha XL you also have hunt so let's click on it and same thing here as you can see I haven't cleared this off in a long time I've got 400 and nine miles and my 365 points and 74 points those things haven't happened so we're gonna end that hunt. Yes, you have the option here of saving so we'll save that it's save the hunt using the date and we're gonna say done and then we're gonna go to new hunt track devices we're keeping blue and black and we are running my 300 we are going to clear stats so that is checked I believe this is set up where you can check it or uncheck it so that's kind of neat and then save current location this would be like Mark the truck so different from how this handheld does it in that we're gonna end hunt. Yes, shows me my stats we do done and then I'm gonna do a new hunt now it asked me if I wanna change I'm gonna say no because it's set up as yesterday alright, we are going to clear so we'll let it do that real Quick and then it wants to save as the truck. We'll say yes. Okay, so we're starting fresh there. As you can see, the timer's already kicked in and we'll start here and then we'll show it to you after we get done.

SUMMARY: Starting a new hunt on the Alpha: end the current hunt (see stats), pick tracked devices, clear dog tracks and stats, and mark the truck. Your own handheld track isn't cleared.

Let's talk a little bit about the hunt option here. So I have been running this, but I've been running it a good bit. So as you can see, it's been a while since I have reset it. And this is the only dog that I'm currently tracking. So to start this, you've got to end it. So it has to phone in the hunt and it's gonna have some data on here. This is the amount of time that has run, since we started the last hunt. So after you end it, you wanna start a new hunt. First it's gonna ask you if you wanna change your tracked devices. So let's tell it. And then it gives me the option of which ones I want to track. So we'll just go ahead and turn on the black and the blue colour. And then you go back. It asks if I want to clear tracks and statistics device tracks. So this is going to clear your dog tracks and it's going to reset the. The timers on the dog collar. So I'm gonna tell it so it clears those off. Now it will not clear your track. So the track of your handheld, that does not clear that. So there's a different way to do that, but it will not clear that. it's gonna ask if you want to Mark your current location as the truck. We'll tell it. And there you go. And now it's Starting. And then you just go hunt. And then when you're through, we'll take a look at it again. We're through. Go back over here to hunt. All right, so just for some comparison here. Alright, so, hour and 41 minutes, 3.33 miles. Freddy ran 12.23 miles. he had nine points, which just means he stopped. I don't know why he has any barks. That's interesting. All right. Blue actually didn't leave the truck. I had it turned on, but it didn't leave the truck. So now, on points there I find fascinating. It was on point the whole time. The seven. I lost communication with it a bunch of times cause we were in a bunch of gullies. So that's probably where that comes from. Because we lose communication, then we pick it back up and it go on point. All right, so you end the hunt. It asks you to. Are you sure? And then it gives you all your stats, and then you tell it. Done.

SUMMARY: Dog Display is under the map Menu > Map Setup > Tracked Devices.

From the map screen, select the menu, go to Map, Setup, tracked devices and there's everything. Dog display is right there.

SUMMARY: Dog Display options on the 300 map: status (running, point, treed) or direction arrows, plus dog names and distances. Steve likes direction arrows and colors only, but arrows don't show points on the map.

Alright another big one is dog display alright on dog display you have all sorts of different things here the indicator is going to be whether or not the dog is running or on point or you can do a directional arrow the upside of the running or on point or tread is that that you can see it on the map the downside is that occasionally you can't tell what direction your dog's running in until you see the track show up I like the directional arrows they're pretty handy from standpoint that you can see whether a dog's moving or not but the downside of those is when a dog goes on point you're gonna get a point alert you're gonna get a treat alert but it's not gonna show on the map so you have to keep that in mind alright show dog names this is another setting where you can have it where it has the dog's name on the map I tend not to have that turned on because it makes the map really cluttered I use colours to identify which dog is which so I turn that off alright show dog distances same thing here on a map screen I really don't need to see the distance but it is something that that you can do and some folks like I just don't care for it I I can generally tell on the map how far a dog is away from me if I Really need to know I'll just jump over to the compass so this is the direction indicator as you can see she is not exactly going in the direction I want her to go in but the director direction indicator you can tell exactly which way she's headed it's kind of cool once again though if she goes on point I'll get a point notification but the triangle is gonna stay the same all right, here's another good you can tell now that she's heard me she's been lost for a little while but you can tell she heard me and now she is headed in my direction so she's on point I got the notification but you don't get an indicator when you're in the direction now if you jump over to your compass you'll see that you've got a point indicator and yeah, she's at 770 yards crazy bird dogs.

SUMMARY: Tracked Devices settings: auto zoom, how long dog and handheld tracks show (five minutes keeps the map clean; full data is kept), and off-screen dog indicators.

Alright, let's talk about tracked devices. So once again, from the map screen, click on your menu. Track device setup is your second option here. Alright, you have several things here that are extremely handy. Auto zoom basically allows the map to change size depending on how far out your dogs are. So if you have a dog that gets way off screen, it's going to expand as needed. I find that to be a little irritating. There's a couple of other options. Alright, dog tracks on map. This is a pretty handy one. Your dog tracks will show on the map as long as you want them to. If you're hunting in a certain area and you're hunting a bunch of dogs at one time, this can become really unmanageable. So what you can do to fix that is that you can set your track to a shorter time. So five minutes is a good time. Now it will continue to keep all of the information in the system. So if at some point you wanna come back and see I wanna see everything, you just go in and change it to show all, and everything since the last time you cleared it off is gonna be there. So this is kind of handy. If you're using your map on a regular basis and you don't wanna see all that clutter, doing a five or a 10 minute setting is a really, really good way to do it. Alright, Handheld tracks on map. Same thing here. This. Mine is set for show all. So all of my. My handheld. So that's the light blue line for mine. You can change the colour if you want to, but mine's light blue. It will show those forever until you clear them off. Now, same thing there if you don't want it, it's gonna keep them. But it'll only show him if you set it for less. Now, you gotta keep it. That can be a problem if you're using your. Your track, say, to track back, something along those lines. Keep that in mind. But same thing there if you wanna keep your map clutter free. So set it on five minutes, and then if you need to, you can jump in here real quick and change it to show all. Excuse me. That was dog tracks. This is handheld tracks. Social. All right. Dog display is a whole big thing. We'll go through that. Show off screen dogs. This is kind of cool in that this is kind of the opposite of auto zoom. So if you have your handheld in a auto zoom, then it's gonna expand out constantly as a dog stretches out. But if you don't want that, you can have show off screen dogs. And what it's gonna do is it's gonna show if your dog gets off the map. It'll show a little cursor on the direction of where he is. So that's kind of A neat. That's a neat setup for folks. Alright. That is an off screen dog indicator right there. You see that little tab right there? So if I back out, there's the dog. But that's what you get with an off screen indicator.

SUMMARY: Advanced map settings: North Up, Track Up (Steve's pick) or automotive orientation, inReach messages on the map, text size and map detail.

All right. In the advanced setting, you have a couple of other things here. Orientation is one of those things where you can have a north up or a track up. And then you also have automotive mode. Automotive mode is handy if you are using your system for doing navigation in a vehicle. But that's really about the only thing. I find north up to be incredibly irritating. But it sets your map where it's always. Doesn't matter which direction you are in. It's always in a northern direction. I'm not a fan, but if you want that, that's great. Sorry. Advanced orientation. Track up. So I like track up means that it's going to be, It's gonna change directions based on which direction you're headed in. I'm a fan of that. And then you have a couple other things here. You can show your in reach messages if you have an in reach setup. You can make adjustments to the text size on your map if you want those to be larger, smaller. And then you've got detail. That's map detail. So lot of different things that you can do.

SUMMARY: Map data fields (speed, heading, odometer, elevation and more) can be turned on and customized, but Steve finds them of little use for dog tracking since they take up screen space.

Alright the next option on here is data fields this is an on off setting so we're gonna show you what it looks like when it's turned on when you go back to the map this gives you some information here as far as speed that's the speed of the handheld the direction that you're headed in you've got an odometer setting here and you've got elevation you have the ability to control this information so this is an option here if you wanna go in and pick certain things you can but this is something that that you do have control over and that is an on off switch from the map setup if your data fields are on and you go back to your map so right now you have a speed elevation total descent and heading which I think I've already changed these once but if you want to make an adjustment to it you just click on it and now you have all sorts of options here as far as things that you can things that you can change so like we can set a stopwatch timer so I don't know how to turn it on though alright and then say you want you've got all sorts of trip data options and current status so you know you can just do a lot of different things with it now if you're tracking dogs I don't really see where this is incredibly helpful it takes up a Huge chunk of your map screen and I'm not really sure where it is. Now, if you're using your alpha in some other ways, doing something else with it, there's probably something here. But from a dog tracking standpoint, I don't just see a lot of value in it. So we'll go back to map setup and we'll turn it off.

SUMMARY: Map Setup tour on the Alpha 300: Map Manager, Tracked Devices, and Show Training Bar. Hide the training bar to see more map; side keys still work.

Alright, let's take a look at the map setup. From your map screen, you can access your maps using the hamburger menu down here at the bottom. This gives you a couple of different options. Map setup, track device setup. So your map setups gonna be things that are actually on the map, or your track device setup is gonna control the things that you're tracking. And then you've also got a couple of options where you can measure distance from your map, you can download your satellite maps, and then you could also restore everything back to the way it was. Let's take a quick look at map setup. All right, from the map setup, you have a couple of things. Map Manager is where you control all of the maps, as far as your topo maps and your satellite maps and your Outdoor Maps. Plus subscription. We've talked a little bit about that before, but this is where you control your maps. Tracked devices is a whole thing in and of itself. This is everything about the items that you are tracking. We'll go in depth on this. As far as the things that you can turn on and turn off. The next thing we have is show training bar. All right, if you go back to your map, so you have the option of this being on or it not being on. The only reason that you would not want your training bar to be on, Is if you want to be able to see more of the map. And let's go in here real quick and show you what that looks like. So, map set up, cut your training bar off, and now we go back and it's gone. So this gives you an option of having more of the map on the screen. Now, you still have the ability to. To do things with your training bar, but like, say, if you. If you work off of your compass a good bit, this will get you back to your compass. Now with your training bar cut off. Actually, as you move through, using your right hand side, you can see what's going on. But when you get finished, you stop at something, after a slight pause there, it's going to go away. So that's an option if you want to be able to see more of the map without having your training bar shown.

SUMMARY: Pairing an Instinct 3 watch to a Pro 550 Plus: Settings > Sensors & Accessories > Add New > Dog Track. The Instinct 3 shows dog colors where the Instinct E is black and white.

Alright this is a Garmin Instinct 3 this is a 50 millimeter so it's it's a bigger watch but just by a smidge it's a 45 millimeter this is a 50 I've been wearing this one for about six months so it's got a little dirt on it but let me show you real quick so the majority of the Garmin watches are the same as far as how you connect to the Alpha and the profile 50+ units so we're gonna match this one up this is my watch and this is my profile 50+ we're gonna match this one up real quick so long press takes me into the menu go down to settings go down to sensors and accessories top right button selects we're going to we're just gonna go ahead and add new cause I don't know if it's here or not but I deleted it earlier so I gotta go find it again there she is dog track alright so it's gonna start searching once again pro 5 50 pluses the dog broadcast is automatically on I don't have any other units turned on around me so it should just grab this one right there we go so it picked up on on my Pro 5 50+ you have to select to add it and it connects and use an open connection buddy alright and then right there it has added it to my glances which that's your side menu that's what Garmin calls That now is the side menu alright it was paired go back back back alright, so now it should be boom right there alright, now similar in the setup on the Instinct 3 versus the Instinct e is that there she is now here's the difference in case you're comparing an Instinct 3 to an Instinct E notice the colors so the instinct is gonna be all black and white where the the Instinct 3 and the Phoenix units and some of the other high end units are going to have color options you can go through there and then you can also go to the view and it has all of them on there you'll notice that the black color is actually in white because I have a black background but that's it pretty neat stuff.

SUMMARY: Connecting a Garmin watch to a Pro 550 Plus works like the Alpha, but the 550 Plus always broadcasts, so make sure no other 550 Pluses are on nearby when pairing.

Right now it's searching for a new connection. I've got my Pro 5 50+. Let's see if it'll do it. All right. We are connected. And then you've got to select it to add it. All right. And the check Mark there shows you that it has put it back into your glances, which go back over to here. Glasses are on the side. There's your dog track select on the top. And this unit, you can tell it's different from the one I was showing you earlier because I have 3 collars connected to this unit. So a black, red, blue and then same options here. You can get the pro view, you can get the alpha view and then you go through all three units. That's it. So it is connected to my Pro 5 50+. Now Pro 5 50+ is different from Alphas in that the dog broadcast is always turned on a Pro 5 50+. So you don't have to do that. So on an Alpha unit, you have to go into your setting, make sure that your broadcast dog data is turned on. But on a Pro 5, do that. So if you are trying to sync up to a handheld, you need to make sure that there are no other handholds around and you definitely to make sure that there are no Pro 5 50+ handholds that are turned on in the vicinity of your watch if that's not the handheld that you're trying. To connect to, because it's going to latch onto the first one that it finds.

SUMMARY: A watch can connect to only one handheld at a time (several watches can share one handheld). To switch, remove the dog track sensor from the watch first.

Alright so the other thing about the watches is that they can only be connected to one handheld at a time now you can connect multiple watches to the same handheld but you cannot connect a watch to multiple handhelds if you and your buddy wanna get watches but your buddy only has the Alpha unit that you're using but you kinda wanna know when his dogs go on point or you kinda wanna know where his dogs are you can still connect to his Alpha handheld so you can take two watches connect them to a handheld now it's a I believe they use ant technology a N t plus which is a Garmin proprietary communication that that communicates between the Alpha unit and the watch that's similar to Bluetooth and that it has a distance so you're not gonna be able to to track it insane distances but if you're out bird hunting together you should be able to keep up with both of them but if you have a watch it is connected to a handheld you wanna change it to connect to a different handheld you have to delete the the connection between the original handheld before you can add it to a different handheld alright and you don't have to even be connected to it right now I'm not connected to it as you can see it's looking for him so I'm in the dog track you go over here to sensors and then This is gonna show all the sensors that are out there, but let's go down. Alright, I just turned it on. So now it's connected. we're gonna go down here and it's gonna show that I'm connected. It gives you the number of the unit that I'm connected to. Alright, and we're going to remove. So remove it. Yes. Oh, it's gone now.

SUMMARY: Find your Alpha XL's ID under Contacts > the three dots, where transmitting must be enabled for others to track you.

Okay, so to find your Alpha XL ID, you go into your contacts, and then these three little dots there gives you. You're transmitting, which has to be enabled, for other folks to be able to track you. And then there is your, ID. mine's 2 dash 7. And then you can control the update rate, if you want to, but, to me, the five seconds makes sense. It's really not a power issue because you're. You're using your car for power, so can't think of a really good reason to change that, but that's it.

SUMMARY: Tracking handhelds on an Alpha XL: add a contact by entering its ID. 'Receive from device' only works from a third handheld that already has the contact.

Alright tracking handhelds on an Alpha XL is similar but not exactly the same so let's go through that alright on your main menu screen here you have dogs people and then that's your contacts list right there we're doing hand helds or people I currently have nothing in here right now and that is something to you know to understand in that you can track it it's not a two way communication in that this handheld is tracking the Alpha X L but the Alpha X L is not tracking this handheld so you can do both so let's do that alright to add one you hit the plus and then you have two options you can enter the I d which same thing here it's 3:19 so we scroll down save and then 3:19 this is the 300 oop hang on I like the little eye personally done okay so there's that boom it's tracking so this the share wirelessly part is is kind of confusing it's received from device alright you cannot receive from a device that you're trying to track you can receive from an additional device we're gonna do this with my 200+ my alpha XL is tracking my 300 I this is my 300 I has my 200+ in it as a contact if I want to add my 200+ 2 200+ is right here if I want to add it to the Alpha Excel I want to receive it from a device I Can't receive it from the 200+ I have to receive it from the 300 I it's kind of silly but waiting for device then you go to your third party device here and down at the bottom share wirelessly see done so it's a little bit confusing and in in the grand scheme of things it's actually unnecessary because if you wanna add a contact and you don't have it with you but you have a device that has it you just have to look and see what the ID number is so there's not a big advantage to receiving from device on the Alpha Excel.

SUMMARY: Declutter the Instinct E glances menu (weather, moon phase, etc.) and keep Dog Track at the top so one press goes straight to tracking.

Alright let's show one other thing that I like to do on a watch especially on a watch that I'm using really for only tracking dogs the Garmin watches are a lot like the Garmin Alphas in that they can do an insane amount of things a lot of them are really cool but if you're only looking for a unit to let's just say keep up with your step count and check your heart rate and track dogs great the the problem with this glances menu is that it's got weather and it's got you know all this other stuff I I don't want all that so we're gonna delete some of that so you get on here to edit weather don't want it so we're going to alright you see the little trash thing right let's top right and that's gonna get rid of it alright sunrise and sunset I'm gonna hang on to that right now alright let's go in and edit some more so we're gonna edit and we're gonna get rid of the calendar don't want that we're gonna get rid of the moon phase really don't want that alright we're gonna get rid of this that's body battery sleep not keeping up with that here I'm gonna keep heart rate H R V status is kind of cool but we're gonna get rid of that alright so steps and then you can add stuff so right now even I've got training let's get rid Of that you can move that down edit. Alright, so sunrise and sunset, that's kind of important to me but I want to move it. So when you select it, you can now move it. So I want it right there. Okay, and then I've got all this other stuff in here. Alright, let's get rid of that. I don't want performance. So you see how you can just kind of clear off stuff that's in the way. Alright, so I've just got those. Now if you don't want that, great. Let's get rid of that. Alright, we don't want sunrise, sunset either. Alright, steps don't want that either. So all we've got is dog track. So go back now on your side glances you hit the down button. It immediately takes you to dog track. Boom, you're in there. So depending on what you're using the watch for, if you only want to track dogs with it, then just clear off everything else. Now if you decide later, I really would like that you just go over here into edit and you add it back. So here's all this cool stuff that you can have on this watch, have access to if you want it. But if you don't want it, don't. So this watch is set up to track dogs. That's what it's for. So there you go.

SUMMARY: The watch alerts you (tone and vibrate) when a dog goes on point even when you're not on the dog screen. Pro view shows all dogs; Alpha view shows one dog at a time.

Alright so there's your warning message that the dog has gone on point and then it shows the dog on point up there at the top alright you do not have to have the dog widget turned on for you to get the warning indication so I'm just on the regular watch screen dogs going on point and there you go so you will get the warning that the dog is on point whether or not you are in the dog screen or not you still can't see him if you're not in the dog screen but you'll still get the warning in the indication so if you're only using your watch for that it works whether you whether you're in the screen or not you do have to have it paired for it to work but you don't have to be in the dog screen for you to get the alerts let's look at a couple of other things here this is showing both dogs you got a little bit of a a of a difference here in the when you're in the preview which shows all the dogs that you are tracking so right now I'm tracking a black and I'm tracking a blue they're both on point so you're gonna have a an arrow that shows the direction that the dog is from you and then when the dog's on point it's going to show a a point indication in this setup the circle here with The dog on point does not mean anything may just that that's the sign that you're in the the dog mode but if you change to the alpha view now the circle up there gives you your directional arrow and then in the Alpha view you go between the dogs now same thing here you do not have to be on a particular dog to get a an alert message for the other dog so if you are you know typically I'm gonna run the black collar on my dog that requires the most attention I can't prefer this you know this view so it shows me that my dog is on point it shows me the direction and the distance but if my blue dog were to go on point I'm still going to get the alert so that's a good way to go if you're strictly using it for alerts.

SUMMARY: The Instinct E dog tracking screen shows direction for each dog. Switch between Pro view and Alpha view and set dog alerts to tone and vibrate.

Now we have a dog track you click the top right button there and now you've got your dog track so it is paired with this handheld and as you can see I'm tracking the black collar and the blue collar it's showing black and blue it's giving you direction alright both collars are stopped so as of right now if you watch it it's gonna show a point alright so that's your basic once again to get back to your watch face you hit your bottom right button and that takes you back to your watch face alright to get to the the quick view here on the watch face where one thing that you can do since it's the bottom listing you just hit real quick your middle button up and it'll take you to dog track and then you hit your top right to select it and there it is alright now to make some changes to this by selecting the top right there you can make adjustments to how it appears on the screen and we have view we have alpha view and then in the alpha view you can use your up and down to scroll between the dogs alright I've got two dogs on here right now but because this is an alpha unit it'll track up to twenty and then you've got a sensor menu which that's the same sensor menu that we had before there alright so you really don't need that And then your settings, this is important. Alright, right now I've got dog alerts where it is tone and vibration. You can change that to tone only, vibration only or just a message. I recommend tone and vibration or at least vibration. One of the advantages of the watches is that when you get a dog on point or if you lose signal or any notification that you get from the handheld, it's going to give you an alert on the watch and the tone and the vibe will happen on the watch. So let's stay with tone and vibe and then Easy Hunt is a Garmin app. We're not we're not talking about that right now. Alright, so that's about it. We kind of see what it looks like and then once again you can go back up here and get the preview to see both dogs at the same time.

