Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire GPS Tracking for beagle while hunting?

I haven’t taken my beagle hunting because I am worried about losing him. However, I think a GPS tracker could let me find him. Anyone have recommendations?

Garmin is your friend....

What he said....

I bought a Garmin Alpha 100 10 months ago. It is pricy, BUT after losing my lab pup for a couple hours one day, I won't let that happen again. (yep, got her back...) The Alpha model has the dog training buttons (buzz, noise,...), but I have not used that feature yet. Though I do a bit of bird hunting with her, the tracking is primarily for taking her on runs in the mountains and our K9 air scent search dog training. She is off lead for most of this, and she had a habit of going on sprints of hundreds of yards. She always returns promptly, but now I know where she is all of the time vs waiting & wondering as she headed up and over the next ridge. I can switch between the topo map display with both her & my location or, more often, the simple direction/distance compass-like display. For the SAR role, I can record her & my track and see what area we have covered within the search area. Some on the SAR team have the Astro--I think it is about the same, less the training buttons. (Every K9 handler I am acquainted with that has an off-lead air scent dog, has either the Alpha or the Astro.) I do plan to use the training feature as a long range "come", if/when she is out of whistle range, but, have not got there yet. I have not tested the detection range, but there is sure not issue with a mile or more or more in the woods. I've added a second dog/collar to my display also (another Team member), and have left the training area and have still been able to see the dog on the display well over a mile away. I think Garmin says a 9mi range, but it's VHF, so I'm not so sure--certainly not in the woods & mountains (Colorado). The GPS/receiver unit also came with a 2nd, longer range antenna--I have not needed to use it yet.
I will probably buy a Garmin watch (Instinct, Fenix) later--you can sync the watch to the GPS receiver and have the tracking display on your watch--that would be pretty slick compared to pulling the GPS out of my pocket every time I want to check.
So, the one downside is the price, though the Astro may do what you need for less money, but it's still not cheap. The upside is it works great, the dog does not mind it, I can relax as I know exactly where she is 100% of the time, it's all rechargeable, and my wife knows I will not lose our dog in the woods again. I've had labs that stayed close and I never worried about where they were, but this 15mo pup goes & goes--and that is what she needs to do to cover ground for a search. I really like having this technology.

Thanks all,

some usable info for me, might have to get one for our one wide ranging whippet so I can course some rabbits with him. Our female will always look for "mom" (my wife), but our male just goes, at 30 miles an hour.

And I was looking at getting a water/upland dog this year but we're picking up another whippet puppy this weekend. The GPS collar will come in handy for the bird dog next year.

Geno

F-cking Beagles

Yep.

When I was a kid, we had a good one.
Spent a lot of hours hunting with him.

Also, have spent a lot of hours hunting for others!

Never understood the attraction to them for pets.
Cute as puppies, definately.
As adults...well!

garmin is the best. deer dogs all have collars on our lease . some guys that don't have dogs bought extra receivers just so they know where the dogs are .after the hunt you can go back and see exactly where yours were any time of day.

I have a Garmin. It is well worth the money.

I have two German wire hairs that I hunt birds with. I always know where they are at and if they are on to something. You learn a certain dogs pattern and can notice it based on their movement. Hard to explain but true.

Dogtra Pathfinder is a slightly cheaper option that uses a phone app to allow your phone to be used as the controller. Saved a few bucks.
Garmin has the 550 plus that uses a traditional handheld control unit and a small screen direction arrow which some trainers prefer for ease of correction without switching screens and wearing gloves etc. It can also be paired to the Alpha for extra cost and allows the best of both worlds.

I had beagles for years. When I first started with them as a kid, there were lots of rabbits and few deer for them to chase. But the last beagle I had would run the crap out of deer, although he was bought as being "deer-proof." I lost him a couple of times when he got after a deer and left the country. a GPS unit would certainly have been a huge asset there. Ole Spanky got out of his pen one morning, and got after a deer and was run over out on the highway.

If I had hunting dogs today, I'd want the latest technology to keep up with them.

Last fall while elk hunting, I was heading up a trail in the dark. Way ahead of me, I could see 5 lights moving back and forth through the trees, apparently coming my way. It looked like an attack of alien deer looking for people to abduct. They finally got to me. It was 5 pony sized sheep guard dogs, nearly as high as my waist. The owner had bought 4 of them when they were retired and 1 was a pup. He had both lights and GPS's on them to keep track of them. He had a receiver that was capable of tracking all 5 at once on a screen. The lights were on the ends of 2' whip antennas so they swayed as the dogs ran, making it look extra weird in the dark.

Zofia the beagle would run a rabbit for an hour and bring it around three or four times as a six month old. Unfortunately, the areas I hunt here in PA are loaded with ticks and she would have ticks all over (especially on her head and snout) after a couple hours in the woods.
Spectra Shield flea and tick medallions have proven effective in keeping fleas and ticks off her, but as anyone who hunts rabbits with a beagle knows, it is necessary for the hunter to crush the brush and I didn’t look forward to being covered with deer ticks after the hunt.
We no longer hunt rabbits.

Garmin Alpha here... I use it on my Bird dog... still well worth the money.

Stupid dog is more expensive... I wouldn’t be without either

Give them a cell phone so you can call them.