I have a friend who's a hunter. He needs an e-collar. These collars are much more expensive in our country and he wants to buy it on the internet and save half the price.
The problem is the only brand that is shipped internationally is SportDog. I don't know this brand. He's thinking of a SD 400. Anybody has experience with this collars? Any information will be much appreciated.
It seems to be a good collar, but I would like to hear from someone who has tried it.
Thanks in advance.
Pedro.

Pedro,
If it's any help, I know that Leerburg ships equipment to Germany and other countries all the time, including collars.

Sorry, I meant to say "E collars" there.

Will,
Thanks, but I tried to buy from Leerburg a couple of years ago and they couldn't ship the e-collar to Spain. In my case a friend brought it from the States with him.
Do you know anything about SportDog? It seems to be a good collar, and very good price, which is what my friend is looking for.
Thanks,
Pedro.

Sorry for dragging this old thread up, but somebody here might be looking for the same info so...

Let me start by saying I have very little experience with E-collars. I bought 3 SportDog collars about 6 months ago. I haven't used any other e-collars so I can't compare them to other models but I can give my opinions about SportDog E-collars.

I have the 400s for each of my 3 dogs. The range is supposed to be 400 feet, and in my experience, that's realistic. I've used mine at a range of about 100 yards with no problems. Hills can be a problem though. If you can't see the dog, there's a good possibility that the dog won't receive the stim when you press the button so keep an eye out for hills or buildings that could block the signal. The signal goes through walls in my house just fine though. I've found that useful to convince the dogs that a "down stay" doesn't end just because I leave the room.

The strength of the stim seems sufficient. I've stopped one of my dogs in a full out run under a "level 9" distraction. It was a kid that was trying to play with her and she LOVES new people. The only stronger distraction I can think of would be something that puts her into "survival" drive. I had to crank the dial up to about 6 before she finally stopped (it does up to 8) but she stopped dead in her tracks from a full out run. At the time, she was about 200 feet from me.

Battery life seems acceptable, but certainly could be better. Under daily use, if they charge for the 12 hours they're supposed to, I don't have to worry about the battery for the rest of the day. I would prefer a faster charger so that they could charge for 6-8 hours (while the dogs are sleeping) and be ready by morning, but this hasn't been a big issue.

There were two reasons I went with the SportDog system... first, I have to admit, price was a factor. 3 dogs... 3 remotes/collars, and I could have easily spent $500 for another brand. I got mine for under $200 delivered. Second, I wanted a system that would let me control multiple collars from a single remote. The one I bought is expandable to allow it to control up to 3 collars. You lose the "nick" button if you set it to control 3 collars, but that's not such a big deal in my opinion.

It's possible that a better brand could be significantly better, but I haven't found much that would justify the higher price in my opinion. I've heard that the level of stim is more consistent with more expensive models. If I planned to use the e-collar to its fullest potential, I might agree. For me, the collar is used only in 2 situations which is when a "here" command is broken or when one of my dogs blatantly disregards a command to pay attention to a distraction. In those situations, I'm not too concerned if the correction is a little stronger/weaker than it should be. I just need to break their focus and get their attention back on me.

Hope that helps.

There are a lot of remote collars on the market - we could be dealers for every brand thats made. I choose not to sell cheaper collars.

I dont like service and quality problems. It's always been my philosophy to just offer quality products. This is especially important with regard to e-collars. Over the years I have personally bought cheaper collar and felt cheated when they crapped out.

I know what you mean, and probably should have made it clear that I am somewhat suspicious of the "limited lifetime warranty" that my collars came with. They seem to be well put together, but for the price I paid, a "lifetime warranty" is probably expecting too much. I was more concerned with price for my first set of collars but suspect that a higher end collar may be selected for my next dog.