SUMMARY: Pairing a watch to an Alpha: turn on Broadcast Dog Data in Settings > System, then on the watch add a Dog Track sensor with only that handheld turned on nearby. It's added to your glances.

Alright, before you can sync a watch up to a handheld, the first thing that you've got to do is you've got to go in and, turn on broadcast dog data. So go to home, your settings, and then go down to your system. And right here is broadcast dog data. So gonna turn that on, and that gives you an I D Number for this unit. so we are broadcasting dog data. Alright, now let's set up the watch. Alright, first, you have to add the dog sensor to your watch. Garmin units use long presses and short presses to do different things on their buttons. to get to your settings menu you're going to hold. So that's a long press on that side. And then you're gonna go down here to settings, you're gonna go down to sensors and accessories. So select that, and then we're going to Let's see It should be listed. Nope. We're going to add new, and we're going to click down to dog track. so now it's gonna be searching for a sensor. Now, you don't wanna have other handhelds around. it's gonna go and grab the first one it sees. So make sure when you're doing this, you only have the handheld turned on that you want. And as you can see, this is 2 3, 8 4, 6, 4. And 2 3, 8, 4, 6 4. So that way we know it's tracking the correct one. Alright, and we're gonna say boom. Alright, dog track paired, dog track added. Alright, it is in what's called glances. Alright, that's a warning coming off my handheld right there. So now this watch is tied into my handheld. Alright, you hit the back button several times it kicks you back to just the regular watch face. Alright, now we're gonna go over here in the side glances. Alright, and to get to this once again. Up button, down button. you just press and release and it drops you into this. Alright, so we still have all this other stuff over here. but it's added - Dog track.

SUMMARY: Basic layout of the Garmin Instinct E watch: what each button does and what's on the main face. Most setup is done in the Garmin Connect app.

So most of the setup is done on Garmin Connect, which is the Garmin app that allows you to take your watch and communicate with their app. And on the app it records everything. From a dog tracking standpoint, that's not completely necessary. So it really just depends on what you want. Alright, let's take a look at what's loaded. There's lots of different buttons on the instinct. and they all do sort of different things. typically this is your light button this is your up and down. This is up, this is down. That accesses your side menu. And this is your back button that takes you back to the main screen. You have a lot of control over these screens. I'm not really gonna go into that right now, cause once again, primarily our focus is dog tracking. Now you got a couple things on here. It's got the date, it's got the time. this is your battery life, this is gonna be your heart rate. It's not showing anything right now because it's not on, on my wrist. and then you've got Sunrise, sunset. Once again, you have a lot of control over what's over here.

SUMMARY: The Alpha 10 has no touchscreen; you navigate with a toggle and menu button. It tracks up to 20 collars or handhelds, a good pick for former Astro users.

So something that I think is really cool about the Alpha 10 is the fact that it's not a touchscreen. So a lot of people don't like the Alpha units because of the requirement that you have a touchscreen. The Alpha 10 does not have a touchscreen. now, it is a little bit different in how you navigate around it. You have a couple of buttons. You have a power button, you have a stem tone vibe button that's on the side here. And then you have a menu button. So you press the menu button, it takes you to the menu. You press it again, it takes you back to where you were. So menu back to where you were. Now, to move around, you have a toggle. so this is how you do everything. You use the toggle switch to move around. So you can kind of see it's a little bit of a raised sort of thing, and, it allows you to move around so kind of cool. And that, you don't have to worry about a touchscreen. But if you are, you know, on a level here with this dog and you need to, change that level, you gotta do it like that. And then, you know, so we're on continuous there. And so it's a little different. This is a product that I recommend to folks that have used an old Astro, say, an Astro 220 or an Astro 430 or 320 You know, if you're looking for a tracking system that's similar to that touchscreen, the Alpha Ten's the way to go. It has some really neat features as far as that goes. The advantage over the Pro 550+ from a tracking standpoint is the number of collars and handhelds that you can track. So with an Alpha 10, you can track 20 collars or handhelds, where with a Pro 550+, you're limited to three collars. The Pro 550+ won't track handhelds, but it will track three collars, but it will only track three. while this one has a huge advantage as far as e collar functionality the ability to raise in lower levels and change stimulation and all that, you can see the tracking is similar as far as how it looks, but it has limitations as far as what it can and can't do. So as long as you're not looking for a unit that has, what I would consider to be really robust e collar functionality, this is a good unit to go with. The other thing that you can do, and I don't have an additional phone here to show it, but you can pair this unit with the Alpha app, so with that, you can have a mapping functionality. So if you do want some mapping functionality, there's a way to do it.

SUMMARY: The Alpha 10 has tone, vibrate, continuous and momentary, but switching dogs or raising stim quickly is hard without looking. Great tracker, limited training collar.

Another feature on the Alpha 10 is that it is a E collar, a tracking combo. So you do have correction options. it has tone, vibration, continuous stimulation, and momentary stimulation. Now, I am real selective when I talk to somebody about this as a, a training collar, because in my opinion, it is very limited as a training collar. tone is great, vibe is great, but it has a side button over here, it does continuous stimulation just fine. So you select, you raise and lower your level. Stimulation is on the side. The problem with it is changing from dog to dog. going from dog 1 to dog 2, going from, tone to a correction, ah, raising the stimulation on a correction, it is not easy to do quickly, and it is not easy to do without looking at the unit. So as far as a training collar goes, in my opinion, it's extremely limited, and I would be real careful about, what situations I used it for that. Now, as a tracking system, it's perfect. And if you're only looking for, direction and distance, very much like what you get out of a Pro 5 50+, this is a fabulous unit for that.

SUMMARY: The Alpha 10 is much smaller than the 200/300, priced like the Pro 550 Plus ($399), tracks 20 collars and handhelds, but has no maps (only compass-style tracking).

So I've used the Alpha 10 in a couple of videos and I probably had more questions about it than anything else. it is probably the least known of the Garmin Alpha tracking units. The Alpha 10 is substantially smaller than any of the other units. to give you an idea, This is a 300, but, you know, it's the same size as a 200 or a 200+. So to give you an idea, they've got the same antenna. They've got. Actually both antennas are the same, but the size of the unit is substantially smaller. and then same thing for a Pro 550+ substantially smaller with a similar tracking screen. so it's easy to say that The Alpha 10 fits in between a 550+ and a regular Alpha. It has similarities to both, but it is not exactly the same. It fits a certain part of the market That people that are looking for certain things out of a tracking system, and are looking for an economically priced unit. it's the same retail price as the 550+. So the handheld by itself right now is $399. you'll spend substantially more, on a 200+ or a 300. So it's a good value from that standpoint. It does some things differently. you can track up to 20 items so we can track both dogs. So I'm tracking a blue dog and a black dog here, and I'm also tracking a 200 and a 300. just like a alpha unit, the alpha 10 can track handhelds and collars, where a Pro 550+ can only track collars. the difference between an alpha 10 and a 200 300 is going to be that it does not have a map option. It only has directional. And, you can get a little more specific as far as having, what I would classify as a compass view.

SUMMARY: On the Alpha 10, add handhelds via Add Device > Contact, either by entering an ID or by receiving a shared asset from another handheld.

Alright, let's show one more way to do this. We have the Alpha 10, which, if you're not familiar with the Alpha 10, it's substantially smaller. So the Alpha 10, is a similar tracking system to the 200, 300, all that. it does not have maps. We'll talk about that later. But you can also track other devices with it. So if you want to, track a different handheld, you go to add device. And it does not have a dog list. So add device is your dog list. we're gonna add a contact. It gives you the option to enter the I D. so that's an option, but you can also receive shared asset. That's really a better way to phrase this than it's being phrased. On the other handhelds because that's what you're doing. You're not receiving the asset, you're receiving a shared asset. In that my Alpha X L knows how to transmit, My 200+ and. So we're gonna do that. So. Let's do that, receive shared asset. And then we're gonna jump over here real quick, and we're going to click on the 200+ and we're going to share. And boom, there she goes. that's a 200. Done. Okay, so device added. Let's do it one more time. Alright, so the other option on the Alpha 10 is to do contact. And my 300 I is 3-19 And boom, there you go. So now I have my collars, my 200 and my 300

SUMMARY: Don't clip a lanyard to the battery-cover clip on the back of an Alpha; it can twist off and you lose the unit. Use the dedicated lanyard attachment at the bottom.

So here's something that we used to see a lot of. I have not seen this in a while, but I got a trade in and the customer, send it in with his lanyard attached. And when the Alpha 100s This is an old 100, as you can see, it's had better days. It's going back to get refurbished. But, when the 100s first came out, people did this. So this little clip on the back here, this little piece, it looks like it would be a great attachment for your lanyard, but it's not cause of that. That's the battery compartment access. don't do, don't do that. I know you're getting the wrong twist there it's gonna fall off in the woods you're gonna look down and you're gonna be. This is what's gonna be hanging from your neck you're not gonna have anything else. all of the garment units have that little clip on the back of them. See, this is a. This is a 200, and it, it's got this little clip right here. But, don't attach to that cause. Cause that will twist and come off. don't do that. That's one of those mistakes that'll cost you, between five and eight hundred dollars. you see down here, that's the lanyard attachment on a 100. They have one too. It is definitely harder to see, which is why Some people missed it, but it's right there. Okay? So if you're gonna attach a lanyard or a clip or anything to it, which you should do, do it. Do it there. Don't. Don't. Don't do this. Don't do this. This is dangerous. Don't do that.

SUMMARY: Set waypoints on the Alpha XL with the waypoint button on the map's bottom bar. Find them under Saved, sortable by name or distance.

On the X L, for setting waypoints, the. You go to the map and then, down here at the bottom, you have your, your bar, and that is your waypoint. So you set a waypoint where you are, you just press it, and it's gonna drop that waypoint for you and save it. if you dial in there. Hard to see cause I'm on top of it, but there's your waypoint. And then to see your waypoints, you go back to, your main screen and they're under saved. And then, there it is. Now, you can, search freeway points, and you can, put them in order by, names, or you can sort them by, distance will get you right there. And that's about it.

SUMMARY: Tracking handhelds on the Alpha XL: add by ID, or receive a shared contact from a third handheld. Tracking is one-way unless you set it up on both.

Alright, tracking hand helds on an Alpha X L is similar, but not exactly the same. So let's go through that. Alright, on your main menu screen here, you have dogs, people, and then that's your contacts list right there. We're doing hand helds or people. I currently have nothing in here right now. And that is something to, you know, to understand in that you can track it. It's not a two way communication. In that this handheld is tracking the Alpha X L, but the Alpha X L is not tracking this handheld. So you can do both. so let's do that. Alright, to add one, you hit the plus and then you have two options. You can enter the I D. Which. Same thing here. It's 3-19. So we scroll down save, and then, 3-19. This is the 300 I. So. Oop, hang on. I like the little i personally. Done. Okay, so there's that. Boom, it's tracking. So this. The share wirelessly part is. Is kind of confusing. It's received from device. Alright. You cannot receive from a device, That you're trying to track. You can receive from an additional device. we're gonna do this with my 200+. Okay, so my Alpha XL is tracking my 300 i My 300 i has my 200+ in it as a contact. if I want to add my 200+, 2 200+ is Right here. If I wanna add it to the Alpha XL I want to receive it from a device, I can't receive it from the 200+ I have to receive it from the 300 I. It's kind of silly, but waiting for device. then you go to your third party device here, and down at the bottom, share wirelessly.. See? Done. So it's a little bit confusing, and in the grand scheme of things, it's actually unnecessary, because, if you wanna add a contact and you don't have it with you, but you have a device that has it, you just have to look and see what the I D. Number is. So there's not a big advantage to receiving from device on the Alpha XL

SUMMARY: 'Receive from handheld' gets a contact shared from a third handheld, not from the handheld you're trying to track. Rarely needed; entering the ID is easier.

Alright, the last way to add an item is receive from handheld. Alright, this is confusing, but I at least somewhat understand it. this is my 300 I. Okay, see there? I want to track my 200+. Okay. there's no way on the 200+ to share it wirelessly. So the receive from handheld is not receive from the handheld that you're trying to track. It's to receive from a third handheld. So I would have to have an additional handheld to. To track that. The concept behind it would be is that I'm here with my buddy, and we're trying to track, and he has that buddy's alpha 100 in his, contacts list, and he could share that alpha 100 from his alpha 200+ to me. but I can't take the buddies Alpha 100 and share it wirelessly. That's kind of the thing. That's a bit. I'm gonna call that a little bit misleading. so it really doesn't matter, because if you have the two handholds together, you can pair them, if you have the handholds together, you can just enter the I D. It's kinda unnecessary, but, I mean, I guess. That's just one of those things, so it's confusing. Let's show how you do it, though, using an Alpha XL we're going to receive From handheld, we're gonna wait for the device. We're gonna jump over here to this, and I'm gonna click on that, and I'm gonna share wirelessly, and boom. So that's an example of how you do it. but once again, it's really not necessary, because if you have the tracking I D, you can just enter it by hand. But that's how it's done.

SUMMARY: Reply to a viewer with no dog tracks showing: Steve isn't sure of the cause and asks for a photo and their software version.

So I would guess my first thought was that if you didn't have any tracks, maybe that would be the reason. But like my tracks are cleared right now. So I don't know the answer to that. send me a picture of what it looks like and what version of the software you're running.

SUMMARY: Pair Alpha handhelds to each other with Pair on both units, or add one by entering the other's ID (found on the power-button status screen).

Alright, let's add some hand helds. Alright, this is my 200+. We're going to add. We're going to several options here. You can pair, you can : enter an I D. Or you can receive. So let's start with pairing. Select pair on the other handheld, place it near the unit. Alright, here's my other unit. We're gonna go in the dog list, we're going to pair. And we have selected add. So you see, one says select pair, and one says select add. there it is. Okay, this is my 300 I. Alright, and you can see here it says handheld has been added as a contact. Alright, so I'm gonna go in here, and I'm going to name this real quick, and it's a 300 I.. And finish. Alright. Okay.. But what it doesn't do, it's on the 200+, but the 200+ is not on here. So now you have to go add. And, we're gonna pair the handheld. We're gonna go over here, and we're gonna press pair, and we're gonna wait. Ta da. So this is 200+. Okay, that's it. Alright, let's show real quick how to do it a different way. I'm going to remove this 200+. So you go down here, on the hamburger menu, and you hit remove, it's gonna ask you this question. Cause I use the Alpha app, and it has Smart Sync. But we'll delete that and We'll deal with it later. so we want to add the 200 to this. So we click add. Alright, we've already shown you how to do the pair. Let's do the inner I D. Okay, so you've got to know the I D. Of the other handheld. So to get that, you press and release your power button real quick. And this is 3:17. on this one, you go down here and you go 3:17, and it's a 200+. So you type that in real quick. Alright, let's fix that real quick. Alright. And there she goes. Now, just so you can see it real quick. Boom, there it is.

SUMMARY: Alpha handhelds (including the Alpha 10, not the Pro 550 Plus) can track each other. Turn on transmitting from the power-button screen, note your ID, and set an update rate. Each handheld uses a tracking slot.

So the alpha units have the ability to track each other. So if I have an alpha 200 I and my buddy has an alpha 300, we can match the two of those up, I can track him and he could track me. this is something that is exclusive to the Alpha units. You cannot do this with the Pro 550+. You can do it with an Alpha 10. You can do it with a alpha 200, a 200 I, a 200+, a 300, and a 300 I. So they all have the ability to track each other. Doesn't matter which system you're on. So you gotta do a couple things. Let's go show you the first thing here. Alright, on your dog list, you have dogs and people and groups. people can be part of a group. Alpha XL and the 300 are actually people. Hank's actually a dog. But under people, you have the ability to add and pair, which is slightly confusing. Add is somebody else's handheld pair is your handheld that gives you the ability to also send messages. We'll talk about that after we're done. So the first thing that you have to do to be able to do this go to your lock screen here. Power button screen. So that's just a quick press and release on your power button. you have my I D. So on this Unit right here, which is the one I'm going to track, press the power button. It has my I D. Off. so this unit cannot be tracked by other units, because it's in the off position. This gives you the ability for folks not to be able to track you. there's a limited number of track codes, and I'm not gonna say you can guess them, but you can generally figure it out. But if you don't want other hand helds to be able to track you, then you won't leave that off. But if you do want them to be able to track you, you turn that on. So it's transmitting on, and then this gives your I D, which this is 1 - 11. it's the same setup as the other collars, if you're familiar with that. so this is gonna take the place of a collar. so understand that. That in an alpha unit, you can track 20 dogs or hand helds. It's a total of 20, and this will take one of the slots when we track it. Update rate. Just like your collars, it has a few options. It does not have the fast updates like the two and a half second or the dynamic, but it does have a 5 second, 10 second, and 30 second. so you set that on, and now we're gonna set up the tracking

SUMMARY: Share a collar wirelessly from one Alpha to another (Dog Info > share), choosing track-only or track and control. Great for helping find a lost dog.

Another option if you want to share a collar with a different handheld is to share wirelessly so when you're adding a collar or you're pairing a collar to a handheld you actually need the collar with you to pair it but if you don't have the collar with you or you just wanna do it a quicker way you can actually share the collar information from one handheld to the other so let's show how to do that real quick I've got the black collar that I was working with yesterday I've got the blue collar both of them are turned off right now but you don't have to have a collar even turned on a good example of when you would wanna do this is let's say that you have a lost dog you need someone to help you track that dog and you don't have the collar with you so you need to share it so you can do this with any of the Alpha units it is not something that you can do with a Pro 5 50+ but any of the Alphas the one hundreds the two hundreds the three hundreds the Alpha 10 can all do this I'll show you how to do it real quick so on your alpha unit go into the info screen and then down here at the bottom you see this little symbol down here at the bottom that's for sharing so you press that and you have the ability to share wirelessly alright and then this is the point where you can determine whether or not you want to track or track and control this is gonna be tracking control because this is one of my hand helds so it is now sending the information alright let me show you what to do on the other hand held alright on the handheld where you wanna receive the collar you go to the menu and add device and then there's three options here we're going to receive wirelessly and now it's looking for it this one is blue and there you go device added once it's been added your original handheld will tell you that also like I said this is pretty handy especially if you have a lost dog or if you're transferring a bunch of dogs it's much faster than doing it doing it by each individual collar

SUMMARY: Garmin GPS collars can be tracked by as many handhelds as you want (Pro 550 Plus, Alpha 200/300, Alpha XL, Alpha 10). Just pair the collar to each one.

So I had a customer asked this week if he could track his collar on an additional handheld and the answer to that is yes so this is a TT25 it's my black collar that I've got on my Pro 550+ really the the system that Garmin has designed is set up so that multiple hand helds can track the same collar so I'm tracking the same collar here on a 300 I'm sorry this is a it's a 200+ so tracking the same collar tracking the same collar on the 300 I and I'm tracking the same collar on an Alpha X L so the idea behind it is that you can track an individual collar on as many handhelds as you want and so that's really the idea behind it now I think some of the confusion as to why that might be an issue comes up with a regular Pro 550 so this is a just a regular Pro 550 e collar it is not a tracking collar and it works with just a regular P t 10 collars and with that handheld you can only use one handheld per collar and so so just a totally different concept there where with a G P S tracking collar you want to be able to use it with additional hand helds so I have a an alpha 10 here that is not set up for it and we're gonna do that for you here real quick just to show you how it's done so from the menu you select add device we're gonna add a dog and we're going to pair the collar and then on the collar you're gonna put it into pair mode so hold it down it's gonna double beep and turn blue and then that's it and you'll notice on the 25 collars since this collar has already been named black in other handholds the collar knows that it keeps up with and then this is for lights we'll do yellow and pointing and there you go so now we're tracking we've also got so you can put an individual collar on as many hand helds as you want that's really the basis of the the garment system for G P S tracking

SUMMARY: How Steve uses location alerts: geofences near highways to warn when a dog approaches, and a radius alert (around 300-400 yards for pointers, gun range for flushing dogs). Both can run at once.

