beeper collar mounted on a dog vest
 

Some of the guys I hunt with have experimented with taking the strap off their beeper collar and then installing the beeper itself on the back of their dogs vest. That would keep the noise further away from the dogs ears. I have not seen one yet in person, I know the best position was closest to the back of the head and not near the tail. The dog was hitting to many branches the further back they put the collar. I will try to get a picture and post it here. My one buddy is out in Iowa right now with his dogs, and trying this out more. I am just wondering if anyone has tried this and their success or failures. And if they found a good fastening system if they could post pictures of it please. Thanks, Ed

Ed, When conditions are right for it, I sometimes put some tape over the opening of the beeper to dampen the sound (again, when conditions allow me to hear well). You can tape any portion of the opening to "regulate" the sound. However, now I use the remote on-off version from Try-tronics. I can run the dog without sound and turn on the beeper remotely if I lose track of him/her. I've only had one dog that I felt comfortable using the "point only" mode. My dogs range out based on the cover.

Gordon Setters are sometimes too smart for their own good. When we have snow, they learn that they can block the beeper opening by rubbing their necks in the snow. Over the 30+ years we've hunted Gordons, they have all figured this out. Thankfully (for me, not them) we don't have all that much snow here. It does make me feel bad, though, because it's clear that they don't like the noise -- who would?! But, now that we have tracker collars, we can minimize that issue. I do run my dogs with the beeper collar and tracking collar when in wolf country, however, to hedge my bets against a wolf encounter. I had a wolf come after one of my dogs and don't want that situation to ever happen again.

BTW, if your friend is in Iowa, he's getting some fierce weather as I type this, as are we here in North Missouri.

I have a novel solution. Throw the beeper away.

That solution can’t be but so novel as I’ve heard it many times...and thought to do it myself at times. When I used a bell I’d “lose” a dog on point and spend precious time searching. I’m convinced that I kill more birds with the beeper than without. In the hilly terrain where we quail hunt, and with a dog you’re asking to range out to find birds, the beeper really helps. The GPS trackers will signal when a dog just stays in an area for long enough to set it off. With the beeper I have a much better idea what the pup is doing. It’s worked well for us for many years. There’s an up and down side to everything.

Some guys put the collars around the dogs’ waists - it gets the beeper volume away from the dog’s ears but is otherwise equally effective.... unless of course your dog is too, shall we say, “thick” in the middle...





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Because I have not hunted for so many years, I am trying both ways, I will try with and without for the next few years. When I hunt my brittany with other dogs, its really hard to figure out when he is on point without the beeper. I have been paying close attention to what everybody is saying in this forum. I think I posted in another thread that I went the first 3 weeks or so beginning of this season without a beeper. With just my dog it worked ok, but I lost a lot of time trying to find him. I did get some good grouse points that the bird held early on, but again I am not sure if hunting pressure is what makes the birds move more as the season goes on. I took a friend from the fox forum hunting a couple of weeks ago, and he liked the beeper. I am concerned enough about hearing loss to try other ideas. Thanks for everyone's input on this and all the other threads. I certainly am learning a lot in here.