SportDOG TEK 1.5 GPS System Video Review

Hi, I’m Eric from Lion Country Supply and I’m here to talk to your today about the SportDOG TEK 1.5. This is the newest rendition of their track and train system (SportDOG TEK 1.5 LT) or tracking system (SportDOG TEK 1.5 L) that SportDOG has come out with. The handheld looks very similar to the TEK 1.0 handheld. Actually, the menu options and everything inside of it is very similar, so if you’re familiar with that system it will feel exactly the same to you. If you’re not, there are three stimulation buttons on the side, four navigation buttons on the bottom to move through the menus, along with the two buttons on the side to go through settings and change screens.

The system works really well. It’s a seven mile range and features a hop-tech technology, which allows it to jump between frequencies so that you don’t have as many interference issues because it will actually change frequencies as you go. If you’re working with people that have the same system, you shouldn’t wind up with any frequency issues at all.

The handheld itself has a 20 hour battery life on a full charge and is waterproof up to five feet. If you drop it in a puddle or if you’re out working your dog while it’s raining you shouldn’t have any issues. It has 99 levels of stimulation; continuous, momentary, and rising. Rising meaning whatever stimulation you have it set to, as long as you hold the button in the stimulation level is going to go up. It also features non-stimulation corrects in the form of vibrate and tone. The handheld also has a 3-axis tilt compensated compass meaning you don’t have to hold the handheld flat in your hand for the compass to work. If you have it up and off to the side the compass is still going to point correctly even though it’s not flat in your hand. On the handheld can store 20 waypoints. Although the unit doesn’t have maps built into it, you can still save waypoints; mark where your truck is, mark where your camp is, or if there is a covey you found you can still mark those in the handheld. It will give you direction back to it and help you navigate there, you just don’t have maps to see if there are roads or creeks or things like that in-between you and that location.

The battery in the unit itself (handheld) is rechargeable and is also replaceable. Normal battery within a unit like this you’re going to get 3-5, maybe 6 years depending on how often you use it, will determine as to how healthy your battery stays. It’s a rechargeable battery and if ever wears out; you have the ability to replace it.

On the collar itself, you have an on/off button, a GPS antenna and the antenna to transmit its location to the handheld. Comes with a training module on it, this is a locate and training collar, so it has the training points as well. If you have this unit and you run in trials or have some other reason you want it to be a tracking only collar, you remove these two screws (points at the two screws on the training module) and the system comes with a blank plate that you can slide that blank plate in. If that plate is in, even vibrate and tone will not work on the collar, it’s simply a tracking only collar. Also, if you decide to purchase a tracking only system and you want to add training to it at some point. You can purchase the module here (holds up the TEK 1.5 training module box), you pop your two screws out, attach your training module, and then your collar is now a tracking and training collar. SportDOG is really ahead of the game with this, thinking about you not needing to buy a second collar if you ever need to change from tracking and training to just a tracking collar.

Unique feature to the SportDOG systems is that whenever you pair this collar into your system, say you have two dogs but only one collar, but you only put one dog down at a time to hunt them. You select profiles for the dogs, collars are saved into the handheld as collars, and your dogs are saved as dogs. Say that you have the red collar in your system and you have two dogs, one is hard headed and one is fairly soft, you can set your training setting for that dog and within the handheld you say which dog is wearing the collar and it automatically change the training setting to that dog. You don’t have to go in and change anything. So if one dog is fairly soft and you put the collar on that dog as long as you have it selected that the collar is on that dog, the setting are automatically going to change for that dog.

You can purchase the systems as either tracking only or tracking and training like we spoke earlier. You can also add the module to it, and if you have the tracking and training module you can pop that off and put on blank plate into the system and allows you to use it as a tracking only collar. The system itself comes with two sets of contact points, comes with a lanyard, and a test light so that you can test to make sure that the system is working without correcting it on yourself. It also comes with a basic training DVD, and that’s the one great thing about SportDOG system that I really like, if you are new to the sport or just getting into it, or it is your first time using an e-collar on your dog. It comes with a basic training DVD that will show you how to use it, best practices, to get the best results out of using it. Which I really like and I think it’s a great feature to come with.

If you have any other questions on the TEK 1.5, feel free to give us a call. Our phone number is 1-800-662-5202 or visit us on our website at www.lcsupply.com.

Thank you!