So that's how the radius works I have used both of these as far as geofences and the radius alert with the geofences I used them on hunting properties where if I had either like a a a blacktop or a highway some sort of road that I was concerned about if I wanted to know if a dog was approaching that I would set up geofences that would alert me when the dog was headed in that direction I found that to be kind of handy and then on the radius alert I've used it a couple of different ways I've used it with flushing dogs in a pheasant hunting situation where you're hunting in either tall or really thick cover you can't actually see the dog I use that as an option so that I would know if the dog got out of gun range and then the other thing that I've done with radiuses is that I have set them up typically for my pointing dogs about 400 yards is the maximum distance that I want the dog working for me so I set up an alert for that so that I know when the dog gets to a certain distance you know for me I'd probably be smarter to set it at like 300 yards and then that way I could start talking to him but those are just a couple options there's a lot of different things that you can do with them it's just another neat feature another thing to note is that you can run both of these options at the same time I cut off my geofence when I was filming the radius alert strictly so I wouldn't get multiple notifications but you can run geofences and radiuses at the same time in the same area

SUMMARY: Set a radius alert on the Alpha 300: pick a distance (e.g., 25 yards), alert type and mode, and get notified when a dog goes beyond it.

Alright the other option here is a radius so you can select a distance from the handheld and have the unit alert you when the collar gets outside of that so we're gonna do it in yards and we're going to do 25 and then you go into it and you set the alert type I want tone and vibrate and set the alert mode on entrance or exit so the setup is pretty much the same but what's gonna happen here is that when the collar gets 25 yards away from the handheld you're gonna get an alert

SUMMARY: The easiest way to delete dog tracks: End Hunt, then start a New Hunt and choose to clear tracks.

So when you go to alright, so I've got some. That red there, those are dog tracks. when you go to your track manager, you should have a dog tracks and you can click on that and then you can click on the dog and it'll take you to him. you can save it and you can make some changes and stuff, but that's not really where you can delete them. The simplest thing to do to delete them is to go to hunt and go to end hunt and says yes. And then when you are done, you hit new hunt and we don't want to change our devices, but we do want to clear. So we clear everything but. And then I don't care about that right now. And that's it, all gone. The blue line there is my track.

SUMMARY: Geofence demo. Note that Garmin geofences only alert you; they can't tone or correct a dog. The Dogtra Pathfinder has a containment mode for that.

Alright so I've got my dog on my map and I've got my ah area here I'm gonna go out here and I move my dog in and out and let you all see the alert alright so couple of things that you need to know here your geofence you can build as many of them as you want and you can see them you know in the location alert section you have the ability to turn them off so you can disable or enable them as needed the other thing that you need to know about them is you'll notice there is no correction mode these are not fences like a like a a containment in a fence you can you know you can set one up around your house and you can have it tell you when your dog leaves a part of your house or part of your area but there is no way with the garment system to set it up where it will either tone or correct a dog you know when they leave an area that option is on the Dogtrot Pathfinder systems so if that's something that you're looking for Dogtra Pathfinder actually has a containment mode that you can do with their system but Garmin does not have that as an option

SUMMARY: Reply version: set up Location Alerts on the Alpha 200/300 (add the app to your menu): draw a geofence on the map or set a radius, choose tone and vibrate, and alert on enter, exit or either.

I had a customer ask about geofences, which. The Garmin Alpha 200 and 300 can create a geofence, and it can also give a distance alert. So those are two options where if your dog either leaves an area or enters an area, you can set it where your handheld will tell you that, or you can set it where your handheld will tell you when the dog gets a certain distance away from you. So let's show how to set that up. These are called location alerts. It's a menu setting, so you have to. If you don't have that, if you look through your menu and you don't have it, I actually had to do a little looking because I'd. I either have removed it or it's not on the main menu anymore. I can't tell you which. Either way, we're gonna go add a page. So it's an application. It's an application called Location Alerts. So there we go. Now it's on my menu page. You click on that and it says add alert. And you have two choices. You have a geofence and a radius. The geofence, once again, is going to be an area that you define. The radius is going to be a distance that you set. Let's show how you set up a geofence. We're going to add the alert. It's a geofence. It's going to give you a map. So we're going to draw this on the map. So we are here, At Gundog Supply. And I'm going to make it kind of the parking lot. So you move your pointer and you select use. So basically you're just drawing out points here on the map. Gotta have a minimum of three. Didn't do it. After you have three, then the done pops up there. Because you could technically stop with three. I'm going to do four. Done. Okay, so now I have my geofence. Now you have to tell it what you wanna do with it. So we're gonna set the alert type. I'm gonna make it tone and vibrate. And then we're going to set the alert mode. So you can either have this. When the dog enters the area, you get an alert. When he exits the area, you get an alert. Or you can have either. Let's do either. Alright, so that should be everything that we have there. Now let me go get a dog going and we'll show you what it does.

SUMMARY: Set up Location Alerts on the Alpha 200/300 (add the app to your menu): draw a geofence on the map or set a radius, choose tone and vibrate, and alert on enter, exit or either.

I had a customer ask about geofences which the Garmin Alpha 200 and 300 can create a geofence and it can also give a distance alert so those are two options where if your dog either leaves an area or enters an area you can set it where your handheld will tell you that or you can set it where your handheld will tell you when the dog gets a certain distance away from you so let's show how to set that up these are called location alerts it's a menu setting so you have to if you don't have that if you look through your menu and you don't have it I actually had to do a little looking because I'd I either have removed it or it's not on the main menu anymore I can't tell you which either way we're gonna go add a page so it's an application it's an application called Location Alerts so there we go now it's on my menu page you click on that and it says add alert and you have two choices you have a geofence and a radius the geofence once again is going to be an area that you define the radius is going to be a distance that you set let's show how you set up a geofence we're going to add the alert it's a geofence it's going to give you a map so we're going to draw this on the map so we are here at Gun Dog Supply and I'm going to make it kind of the parking lot so you move your pointer and you select use so basically you're just drawing out points here on the map gotta have a minimum of three didn't do it after you have three then the done pops up there because you could technically stop with three I'm going to do four done okay so now I have my geofence now you have to tell it what you want to do with it so we're going to set the alert type I'm going to make it tone and vibrate and then we're going to set the alert mode so you can either have this where when the dog enters the area you get an alert when he exits the area you get an alert or you can have either let's do either alright so that should be everything that we have there now let me go get a dog going and we'll show you what it does

SUMMARY: Share a whole group wirelessly between Alpha 300/200 Plus units, as track-only or track and control. The group name, colors and contacts come across.

Alright to share a group we're gonna go to the group and then down here in the centre you have this icon that allows you to share so you click on that now it's gonna ask you if you want to allow control of the devices in the group so this is where you choose where it's track only or it's track and control so I'm sharing this to another handheld of mine so I'm going to do track and control so now it's gonna look for the other device so here is my other device I'm going to go to the group tab and then I'm going to select the menu and say receive from handheld alright so it's connected the transfer is complete you say okay give it a second and there it is it even keeps the name of the group all the colours have been moved over and then if you go over here you can see that the colours have been moved over now I still don't have any contacts because there weren't any contacts in that group so let's do that also say okay I go back alright so both of my contacts are in this group so I have one collar and then I have a handheld and I have an Alpha Excel now this handheld is actually this handheld but we're going to share that group so same way click on it it's gonna be track and control we go back to we go back to group tab and we say receive from now I have both groups we go back over here and you'll see that I have both units here under my contacts I have all my dogs so that's it it's a pretty neat way to go if you don't do a group you'll see this ungrouped if you add a collar and you don't put it in a group that's where it's gonna show up in the ungrouped section and then if you go back over to the info on a collar let's do this one you'll see right there that under the collar info it'll tell you which group it belongs to

SUMMARY: Create groups under the dog list's group tab, add collars, and activate or deactivate a whole group at once. Up to 20 per group and 250 devices total in groups.

Alright let's show you how to build a group so in your dog list we have all these collars and we wanna build a group so over here on the right this double square here is where your groups are alright right now I have eight collars or eight items actually they're not all collars so this includes an Alpha X L and a 300 and then it includes all of my dogs but I have eight items that are in this handheld that are currently ungrouped so we're gonna build groups so you select create a group my first group is called test these are collars that I run tests on so I generally am not running these on dogs I'm just running tests on them alright then you add device alright so I have a red extended I have a red regular and then I have an orange those are the colours that I test so in my test group I have those three colours once I have the group created then I can activate or deactivate the entire group from this one button something else that you can do is if you need to manage your groups you have that as an option so manage group this gives you the ability to add devices or remove devices so if I wanna take that one out I can remove it from the group or if I want to add a device I can put it back in you can also rename the group or you can delete it so that's everything to do on a group couple of things to keep in mind the maximum number of collars that you can have in a group is 20 the maximum number of collars that a unit can track at one time is twenty keep in mind that includes collars and other handhelds and the maximum number of collars that you can hold in groups is 250 so you're looking at 12 groups of 20 and one group of 10 if you want to maximize it

SUMMARY: New on the 300 series: groups of dogs and contacts that you can turn on or off together and share wirelessly. Handy if you hunt with different packs in different places.

Let's talk about another new feature in the Garmin 300 series units that is groups groups gives you the ability to take dogs and contacts and group them together this allows you to do a couple of things it allows you to turn them on and turn them off you can activate and deactivate an entire group at one time and then it also allows you to share groups so you can take a number of collars and you can wirelessly share that with somebody that you hunt with so this can be really handy especially for folks that hunt in large groups lots of dogs big packs if you're tracking other people's dogs if you're tracking these dogs sometimes and then next week you're going to another place you're gonna be tracking a different group of dogs that way you can have everything in your handheld and you can quickly turn on and turn off tracking on those dogs the other cool thing is that it allows you to share those as either full control which is track and train or you can share them as train only so let's let's go through that just a little bit this is this is the dog list on my Alpha 200+ and so I have my main two collars are my black black and my blue this Hank belongs to a buddy that I hunt with and then these three collars are test units that I am running tests on and then under contacts I've got my Alpha XL and I've got the 300 I that I also run and then under groups I have two groups I have my test group which covers a couple of different collars and then I have my soggy B group which is a place where I hunt so in that group you'll see that I have all these collars if you want to you can deactivate the entire group you can activate the entire group so you know when you deactivate there you go back over here and you see everything's deactivated so you can set this up however it benefits you so let's show you a real quick how to do that I've got my 300 handheld and I have no collars whatsoever in it I have no groups I have no contacts so we'll do that here real quick

SUMMARY: Clear your own handheld track: Track Manager > My Track > stop and discard.

Alright, so the track is the blue line that you see on this screen right here and to get rid of that we're gonna go to the track manager right under track manager you're looking for my track and then you need to stop the track and you need to discard into when you discard the track declaring the current track all the data associated will be reset. So everything on your tracks about to go away clear and then you go back to the map and the blue lines gone that's it.

SUMMARY: Road test of fatigue alerts: tracks turn yellow as limits approach and an alert appears when exceeded. Snooze extends it; resetting clears the total distance.

So we've scooted down the road here just a little bit, and you can see there that I've been 1.95 miles with the collar. It's changed from green to yellow, so that's kind of cool. But you can see on my timer over here, we're not taking this very long. All right, let me just slip down the road here a little bit, and I'll show you what it does when you pass it. When your dog goes over either the distance or the time, you're going to get this warning is going to pop up on your screen. It allows you to snooze the dogs. So if you want to snooze them, you can do that, or you can just completely dismiss it. So I'm going to reset these so it takes me all the way back to zero. We'll start over. Two dogs are over distance. One of the things that you can do once you get your warning is, let's say you want to give them a little more time so you can snooze it. That you can raise and lower how much you want to snooze it. Press snooze, and it'll take you back to it. Something else that I want to point out is that as you can see, even though we have exceeded the two mile limit here by a good bit, it still keeps up with the distance traveled. You will have to reset unless you. If you snooze, you'll be able to Get additional warnings. But once you want to get a secondary warning, or once you want to start over again, say, I want to go two more miles and get a warning, you're gonna have to reset. So that will kill your total distance traveled. So just keep that in mind. If you're one of the folks that likes to keep up with that number.

SUMMARY: Fatigue alerts on the dog info page: set default distance and time limits, override per dog, then a road test with collars in the car.

Alright so let's talk a little bit more on the fatigue alerts before you set up fatigue alerts it's gonna look like this so on your dog list you have your data over here you have your map alright so we're on our data right here and you know this keeps up with your distance travel and your time but because you don't have fatigue alerts turned on you're not going to have a you're not gonna have a limit set on it so let's show you what it looks like with a limit alright this is the same collar but I have fatigue activated on this unit so you see how it's got the 5 mile and the one hour time set up here so let's turn on fatigue alerts on my 300 alright so different handheld we go to fatigue alerts I've got it turned on I have not set anything for it though so two different things here you've got your default if you set this every dog is gonna go to the default so I'm gonna do five miles and I'm gonna do one hour so that's my default but I'm gonna do the black dog as two miles and one hour and then I'm gonna do the Blue Dog the same alright let's go check it out so now that the fatigue alerts are active you can see the slight change here in the Dog Info page where it shows that I have some restrictions on it so we're gonna just kinda fake this test by driving them in the car

SUMMARY: New on the Alpha 300: fatigue alerts warn when a dog hits a time or distance limit you set per dog.

Alright something that's new to the Alpha 300 systems is fatigue alerts fatigue alerts allows you to set a distance and a timer per dog and then it will warn you when that time or that distance has happened so if you say I wanna run this dog for an hour once he's been on the ground for an hour I wanna know about that you can set that you can say hey I wanna run this dog two miles and once we hit two miles I wanna know about that it'll tell you let's show you how to set that up so go to turn fatigue alerts on and then you figure out how you want it to tell you I'm gonna do with tone and vibrate and we'll just select one there alright and then we're going to select what we want I want two miles is my distance I want one hour and then I want to select dog I want a five mile on this dog and I want a one hour and I want a two mile on this dog and I want a three hour so there we go we're set up I'm gonna turn some collars on I'm gonna run them for a bit and I'll show y'all what it looks like when the alerts go off

SUMMARY: New on the 300: Share Wirelessly (add it to your menu) sends waypoints, routes, tracks and geocaches handheld to handheld. Demo sharing a saved track, as for search and rescue.

Something that is new in the Alpha 300 units is the ability to share wirelessly now you've been able to share dogs wirelessly already but this gives you the option to share wirelessly some other things so you can share waypoints routes tracks and geocaches wirelessly handheld to handheld what's nice about this is in the field you can do this you don't have to have a computer anything like that this is not an automatic menu listing it is something that you have to add so by that it means that out of the box your units not gonna have this on the menu let me show you first how to add it to your handheld alright so from your handheld on the menu screen at the bottom you're gonna have an add page click on that go to applications and then go down to share wirelessly and that will add it to your menu page so I have a customer that asked how to share one of his tracks wirelessly this is a customer that works in search and rescue and so they wanna be able to share their tracks in the field while they're while they're doing a search and rescue so let's talk about how to do that first you have to go to track manager and then you have to select the track that you want to share then you have to select the menu and save it as a track and then it will say saved at 9:56 alright then you go back to share wirelessly we're going to send a track this is the track that we selected and we're going to press send now it's going to search for a device on the device that you want to receive the track you go to receive and there you go alright after you've received it then you go to Track Manager and then it will be in your saved tracks here it is right here select it and then you wanna show it on the map and then select map and there it is and you can see it's the same track right there if you wanna go to it you just click go and it'll navigate you to it

SUMMARY: The only difference between a 300 and 300i is inReach, about $50. inReach still needs a subscription, which you can suspend in the off-season.

The only difference between a 300 and a 300 I is the in reach that's it everything else is the same a lot of folks don't know if they really need in reach or not what tends to happen and I don't know how much of this is that people don't understand the difference or if they think they might need it so they buy it the difference in price between a 300 and a 300 I is 50 bucks so on a purchase this expensive a lot of folks just say you know what I may want that at some point so let me go ahead and buy it if you buy the unit that has the in reach built in that does not mean that you actually have in reach in reach is a subscription service you have to set it up and subscribe it's not terribly expensive there are a bunch of different programs depending on how much you need to use it you can cut it on and off throughout the year I primarily need mine September through February I don't use it that much March through August so some years I'll just cut my program off and that way I don't have to pay anything when I'm not using it

SUMMARY: inReach gives satellite texting and email, location tracking, weather and SOS to Garmin's emergency team. Steve uses it where there's no cell service and as a backup if his phone breaks.

Alright let's cover a couple of other things let's talk a little bit about in reach this is just a real quick overview but this is a 300 I this is a 300 so the 300 does not have in reach it does not have the side emergency button the 300 I does this is the exact same in a 300 versus a 200 so I'm just gonna go with one unit this is my 300 I hunt by myself a lot I hunt in a lot of places where I don't have cell service and then I also treat my in reach as a backup to my cell phone I only carry one cell phone if something were to happen to my cell phone I now have no way to communicate no matter where I am whether I have cell phone service or not if I break my cell phone kinda out of luck but I can communicate via text and email and then I also have emergency services with this so to me it not only is it for those areas where I don't have cell phone service it's also as a backup to my cell phone what in reach does it it gives you a lot of options one of the things that you can do is that you can track your movements you turn tracking on and then I'm able to from my computer anybody that has access to it can track and see exactly where I am and where I'm moving you have the ability to do messages so that's anybody I can text anybody who I have their you know their number I've got my contacts off of my phone I actually use the Alpha app so I actually can do the texting from my phone I don't have to do it from from the Garmin handheld something else you got you got access to weather and then you got access to the s O s stuff Garmin does the s O s stuff it's an in house group that they use that are trained professionals it's a big deal if you need help it's not just calling 9 1 1 it's calling it's calling a group of folks that are are used to dealing with folks in outdoor emergencies and so so it's pretty big deal

SUMMARY: The Alpha 200 Plus is really a 300 (USB-C, 55-60 hour battery, same software) with the older 200 screen and no inReach option. Pick it if you don't need inReach or the best screen.

Alright this is a 200+ this is a 300 the 200+ falls into an odd spot everything about the 200+ is a 300 it has the charging port that is u s b c it has the 55 to 60 hours of run time in the hand held it has the exact same software as a 300 it does not come in an in reach option so if you want in reach there's no reason to look at a 200+ the reason it's a 200 is because of the screen I don't know if you can see it here but you see where it says alpha 200 right there where this one just says Alpha so a 200+ has the old style screen where the 300 has the new fancy screen so same thing that holds here if you are looking at a 200+ versus a 300 if you need the in reach there's no reason to look at a 200+ if you don't need the in reach so now we're down to a 200+ versus a 300 the difference is the screen that's the only difference it's the screen so same thing holds here if you want the better battery life if you want the better charging port if you want the better software but you don't use satellite maps you can save a little more money by getting a 200+ you get everything except the fancy screen

SUMMARY: Turn map layers on and off from the map's double-squares icon (satellite, shaded relief, public lands, etc.). The 300 has more layers with Outdoor Maps+.

How you see the maps on the units is actually the same a lot of folks when they're looking at maps on a 200 you can go to a map setup and then there's a section called Configure Maps this is gonna show all the maps that you have listed allows you to turn them on and off alright let me show you what it looks like on a 300 alright on the 300 system you can access it from map setup and then everything is handled under map manager so that's the way that you can see everything that you have access to what's similar about them is how you turn them on and off from the screen so if you look up here in the left hand corner of the map you have these squares that overlay each other you click on that and that allows you to turn maps on and off this is a 200 you select Bird's Eye and then you go back to the map and that turns it off we also have public lands on here which I believe you can see so we're close to the Natchez Trace Parkway that's gonna highlight I believe is a public land see how that turned on right there so that's in the 200 alright this is my 200+ remember it has the same software setup as a 300 you click on the double squares it shows you what map sets you have available so right now I have satellite I have shaded relief and I have Topo Active turned on so you can select them and turn them off so this is everything that I have without the satellite images shaded relief and then topo active so that gets you down just to the base map so if you ever go to you're handheld you open up the map screen and something's missing most likely you've turned something off double click on the squares select what you want go back to your map now this is my 300 and I'm gonna show you it's a little bit different same thing here you click on the double squares this one has a lot more options that's because this unit has outdoor maps plus turned on so this kind of shows you the other options that you have with the Outdoor Maps Plus subscription service let me see if the public lands right there you can see matches Trace Parkway it highlights under the public lands so we'll go into that turn that off so that is how you manage maps and those are some of the different options that you have 200 versus 300

SUMMARY: Same satellite image on a 200 vs a 300: the 300 is noticeably crisper and more colorful; the 200 looks dull.

