Hunting with dogs that have tracking collars

[fixer27]

In the mtns were I live there is a huge group of people who run dogs, they normally have tracking collars on them and the folks who hunt with them know pretty much were the dogs are through the use of radio equipped dog collars.

They hunt raccoons with the use of these dogs with the collar and listening to the sound of the dogs howls.

Has anyone else used these collars and do they really work? And what is the cost of these things?

 

[mete]

I read a very interesting discription of this from a moose hunter in Norway. With GPS and Radio They always know exactly where their dogs are .The system works very well.....Here's the system he used www.pointersolutions.com/eng/hunting_dog_gps.htm This is a european company but it will give you an idea.

 

[Citori]

I use a radio collar on my rabbit dog that will provide corrections (beeps and shocks). All the bird hunters I know use at least correction collars.

You might want to read http://www.gundogsupply.com/dog-tracking-collars-and-radio-telemetry-systems-buyers-guide.html as it will give you a good idea of what is available. My only advice would be to buy the good stuff or you'll just waste money to be frustrated. You don't want to find out your collar's range was vastly overstated when your dog is missing and a mile away over a hill in heavy cover on terrain you aren't familiar with.

My setup was around $600 for a single dog, but it has worked every time I needed it to, so I feel like it was worth it. The couple units in the $200 range I tried weren't worth the gas that got me to the store.

 

[TNRat]

I have a customer that has a tracking system for his coon hounds. I believe his system cost in the neighborhood of $500 to $600, but that is less than he paid for any of his dogs.

His will track, send a shock, and send a beep. When you are first trainging the dogs you shock and beep when you want them to return to the truck. After they have learned you just beep when you want them to come to you.

This way he does not loose a dog, and does not have to stay out all night looking for his dogs. He never goes hunting w/o the system.

IIRC, his catalogs have systems that run in the neighborhood of $1,000.

 

[fixer27]

I have a customer that has a tracking system for his coon hounds. I believe his system cost in the neighborhood of $500 to $600, but that is less than he paid for any of his dogs.

His will track, send a shock, and send a beep. When you are first trainging the dogs you shock and beep when you want them to return to the truck. After they have learned you just beep when you want them to come to you.

This way he does not loose a dog, and does not have to stay out all night looking for his dogs. He never goes hunting w/o the system.

IIRC, his catalogs have systems that run in the neighborhood of $1,000.

That is amazing, the whole process is "controlled" by the ability of the collars to remotely control the dogs. We did have a problem with people stealing coon dogs, some of the trained ones go for 1,500 to 2,000 dollars and people would just hijack the dogs right from there pens.

The hunters that I spoke with said they do end up going miles up into the mtns to shoot the treed animal so it's not like they don't put any effort into it on there part. Walking through laurel thickets in the dead of night up a mtn is not an easy thing at all.

 

[Gossman Knives]

We have two types of fox hunters where I live. The first type "hunt" fox on horse back with dogs and the other type hunt them with the use of radio collars. They do very well keeping track of their dogs by use of the collars.
Scott