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Pros
- Replaceable battery – Users are free to change the batteries if their service life has run its course. This also opens up the possibility of carrying spares to keep the remote and collar running if the user intends to be outdoors without access to an electrical outlet for extended periods.
- Easy to use – The ergonomic design of the handheld and its controls make for easy, no-look use so you can keep your eyes on your surroundings. The controls require you to deliberately manipulate them, so there’s little danger of mistakenly pressing the buttons or turning the dial.
- Durable – The handheld remote and the collar were designed with all the shocks and dings of outdoor activity in mind. Both are waterproof and rigidly built. The transmitter antenna is also fixed, eliminating the risk of a broken or missing antenna.
- Locator Light – the LED locator light built into the dog collar is incredibly useful if your dog likes to run off at night. This is also great if your dog has an intense prey instinct and likes to hide a lot. Between this and a manual trigger for the tone correction, you’ll never lose your dog again!
Cons
- Toggle switch too easy to move inadvertently – The toggle switch is the one part of the controls that has unfortunately received less attention than the rest. It’s a bit too easy to flick it without meaning to, likely leading you to trigger corrections on the wrong dog. It can be difficult to prevent this from happening, especially if you like to pocket your handheld remote.
- Can randomly shock for no reason – When the collar is secured as tightly as the manufacturer recommends, there’s a possibility of your dog being shocked for no reason at random intervals. This may be due to the BarkLimiter mistaking sounds it picks up as barks. You might want to secure the collar a little less tightly than recommended, and perhaps use the BarkLimiter only sparingly.
You might overlook dog training as something that you simply work on as you go, especially if you’re an experienced dog owner. But when faced with a particularly difficult dog or you have to train your dog for a difficult task, you can suddenly feel like you’re ill-equipped for the job.
In that case, the obvious solution is to actually get equipped. A good training collar can be the difference between stagnating and getting your dog to a refined level of behavior and top performance. The Garmin Sport PRO was purpose-built for outdoor training, but it can serve for lower-intensity training as well. The rand is also regarded as one of the best bark collars today. However, it’s not without its kinks. Let’s take a look at the finer details.
Features of Garmin Sport PRO Training Collar
¾-mile range
Thanks to its tri-tronics antenna, the effective range goes up to almost 4000 feet or ¾ of a mile. The tri-tronics antenna is also fixed, ensuring there’s no threat of this range becoming compromised by a damaged or lost antenna.
Well-designed controls
The Garmin Sport PRO boasts a remote control with intuitive and ergonomic controls. It’s easily operable with one hand thanks to the strategic placement of the four training buttons and the indexed quick-click dial that can be turned with your thumb. The buttons are placed distinctly enough that the user can quickly get used to operating the device without looking. There are dedicated buttons for continuous, momentary, vibration, and tone corrections.
Supports up to 3 dogs
The device is able to control three different collars (other two sold separately). The operator can use the color-coded toggle switch to indicate which collar to control.
10 different stimulation levels
10 individual levels exist each for the static stimulation, vibration, and tone corrections. The quick-turn dial makes an audible click when you scroll through each one. The dial can also select a number of auxiliary functions.
BarkLimiter
The Sport PRO has a built-in BarkLimiter feature which will automatically deliver a correction to your dog each time it barks, to discourage further barking [1]. The intensity of this correction is settable using the quick-turn dial.
Lightweight yet rugged construction
Both the collar and remote are compact and lightweight yet tough enough to take the punishment one would expect it to have to endure outdoors. Both are waterproof, with the handheld remote rated at IPX7 (submersible up to 1 meter) and floats for easier retrieval. The collar on the other hand is rated at 1 ATM (submersible up to 10 meters). The collar also comes with 2 lengths of detachable stainless contact points which are designed for comfort and work well in wet conditions.
LED Locator Light
The Garmin Sport PRO collar comes with LED lights that can be toggled on using the handheld remote, enabling you to more easily find your dog in low-light conditions. The light also indicates when the collar battery is low.
Rechargeable and user-replaceable battery
Both the collar and the handheld use the same battery, which lasts 60 hours on a full charge. It can also be replaced by the user if battery performance deteriorates after years of use.
Is This the Right Choice for You?
It should be worth noting that this collar has only one intensity for both the vibration and tone corrections. It is primarily a static correction collar, so if you are not comfortable with that, it would be best to get a collar that’s more focused on non-static corrections or simply a cheaper collar.
If you’re somebody who’s alright with that, however, this can be a fantastic training collar if you’re the outdoorsy type or you have to train a dog under strenuous environmental conditions. The handheld remote has no digital displays whatsoever that could be difficult to read outdoors. It’s an excellent rain-or-shine training collar that can stand up to most anything you can encounter out in the wild.
You should still keep in mind however that reward-based training is still the healthiest method of training your dog [2]. The collar only exists as a fail-safe to support an earnest attempt at reward-based training.