So we've gotten these downloaded to see where your downloads are in Map Manager you go to Outdoor Maps plus and then this is where you add satellite imagery and then we've also got the downloads here this is my download this is Gundog Supply where we are located this is our building and then I've done the same thing on the 200 so on the 200 you go to Birds Eye Direct and you download imagery and then this is the map that I've downloaded here alright so let's take a look at it here are the two images side by side this is the 200 and this is the 300 I'm at 60 yards on both I don't know if you can really tell the difference let's look up close this is a 200 and to me satellite imagery on a 200 kind of has it's not black and white but it's definitely it kind of has that feel to it it's a little dull you can you can see the greens this is at 15 yards but this this is what you're looking at on a 200 now on a 300 you've got more color and the image is crisper that's it about 15 yards you know to me it gets kind of fuzzy as you as you get much closer than that so I don't know if you can really tell on on video but these are the same images same distance okay

SUMMARY: Download free satellite imagery: on a 300 via Map Manager > Outdoor Maps+ (no subscription needed), on a 200 via BirdsEye Direct. Both need Wi-Fi set up.

Alright let's download some imagery this is a 300 I and we're gonna grab some satellite imagery now the 300 I does have outdoor maps as an option Outdoor Maps plus which is their subscription service but you don't have to have that to get satellite imagery so you gonna add satellite imagery and then you have different ways to go about it but we're gonna use the map so this is where we are right here we're gonna use the out key to make it just a little bit bigger you can see the size of the download right there we'll do 5 megabytes so you press download it's downloading you have to be on Wi-Fi for this to happen we'll show you how to set up Wi-Fi but you can see right up there that we're on the Gundog supply Wi-Fi alright to download imagery on a 200 unit you are going to be using Bird's Eye Direct click on Download Imagery alright you need an internet connection to do this so let's go to Wi-Fi Setup turn on your Wi-Fi it's gonna look for a network and we're gonna add a network so we're gonna add gundog and then it's gonna ask for the password you type that in and then we got the network added okay and then this is an old one here I'm going to remove that so now we only have the Gundog supply Wi-Fi and then you go to download imagery we're gonna do the location that we are you can change the name of it if you need to I'm gonna just lose use that we're going to increase this by 0 1 5 we're gonna download

SUMMARY: If satellite maps matter to you, get a 300 for its better screen. If you mostly use the compass or basic maps, the difference is marginal.

Alright the last big difference is gonna be in the screen quality and I'll be honest with you I'm not prepared to show you right now the difference in the screens because these units don't really have good maps on them what I tell folks as far as picking between a 200 series or a 300 series unit is if you're running maps and maps are important to you not just maps let's say satellite maps if you're running satellite images on your handheld I would strongly recommend that you look at a 300 the quality of the screen is substantially better from a mapping standpoint if you don't use maps or if you only use the standard maps I don't know if I would bother with the with the screen on the 300 the difference between the two of them is marginal but if you're running if you're running maps and maps are important to you then I strongly recommend the 200 over the 300 series alright let's go get some maps

SUMMARY: Quick reminder that Alpha screens aren't indestructible and screen damage isn't covered by warranty, so put a screen protector on a new 300i.

Just so you know, screens are not indestructible. Might want to get a screen protector on that new 300. I.

SUMMARY: 300-only software: Outdoor Maps+, Channel View for crowded areas, and fatigue alerts (expected on the 200 later).

Alright the other big difference between the two units 200 versus 300 is going to be software so there's a lot of similarities in the software between the two but the 300 systems have some stuff that you can't get on the 200 one of the biggest things is Map Manager so Outdoor Maps plus is Garmin's subscription service as far as their mapping software so you can run that on a 300 you cannot run that on a standard 200 alright another big part of the software that you can get on the 300 series units is channel view I've done a bunch of videos on Channel View you can go back and refer to those Channel View is a gigantic deal if you're running in areas where there are an enormous amount of collars being run so if you if you're hunting a place that's this is a huge deal for deer hunters hog hunters competition folks like I said if you're somewhere where there are a lot of collars you deal with a lot of interference channel view is something that you want that is only available on the 300 series something else that's new on the 300 series is fatigue alerts I have not shot a video on this yet but we'll talk about it real quick fatigue alerts allows you to track time and distance on a dog so you turn your fatigue alerts on and then you can keep up with both distance travelled and time run so this is a way for you to track how long a dog's been on the ground and how far they've gone and it will give you warnings based off of a timer that you set up fatigue alerts are not currently on the 200 series I do expect Garmin to add them via software at some point but right now they are not available on the 200 series

SUMMARY: 200 vs 300: micro-USB vs USB-C (same as TT 25 collars), and battery life of roughly one hard day vs about four days on the 300.

Alright the basic differences between a 200 and a 300 are going to be the charger that you use the battery life of the handheld and then software differences so the 200 uses a micro USB the 300 uses a u s b c let me show you what those look like alright so you got two different charging clips when you're talking about the 200 versus the 300 this is a Micro U s B which if you can see it's got the little clips on the top there it's a little bit smaller you compare that to a U s B C but the U s B C is the sort of an oval shape you can put it in what I like about it is that there's no wrong way to put it in so you can put it in upside down right side up it's all the same the other thing that's really nice about these this is the same charger that you're using with the 25 collars so if you're running an alpha 300 and you've got 25 collars you'll have the same plug for both now the 25 collar uses a clip but the U s B C is what plugs in to the clip so that just makes it a little more universal alright the next big difference is going to be battery life in the handheld Garmin lists the Alpha 200 as 20 hours they list the alpha 300 as 50 to 55 hours I think that's a little optimistic on a 200 getting 20 hours out of it you're gonna have to really work to get 20 hours out of a full charge a 300 I think that 55 hours is a little on the low side I tend to do a little bit better than that typically I'm gonna be able to run one day on this and about four days on a 300 so that's a pretty big difference you're gonna run out of power on a on a hard day with an alpha 200 an alpha 300 is gonna get you multiple days off a single charge

SUMMARY: Narrowing the five Alpha 200/300 models: the 200 Plus is really a 300, and 'i' only adds inReach, so it comes down to the 200 vs the 300.

I've had some people ask me if I could explain the difference between Alpha 2 hundreds and Alpha 3 hundreds we'll do it real quick there are five different alpha 200 and 300 units this is an alpha 200 this is an alpha 200 I this is an Alpha 200+ this is an Alpha 300 this is an Alpha 300 I as you can see they look the same they all look the same but they're not alright so five units I'm gonna make this real simple first we're gonna remove the alpha 200+ because it's really not a 200 it's actually a 300 we'll talk about that later so that gets us down to four alright this is a 200 and 200 I the only difference in a 200 and a 200 I is in reach inreach is your emergency satellite communications it is designed where you can basically text from your alpha and you can contact Garmin emergency services you can also send messages to people via text and email you can interface that through your phone but it is satellite communications for places where you don't have cell service you either need that or you don't but that's the only difference so we're not gonna talk about in reach so now we're gonna get rid of this so we have a 200 we have a 300 and a 300 I well guess what the 300 and 300 I same thing the only difference there is going to be in reach so we're not gonna talk about that so now we're down to two

SUMMARY: The TT 25 running-lights battery test died after less than about 16.5 hours, far short of expected. Test to be redone.

Well, that didn't go the way I thought it was going to. So stone cold dead. Let's see, we started it at noon and I checked it at about 4:00am. So that's less than 16 and a half hours. So we're gonna have to do this test again.

SUMMARY: Steve starts a battery test on a TT 25 regular battery with continuous white running lights at a 2.5-second update rate, after a customer reported short run time.

So I had a customer that was running a collar TT 25 regular battery felt like he wasn't getting the kind of run time that he should when running the lights on the T15 collars I did a test it's hard to tell how much draw on the battery the lights are gonna have I have been told by engineering that it should be less than about 5% I don't know how how you really gonna measure that so the the simplest thing to me is to run a test on it so I've charged this collar up it's got a full charge on it this is not a brand new collar but it's not terribly old either so it's a pretty recent battery it's got a full charge now the customer was running a dynamic to me it was on a dog dynamic on a dog is is fine but for running a test it it's a little challenging because you're not gonna get as much activity from the collar because you know it's gonna be sitting still while I'm running a test so I'm not gonna run it in a dynamic mode to do this test I am going to run in two and a half seconds so the two and a half second update to me it's gonna be a little bit more of a realistic test more along the lines of what a moving dog is gonna do I don't think the color of the light really matters but just to compare it to what we did on the TT 15s we'll put it in white I can't see that being an issue but you know I like to keep things consistent he was running in continuous so that's what we're gonna do so we'll start this test and we'll just run it and see how it does so so basically it's gonna be updating at two and a half seconds it's gonna be a white light continuous and we'll see what kind of battery life we get out of it

SUMMARY: With lights on a front key, setting it to 'prompted' brings up every light option each press instead of doing just one thing.

Alright we go back to our compass you can see now in the left hand button we have L for light alright so let's see what that gives you alright you have a couple of options here when you set it up and you can set it to do a function so you can set it to go continuous blink slow blink blink fast off or you have the option to prompted so if I put it on off now when I press the button it cuts the lights off the problem there is that's all it does so I can press it all I want and it doesn't do anything cause all it's doing is cutting the lights off so having it set on off or even having it set on you know on that turns it on but that's all it does it just turns it on so there's another option prompted if you're gonna be using it a bunch so I wanna turn it on I wanna turn it off I wanna change the blink modes so let's change it to prompted so now when I let's go back somewhere else alright so now instead of it doing anything when I press the button it now gives me all my options so at that point I can change it to blink slow I can cut it off so if you're gonna be changing it on a regular basis you wanna be able to turn it on turn it off change the modes prompted is the way to go for that if you want it on a button key keep in mind that setting it to a button is just an option you don't have to do that from the compass screen you can very easily get your screen up and turn it on turn it off

SUMMARY: Put running lights on a front key: Settings > Training Setup > Training Keys > change action > Training Command > dog > L (lights).

Okay so you can control the lights from the dog page and you know you can access that you know you're at your compass click on the dog you change the lights we're gonna go to blink fast so you can change it from the handheld but you also have the option of programming a button for it if you would prefer so if you're using lights a lot and you turn them on and off you can set one of your buttons to control the lights let's go show how to do that alright to set up one of your buttons as a light we're gonna take the black here and we're gonna replace this momentary with a light function so go to your menu go to your training setup go to your training keys alright so this black momentary here is what we're going to change select that we're going to change the action now this is a part that I think's a little confusing but it is what it is this changing lights is actually under training commands so you select your dog and then you've got momentary continuous tone vibration and then L is for lights and so adjust light so I'm going to make it let's just leave it continuous so done alright so now you see that on the black key it has an L instead of the m for momentary so L's for lights

SUMMARY: The latest Pro 550 Plus software adds full TT 25 light control (blink modes and color) in the menu. Update via Garmin Express if you don't see it.

Another new option on the Pro 5 50+ is the ability to control the lights the recent update that Garmin did gives you full capabilities of controlling the lights beforehand you were able to to run it through the accessory function but now there is actually a there's a selection in the menu so you can go to the blink mode and you can change it to blink fast and then you also have the ability to change the color from your 550+ handheld if you go to your menu you don't see those options then it means you are not running the current software and you need to go to Garmin Express update the software on your Pro 550+ handheld

SUMMARY: TT 25 running lights come in seven colors, changeable from the dog page's blink mode menu. Different colors help identify dogs at night.

With the running lights you have seven different color choices when you add a collar to your handheld it's going to ask you what color you want at that point you can pick one of the seven but you have the ability to change them from the handheld and so from the dog page there is a blink mode selection and from there you pick blink mode or you pick change color so I'm gonna go through and change all the colors so you can see them all so let's go through the color options you have red green magenta and white all of those can be changed from the handheld at any time one of the advantages of having different colored lights is that when you are turning out dogs at night you can identify the dogs by the different colors at a distance in a lot of situations that's not gonna really matter all that much but it can come in handy especially when you've got multiple dogs on the ground if you wanna be able to know who's who there's a pretty significant difference if we we have you know three dogs out and we're airing them I can easily identify who just from the lights

SUMMARY: TT 25 running lights offer seven colors and three modes: continuous, blink slow and blink fast.

Alright let's talk about running lights on the Garmin Alpha TT25 collars running lights are not a new thing we've had them with the majority of the t t collars the tens and the fifteens both had a running light option but they did not have different colors so with the t T25 we actually have seven different colors that you can pick on the running lights and then you have another option on running lights you can have them glow continuous like we have here or you can change them to blink slowly or you can change them to blink fast so there you can see the three different modes it's continuous blink slow and blink fast

SUMMARY: You can cut a long RF antenna shorter with good cable cutters for close-working dogs, but it reduces range, so test before cutting too short. Never run without one.

Another thing just to know I think the R F Antenna is something that that most people struggle with with a G P S system you know back in the olden days and I'm gonna say 1980s 1990s even you know we had external antennas on collars in the late 90s that went away and then you know we had several years there where we just did not have external antennas and then in the early 2 mid 2 2007 I guess when you know when Garmin introduced the d C I guess DC 20 that was when we ended up with an external collar antenna again and a lot of folks have a hard time with that you know the systems will work without this your range is just gonna be incredibly short so I don't recommend that you don't run with an antenna I have seen some guys that they're working very close dogs and they want a short antenna which these fourteen and a half inch antennas these are new the fourteen and a half inch antennas are new that's something that Garmin just started offering recently but what you can do if you have a longer antenna you don't need as much range you want something shorter there's no reason that you can't just take a pair of cable cutters and take a long antenna and cut it shorter you can do it the biggest thing to understand is that it's going to affect your range you may wanna experiment with that you may not wanna cut it super short and then find out that it's too short but I have done that on collars before back before the the fourteen and 1/2 inches were available I just take a really you need a good pair cause they're they're it's a pretty stout wire but you can take it and just cut it to whatever length you want but I do recommend that you check your range because it is going to affect your range

SUMMARY: Reinstall a TT 25 RF antenna: seat it in its groove, screw it in (don't strip it), snap the cover on tight, then replace the keeper and strap.

Alright you'll notice that there's a groove here and that your your antenna is offset just a little bit there so you want that down in the groove and then your screw goes in make sure it's in there nice and tight but do be careful that you don't strip that out snap your cover back into place tighten up your screws you wanna make sure that that you do have that in tight you gotta keep in mind too that this is where your charging clip connects so keep an eye on that make sure that it's in tight it's where it's supposed to be alright then put your antenna keeper back in run your antenna through strap goes under here and that's it pretty simple process really if you have trouble with like I said if antenna gets cut or gets chewed up or just gets worn down easy to replace and that's it so keep an eye on your R F antennas it's a real important part of your Garmin tracking collar

SUMMARY: Antennas aren't chew-proof but are user-replaceable (Garmin or colored aftermarket). Remove the keeper and plate, then unscrew the antenna. Keep the contacts clean and don't lose the screws.

So antennas are not chew proof there's no such thing as a chew proof antenna but the good news is is that they are user replaceable so if you run into this situation you get an antenna that gets chewed up or destroyed and you want to change that it's pretty simple to do we sell the original antennas that Garmin makes those are available and then we also sell some aftermarket antennas you can get all sorts of different colours so if you want to color coordinate your collar straps and your antennas you can do that if you want all your antennas to be you know yellow so that way it's very easy to identify your collars if you've got other folks you can do that these are aftermarket antennas they're really well made and they're very easy to change out I'll show you how to do that real quick alright let's so let's switch the antenna out here real quick I'm going to pull the collar strap here and I'm going to take off the keeper so slides right out here you may run into a situation where if you have a chewed up antenna it may be hard to do this this antenna is in pretty good shape so it just slides right out take the keeper off alright you've got the antenna connection is underneath this plate right here so let's take that off real quick its two screws plate comes off and then this screw is what connects your antenna of course you need two different size screwdrivers to do this don't lose your screws because they don't send replacements when you buy an antenna alright something else to watch out for it you wanna make sure that you've got a good connection here this is clean normally I would clean this off you can see that you're gonna get MUD and dirt in here but you just wanna make sure you have a good connection it's a terminal connection so you wanna make sure that that you have good metal to metal contact if you've noticed any thing that's on that you may want to clean that off little steel wool will do that for you

SUMMARY: Garmin RF antennas come in 22.5" (standard), 18.5" and 14.5" compact. Longer means more range. Keep antennas standing up rather than bent back; chewed antennas lose range.

So this is an antenna that we got in on a trade as you can see like pretty much everything in the world antennas are not chew proof so this is a collar that obviously folks were they left collar on the dog dog was in dog box dog was in dog box with other dogs probably and they're very attractive to other dogs from a chewing standpoint this antenna will still work even chewed on but the range on it is going to be less because the the length on it has been chewed up a little bit Garmin offers three different antenna sizes got all three here every unit comes with the longest that they offer which is twenty two and 1/2 inches they have an eighteen and 1/2 which is this one and then they have a compact which is a fourteen and 1/2 that's what I have on this blue collar here so same design just different lengths like most antennas the the longer an antenna that you have as a general rule the longer range you're gonna get out of it so for most folks 22 and a half is what they're gonna want so that they can get much range as possible out of their system all of the units will work with shorter range antennas it's just going to cut down on your range some I can't really say how much it a lot of it's just going to depend on where you're running as much as anything but just like any other any other antenna bigger antennas longer antennas are gonna work better if you're looking for the most range if you're running big running dogs you're running hounds you're gonna wanna stick with what comes with the system which is the twenty two and 1/2 inch antenna I run the shortest of the bunch on some of my dogs and that's got more to do with the fact that first off my dogs don't run terribly big if a dog of mine is a mile away from me he's on the lost side so I don't really need as much range out of it and then with smaller dogs I prefer a shorter antenna one of the things that I've seen people do with their antennas and you can do this I I think it doesn't help but I want my antennas up on the dog as much as possible so you know on a dog I want my antennas to stand up as much as I can I like to get them as straightened out as I can I have seen folks take antennas kick them back like this that's gonna work you'll the the system's gonna work doing that but it's gonna cut your range down so a lot of it just depends on what you need so keep that in mind on your antennas I wanna keep them up and as long as possible just to get me the best range experience that I can

SUMMARY: The RF antenna is the radio link that sends location to your handheld and receives stim commands; the flex band handles GPS.

Alright let's take a look at R F antennas R F stands for radio frequency the R F antenna is the antenna that communicates with your handheld so we talked a little bit about the flex bands the flex band is what connects with the G P S antenna this is what receives the satellite information but that information has to go back to your handheld so that's what the R F antenna does this is a braided steel antenna comes in a bunch of different lengths this is a primary piece of equipment you've got to have an antenna for this collar to work so the R F antenna once again is gonna be what communicates with your handheld same thing here you've got two different antennas here and this antenna is what's gonna communicate with this antenna so sending signals back and forth between your collar and your handheld

SUMMARY: There's no T20 mini, but the T20 already goes down to about an 11" neck since tracking-only collars don't need tight contact. Cut the strap shorter or buy a mini flex band if needed.

Now the question on why we don't have a mini option on a T20 will come up sometimes Garmin does not sell us these in a way that we can we can sell it to you with just a a mini version we're able to to sell the TT25 collars because we can purchase them with the mini as as the option but you can't do that with with the T20 if you want a mini version of a T20 you're gonna have to buy the add on flex band which is about an extra 50 bucks for most people this is kind of an unnecessary thing so the T20 will go down to about an 11 inch neck which is really small the reason that we need the minis in the track and train collars is because you have to have tight skin contact with a track and train collar so that your probes are tight on the dog's neck and that they're getting skin contact you don't have to have that on a tracking only collar so you need it small enough that that it'll stay on the dog's neck and you don't want it flopping around you know crazy but it doesn't have to be super tight it just needs to be tight enough that it'll stay on the dog's neck so it goes down to 11 inches so that's really not something that most dogs are gonna require it's gonna take a pretty small dog for that to be a problem there's a couple of options that you can do if you do need it smaller than 11 inches you'll notice that we've got you know this right here you can get a different collar strap for this what I do on this collar strap if I want it tighter I just come in here and I cut out this section right here remove those two rivets so I just pull that piece out that's gonna get you that's gonna be that's about an inch and a half right there so you know so that gets you down to nine and a half inches so same thing there it's a really small dog so there's not a lot of situations where I think people really are going to require a mini flex band for a track only collar but if you want that as an option you can purchase the Flex Band and it's the same screws it's the same setup it'll just fit right on there and you can make one if that's what you want

SUMMARY: The T20 is the tracking-only version of the TT 25 (orange GPS antenna cover). All parts are interchangeable: flex bands, batteries, straps and antennas.

