We were enthusiastic users of the Garmin Astro dog tracking GPS system starting in October of 2008. Now, since Garmin has introduced the Alpha, it’s possible to combine electronic dog training with satellite dog tracking, as well as tracking of, and limited communications with, your companions. We dog breeders no longer have to try to breed dogs with longer necks (smiley face) so that they can wear everything we want. Now hunters can simply put an ID hangtag on their Alpha TT 10 collar and your dog gets to wear just one collar.

In case you’re concerned that you’ll be giving up training features by using just an Alpha, we don’t think you should be. For each dog on your system you can program the three buttons to whatever you prefer. You have your choice of Tone, or any level of Continuous or Momentary (18 of each of those) that you would like. Looking at the face of the unit, we, for example, set the left button to an Escape Training low level of Continuous. The right button is set to high deer-breaking level of Continuous. The center button which has a tactile tip, we set on Tone, and use this to silently give the dog remote commands, to either change direction, work closer, or recall, identical to the whistle signals they’ve been taught. Except, these days we’re working the dogs in complete silence – very handy for a variety of hunting. It’s quick and easy to switch from one dog to another, and the buttons can be set up quite differently for each dog. Or, you can use just one button for each dog, with whatever control option you normally use for that dog.

We personally have given the Alpha a thorough work-out on many week-long Montana, Maine, and other out-of-state bird hunts, in addition to local hunting and blood tracking. Several owners of dogs from our kennels have also been using the Alpha for some time now. Endorsements are universal.

Several of us have found that it’s very useful to use the “screen lock” feature once you have the unit set-up as you want. You can quickly unlock it to make any changes you want. This prevents unintentionally changing things with the touch screen.

The basic one dog Alpha system comes with a black strap on the TT-15 dog collar, what Garmin calls the Dog Device. Additional TT-15's can be ordered through Garmin.

For reasons related to Garmin’s strict pricing policies and our current business operations, we are only taking Alpha orders for complete systems which include the basic one dog system. Also, we regret that we cannot offer our dollars off coupons with Garmin Alpha purchases. We regret the inconvenience, but appreciate your loyalty to Altmoor.