SportDog TEK 1.0 Locator Trainer System –Review

I was introduced to the SportDog TEK  1.0 Locator Trainer System over the weekend at the Region 7 NGSPA Championship. And I must say I am kicking myself for buying the Garmin over this model.

The primary reason I bought the Garmin over the SportDog is that I did not need a combination unit as I already have a SportDog e-collar. And primarily because I did not think the Locator Trainer combination was legal for AKC field trials.

The combination COLLAR is illegal, however what I do not read in any of the sales material is that the e-collar complete with its antenna are completely removable with only a couple of screws. So for less money than the Garmin Astro GPS a person can get both e-collar and GPS. It in fact just rides as a separate unit atop the location collar. 

Even better, the handheld unit has programmable buttons. So the user can custom configure a button to be momentary, continuous, or escalating pulse… along with what seems like infinite control of intensity.

If you don’t want to remove the e-collar portion to run field trials, then you can buy an extra locator collar for under $160.

I was told the package also comes with a longer range antenna, but I personally did not get to use that feature.

For me I hope the collar helps with my dog being collar wise, as his training and running field trials will be in virtually the same collar. Surely that will fool my dog.

What NOT To Do With Your Whistle

At always I learned something new at the field trial this weekend. My dog ran pretty well in his first event taking third place sandwiched between older more experienced dogs already with one title or more. In fact, I would say that for the most part I had a decent handle on him.

It was because of this improving control I went into the Open Gun Dog stakes with added confidence that my hundreds of hours of training would overcome my dog’s trial wise behavior of turning the competition into his time to play off in the woods.

At the breakaway he looked like a pro, working a tree line 150 yards to the right, cutting back to the left another hundred or so yards to work another birdy looking spot and then a long forward run 400 yards in front and over a hill. In hot pursuit I was looking for my dog to pop out somewhere… anywhere. But I did not see him. It was then I saw a flash another three hundred yards up and on a fence line to my left. I thought it was my dog, and that he had missed the course turn. I blew my whistle two times, signaling him to turn.

Next thing I know a hundred yards ahead my dog is running full speed left to right.

The judge says, “pick up your dog.”

“What did he do?” I asked.

“He was on point right there and he bumped the bird, now he is chasing it. Pick up your dog.”

What dejection.

When I got back to camp I retold the story of my woes, and a fellow trailer said, “You never blow your whistle, or hit the e-collar if you cannot see your dog... ever”

For one, first and foremost whistles are used to move dogs. Go forward, turn, and in my case here are just a few of the commands that a dog can learn using a whistle. None of which say stop, so when a dog is on point, even when you don’t know it, then the whistle is telling him to go. If the dog is on point and you don’t see him and you hit the e-collar, then you are correcting good behavior.

Some field trial regulars have told me the whistle should only mean go forward. They say that if it means anything else then someone else’s whistle might call your dog to them, or turn him a direction you don’t want him to go. For me, I still want to be able to turn my dog with a whistle because I think it has a better chance of reaching his ears on those long four and five hundred yard casts. But I can assure you one thing. I will not be blowing it unless I see him from now on... and know it is my dog that I am seeing I might add.