So while we're talking about flex bands let's talk about the T20 and it's Flex Band so the T20 is the tracking only version of the Garmin Alpha collars so as you can see no contact points similar size just doesn't have contact points has a flex band but it's a different flex band because it has an orange cover for the G P S antenna compared to black on everything that you see on the t t collar so t t is track and Train t is track only so the T20 is designed on the same platform as the t t collars so all the parts are interchangeable so if you want to get an extended battery you can add on an extended battery if you want to change your flex band out to either a mini or ruggedized you can do that we do have the the T20 Flex bands available so if something were to happen to yours if it gets cut or broken you wanna replace it you can purchase this as a separate piece but the mini and the rugged do not come in the orange so if you're gonna add to say you wanted to put a mini flex band on a T20 collar you can do that it's just gonna have the black antenna instead of the orange but they work exactly the same so that's that's just a that's just a color difference the only thing there batteries are the same collar straps are the same R F antennas are the same so anything that you need to replace on a T20 you can replace just like you do on a TT25

SUMMARY: Adding training command keys for a dog in Training Keys: e.g., continuous on two pages plus vibrate for the black dog.

Go home and then I'm gonna go over here to the training setup we'll look at the training keys alright so these are other collars that I have programmed into the system but they are not active right now so I'm gonna go in here and I'm gonna make adjustments to this I'm gonna change the action to a train in command Black Dog continuous and then I'm gonna fix this one right here and I'm going to whoop I removed it I'm gonna make a training command black dog continuous and then I'm going to change this one to a training command black dog vibration alright so now I've got this screen is the Black Dog this screen is the Black Dog because I only have the black dog active now I'm moving so this setup right here moves between its black dog and its black dog

SUMMARY: Swapping a TT 25 flex band: two screws, and a pogo pin makes the connection; no wiring.

Alright let's show how you switch these out real quick there's two screws here just pops right out alright just pops right out you've got this connector right here that's called a pogo pin and then you've got this pin right here alright that's the connection between the two so you don't have to do anything like I said it's just you take the two screws out you put the two screws in alright you set your new flex band in place put your screws back in that's it super quick

SUMMARY: The ruggedized flex band has a stiffer cover and metal tube for hog, bear and cat dogs. Steve suggests the mini band first: less exposed wire, same GPS performance.

So I said there were three this is the ruggedized flex band same length it kind of looks like it's the same product but it's not as you can see this is a little stiffer the rubber here is a little bit stiffer this one but you've also got this extra coating here plus there's a metal tube that goes inside here that's designed to protect the wire so for guys that are primarily I recommend this product to guys that are pig hunters bear hunters and cat hunters this is the the product that you may wanna look at you got a dog that that that may have an opportunity to get involved in something that's what this is designed for so a little bit more expensive but it is something that you can buy when you buy your collars it is an option that you can pick and that's what the ruggedized is for so regular ruggedized and then mini now I generally tell folks that they should look at a mini if they're concerned about this I personally think the mini collar is the best choice for everybody same G P S antenna but the difference between the mini and the ruggedised and the regular is that you don't have the wire you don't have the surface area so the chances of a mini getting damaged is substantially less there's there's just nothing there for it to go after so I tell folks before you buy a ruggedized and spend a little extra money you may want to look at buying a mini the advantage of the mini is that it gets everything down here close together so I'm just not that worried about this wire getting cut by something I'm not worried about it getting bit or cut you know if if that were to happen then you're gonna have destruction all the way across here so if you've got a concern about that I recommend that you take a look at the mini I've been running Minis actually before they came out we did some testing with them and one of the concerns that a lot of folks have with having the G P S antenna like this you know it's gonna ride on your dog about like that there was some concern that you might not get a good G P S reception because it's gonna it's gonna tend to be down on the neck I have not found that I find the Minis pickup signal as fast as any of the other setups and they work great so if I'm I'm always running minis primarily because I run a lot of different size dogs I run a lot of puppies so I want a mini for that before you buy anything else I strongly recommend that you take a look at the mini it's my favourite of the collars

SUMMARY: Mini vs regular flex band: same antenna, much shorter band, so the collar fits tight on small necks (beagles, small bird dogs).

With the flex bands you've got three different choices this is your regular flex band and then this is the mini flex band same antenna just substantially shorter length so this allows you to take this is your regular collar this will fit on a pretty small dog but we run into situations with primarily beagles and bird dogs where you've got some some dogs where their neck is so small that you can't get good skin contact because the collar's too loose and the flex band keeps you from being able to get the collar down tight enough for a small dog this is a mini collar so same size electronics different flex band with the mini you can get it down super small this will fit on a little bitty dog and to the point that it'll fit on a dog smaller than needs to be carrying around this size collar so that allows you to get them down super tight and so these are great for like I said primarily bird dogs and beagles or where we see that some of your feists and then you know just your regular pet dogs

SUMMARY: The flex band is the TT 25's GPS antenna and wire. It's now user-replaceable, Steve's favorite improvement over the TT 15, since a broken wire means no GPS.

Alright let's talk about flex bands on the Garmin TT25 Flex band is the G P S antenna and then the wire that runs to it and connects to the collar this is what allows your collar to receive the signals from the G P S satellite and then determine where your dog is located that's done with the G P S antenna and then there's a wire that runs from this antenna down to the electronics in your collar the flex bands in the TT25 is probably my favourite improvement in the TT25 over the previous 15 collars the flex bands are user replaceable so if you have an issue with a with a flex band outside of warranty you can buy a flex band and replace it yourself that's pretty handy most people never have trouble with their flex bands but you know we've had some issues with collars getting destroyed primarily by pigs you'll get a pig that actually attacks a dog and ends up biting the collar if this wire gets broken your collar is completely useless without a G P S signal it can't track so very important piece to the collar but having these as user replaceable to me is is just a wonderful thing about the TT 25 it's a drastic improvement I think over the TT15

SUMMARY: Keep TT 25 charging contacts and clip prongs clean (steel wool for oxidation). On the charger the light goes red while charging and green when full.

Alright let's talk a little bit about the charging grid these are the charging points this is what you connect to so that you can charge your collar keep an eye on them and just make sure that they're clean they're clear of any sort of debris or any sort of oxidation you know anything like that it is metal and so you can get some stuff on it there so I like to keep it clean if I run into a situation a little bit of steel wool will take off anything that's on there MUD is typically more of a problem you get some exterior MUD on there you also wanna keep an eye on your clips here you wanna make sure that you've got all your prongs there everything's clean on this clip so just keep an eye on that you gotta have good contact when you hook it up the lights will come on and they will show the status you need to actually look at the light make sure that it is come on and that it is showing that the connection is good the collar is charging let's show what the lights look like when you plug it up I'm currently hooked up green comes on and then it's gonna switch to red it'll stay red until it's full once it's finished charging then it will switch to green

SUMMARY: The TT 25 clip snaps on top and pops off from the bottom. Steve's rule: charge every night after you run, because a dead collar is worthless when a dog is lost.

Alright let's talk a little bit about your charging clip and your charging contacts here these are metal it's a little bit of four piece there your clip attaches to the top of your collar and then snaps in and it'll stay on there stay on there in most situations to get it off you just pop it from the bottom there so relatively easy to put on and keep in place when it is charging you're gonna get lights on the front your status light is going to show when it's charging it will glow red while it is charging and then when it achieves a full charge it will go to green you can see the battery status from your handheld and so you can get a pretty good idea of when you need to charge it I generally tell folks that if you're running a dog today and you're using a collar then you need to charge it tonight the downside of the current batteries that we have is that they do last for a long time and that's great but there are few things more worthless than a tracking collar that has a dead battery and so when I turn my dogs loose at the beginning of the day or at night if you're running hounds the most important thing to me is to have a full charge on my battery so don't get lulled into the security of well I can get 60 hours of run time out of this battery or if I've got an extended battery I can get 120 or 130 hours of run time that's great but if you let your battery get down to 50% now that's cut into you know that's half and now you might end up in a situation where you need a full battery because you've got a dog that's lost or away from you or or something you know something bad happens to you and you can't recover your dog so having a full charge on your battery that's a big deal you're not gonna hurt these batteries by charging them on a regular basis this type of battery can handle being charged constantly so if you run the collar you need to charge it every night if you're gonna run it the next day so if I run today I I charge tonight and I have a full battery when I start the day tomorrow

SUMMARY: Long contact points work on short and long coats, regular ones only on short coats. Both points must touch skin; check that they're tight each time you turn on.

A lot of times I recommend the long points to people from the standpoint that a short coated dog can handle the long contact points but a long coated dog can't so if you have a lot of different dogs you know if you're dealing with dogs that have long and short then you're better off to go with the long contact points some people like the long contact points from a standpoint that you're going to get better contact typically occasionally with these collars that have additional pieces like this like your flex band and some dogs based on the shape of their neck the collar can get a little bit away from them and you might get inconsistent contact with the regular points so keep that in mind a lot of folks will get these when the collar comes in they forget where they put them or discard them you can buy them after market we keep them in stock if you need them but just something to keep in mind couple of things to understand about your contact points you have to have two and to get stimulation you've got to have contact with both of them so if you are testing a collar which I test collars on myself if you're doing that touching one probe will not allow you to feel the stimulation you've got to be touching both and then you've got to make sure that you these are screwed in good they will come loose occasionally so you kinda gotta watch em just to make sure that that they're in tight and you gotta make sure that they are they're on there so something that I recommend to folks is that when you turn the collar on check your contact points and make sure that they are screwed in tight because they can come out in the field if they get loose so just keep an eye on that your e collar will not work without two contact points

SUMMARY: Swap TT 25 contact points with the included wrench: regular for short-coated dogs like pointers, long for thicker coats.

Alright let's take a look at contact points really quick contact points are the the piece here that transmits the stimulation to your dog this is a track and train collar and so you have two contact points this is a regular contact point as a general rule the garmin systems come with regular contact points installed and then they also come with long contact points let me switch that out real quick and I'll show you what that looks like so your garmin units gonna come with this little piece right here this is a contact point wrench that's over the top of the contact point and unscrews them once you've loosened them you could generally just do them by hand this is a long contact point I usually finger tighten them and then I just kind of kick it down with the wrench there that you get it tight give you an idea of size difference here this is your long this is your short or your regular which one you choose is going to depend on your dog's coat length you know short coated dogs can get away with these most of my dogs are English pointers so as a general rule I can run just the regular contact point if you've got a dog that's got a thicker coat you know longer hair you've gotta have good skin contact so switching out to the longer points is something that you'll need to do if you have a dog that has that

SUMMARY: If your Garmin watch shows the wrong time zone after travel, open the Garmin Connect app to sync it.

So I was on the East Coast today as you can see my Garmin watch hasn't figured out that we're back in central time so let me show you a quick trick to fix that so you open up your Garmin Connect app and it should auto sync here there you go so that's all it takes one of the things about the Garmin Watch that it's heavily tied in with the Garmin Connect app if you want it to work well especially with your phone the Garmin Connect app is crucial to it doing well you gotta open it several times a day and sync it on a regular basis after a quick sync everything is back to normal

SUMMARY: The TT 25 is very customizable: straps, batteries, flex bands, antennas and contact points can all be changed.

The coolest thing to me about the TT25 collars is that they are incredibly versatile you can make all sorts of changes to them so you can change your straps you can change your batteries you can change your flex bands you can change your R F antennas so you can customise these collars to pretty much any setting that you want we're gonna go through and show you just to give you an idea on the differences in collars this is also a T25 but it has long contact points in it it has what's called the Mini Flex Band so to give you an idea here it's substantially smaller this is designed for smaller dogs and we'll talk about that in another video but really customizable neat units this is the Garmin Alpha TT25

SUMMARY: Parts of a TT 25: strap, electronics and battery, status and running lights (yellow means searching, green means locked), contact points, flex band and GPS antenna, RF antenna, and the charging grid and clip.

Alright let's talk a little bit about collars this is the current collar that Garmin is making this is a TT25 and we're gonna refer to this as a TT25 regular and by that we're referring to the battery setup and the Flex band Flex band here this is the piece that runs from the electronics up to the G P S antenna that's your flex band and so let's just go over a couple of different things collar strap you get to pick whichever color you want on this there's several different choices as far as the the different colors you get to pick different colors depending on what kind of setup you got and what you like this is what we refer to as the electronics this is your battery plus the brains of your collar on the front here you've got a status light and then you've also got running lights and we'll shoot something in the dark here to show you how those look but you have the ability to control these from the handheld you can turn them off turn them on make them flash the light in the front here is gonna show you what's going on with your unit right now it is gonna be looking for a G P S signal you'll see it's kinda yellow once it acquires a G P S signal the light on the front is gonna blink green so you can see this one right here is flashing green so on the top here you have contact points this is a track and train collar so it's an e collar also these are your contact points these are the regular contact points they also come with a long contact point and a wrench so you can change those out if you've got dogs that have thicker coats or longer coats once again this is your flex band it connects right here there's two screws that that connect your flex band this is a flex band that's been removed and as you can see there's your your two screws are right there and then it has this pin that attaches and that is the connection between your electronics and your G P S antenna so this is your G P S antenna this is what picks up the signal from the G P s satellites and allows it to triangulate and figure out where the collar is located and then you have an R F antenna this is a R F antennas radio frequency it sends the signal where as far as collar location back to your handheld and then it also receives information from your handheld as far as stimulation these are changeable we'll show you how to do that too but it you remove this plate and it screws in right here on the back of your TT25 you have this grid here and this is how you charge the unit so with each unit you're gonna get a charging clip this is a USB what is this USB A that plugs into a wall unit and then it's a USB C that plugs into your clip and your clip hooks on here that's how you charge it

SUMMARY: Battery save mode blanks the Alpha screen and disables e-collar keys until you wake it. Steve doesn't recommend it on 200 Plus/300 units, and it's easy to forget the unit is still on.

Let's take a look at another battery saving option that you have on the Garmin Alpha go to your menu go to your settings go to display so we've talked before about your backlight timeout the next thing that you have here is battery save so what battery save does is that it's tied in with your backlight timeout and when you have it turned on it will cause the unit to shut the screen down completely so it is designed where if you you aren't doing anything it causes it to drop into classified as a a battery save mode so let's turn that on and just show you a couple things here once the backlight drops off the screen just completely goes dark it does a couple of other things too so to turn it back on you can either tap the screen and I find it's inconsistent sometimes in tapping the screen takes a couple of taps sometimes to get it going something else you can do is press your side button so now it's timed out again I actually prefer to press the side button because to me it seems to be a little bit more consistent way to get it to turn on now what I don't care for in this is that it shuts down everything so let's go over here alright so I've got a collar that's activated with tone let's let the screen time out again alright as you can see when it's in battery saver mode that completely shuts down the e collar functionality now if I tap the button I'm back but it really kills the unit so to me battery saver mode is one of those options that I generally am not gonna recommend for somebody that has a Alpha 200+ or an Alpha 300 or 300 I this is a feature that you might find handy if you're running a alpha 200 or a 200 I because the handheld battery life is significantly shorter you can extend your backlight timer if you want it to stay on longer the backlight timer is what controls it to drop into battery save mode but this is one of those features that I like to explain to folks because it sounds good but I'm just not a giant fan of it especially with the the battery life that we get out of the current handhelds another note on battery saver mode that I don't care for it's hard to tell that the units actually still turned on so you can forget that you have your unit turned on leave it for a period of time while it's not gonna drain the battery quickly it will drain the battery and you can come back to it a couple of days later your unit will be completely dead so that's another thing to watch out battery Saver is just something that I caution folks against

SUMMARY: Pro 550 Plus updates add an automatic night mode (switches at sunset) and backlight options under the N menu > System. Update via Garmin Express if they're missing.

Another thing to show here on this particular update is the backlight so it's dark here now as you can see we've got a slightly difference screen on a Pro 550+ I have mine set where it automatically kicks into the night mode the G P S knows what time of day it is once the sun sets it drops into a night mode there's a backlight there too you can see how it it kicks off and to get it to come back in you just have to move press a button or move a toggle switch and it'll come back on all right to access it you turn your dial to n press your tone button go up to system and then down to appearance alright this has your day mode and your night mode and then it also has auto I leave mine in auto that way the unit knows what time sunset is and so it'll automatically kick into the night mode once the sunset hits alright there's also a backlight option it's here under system where it's backlight you have the ability to make it manual which you use your side button to kick that in you can leave it on all the time or you have it on auto I keep mine on auto so that way when I'm using the unit the backlight stays on but it has an automatic time out so those are the two features that I use so that when I'm using my unit either at dusk or at night I can see it easier with the the appearance feature if you don't have these options on your menu on your 550 plus that means that you don't have the latest version of the software so you need to go to Garmin Express update your pro 550+ handheld to the latest unit so that you have these options which includes all sorts of cool things

SUMMARY: The Alpha 200 Plus showed a too-hot-to-charge warning after sitting in a Mississippi truck in July. Watch heat in vehicles.

So to give you an idea of how just brutal it is in Mississippi right now this is the first time I have ever seen this come up on a handheld this is a 200+ and it was sitting in my truck in on a July afternoon not really in the sun but apparently enough to get it to where it will not charge be careful leaving your gear out in your vehicle in super heat just to add to that there's a little icon on the battery there let's see what it does when we kick it over to my battery is at 87 so I really didn't need to be charging anyway that's kind of cool

SUMMARY: On the Pro 550 Plus, mark your truck from the N menu (GPS signal required), then press the power button to see its distance and direction. Delete it from the same menu.

So somebody was asking me today about marking your truck on a pro 550+ turn your dial to N hit your tone button and then the first choice there is Mark Truck hit your tone button to select it alright and now it will show your the approximate location of your truck there and so to access it it's your side button so your power button I've got underneath here but with this holster you can access it so to get the location so we're tracking a dog now so and now we wanna know where the truck is let's move just a little bit I've moved locations just a little bit so you can see it a little easier still tracking a dog that's dog two that's dog one alright and then I'm gonna hit my power button it just press and release there's the truck so if you've got to give it a second to get your your distance so it's 93 feet and it's sort of southeast of me and then it'll also tell you how long it's been since you marked your truck but that's it now to delete it once again go back to N on your dial press your tone button and the first option there is Delete Truck and that's it one thing to keep in mind is that you do have to have a GPS signal for it to be able to Mark the truck if you don't have a GPS signal it won't even show the truck as an option so you gotta wait till you have a GPS signal and that's about it works pretty well real happy with it

SUMMARY: Replace Mark Waypoint on a front key with Toggle Screen Lock so one button locks and unlocks the touchscreen while the other keys and stim still work.

So one of the things that many people struggle with the Garmin Alpha units is the touchscreen so the touchscreen allows you to do all sorts of cool things but it can be very frustrating especially depending on how you carry the unit there's a solution for that that I like to use by changing one of the settings on the buttons so out of the box you're gonna have an option for a map compass and then marking a waypoint and I generally don't have to Mark waypoints that often so I make a change there so that my touchscreen can be locked click on your home screen click on settings and then go to training setup and then we're going to select training keys so this is where you control all of your training keys so we're going to select the Mark way point and we're going to change the action alright this is a utility so we're gonna go to toggle screen lock so now we have switched over to toggle screen lock so now my training key set up for this grouping is map dog compass toggle screen lock so now we go back we'll press our compass button here right now our touchscreen still works but by pressing the toggle screen lock notice it has changed from a lock to an opened lock now locks your touchscreen so your buttons still work as far as being able to move from map and compass and then If you need to stimulate a dog, you still have that option too, using your side buttons to scroll through. But now if you need to use your touch screen, you simply press the lock and now your touch screen is active again. So it's a simple way to keep your touch screen from being an issue.

SUMMARY: In Channel View, tap a collar with interference to change its ID to an interference-free one (or pick one yourself). The collar must be in communication.

Alright so let's talk about what to do when you're on channel view here alright for one is one of my collars it's it's blue alright the yellow there means that it's having a little issue and as you can see there's a 4 2 next to it that is busy so that means that at least one of these collars is transmitting on 4 2 and I'm on 4 1 so if you run into this situation you see there's plenty of clear channels you know just over here in the 4 so in channel view you can click on it and you can change it so you wanna change blue so be tracked on a different ID I tell it yes it's gonna look for a free interference free ID so it picked what it classifies as interference free ID which is 4 dash 5 and it's gonna change my collar over to that so I tell it okay so that's the really cool thing about Channel View is that not only can you figure out if you're having stuff that is close to you that's a problem you can also change your collars from the channel view now you need the collar close to you to do that you've got to have communication between the handheld and the collar but just from the channel view it's that simple to switch something over so if you if you run into interference or you find that you're having trouble with the collar and you check channel view and you see that there's something close to it all you gotta do is switch it over pretty simple stuff alright so I'm getting some interference on this blue it's on 4 5 and that that's a concern so I'm gonna change it I looked around to see and I've got an open option here so you can pick the I d instead of letting the device do it so I'm gonna go down here and I'm gonna change it to 1-0 alright so now blue is on 1-0 alright so I took it off of 4-5 I'm still seeing an active on 4-5 so I don't know if we've got a collar that's over here that's active but something's causing 4-5 to be active so we'll go back over here to Channel 1 alright and blue is on Channel One now and Channel One has got a lot of clear boom boom boom so I feel a little better about that

SUMMARY: Channel View with 20 known collars shows even more busy channels than collars, because nearby IDs register too. Use it to pick clear channels.

