Alfa collar malfunction

[lawdawgharris]

Have any of you had an alfa collar malfunction and unintentionally shock the dog wearing it? I can't prove it 100%, but the circumstances sure do suggest that's what happened. I had it on a young dog that was really turning the crank wearing it. All of a sudden in the middle of a hunt he started acting completely out of character and the collar quit working all at the same time. He was mental for the next couple of hunts but seems to be getting back on track. Just curious if anyone else had ever experienced this?

Sent from my SM-G892U using Tapatalk

[Goose]

I’m gna copy and paste my reply on the ETHD forum and see what anyone else has to add...

[Goose]

[quote author=Goose87 link=topic=98524.msg571482#msg571482 date=1582583951]
Funny this is brought up, we just lost one heck of a seasoned strike dog and this possibility was brought up, collar quit working altogether and when we finally found the dog he looked as if he was sucking extremely hard for air and we couldn’t get his mouth to open, to be honest he looked like he had been electrocuted to death the way his body was contorted and such, were not sure if he got hit by the hog and the points of the collar crushed his wind pipe or the collar malfunctioned and shorted out and electrocuted him to the point he couldn’t breather and basically suffocated, there’s a whole number of possibilities and scenarios but some pretty sharp minds were all thinking of the “what if’s” and all signs point to the collar somehow being the root of the problem, you won’t read much on these instances and occurrences on the internet because garmin will do what’s necessary to keep it hushed, by no means am I saying that the collar was to blame, just makes a fella wonder a good bit, at then end of the day they are electrical devices and we all know that water and electricity don’t mix, either way it was a horrible situation to walk into and find one of your best friends and ole tried and true companions had reached the end of his life and you don’t have a clue how it happened...
[/quote]

[Northrunner]

although this system is what I mainly use,
I could go on and on about problems I have encountered with the garmin collars.
The sad part as far as technology they have for us houndsman is they are way ahead of other companies and there’s not much other options if you want a long range capable gps collar with a colorscreen gps. I would like to see a company give them some actual competition!

[Northrunner]

With my old broke dogs i screw the prongs completely out and replace with orange rubber pad that comes with collar just for there own comfort, if one of my collars malfunctions I sure hope it will prevent what happen to that poor hound.
Kind of sidetracking BUT for anyone’s information
#1. They will not repair there own tt10 collars anymore...which they sold at full price until the day they discontinued.
#2. As of Monday 3-2-20 the price of repairing a tt15 collar at garmin is going from 125 to 175 dollars,
not sure if cost of t5 repair is going up or not..

[Goose]

They have the market cornered, garmin has lead they way in GPS technology since the beginning of GPS then they bought out the largest and most well known makers of dog training technology and now know they have the dog hunters by the throat and can and will charge whatever they would like...

[macedonia mule man]

I’ve used Garminsince the 220 /dc30 came out and have never had a problem with them not tracking and finding my dog. As far as I know, I’ve never had one malfunction and correct the dog on it’s on. I’ve made mistakes and corrected the wrong dog a lot of times. The only other function I find useful is the backtrack, they could leave all the other features off as far as for me using them. I’ve been in business for nearly 40 yrs and you can never get the price low enough to satisfy the public. If they were selling for 50.00ea, it would still be to high. Garmin has a service system that has satisfied ever problem I’ve had. I have an Alfa and all the rubber covering is completely worn off but works perfect, have to turn it on with end Of a stick. As far as killing a dog with a shocking collar, I’m not shure that could happen. If you have some hanging around your dogs neck they must not be to high or to dangerous.

[Goose]

[Northrunner]

mule man,
In over 15 years I’m just guessing, of using garmin Astro and alphas/collars,etc. equipment, you’ve never ever once had a collar FAIL or loose gps/communication for any reason while running or hunting your dogs ?
How many days a year do you put collars on your dogs ?
How many collars you typically turning on ?
How many friends, neighbors, foes, do you or have ever hunted same area with other gps collars of the same like..220,320,430, alphas, 30s,40s,50s,5s,10 and 15s?

[macedonia mule man]

Northrunner, I feel certain the smartest two things I ever did was get my teeth capped and buying Garmin tracking equipment. I can eat hog cracklings and parched peanuts while hunting and and knowing where my dogs are. I use from 6 to 12 collars and use 2 hand held. The only time they are not used 1 or 2 days a week( summer and winter) is during turkey season. I hunt Louisiana and South Mississippi, turkey season usually keeps me down about maby 40 days a year. I will say again, I never recall a time the Garmin couldn’t tell me where my dogs were when I went home. I have left a few in the woods but it wasn’t Garmin fault, just couldn’t get to them. I’ve been in the woods where there was over 100 deer dogs scattered over about 8000 acres ,all using Garmin with no problem,all dogs they can get to are caught up. Some get in swamp water that you can’t get to. The people I have hunted with ,I believe are pretty well satisfied with their equipment. Since I’m use to the easy recovery of my dogs, if they went up I would probably keep on buying.

[Nolte]

[macedonia mule man]

In regard to the Garmin collar, I had a dog out of pocket for 23 days.Received a call from another dog runner telling me he found my dog floating in the canal and took my collars to his house. The collar went dead 26 hrs from the time I turned it on for that hunt. I was looking at the dog traveling from one bayou to another and wouldn’t cross back over either one when the collar ran down. A mystery why he wouldn’t come back out because he has swam out a lot of times before. Anyway I looked for him for 2 more weeks with no lock, nobody in the area had seen him. Finally gave up and started hoping for a call. I got the call 23 days from when I turned him out. As stated he was dead in the canal only about 5 miles from turnout.cleaned the collar up and it charged like always. Don’t know how long it had been submerged, but it charged like always. Will let you know if it works as well as it did before

[scrubrunner]

I hunt 6 to 8 dogs, I do have problem of a collar losing satellite signal sometimes, maybe 1 every 10 hunts. Still have communication with collar, just no satellite signal. Map screen will show (?) where signal was lost, maybe only 100 yards away. When I get dog caught up and turn collar off, then back on it'll function correctly. It very aggravating and should not happen but Alpha 100 is the best thing out there. I, like Nolte remember hunting for lost dogs for days, knowing when I left home home before dark to hunt that I probably wouldn't be home before noon the next day. Now I can go at dark, have a 4 hour race and be home in bed at midnight. If my Alpha was taken away I'd get rid of the dogs.
I still love it but I'm not tough enough or it's not fun enough anymore to do it the old way.
To answer question of post, no I've never had Alpha malfunction and shock a dog. I do know an animal that has been running will stiffen up immediately upon death, might be why dog's jaws were locked.

[Northrunner]