Gun Dog Forum

I have narrowed my e-collar choice down to the Dogtra 1200NC or the Sportdog 2400. Which is the "better" e-collar?

The sprotdog 1800 3/4 mile or 2400 1 1/2 mile are good collars and very reasonably priced

the 1800 is about 240.00 and the 2400 is about 250.00 bucks for the one dog...you can always add a dog down the road for about 100.00 and you can program the collar to work different ways and easy to program instructions are in the booklet
you can also go to 3 dogs if needed

Dogtra hands down.

The Dogtra 1200 series collars are being replaced with the 1600 and 1700 versions. (1600 is water-resistant transmitter, 1700 is a waterproof transmitter). This info came right from Dogtra (I emailed them and asked). The 1600 and 1700 are both cheaper than the 1200 too, I think.

That said, I have a new 1700 and I like it a lot. I switched from a SportDog 1200. I liked the SD-1200, don't get me wrong, but the Dogtra just feels better and more suited to everyday use.

I've had to call SportDog on their lifetime warranty twice, most recently this past week. The good thing is that they ship out a brand new part immediately.

I really don't think you could go wrong with either.

Is the 1/2 mile range of the dogtra sufficient?

I've got the SportDog 1200 and love it. I've never used the other one so I could not give an opinion. Another plus is SportDog is in your backyard. I had a button fall off my controler and they sent me a replacement next day mail. Very helpful.

Texrab wrote: Another plus is SportDog is in your backyard.

Wow!!! I didn't realize they were here in Knoxville.

A half-mile is sufficient for me. I live in flat country so there is very little radio interference, and my dog works close by many standards (ranges anywhere from 20 to 200 yards - and if he can't see me after awhile he'll come checking back in). Also, a good rule of thumb is that when you're out in the field you never buzz the dog unless you can see it (it might be on point somewhere) so a half-mile works there as well. Generally, if you're training, you're going to be near the dog anyway.

Half mile = 880 yards.

[The 400 yard jobs, I've heard, just don't cut it. I've not used one myself though.]

SportDog has been good to me and that's why I'm keeping the 1200 collar for my sister's dog that I'm training now. Last week when I called about a button falling off the transmitter, the CSR told me that generally there is a service charge for something like that after the collar is a year old (lifetime warranty, but after one year there's a minor service charge for replacement) but she waived it as a customer satisfaction deal. I've never gotten next-day-mail from them (your results may vary since you'd be so close) but I did have my replacements in hand within 3-5 days of calling. They ship out same day - you get an email with a tracking number within a matter of hours of hanging up with the CSR.

I just sold a 400 to one of our clients here on the preserve he said it worked great for what he does ....as it is a little thing but ...After speaking with rick smith ..the 400 is a great little trainer and works for most of the average hunters as they don't want their dogs ranging out and 400 yards is a good ways most average hunters get annoyed and think their dogs are way to far past about 100 yards...after the client used it he was extremely happy with the performance and the price

I personally use the 1800
and the 1800 and 2400 have the most options though for a trainer and whoa you can program both collars to be used for one dog or easily program back to 2 dogs ...and then you can even progrma the button to work about 7 different ways...
I have not seen any other collars offer this

One thing I haven't tried.... if you program the SD transmitter to be a 2-dog unit, can you buzz both dogs at the same time or does pressing one button cancel the other?

If you program both collars to one setting then if you hit the button you'll buzz both dog ...There is a whoa method and lay over which of course on a light setting that helps get s dog to move on taps and whoa on a steady stimulation which being able to program the 2 collars for those sessions is nice...but with a reset area which requires a pen nib or paperclip and a flip of the toggle switch you can reset the receivers to be set for 2 different dogs like all the standard two dog system...
there is also 7 different way to have the buttons set for working
you can download this info from their website
if you set the transmitter to work 3 dogs the tone button become the 3rd dog collar

the neat part it is easy to do so the transmitter can be programmed 7 different ways and the Collors recievers can be reprogrammed...and it doesn't require a degree the instructions are easy to follow

I am leaning to the sportdog 1800 at this point. That is probably what I will go with.

For what its worth the only downside of the sd 2400 to me was that I felt the transmitter a bit to bulky. I sold the one I had to my brother and will be purchasing a dogtra 1700 for the smaller size transmitter. The real good thing about sportdog is that they offer lifetime warranty on some of their products. I was using this collar with my gsp and my brother is planning on using it on his lab. So when it came to try it on the lab it seemed the dog didnt respond to the lower stimulation levels because of the thicker coat on the dog compared to my dog. I am talking about a 2 and 3 low. We tried a tritronics sport collar with bigger probes at the same level and bingo problem solved the dog reacted. So I called sportdog customer service and they sent me a pair of new bigger probes free. I really thought that was a plus in their service.

One thing I noticed on both my SD and my Dogtra is that the low levels are REALLY low. I can't feel level 1 (out of on my SportDog or anything lower than 15 on my Dogtra (out of 127). I can barely feel level 2 on the SportDog, but that's what my dogs respond to so I just keep using it as the baseline.

The good thing about it is that switching the transmitter down to level 1 is just like turning it off.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I ended up going with the Sportdog 1800.