The handheld on the right has all the extra collars I've got 20 collars that are logged into it and as you can see on Channel 2 here there's one two there's four collars that are here now if you kick over and look at my handheld it's showing a lot more activity than just those four collars now my Alpha X L is on channel 2 I think that's all I have on channel 2 but let's take a look at that so on my devices the only thing that I have on channel 2 is my Alpha X L everything else is on 3 and 4 so let's go back so looking again at Channel 2 we're showing more channels that are busy or have the opportunity for interference than even the number of collars that are out so really we should have five things going on here but one two three four we've really got six now that 2 6 right there being active there's not a 2 6 that I'm running so something else is causing that but it could also be because it's close to the 2 7 so mainly this is just to show you that using Channel view allows you to see what channels are clear so if you're having interference trouble you don't even know what the interference is this allows you to look at something and say okay I wanna use something different I wanna move to a clear channel you can easily do that from the channel view screen

SUMMARY: Channel View with a bunch of random collars running: give it time to cycle, since busy channels pop up over a few seconds, then avoid them.

I have a bunch of collars random sitting on my my truck alright you see that little black has interference right there that popped up alright so this is kind of replicating what would happen if you just showed up somewhere and there's a bunch of random collars going on all these collars are turned on and they're they're rolling but none of them are added to a handheld so you know it's as good of a a random sort of thing as I can do so when you go into a channel view alright you see how we've got some busy signals there so basically what's what this is saying is that on those channels you've got some activity now the thing you gotta understand about how this works is that the way Garmin collars transmit is that it's a timing thing when a collar's on a channel the handheld knows to look for the collar at a certain time so that's kind of a basic way of explaining it but at a certain time in the rotation a collar on say 1 10 will transmit and the handheld knows when that's supposed to transmit looking for it so I say all that to say to you when you're running Channel view you've got to pay attention you've got to give it a little bit of time to run so let's jump over here and look at Channel 2 so Channel 2 looks pretty clear alright Boop there we go see how they kind of popped up so you'll have some rotation in it so you can't just turn it on and go hey everything's fine you've gotta watch it for a second to see what's going on alright so let's go back here we'll look at Channel 3 kinda same thing here see how they start popping up you gotta give it a second so interestingly enough it doesn't even with with this many collars running there's still plenty of free spots to go so that's kind of an overview of what it looks like when you have random colours I'm gonna do a couple of other things just to sort of show you what's going on but we'll do that in another video but if you show up somewhere you know all you gotta do is just turn it on and just give it a little bit of time it'll tell you what to avoid

SUMMARY: Channel View (300, 300i, 200 Plus) shows which of Garmin's 5 channels and 20 sub-IDs are busy nearby, so you can avoid interference at crowded hunts and trials.

Alright let's talk about Channel View the Channel view is a feature that's on the alpha 300, 300 I and the alpha 200+ and it shows you what channels Garmin units are broadcasting in your vicinity so under the main menu you select Channel View and it takes you to the screen so it has several different things here it has my devices and then it has five different channels Garmin has five channels that they broadcast on and then those channels are broken up into 20 sub channels so that's your your choices for what you broadcast on so the Garmin units do a good job of spreading out your devices so that they're not too close to each other in that way you're less likely to have interference issues so if you look under your devices I've got four things going on right now I've got two collars I've got a 200+ which is this 3 17 and then I've got an Alpha XL over here that's on two seven so two collars two hand held these are my devices this unit knows that because they're all tracking each other you can see they're they're spread out on different spots right now there's nothing else going on you see this there it says one person using Channel 4 that's my black collar alright and then up here I have my blue collar on the 4 one but everything else on 4 is clear and you can look around and see currently there's nothing on Channel 5 there's nothing on Channel 1 so there just aren't any other collars broadcasting in my vicinity and for most people most of the time this is gonna be but if you run into spots where there are a lot of people hunting or you're at a competition Channel View gives you the ability to see what's being broadcast and to then to adjust so that you have the clearest possible channel so we're gonna go turn some collars on here and do another video show what it looks like when you have a lot of collars broadcasting at the same time

SUMMARY: If Garmin Express can't find your device, you're likely using a power-only cable. Switch to a data cable; the Alpha should back up and the computer should see it as a drive.

Alright so here's a little troubleshooting thing for you I have my this is a 200 I that I'm updating software on got it plugged up as you can see it's charging and I am got my Garmin Express turned on now we're gonna go over here to add a device it's gonna look for it and generally when you plug a device in with a computer what should happen is that a window should open because now you you've plugged in an external device to your computer so it kinda treats it like it's a a separate hard drive or just a separate device and generally you'll get a window that'll open up and at the same time if your Garmin Express is turned on it should say to you we found the device would you like us to add it but sometimes you'll get what you know what's going on here where it's looking and it can't seem to find it so let's give it a second here so it looked for a good bit and then it popped up with this basically going what are you trying to add alright anytime this happens you've got an issue so the problem here is that there's a difference between data cords and power cords this is just a power cord so all it's doing is putting power to the unit but it's not a data cord so you need a data cord you see this one right here so it's got the little data symbol on it right there so let's plug that up real quick and we'll show you the difference now I've got my data cord plugged up watch what happens now the unit power's on and then it kicks into this so that's the first thing that you should see is that it should be backing itself up real quick before it goes into the into the mode to be able to format alright so once that's done we go back over here and let's see if we can search again real quick alright you see how the screen popped up alright that is my computer recognising it as an external drive and then immediately it found it and we're gonna add the device if you're having trouble with Garmin Express the first thing that you want to check is making sure that the cord that you're using is actually the correct kind of cord

SUMMARY: If your handheld track keeps disappearing: set Tracked Devices > handheld tracks to Show All. If it still vanishes, clear or save the huge old track in Track Manager to free memory.

So the question is how to keep tracks on your screen this is a 200 so it's a little different setup than the than the 300 that I normally use but conceptually it's similar now you would think that it would be over here in Track Manager but it's not so this is the current track that you're running you control that through Track Manager but let's go back to the map so you click on let me show that again so on your map screen there's a little they call these a hamburger menu down here it's a little three three line menu garment has them all over the place typically if you're at a screen there's gonna be a hamburger menu so you click on it and you've got map set up and track devices set up so your handheld is considered to be a track device so we click on that and then you've got a couple of different options here but the handheld tracks on map is what you're looking for so you can control how long your track this is typically a blue line that's on the handheld it shows where your handheld has been shows on the map screen so you wanna make sure that you've got show all selected but if you don't want that you always have the option of changing it to you can keep it five minutes one hour two hours now just so you know if you set this for less just to keep your screen clear and then you need a track from say you said it for two hours and then you like oh I need to know where I was 4 hours ago all you do is come in here and change it to show all it's still gonna be on the on the map now if you find that yours is still disappearing after like your your comment said it's disappearing after a couple of days but you have the show all selected then you need to go back over here to your track manager you need to look at my track now this is a device that I just reset and added software to so it's got nothing going on but if you've been running it for several years and haven't cleared this then you've got this gigantic track that shows everything what you need to do is either hit your save and save it or you need to discard it if you don't want it the thought that I have is that if you you're set on show all but it keeps disappearing then you have used up all your internal memory and you need to go in here and clear that off

SUMMARY: Steve's favorite system: the Pro 550 Plus is an e-collar with tracking. 6 dial levels with low/medium/high buttons, toggles for dogs and stim type, tone button, plus direction, battery and north on screen.

The Pro 550+ is probably my favourite Garmin dog tracking GPS system the reason that I love it the most is that it is an e collar that has dog tracking and so it gives you all the functionality that tritonics and Garmin have in their e collar systems in that it has buttons and it has toggle switches so you can move between dogs and functionality it has a dial and when you're trying to correct a dog timing is probably the most important thing and so being able to quickly correct a dog and make changes in your stimulation levels raise lower move from one dog to the next without having to think about it this is the unit for that and so let me just show you a couple of cool things on it stimulation you have UH6 levels so it's one through six on the dial and then with the black buttons you have a low a medium and a high by pressing them together and so really the way you're supposed to use this unit is with your fingers and so it's low medium high okay so I'm on level two right now we'll just dial it down to one so that that we're on level one and the stimulation as you can see it's low medium high and then you have control over the kinds of stimulation right here you have I'm in the continuous position but you also have momentary and then you have tone it's an independent button and you have three different colours that you can deal with there's a dog 1 dog 2 and dog 3 and you can see on the screen here we've got dog 1 I currently don't have a dog 2 active and then I have dog 3 and you can see this little colour coded on the screen here tells you what dog position that you're in when I'm running two dogs on this or even when I'm running three I prefer to have dog one in the top position and dog two in the bottom position so that way I can quickly go from one to two and then on your screen here you have several things you have an arrow which is the direction that the dog is from you and as you can see my collar 1 needs charging where my collar 2 is almost at a full charge in the top left we have our direction indicator so you can see which way north is and then the little stop sign there that is used to tell if your dog is moving or on point

SUMMARY: Remove menu items you don't use (navigation, competition timer, etc.) under Settings > Edit Main Menu.

Thing I definitely don't need is navigation so let's go get rid of that so settings main menu menu and then navigation so what did navigation allows me to use this as a standard GPS system I don't need that cause I got the one in my truck and I got an Alpha XL so I'm never gonna use this to navigate to a to a location while I'm driving it's just not gonna happen it can do it but it's not gonna happen so we're gonna remove it so now when I go back to my main menu it's gone and I could get rid of some other stuff here too I don't use Competition Timer I seldom use Channel View we'll talk about that but it's kind of handy it's rare that I use map manager or location alerts but we'll talk about those satellite can be important but it's rare that you need it and then same thing there Markway point and stopwatch just stuff that I don't necessarily need but there's plenty of room on here so if you wanna keep them you can keep them

SUMMARY: Make the Alpha less confusing by customizing the main menu: remove apps you don't use. They're not deleted and can be added back anytime.

One of the complaints that I hear from folks especially on the Garmin Alpha units is that they're confusing there's too many options there's too many different things that that you can do and when I'm looking for stuff I get lost well there's a cure for that but some people are kind of scared of it but I'm gonna show you why you shouldn't be every unit comes out of the box looking like this right now this is a 200+ software is the same as a 300 or 300 I this is your main menu and it's got a lot of stuff on here but I've added something here I've added this this stopwatch so I'm not really gonna use that so let's go get rid of it so we click on settings go back to edit main menu and you can tell it's edit because it's got the little wrench by it and then we're going to click on main menu and select an item to change so we slide down here to stopwatch we click on it and here are my options move up move down insert or remove so I can change its position or I can get rid of it I don't need it so I'm gonna remove it alright back to my main menu so now it's gone now here's the thing it's not gone it's just no longer on the main menu screen so if I wanna add it back I click add a page I click applications I slide down to stopwatch there it is so you're not removing it from the system you're just taking it off of the page you can take this page and you can customize it for whatever that you want

SUMMARY: Add Mark Waypoint to the favorites bar at the bottom of the map and compass screens via Settings > Edit Main Menu > Favorites.

So let's talk a little more about customization on a Garmin Alpha we showed how you can change your key setup and we removed the ability to Mark a waypoint from the key and put in the lock screen but let's say that the marking a waypoint is important to you you want quick access to it so at the bottom of your screen you have a map and a compass selection these are touchscreen selections so that when your touchscreen is available you can you can move now you've also got that here as touch screens and then you've also got that here as button selections so that's a little redundant let me show you how to make some adjustments there if you want to go to the main menu and then we're gonna go to settings and then we're gonna scroll down to the edit main menu alright you got a lot of different choices here we'll go over some of that but right now we're gonna talk about favourites so favourites are the things that appear down at the bottom of the screen right now we've got map and we've got pro view I'm gonna leave those for now but I'm going to add a page and let's see I believe it's an application that is a tricky thing about Garmin is sometimes they name stuff differently we're gonna add Mark Waypoint so now in my favourites I've got map Pro View and Mark Waypoint so we go back and now in our favourites we have a Mark Waypoint option so now from the main screens I can Mark away point it's just another way to customize your unit

SUMMARY: Steve runs both a Pro 550 Plus and an Alpha tracking the same TT 25 collars: the 550 Plus for quick e-collar work, the Alpha for maps. An expensive but solid backup setup.

The ability to customize the Garmin Alpha units to me it's a huge advantage but sometimes it's a disadvantage for folks because they may get a little lost in the amount of things that you can do but when I'm looking at a an individual customer a lot of times I I like to say okay what exactly is it that you're doing so the question came down to what my setup is and I run a little bit of what I would classify as a non traditional setup I run t T25 collars with the mini setup right now I'm running a regular battery and then on my black collar and I'm running an extended battery on my blue collar that's a testing setup for me if I was just running if I was just running collars and I wasn't testing stuff I would run extended battery on everything but I I also do something that that most folks don't do this is not my traditional handheld this is an alpha 200+ I normally run a 300 I but my 300 I is travelling internationally right now with my youngest and so I'm running a 200+ it was the unit that I did some testing on when we announced that but the other thing that I run is a Pro 5 50+ and the reason I'm I'm talking about this is because the customer I was dealing with yesterday one of the options that I said to him is that you know you might be better off just switching over to a Pro 5 50+ and he was like no I gotta have you know I gotta have this I gotta have the mapping and I need I need the the stuff that I get off of my 300 but I really want the features of the 5 50+ and what I don't think a lot of people realize is you can run both so I'm tracking my black collar right here and I'm tracking my black color right here so that's blue which I need to charge my battery as you see and that's black and tone 10 so both of these hand helds are synced and track this collar now this is not a setup that I recommend for everybody it's very expensive and and it's not exactly what I would recommend for everybody it's a great backup option you know and so you know I prefer the 5 50+ because it's an E collar that has tracking but there's a lot of stuff that it will not do that the alpha units will do but if you're in a situation and you want to have a backup option this is the combination that you can do

SUMMARY: Compass Menu offers Pro View (single or multi-dog arrows) or Dog Compass, where tracking and stim are tied to the same dog as you cycle with side keys.

Let's talk about a couple of different options on the compass view so generally you're gonna be looking at dogs either on a map screen just here or on the compass screen there's a couple of different views that you can see on the compass screen if you click on the menu in the compass screen you have two options here as far as different views we have dog compass and then we have single dog if you click on single dog this gets you a nice big old image of an individual dog and then you can scroll up to see your other things that you're tracking so right now I've got my truck which I just so happen to be sitting in and just marked so it's zero feet away and then I've got my blue collar and I got my black collar which is on point now if you wanna see them all at the same time this is called preview if you wanna see them all at the same time then you can go to multi dog this gives you an arrow for each collar that you're tracking and you see it's got different directions depending on where the dog is from you and it also shows your truck and where you are in relationship to your truck so this is called a multi dog view now your stimulation set up I'm using my side buttons to move through and this is the blue color this is the black color and then I've got my map and my compass and my lock screen as far as my other options there is an alternative view to this though that has some advantages so click on your menu and let's go to dog compass alright with the dog compass when you're on the blue collar it's gonna show you a line on the compass that shows you the direction the dog is from you and then up here you're gonna get your distance and you're gonna get what your dog is doing as you can see he's on point and then it ties the stimulation with it so right now while I'm on the blue in the compass screen I've got stimulation on the blue when I move up to the black you'll notice that the tracking turns to the black dog so stimulation and tracking are tied together on the individual dogs when I go to my screen that has my map my compass and my lock functions on it I've got no tracking for a dog so this ties your stimulation with your tracking so that's kind of a neat way to do it if you're working with multiple dogs and you want to keep up with them just so you know you will get notifications even if you're not on the screen so if the black dog were to go on point you get a point notification even on this screen so that is an option but all of this is through the menu function and once again it's either pro view or it's dog compass

SUMMARY: Make the touchscreen less of a problem: swap Mark Waypoint for Toggle Screen Lock on a front key.

So one of the things that many people struggle with with the Garmin Alpha units is the touchscreen so the touchscreen allows you to do all sorts of cool things but it can be very frustrating especially depending on how you carry the unit there's a solution for that that I like to use by changing one of the settings on the buttons so out of the box you're gonna have an option for a map compass and then marking a waypoint and I generally don't have to Mark waypoints that often so I make a change there so that my touchscreen can be locked click on your home screen click on settings and then go to Training Setup and then we're gonna select training keys so this is where you control all of your training keys so we're gonna select the mark waypoint and we're going to change the action alright this is a utility so we're gonna go to Toggle Screen Lock so now we have switched over to Toggle Screen Lock so now my training key set up for this grouping is Map Dog Compass Toggle Screen Lock so now we go back we'll press our compass button here right now our touchscreen still works but by pressing the toggle screen lock notice it has changed from a lock to an opened lock that locks your touchscreen so your buttons still work as far as being able to move from map and compass and then if you need to stimulate a dog you still have that option too using your side buttons to scroll through but now if you need to use your touch screen you simply press the lock and now your touch screen is active again so it's a simple way to keep your touchscreen from being an issue

SUMMARY: Set the backlight timeout under Settings > Display. Shorter saves battery; 1-2 minutes is a good compromise if 15 seconds is too fast.

So one of the things that controls how long your battery lasts is your backlight as you can see right now my backlight has turned off you touch the screen and the backlight comes on the backlight has a timer and without doing anything that timer is kicking and once you reach 15 seconds for me it shuts back off depending on what you're doing this can be a great advantage if you're only checking your screen every once in a while then the backlight is gonna automatically turn off and that'll save you some battery life but if you're doing stuff with the screen as far as you're watching something and you want it to stay on it can be really irritating so let's go show how we fix that so you hit your home button and then you hit your settings button and the backlight is controlled under display and then right here at the top you have the backlight timeout so bunch of other things here but we'll talk about them later under Backlight Timeout you have a bunch of different choices as far as what you want so a little bit of it depends on how you use the handheld for what I'm doing I'm gonna have it stay on so my backlight no matter what is gonna stay on all the time and I'm primarily doing that because I'm filming and so that's the only reason there for most folks you would probably be better off if you find the quick turn off to be irritating you know set it for a minute set it for two minutes and then that way when you forget to switch it back off you know after two minutes of no use it's gonna kick itself off and it'll save you some battery life but with the 200+ and the 300 units we get really long battery life anyway so this is not as big of a deal back if we were running a a 200 or a 200 I it would be a much bigger issue because the handheld battery life is significantly shorter so that's just a trick to save you a little bit of time a little bit of battery life on your Garmin Alpha

SUMMARY: How Alpha tracking works: the handheld and collar each get GPS from satellites, but they talk to each other by radio, which is why range is limited.

So yesterday we were talking about Garmin Alpha collars basically how they work and I think a lot of people don't really understand how the systems work from the standpoint that your handheld is not communicating the dog's location via satellite basically what is happening is is that you have a GPS in your hand and your dog is wearing a GPS those two systems are communicating with the satellites they are plotting their position posting that on the map and then they send that signal via a radio wave from the collar to the handheld so that way the handheld knows where the collar is and then if you're using an alpha you are using stimulation or tone or vibe then your handheld is sending that via radio signal back to the collar so there's a radio signal communication between the two which is why you don't have unlimited range with a GPS dog tracking system such as the Garmin Alpha so there's an R F signal and that's affected by what's between you and the dog so two different things going on here the collars picking up a G P s signal the handheld's picking up a GPS signal and the communication is a radio wave that's where the limitations come in as far as distance

SUMMARY: Best practice: turn on collars and handhelds early and wait for satellite lock (collar light goes green) and communication before turning dogs loose.

