Cove Mountain Kennels

I had a chance to field test the Garmin Astro 220 (DC30) dog GPS unit while grouse hunting.  I put it to the test in a variety of cover types and conditions on both flushing and pointing dogs. The following are my thoughts on the unit:

First, I am an experienced GPS user and long time fan of Garmin GPS units.  Over the years, I have owned the Garmin II+, Garmin V, Legend, Vista, and GPSMap 60CSx GPS units. Garmin has consistently led the industry with quality, accurate, durable products which are easy to use and have intuitive menu systems.  So, as an advanced GPS user and avid bird hunter, I was excited to see Garmin come out with the Astro for tracking dogs.

When Garmin came out with the previous unit, the DC20, I felt that it was too bulky a unit to be practical; you would have to use it as a backpack mounted device on the dog’s back, or use a counter-balance weight to keep it up on the back of the dog’s neck.  It was too cumbersome to be practical. With this new DC30, that changed. The unit is about the size of an e-collar with a flexible rubber antenna coming out the back. 

My first impression of the dog collar unit was that this was a practical collar that you could use in the field on your dog. The collar is solid and appears to be able to withstand some abuse from dog’s running through the brush. It turns on easily and is readily apparent when the collar is turned on or off, by the flashing red lights.  I do have a concern over the life expectancy of the small wire that feeds between the sewn layers of the collar from the unit on the bottom of the collar to the small, flat, square GPS antenna on the top of the collar. Only time will tell the durability of this critical connection.

My first impression of the handheld unit was that it would be the same great unit as the GPSMap 60 series. It’s fairly small and fits comfortably in your hand and has a fairly large screen. It has expandable memory and can be loaded with background maps for your area. One of my biggest complaints with the unit is that with all the great GPS units Garmin makes and their background making simple, sharp-looking, intuitive menu systems, they really fell down here. I think they tried to make the menu system simple; instead, they made it clunky, awkward and ugly. It takes quite a while digging your way through the unit, but all the screens from the GPSMap 60 series are there, just very difficult to get to and under a very clunky menu system.  Maybe they thought bird dog owners wouldn’t be smart enough to have a unit that did anything more than point at your dog.

However, when it came to pointing at your dog, it did so pretty well.   You can either see a compass type screen with an arrow which points toward the dog and a distance to the dog in a window at the bottom, or you can see a map of the area with your location and track and the dog’s location and track.  When we were working open country with no tree canopy overstory the unit worked very well, providing updates of the dog’s location and position (running, pointing, treed game) on a user set interval (5, 10, or 30 seconds). When we were working in sparse woodland type canopy cover the unit work fairly well and would consistently provide dog GPS locations. On the other hand, when we were working moderate canopy cover, including aspen, riparian, and evergreen (spruce/fir), the dog unit had a difficult time getting a location. I assume that this is due to the fact that the antenna on the top of the dog ‘s collar is so low to the ground and has so much cover over it, that it has a hard time seeing enough satellites.  At times in the thicker aspen areas where I was looking for grouse, the handheld unit would show the dog several hundred yards off, long after the dog had checked back and was nearby.  I assume that for hunting pheasants, quail, huns or sage-grouse in open country the unit would work very well.

The unit works really well, however, a bird hunter with fairly close working dogs will have to very carefully consider whether a $600 ($700 with maps) dog pointer is worth it. You can buy a lot of dog bells for $600. The question to ask yourself is if you really spend that much time looking for your dog. Now if I were a houndsman, or running big ranging pointers, those dogs that are always half a mile beyond the horizon, then it would an invaluable tool.  I don’t. I have close working upland retrievers and pointers. Occasionally I will spend a few minutes looking for a dog on point, or one chasing a wounded running bird, but given a few minutes, I usually find them. I certainly wouldn’t buy the unit to simply use as a recreational GPS unit; the menu system is too clunky for that.

I have heard some people say that it should have had a built in e-collar so that the dog doesn’t have to wear three collars around their neck, an ID collar, e-collar and GPS collar. My response is that you can’t have it all. Someday you’ll have it all in one. Heck, someday they’ll be marketing a robot dog that does everything your old dog could do, but better, all on a two hour charge.

Overall, I thought the system (both the dog collar and the handheld unit) were durable and worked very well. However, there were some limitations with satellite reception in moderate to heavy tree cover. For the cost of the unit, I was disappointed with the clunky, but functional menu system as a GPS unit. That said, for someone who spends a lot of time looking for their BIG running dogs, this system will prove invaluable.
Chris Colt
Cove Mountain Kennels

*photos from garmin.com