I’ve got a couple buddies that use the garmin alpha. Ecollar and gps in one. I dont have any personal experience other then out with them. Two shorthairs and a wirehair. The wirehair had huge range and I wouldn’t even let him out of the truck without that collar. It’s nice to see where your dog is working out in front of you and when it goes on point in heavy cover as is so often in pheasant country. I’ve never felt the need for one with my dog but when I hunted rabbits in big timber I always zip tied a leg mount transmitter to her collar. If she hit a fresh track line she could range out a good ways. It would be nice to have a uhf gps collar that works with aero vision. I kinda thought that was the purpose of the multi transmitter update. I doubt they will release an e collar as part of it so the garmin is still more appealing to me.

Glad you got your pups back kinda made me feel sick when I first started reading this. My dog is like my kid I’d probably be a nervous wreck. Brought back memories when I was a kid hunting rabbits over beagles. I remember loosing one and the guy I was with took his coat off and tossed it on the ground. We went back the next morning and his dog was laying on the coat covered in snow.