So a best practice when using a Garmin GPS system is to make sure that you have a satellite link between the collars and the handhelds before you put it on a dog and turn it loose so let me show you what that means so we're gonna turn our collar on we're gonna turn our hand held on now what both of these units have to do they have to power up and then they have to get satellite connection alright the way to tell on your handheld are these little bars right here which looks like it grabbed it pretty quick but your collar it takes a little bit longer now the way to tell on a t T25 is the light so this light you see it right now it's blinking it's sort of a yellowish so we're waiting for it to be a we're waiting for it to turn green now let's jump over here so I'm not even tracking this color so this is not working out for me let's go track this color like boom alright as you can see right now it's not linked up the collar now has satellite link and now it's linked up to the collar so basically what has happened here is that this is a GPS unit this is a GPS unit both of them have to get locations and the way they do that is by locating the satellites figuring out how far away they are from the satellites and then the handheld and the collar communicate with each other they're not communicating through the satellites they're communicating through a radio signal and that's what these antennas here do this is an R F antenna this is an R F antenna the mistake that people make is that they put the collars on the dogs they'll turn them on and they'll turn the dogs loose and then they'll look down at their unit they don't have a signal that can be for a number of reasons but if your dog is out running you don't have either a satellite signal or a radio signal you're not gonna well there's a chance you won't get one and now you can't track your dog so what I want people to do is I want them to turn their collars on turn their hand helds on and give them time to sync up and as you can see it doesn't generally take that long sometimes it can depending on some situations with the satellites but as a general rule it just doesn't take that long so the smart thing to do is turn your stuff on before you let your dogs out and there's a lot of different ways to do that I'll do it sometimes when I'm driving if I'm driving to a place to run dogs I'll turn my gear on before I get there that way it's got time to sync up or if if I'm going somewhere and I'm hunting as soon as I stop my truck I turn all my stuff on and then I've got a few other things I have to do before I start turning dogs loose but I'm not turning a dog out until I have satellite link and communication between my collars and my handhelds I strongly recommend that you do the same thing

SUMMARY: Update rates: dynamic (recommended when available) only updates when status changes, saving battery when dogs are still; 2.5 seconds otherwise. Avoid 10-second and 2-minute except rescue mode.

So let's take a look at update rate we've talked about this a little bit to correct or select your update rate click on the collar and then in the info screen here you've got all sorts of information but let's take a look at update rate so update rate is how often the collar sends information to the handheld right now I'm in dynamic which this is a newer update rate excuse me this is a newer update rate some of the older collars don't have this as an option but it is a a newer update rate dynamic changes updates depending on what the collar is doing it's designed to improve battery life in most situations I recommend it for folks what dynamic does is that it's only sends information to the collar when a status change has happened say a dramatic status change and by that I mean let's say you have a dog on point the dog's on point and it sends a point indicator to you the collar says dog's on point now in a two and a half second update rate what's gonna happen is that every two and a half seconds the collar is going to send you an update that says dogs on point two and a half seconds later it's gonna send you an update that says dogs on point so not really a valuable piece of information seeing how a dog on point should not have moved so in dynamic what it's gonna do is it's gonna send you an update that says your dog's on point and then it's gonna stop sending you updates that's because your dog's still on point so you now are going to your dog and let's say it takes you two minutes to get to your dog that's on point so that's two minutes of updates that the collar does not send because nothing has changed there's no new information now if your dog comes off of point then the dynamic is gonna automatically send you an update it'll tell you now that the dog's moving but as long as he's stationary it's not going to update you every two and a half seconds so that's the biggest difference between these two you know dogs being on point might not save you an enormous amount of time but what I tell folks is that there's there's two kinds of folks there's folks that turn their collars on in the morning leave them on all day and then there's folks that turn their collars on in the morning and then they turn them off say when they take a break or when they move to another spot or when they stop for lunch I'm the guy that leaves my collar on all day in the morning I turn my collars on I'm not turning them off until the end of the day when I stop for lunch and let's just say that I stop and take a 45 minute break or an hour break my collars are gonna run the entire time now with dynamic there's gonna be very little battery drain because the collar is going to drop into point mode because it's stationary and then it's gonna stop sending signals because it's not gonna move so for me dynamic is great I don't want to have to think is this collar turned on does this collar have a signal so I don't turn my collar on and off throughout the day so dynamic benefits me greatly as far as improving battery life so it just depends on what you're doing now the advantage of some longer update rates 5 second 10 second and 2 minute is that you can extend battery life by lowering the number of communications at as far as the time personally I don't care for this especially the 10 second and the two minute that's a lot of time and you lose a lot of information as far as what your dog's doing two minutes as far as I'm concerned is strictly for rescue mode when your battery gets low if you have Rescue mode turned on then the collar will move from whatever update rate you're in to the two minute update and that's really designed for a battery that's that's about to run out of power and you're gonna be in a situation where you need to rescue the dog so having a two minute update at that point becomes beneficial but in my opinion there's no other reason to do that so generally I recommend that folks either look at dynamic if they have it available or do a two and a half second update

SUMMARY: Humor: a reminder to check on your friends trying to work out in Mississippi summer humidity.

This is your daily reminder to check on your old fat friends that are trying to work out in this humidity. We are not okay.

SUMMARY: The power-button status screen shows GPS signal, battery, backlight, screen/key lock, alerts history, and your ID, transmitting and update rate for being tracked.

One of the more important screens on your Garmin Alpha is accessed through your power button so on the side of your handheld you quick press and release on your power button this gives you a status screen several things that you can see here first off is your G P s signal and then your battery life I'm currently at 98% then we have the ability to control your backlight got a slider scale for that you have the ability to lock your screen here so that if you want the touchscreen to not be active this is one of the ways to do that you also have the ability to lock your keys so that your keys do not accidentally get used and then you have two other things here alerts is a neat spot where you can go in and see all of your alerts if you have a question on something I just cleared this one out so I just stopped my vehicle and I've got three collars on they have all gone on point but every alert that comes up while I'm running this handheld will be able to be seen here and then you have the I d so this is a very important piece for folks from the standpoint that if you want your handheld to be tracked by other handhelds and if you want to be able to communicate with other devices such as Alpha XL another garment handheld you have to have transmitting turned on and then the transmitting also has an that goes with it this is the number that other folks will use to track you and then you have your update rate update rate on this is just like update rates on the collar you can change that if you need to if you want it to be less but the fastest is five seconds and that's what I prefer to set mine at so pretty important stuff from the status screen

SUMMARY: An old TT 15 with a rotted, damaged flex band wire won't get GPS. The TT 25's short mini band and screw-on, replaceable design avoids that.

So something to watch out for on your G P s tracking systems if you have a collar that's turning on but it's not picking up a GPS signal typically one of the well one of the first things you want to look at is going to be if you're still connected to the unit with your wires so on this is a TT 15 and on the older units there's a wire as you can see that runs from the unit up to the GPS antenna if that wire is broken you're not gonna be able to get a GPS signal this one might actually still be working but it's headed toward broken as you can see you've got some got some rot here and this can happen too just from mishandling and so this collar is headed for a major problem so if you you have a collar that's not getting the G P S first thing you wanna check and see is if you have some sort of cut in your wire the newer collars this is a TT25 with the mini set up and one of the advantages of the 25 collars is that this piece is a separate piece and it's user replaceable so couple of things I like about the mini first off you got a lot less surface area here to deal with it's a much shorter connection and then you've got two screws and a pogo pin if you do have trouble you can replace this yourself so huge advantage with the 25

SUMMARY: If the handheld shows your dog somewhere you know he isn't, check the update rate. A 30-second or 2-minute rate shows where the dog was, not where he is.

Another thing to watch when you're troubleshooting with a Garmin Dog tracking system your update rate update rate is the amount of time in between communication with the collar and the handheld depending on what system you have you can have anything from a two and a half second all the way up to a two minute update rate and then newer systems have something that's called dynamic which the dynamic update rate changes depending on what your dog's doing where this can become a problem in a troubleshooting situation is that especially if you have a unit that has a touchscreen on it you can accidentally change the update rate what can happen there is that you'll have the system telling you a dog is in a location but he's no longer in that location this especially happens when you change to a 30 second or a two minute update rate what will happen is that you can actually see the dog your systems telling you the dog is somewhere else and the reason it's telling you it's somewhere else is because the update rate is super slow 30 seconds or two minutes ago your dog was actually where the unit is pointing so that's something to keep an eye on if your unit starts telling you that your dog is in places that you know he's not one of the first things you wanna do is check your update rate

SUMMARY: Troubleshooting step one: know where true north is and check your unit's north indicator. If it's off, calibrate.

Let's talk a little bit about troubleshooting with your Garmin dog tracking system there's several things that you can do and I'm gonna cover them over several different videos but the first thing that you need to know is what's true north I think when people get into trouble with a tracking system they start saying I'm not sure if my tracking system is is tracking accurately something seems off it's not correct the first thing that you wanna do make sure that the unit is actually pointing north every garment system has a north indicator on it depending on which system you're using it's in different spots we can go through that but every one of them is gonna show a a north direction on it and you need to know what actual north is so that you can make sure that your unit is pointing in the correct direction if it's not pointing in the correct direction then the first thing that you need to do is calibrate the unit so that's depending on which unit you have you can go through and there's there's calibration and basically what that does is it takes the unit and it realigns it to true north but if you don't know which direction north is then you won't know if the units not pointing in the correct direction so you need to know what north is you can do that a couple of different ways most vehicles nowadays have some sort of compass system built into them I carry a small compass with me and it's just something that I I like to know which direction north is it helps you keep from getting lost and so so it's kind of key so one of the first things in troubleshooting is no true north

SUMMARY: Personal: Steve's Instinct watch tracks naps too; a personal record of 2.5 hours.

One of the things that I like about the Garmin watch that I'm running right now is that it tracks sleep because of the battery life I can wear it all night and it keeps up with with my sleep but something else it keeps up with is naps so you can go in and tell it you're taking a nap and time it or it'll just keep up with it if you actually take a nap during the day so today was a personal record for me with two hours and 30 minutes of napping

SUMMARY: Steve's three inReach check-in messages, each with a location link: 'all good,' 'delayed but fine,' and 'need help but not life-threatening.'

So I just got through setting up my garment in reach you have depending on the plan that you choose for your garment in reach you you have the option of selecting a plan that has unlimited check ins and what I like to do with a check in I have three different messages that I use as a check in and basically what a check in's gonna do is it's a preset it it it it's written out what it's gonna say and then it includes a location link and I I like to drop one of those when I leave the truck just so that if something were to happen folks know where to at least start looking for me that message goes out to several people my wife primarily so I can hit a check in it's gonna say everything's great here's where I am and it includes a link but then I have two other messages I have a undelayed message but everything's fine that's in a situation where I have some sort of issues say car trouble or if I get stuck just you know something that's minor and I don't require any assistance but I'm gonna be later than I thought I was gonna be so that's my second that's a check in that says hey I'm having some issues but I don't require any assistance and then I have a third message which is hey here's where I'm located I'm having an issue and I require assistance but it's not life threatening and that's gonna be a situation where something's wrong with my vehicle or I'm stuck or and I can't I can't get out of it without some help and this is the I need you to you know send assistance as soon as possible but it's not life threatening and those options make it a lot easier on the folks that are waiting for me to come home and want me to come home in one piece

SUMMARY: Long collar battery life tempts people not to charge. Charge every night you'll run tomorrow so you have maximum battery if a dog gets lost.

One of the things that we like with our current GPS systems is that we now have much longer battery life, especially with the collars. You can go days and days with one of the new collars. Especially if you get a TT twenty five and you get the extended battery, you can get somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 hours of straight run time, which is great. Anytime that I am talking to an engineer about a GPS system, I'm always looking for two things. I'm looking for more range, and I'm looking for longer battery life. But there's a downside to longer battery life, and that is that people have a tendency not to charge their systems as often as perhaps they should, because you can go several days. So if you're on a hunting trip and you run your dog today, and you run tomorrow, and you run the next day, your collar still gonna have plenty of, plenty of battery life. But there's a downside to that. And the downside to that is that if you do end up with a lost dog, you want the longest possible battery life to recover that dog. So I caution folks about not charging their collars every day. If you're running a dog today and you're running a dog tomorrow, I'm gonna charge my collar again tonight because I want maximum battery life just in case something goes wrong.

SUMMARY: Fourth of July safety: keep dogs inside, crated or in a bathroom with white noise, and make sure your name and phone number are on the collar. Fireworks can go on for days.

Today is July 2nd in the United States. We're about to celebrate our independence, and we have a tendency to do that by blowing stuff up. So if you have a dog, you need to do your best to protect him from this. And keep in mind that a lot of us start blowing stuff up prior to the 4th of July. Pretty good chance that if it hasn't started in your neighborhood, it's gonna start tonight. So keep an eye on your dog. Don't, don't guess, don't experiment to see if your dog is comfortable with fireworks. He's not. I'm sorry, he's just not. And so you need to have them inside. You need to have them away from exterior walls. If you can, you can crate them, get them inside. I like bathrooms and, you know, I like to have some sort of sound machine, fan or white noise machine. And just keep an eye on them, keep them safe. Fireworks are not something that dogs enjoy. And you need to keep them away from them as best as you can because if you don't, there's a pretty good chance that they're gonna make a break for it. This is where the fight or flight comes in. And with fireworks, they're gonna flee. And so you're gonna, if you don't take the precautions, you stand a good chance of having a lost dog on your hands. Make sure that you've got your name and phone number on your dog and Keep them as safe as possible. The other thing to keep in mind is that the 4th of July is not the end of fireworks. They go on sometimes till the 5th or the 6th. So if you have a dog that is especially sensitive to it and is in a situation where they might be able to escape, you need to protect them for, I'm gonna say, the next week. So be safe, pay attention to your dog and keep him away from fireworks as best you can.

SUMMARY: inReach cost: $50 more on the unit, about a $40 activation, no annual fee now, plans from about $8/month pay-as-you-go. Steve uses the $15 plan.

Using the garment inreach as a backup is not terribly expensive. So the cost of the unit is with an Alpha is only $50 more. So when you're spending you know seven, 800 dollars on a unit that's not that's not that's not that big of a deal. So you get your 50 bucks for the price of the unit. Right now there's a 40 dollar activation fee. That's a one time fee. There is no annual fee which that's new. I'm not sure when Garmin switched over to that. I've been paying an annual fee so I need to look into mine. But they've got a lot of different usage options as far as what the monthly charge is. And so the least expensive is about $8. and that's a pay as you go. So every time you use an SOS you send a message. there's gonna be a fee associated with that. It's not terrible. 10 cents to a quarter depending on on what you're doing. I'm set up at the 15 dollar level which gives me a little bit more flexibility. but I probably could look and see the 8 dollar a month I think would work for me. so it's not terribly expensive if you're not using it constantly. And so there are some more expensive monthly options if you are somewhere where you need satellite communication on a regular basis. So it's definitely one of those Things where you can customize it, depending on your needs.

SUMMARY: Many buy the 300i without activating inReach. Steve uses it as a backup communication device in case his phone breaks where there's no Wi-Fi.

I was setting up a Garmin Alpha 300 I yesterday the we sell more of 300 Eye units than we do the standard 300 unit and I've always kind of felt that people were buying the 300 Eye not so much because they knew what the difference was between the two but because it was more expensive and I think the thought process was well this one's slightly more expensive it should be better I also think there's folks that buy it that that they buy it because it has the in reach which is the satellite communication option thinking that they may want it one day but they end up never setting up the service and they end up never actually using the inreach product I use the inreach product a good bit throughout the year and one of the things that I I use it for is as a backup to my cell phone so I tend to carry a backup with almost everything that I travel with I've always got a backup gun I've always got a backup e collar I've got backup pair of boots anything that's critical to a hunt I wanna have some form of backup but one thing that most people don't think about is something like a cell phone I I don't carry a backup to my cell phone sure I got my computer with me but if I don't have Wi-Fi I can't use it so if I'm out in The middle of nowhere and my phone happens to break. I have no way to communicate with people outside of inreach and inreach works perfectly for that so if you're looking for a reason to buy the inreach and you're looking for a reason for why you would buy the inreach and actually set up the service the ability to have an outside communication device is is one of the many things that you can do with a garment inreach.

SUMMARY: A customer's Pro 550 Plus showed a flashing red light on the charger, usually a battery issue. Swapping the charging cable fixed it. Check cables first.

I spoke with a customer this morning via Facebook Messenger, and he was having trouble with a Pro 5 50+. It was showing a flashing red light when it's on the charger. Typically on a. On a Garmin product, if you get a different light sequence than what you normally expect, it's gonna mean certain things. And you can look that up online if you're not sure, or you can ask me or a garment dealer, but typically, if the light sequence is doing something different, it's going to. It means something. And he was getting a flashing red light while the unit was on charge, which typically means that you've got a battery issue. And so the simplest thing to do when you have a battery issue, the first thing to check is to make sure that the charging is actually working. So I had him switch out cables on his 5 50 Pro 5 50+, and everything fixed. It started charging again normally. So that's the simplest fixed first time out is check your cables.

SUMMARY: Steve enjoying jacket weather on a late-June trip.

They said travel is good for the soul. I don't know about that. But I'm somewhere right now where I can wear a jacket at the end of June. I like that and I like that a lot.

SUMMARY: Two years on the GDS Pro 550 Plus holster: durable, the pink faded. New materials, a safety strap through the unit's bottom, a side bungee, and charging port access while holstered.

Okay. This is my holster for Pro 5 50+, and I've had this one for about two years now, and I'm pretty pleased with how it's held up. You know, I wear this in the front of my vest, so it gets hit pretty hard. My only dissatisfaction is that the high viz pink has faded pretty hard. and you can see, like, this is where the strap goes over, to hold it in place. And you can even see, like, on the inside here, the stuff that hasn't been exposed to the sun or my hands. so that's my only complaint. But as far as from the durability standpoint, it's really good. We made some changes to this holster. we changed the material that we're using here and, And here. And so I wanted to switch out to a new one anyway, just to see how the new ones are holding up. I did notice that my, It's interesting, the snaps. This is an Italian bronze snap. And this one, you can tell has weathered a little bit, probably as much as anything for me touching it. But this one's nice and bright and shiny. We do make this holster in two different versions. This is the snap version. horseback guys like these, and, I use this on my vest. I'm not a horseback guy, but I use this on my vest. I'll just clip it to my Vest, but we do sell the same version in, with a shoulder strap. And so if, if you prefer that, it's got like a four way strap on it and carry it much different ways, I might actually used one of those this week, and, well, I was pretty pleased with it. So, this has a funky little piece here that we came up with. One of the problems with holsters is that, especially if you're holding them upside down. I wear this unit upside down. if something were to happen to this piece, which is holding the antennas in place, you wouldn't want to lose your transmitter. They're kind of expensive. And so what we did to alleviate that was we put a strap in here. So the Garmin units have the ability to attach a strap to the bottom of the unit. And I used to run just a carabiner that was attached to this. But what I found was that not having a holster, my unit was. Would just get beat to all getting back. They'd still work fine, but they just look terrible. So I like having a holster. All right, so this one requires a little bit of understanding. You put it together so you put the antennas in first, and then you slide the unit in. It's a tight fit, and you want to kick it out just a little bit out the back here. All right? And you do that. So you. Now, you take the strap and you run it through the bottom of the unit, okay? And then to secure this, you go through the little buckle here, and then go through it one more time. Alright? So that's your safety strap. So that way, if something were to happen to this and to this, which is highly unlikely, and to my knowledge, has never happened, but if it were, you're still tied in down here. And then I take this and I shove this back under here, so that's not in my way. Okay? And what I love about this, too, is that even with the holster on there, we have the side bungee here. It goes over the top and secures that into place. And what I love about this holster is that while it's in the holster, you still have access to the charging port. So you can charge it while it's in the holster. So there you go. the only thing that I don't like about these when they're brand spanking new is that you get a little bit of flop going on here. It doesn't fit quite as tight. But you will find that as it gets exposed to the elements, this will tighten up. And you could even probably, I might even try this tonight. I may just put some water on it just to see if I can get it to Tighten, you know, initially, but your hand holding it, you know, is gonna tighten it up. So that's it. One of my favorites. Pro 5 50+ holster.

SUMMARY: The new Dakota 283 crate has a roto-molded door (lower price than metal-door Dakotas) and side handles that make it easier to carry and strap down.

So this is Dakota's new crate. It's different from their other crates from the standpoint that it has a roto molded door, and so that we haven't seen from them. You know, one of the things that I like about Dakota Crates is that they have the metal doors, but the roto molded doors, you know, are popular. They've been around, from other companies for a while, and it gives them an advantage from the standpoint that these are. The doors are less expensive, and so that changes the retail price pretty drastically. the other thing, I really like the handle setup on it. one of my complaints about Dakota is that they have the giant handle on the. On the top, usually, and these have the side handles, and so I think that's easier to strap down, and I think it's easier, for folks to carry. You know, I generally, if I'm carrying a crate, and I'm gonna pick it up, and I'm gonna pick it up like this, and I'm gonna carry it like, you know, like that right there, but, so I haven't had a chance to put it in a dog yet, but, I really like it. So check them out. These are called the Dakota 2 83 Crates. C R A T E

SUMMARY: Quick demo of the RRT Marksman remote dummy launcher fired from a Dogtra remote.

And whenever you're ready. I came out of there so fast, I didn't see it. It gets out there

SUMMARY: Two years on the GDS Pro 550 Plus holster: durable, the pink faded. Also shows how to install a new holster with the safety strap.

Okay. This is my holster for Pro 5 50+, and I've had this one for about two years now, and I'm pretty pleased with how it's held up. you know, I wear this in the front of my vest, so it gets hit pretty hard. My only dissatisfaction is that the high viz pink has faded pretty hard. and you can see, like, this is where the strap goes over, to hold it in place. And you can even see, like, on the inside here, the stuff that hasn't been exposed to the sun or my hands. so that's my only complaint. But as far as from the durability standpoint, it's really good. We made some changes to this holster. we changed the material that we're using here and, And here. And so I wanted to switch out to a new one anyway, just to see how the new ones are holding up. I did notice that my, It's interesting, the snaps. This is an Italian bronze snap. And this one, you can tell has weathered a little bit. probably as much as anything for me touching it. But this one's nice and bright and shiny. we do make this holster in two different versions. This is the snap version. horseback guys like these, and I use this on my vest. I'm not a horseback guy, but I use this on my vest. just clip it to My vest, but we do sell the same version in with a shoulder strap. And so if if you prefer that, it's got like a four way strap on it and carry it much different ways. I'm actually used one of those this week and I was pretty pleased with. So, this has a funky little piece here that we came up with. One of the problems with holsters is that especially if you're holding them upside down. I wear this unit upside down. if something were to happen to this piece, which is holding the antennas in place, you wouldn't want to lose your transmitter. They're kind of expensive. And so what we did to alleviate that was we put a strap in here. So the Garmin units have the ability to attach a strap to the bottom of the unit. And I used to run just a carabiner that was attached to this. But what I found was that not having a holster, my unit was. Would just get beat to all getting back. They still work fine, but they just look terrible. So I like having a holster. Alright, so this one requires a little bit of understanding. you put it together so you put the antennas in first and then you slide the unit in. It's a tight fit and you want to kick it out just a little bit out the back here. All right. And you do that. So you. Now, you take the strap and you run it through the bottom of the unit, okay? And then to secure this, you go through the little buckle here, and then go through it one more time. Alright? So that's your safety strap. So that way, if something were to happen to this and to this, which is highly unlikely, and to my knowledge, has never happened, but if it were, you're still tied in down here. And then I take this and I shove this back under here, so it's not in my way. Okay? And what I love about this, too, is that even with the holster on there, we have the side bungee here. It goes over the top and secures that into place. And what I love about this holster is that while it's in the holster, you still have access to the charging port. So you can charge it while it's in the holster. So there you go. the only thing that I don't like about these when they're brand spanking new is that you get a little bit of flop going on here. Doesn't fit quite as tight. But you will find that as it gets exposed to the elements, this will tighten up. And you could even probably, I might even try this tonight. I may just put some water on it just to see if I get it to tighten, you know, initially. But your hand holding it, you know, is gonna tighten it up. So that's it. One of my favorites. Pro 5 50+ holster.

SUMMARY: Tone commands let Steve communicate quietly when hunting public ground, as a 'look at me' rather than a recall, without whistling or hollering.

I want him to go okay but I also don't wanna have to holler at it I really don't have a problem with it I'm currently hunting a public ground I don't I don't miss beepers it's an important part of I don't like to call it a recall you can do that so being able to communicate with my dogs at a distance without having to blow he's headed toward an objective right now I I don't need him to come back to me it's not a where's the boss and once again and so making a lot of noise of how we hunt the other thing that I like is teaching a I don't wanna create a yo yo effect it's more of a your it's more of a look at me than it is anything else verbal or just say anything is a huge deal and and I'm sure that the birds out here have been harassed a little bit already and for me it's whistle or holler and so Moose is 285 yards out and he's making a good cast it isn't gonna accomplish anything for me We ran beepers for a long time he just turned back on his own and they had their place before GPS tone it's not that hard to train and it's typically not a recall for me it's more of a it's not a return to me the quiet and the solitude but I'm gonna go ahead and tone him strictly from the standpoint of with GPS you can be silent so one of the things I like about hunting alone is

SUMMARY: The Asher remote backing dog (metal, quiet, rechargeable, magnetic legs and head) raises on command. Position it 25-75 yards ahead with a bird launcher to teach backing.

So we've got a new backing dog remote backing dog it's made by Asher Products. I'm a really big fan dog is metal, well painted it's super quiet it's light and it's gonna do a really nice job for helping teach dog to back one of the really cool things about it is the way the dog comes apart let's take a look at it real quick so got your dog here and easy to take off the pieces you've got this is back leg and then you got the head and they are metal and they've got magnets so for easy storage you can either hook the leg right there and the head goes there and now we got a nice little package it's rechargeable battery actually you can charge it in here or it comes out and sweet little unit and here's we're a little closer to it and so you know it is a it raises and lowers at the push of a button and so for those of y'all that have never used a remote backer before the idea behind it is that you're going to position the backing dog typically with a bird launcher in front of it so I'm going to position my backing dog so that as the dog is working toward it I can raise the dog and the dog will just sort of appear on point and I want to be able to position it. So that when my dog instantly sees it, I can stop him and I wanna be close but not too close. I don't I definitely don't want him smelling birds that I've got a launcher out in front and I want him to be able to see the dog and I know that he sees the dog and if he doesn't back on his own, that's when I'm gonna stop him. And so I want him to be 50, 75 yards at the max. but, but 25 in that neighborhood. I want him close enough so that when the birds launch, he can see him and is sort of in the experience in that way that if he moves with the birds, if, if I want to study the wing, I can stop him and then while the birds are flying and he's focused on the birds, then I'm going to lower my backing dog and that way, when I get back to my dog, assuming you got him steady wing, then I can I can take it from there. So that's sort of the idea behind it. but the, the idea behind a remote backers it gives you the ability to raise and lower the dog at a distance, when you need him.

SUMMARY: Duplicate post: the Asher remote backing dog and how to position it with a bird launcher to teach backing.

So we've got a new backing dog remote backing dog it's made by Asher Products. I'm a really big fan dog is metal, well painted it's super quiet it's light and it's gonna do a really nice job for helping teach dog to back one of the really cool things about it is the way the dog comes apart let's take a look at it real quick so got your dog here and easy to take off the pieces you've got this is back leg and then you got the head and they are metal and they've got magnets so for easy storage you can either hook the leg right there and the head goes there and now we got a nice little package it's rechargeable battery actually you can charge it in here or it comes out and sweet little unit and here's we're a little closer to it and so you know it is a it raises and lowers at the push of a button and so for those of y'all that have never used a remote backer before the idea behind it is that you're going to position the backing dog typically with a bird launcher in front of it so I'm going to position my backing dog so that as the dog is working toward it I can raise the dog and the dog will just sort of appear on point and I want to be able to position it. So that when my dog instantly sees it, I can stop him and I wanna be close but not too close. I don't I definitely don't want him smelling birds that I've got a launcher out in front and I want him to be able to see the dog and I know that he sees the dog and if he doesn't back on his own, that's when I'm gonna stop him. And so I want him to be 50, 75 yards at the max. but, but 25 in that neighborhood. I want him close enough so that when the birds launch, he can see him and is sort of in the experience in that way that if he moves with the birds, if, if I want to study the wing, I can stop him and then while the birds are flying and he's focused on the birds, then I'm going to lower my backing dog and that way, when I get back to my dog, assuming you got him steady wing, then I can I can take it from there. So that's sort of the idea behind it. but the, the idea behind a remote backers it gives you the ability to raise and lower the dog at a distance, when you need him.

SUMMARY: After loading new software, a TT 25 shows white light flashes for about a minute, then turns green when done.

So just loaded new software into a couple of TT 20 fives. And when you load new software, after you take it off of the computer, you're gonna get this white light, and it's gonna go solid and it's gonna flash, and then it's gonna go back to being white. And in a second, it's gonna flash. And once the software is loaded, it's gonna turn green. So we're flashing. This is through. It should turn green, I believe. Takes about a minute. And there you go. New software loaded. Now it's looking for a signal.

SUMMARY: Freddie's early water introduction: following older dogs Cowboy and Dakota into the lake on a hot July day.

So this evening, we had a quick early water introduction with Freddie. Wasn't exactly what we had planned on doing, but we ended up down at the lake, and cowboy decided that he was gonna go for a swim. It's a pretty hot July afternoon, so it's actually a good way to go about it. Generally, I would prefer to be in the water myself, or at least be able to get in the water. I wasn't exactly dressed for it, but cowboy and Dakota did a nice job of helping me out here. Overall, I think Freddy had a good time. He really didn't swim, but he got his front feet in and pretty pleased. That was his reaction to it. Overall, we had a good time. And just did a little flopping around. And the weather kind of made everything go really smooth.

SUMMARY: Make older TT 15/Mini collars fit smaller necks without swapping flex bands: feed the strap backwards, or cut off the keeper and rivets (about 1.25").

Yesterday, we were talking about how to take your TG 25 collar and then make it smaller using a 0 flex band. And I had several folks that asked me about using a different flex band on the older collars, like a mini TT Mini 15, or even just a regular TT 15 or TT 10. And those flex bands are soldered into the board on the unit, and so you can't easily take them off. I'm not gonna say that you can't be done, because it can be done, but it's not something that the average person's gonna want to do. And like I said, you got to take it off the board, you got to solder it back on the board. You know, that's not for the average dude. So, you know, if you have a really small dog that you're dealing with, the TT 25 with the 0 flex band gives you some new options. But there's some tricks that you can do on your TT Mini fifteens and just a regular TT 15 collar if you need to make it smaller. And let me show you a couple things that we do in those situations where we need to make those smaller without changing the flex band. So this is a mini collar with a regular style strap on it. And in this setup, you can get it down to right about 10in. When you're measuring this, you have to measure from the. The tongue of The buckle and then this hole right here. So there's a couple of tricks though. If you take your collar strap and instead of putting it in right here, let's put it in up here. So feed it backwards. I guess I could have broken down and cleaned this collar before we did this. Okay, so backwards. And when it's on a dog, it's gonna go to about right there. Now let's see what that gives us. So that's gonna knock off. That gives me down to about 9 and 1/2. So, you know, half an inch is not, you know, that big of a deal. But on an e collar strap, that could be the difference between it fitting and not fitting. You know, with probes, you've got to have the collar tight. So that right there, you know, gets it down, you know, to 9 and 1/2. Now the other thing that you can do is alter your collar strap. Alright, so the standard Garmin 3/4 inch collar strap has a keeper and 2 of the rivets right here. So that, you know. Shoot, that's a. You know, that's 1in and 1/4, you know, right there. So you get you a pair of Scissors. And I did it with a pair of wire cutters, you know, and take off that rivet and now it's gonna fit a little tighter. Okay. Okay. With the altered strap and this setup, I mean, you're getting super Small now. So kind of same thing here, you know, we're, what, 8. Less than 8 and 1/2. So, you know, maybe 8 and 1/4. So that gets you down, you know, super small. And, you know, I mean, that's about. That's about as small as you're gonna get, so. So if you have a mini collar, you know, you can make these alterations, and then you can do the exact same techniques to a, you know, to a regular collar. You know, if you look at them, they've got. Same setup here. You know, they've got the keeper and they've got, you know, 2 rivets. And like I said, what I do, you know, just cut across right there and then pop both those rivets. The only thing to keep in mind is that now, you know, you have less rivets holding your collar together. And so, you know, this one has one. So not, you know, incredibly Likely to fail, but it is possible. So don't recommend this for anybody, except for somebody that's running a super small dog, and that's. That's a super small dog. But it's a trick.

SUMMARY: Fitting a TT 25 for puppy Freddie: swap on the new zero-length flex band (two screws) and the new short RF antenna, and remove the contact points so he can get tone only.

So I have a new puppy, Freddy, which if you watch some of my videos, you have seen. And he is 15 or 16 weeks old. And he's starting to stretch out on me and he's starting to get into that I can go where I want in a sort of thing, which is good. He's a bird dog, but he I wanna track it. So I've got a TT twenty five collar here. But the problem is that he's too small for The collar on here. Now I'm gonna take the probes off cause he's not ready for stimulation yet. And the reason I'm using An E collar instead of a tracking collar is because I wanna be able to go ahead and start some tone training with him. I use tone to. To turn my dogs into recall. And so I originally was gonna just get a A TT twenty collar, which is just a tracking collar, but it doesn't do the tone thing and I want that. So. So we're gonna go ahead and. And take one of the TT twenty five. But one of the problems with the 25, in my opinion is that the flex band that comes with it, Which. This is what connects the GPS antenna to the electronics here. And the problem is that this flex band for really small dog is a little on the long side. So they make what's called the Zero Flex Band. These are not available yet. It is late July, and these will be available in September. But it's the same GPS antenna, but you'll see that this one's really long and this one's really short. So when you connect it, you know, it knocks off a considerable amount of links to the flexpan. And so the advantage there is that you're gonna be able to sink the collar down, you know, smaller, for a smaller neck dog. So I'm gonna show you real quick how to do that. It's. It's super simple, and, it's just a. Two screws, that's it. But I'm gonna show you real quick how to do that. We're also gonna change out the antenna, which, this is a regular antenna that comes with the unit. And Garmin has got a new, shorter antenna. And to give you an idea of how much shorter, you know, it's. It's substantial, so gonna get less range with it. But for a young dog, you know, he's not gonna be running that big. So I'm good with it. But I'm gonna show you how to switch both those out real quick. Okay, so here is my TT twenty five. I have taken off the long flex band, and I have taken off the antenna. So let's attach the antenna. The short antenna real quick slides into place right there, and then your screw goes in right here. I can just do it with the Bit. Yeah. Okay, so you've got a couple of different size screws here, which is a little frustrating, but not the end of the world. Alright, then you got this cover, so that goes over, then you got a small screw here. And you wanna make sure that you keep up with all your screws. one thing that's a little frustrating is that these screws will come out, which I guess is kind of important cause if you strip them, you need to replace them, but. All right, I'm missing it. There it is. It's always good when you're doing this to have some spot to keep your little pieces because there's lots of little pieces. I got it. Alright. Alright, so that's attaching your antenna cover. Alright. And then your zero length flex band. Alright, so you flex band, there's no wires that connected. You've got this, I think it's called a pogo pin. And it fits into place right there. And then two screws and second screw. And a lot easier to do this without the collar strap attached to it. Alright, so got that tight? Alright, so we got short antenna, which the short antennas also are gonna have these little clips that come with them. And so that way you can hold it to the strap. Alright, so take the strap and feed my strap back through and then clip. And these attach here and here. All right. And so I'll be able to Pull these down and I'll be able to get it down, you know, super small, which his next gonna be about like that. So, that's gonna, you know, that's gonna get it. Like said he's a little bitty baby. So I'm gonna go ahead and take these. These out. so I'll just take off the. I'll just take off the contact points then. But that'll. That'll give me ability to track. Is running little, but. So. So this is for Freddy. But great addition to the TT. Twenty five line will have these right now. They're saying September

SUMMARY: Puppy Freddie steals Steve's transmitter.

What are you doing? Can I have my transmitter back? We gonna play key boy? So proud. What are you doing, Freddy? What are you doing, Freddy? Get a bird dog puppy. It'll make you happy.

SUMMARY: Peggy Sue tries a Sylmar vest; how she got her name (a broken foot as a puppy, 'Peg Leg').

What is that? So Peggy has a little bit of go. Peggy is named Peggy Sue because as a puppy, she broke her foot. She. She and her litter mates were rough housing and at the kennel, and she knocked a fire extinguisher off the wall, and of course, it landed on her toes. And so she had to. She had to wear a peg. She had to wear a cast for a while, so we called her Peg Leg. And that's how she became Peggy Sue.

SUMMARY: Sizing a Sylmar dog vest: consider chest-to-hip length between medium and large. The high-vis color helps on winter walks.

The largest are a good bit longer than the mediums. And so if you've got a dog that falls in between a medium and large, you're also going to kind of factor in the distance from the chest to the hip. What's nice about this combination here is it's going to give her a lot of visibility, be easy to. To see her. We're out in the field. We walk a good bit with her in the winter, and so it's not a bad idea to have high visibility. It'll protect her, but no question that she's not a wolf. All right.

SUMMARY: Not every dog needs an e-collar, but it can make training more consistent, faster and lower-pressure. There's still a lot of misunderstanding about the tool.

I'm not gonna sit here and say that you have to have one for every dog I don't believe that's true but I do believe that there is pretty but I mean I there's just not really any situations where I'm like okay well collar would allow you to do this would allow you to do that it would give you some security it would give you a more consistent way to be with your dog it would be faster it would be less pressure on the dog and it would allow you to do some things quicker and I think that that a lot of people and this is really where you and I actually started talking to each other in that there's just an enormous amount of lack of understanding of the tool even what are we 50 years in maybe more than that really 70 is yeah 70 yeah yeah if you think about it and and there is there's just an enormous amount of lack of understanding

SUMMARY: An e-collar is a communication tool, especially for high-drive working breeds kept in homes where they can't do what they were bred for.

It's communication tool more than anything else and I don't know if everyone sees that because they think that it's a the dog does something you don't want him to do you correct him it's a lot more to it than that and this is a frustration and it's a frustration for a lot of people because they do take these sporting breeds and these working breeds and these herding breeds and they put them in the situations where we've got hundreds or thousands of years of breeding that has created this animal to do this job and now we are putting them into an urban situation or a home situation and they don't get the opportunity to do the things that they were bred to do and then you wonder why they're frustrated and so so being able to communicate you have seen it with my dogs and I think your dog loki is a good example of the the narrow focus that you can get from certain high drive dogs

SUMMARY: How GDS got into remote training collars in the early 1980s: Brittanys on quail started running the booming deer population, and e-collars stopped them chasing game.

So we got into remote training collars well early 1980 we were primarily using them on hunting dogs and we were hunting in Mississippi and we were quail hunting and we were using britneys which britneys are slightly classified as a versatile dogs they're not quite as hardcore versatile as some of the breeds but they're breed that you can hunt fur and feathers with and at that time the quail numbers were declining rapidly and the deer numbers were growing rapidly and you'd go out and you'd spend a lot of time on the ground and dogs are gonna hunt they're gonna hunt whatever's available to them and so there were a lot more deer than there were anything else and so dogs started running deer and this is back in the days before we had any sort of tracking capabilities so stopping a dog from chasing off game was a big deal and there was really there's some pretty brutal ways that it was done in the past but a remote training gallery that was really the trick to it was a way to stop a dog from chasing dangerous things and so that's how we got into it so so very similar conceptually in that it that it was for off leash control now the colors of the 19 eighties they weren't quite as subtle as what we have today but if you wanted to stop something from running off game that was a great way to do it's kind of similar to stopping a dog from chasing a car it's a it's an aversive it makes something that they're doing that's either instinctual or fun and it takes some of the fun out yeah and so I really don't know of another way to do that with a high drive doll (transcript cut off in source)

SUMMARY: Steve tests every stim level of a SportDOG 825X on himself.

A sport dog sd 825x with a 25 x collar and it's in the no 2 mode so that's a one low it's also in the five setting which comes out of the box and which is low medium and high so I'm on one it's two two medium two high three I could feel this for those of you that are wondering it's a four that's a four medium which is a little sharp five five medium five high six six medium six high 7 7 7 okay alright that's it

SUMMARY: Alpha 10 range test: an accurate reading on collars about 1.23 miles away.

Alright so we are 1.23 miles away if you can see it The house that's where the collars are all right and so an accurate reading on all three of those

SUMMARY: Watching a young bird dog's run on the Alpha 200i map shows her casts and turns, a big advantage of having maps.

So one of my favorite things about running a unit that has a map option on it is that you can actually see what your dog's doing when he's running in the field and I've got a young dog out here and I had her turn and she was coming back toward me and now something's gotten her and she's turned again but the advantage of the map is being able to look at what your dogs doing and identify positives and negatives and just get a good understanding of what's going on with the dog and you can see this little cut that she made right here and now she stopped and on point let's go to her

SUMMARY: Steve tries WagWear dog boots: snug Velcro and side ventilation; not sure they'll stay on without tape.

So I got in the wag wear boots, and they even come in a little bag. so the similarities between these and louis are awfully close. so the velcro on it is sung. and so the idea behind it, I think the way that I will do it is that I will put the boot on and then I'll go inside and then I'll go around like that. I think that'll probably stay on a little bit better. I don't know how well, it's gonna stay on without tape. that's one of those, you know, I question that it will, but we're gonna try it. it does not have any sort of ventilation on the front. it does have pretty deep side ventilation. so if you weren't gonna have to tape it. I think that's gonna be okay. but we'll see.

SUMMARY: Short clip with a bird dog.

He's like hey would you grab that for me what

SUMMARY: A bird dog points a turtle; Steve hopes it isn't a rattlesnake.

Please don't be a rattlesnake this is a very high end turtle dog they don't I don't come much fine fine fine turtle dog can't just get those anywhere

SUMMARY: Sylmar dog vests are in stock and ready.

So if you're gonna need a Sylmar vest, we're gonna be ready for you.