# SportDog SD-1225 E-Collar



## mdhall (Jan 7, 2013)

I’ll begin my post by saying that I was a SportDog collar owner for quite a few years before I received this collar. I’d owned two of the SD-400 collars and was very satisfied with them for the first 11 or so months of use, then their performance began to go downhill. They wouldn’t receive signals from more than a feet away rendering them useless to me. The first time was 365 days after purchase exactly and SportDog honored their warranty and sent me a new collar to replace the malfunctioning one. The second time was about a year and a half later and the on/off button came off my new collar rendering it useless. SportDog wouldn’t replace the collar, but offered to give me a discount if I purchased a new collar, which I didn’t want if it was going to screw up like the other two. I did manage to switch the batteries out of my newer collar to the body of the old collar and get a few more months use before it stopped working altogether. I was upset that the collars weren’t lasting more than a year or so and wrote a bad review of that collar. SportDog contacted me and said that I never should’ve been offered a discount, they should’ve replaced it and apologized for the issue. They even sent me a brand new SportDog SportHunter SD-1225 and she explained to me that their had been quality issues with the particular collar I had and they are working hard to fix those in the next version. So much so that she wouldn’t send me the 400-yard-range collar because it was still in the prototype testing phase, but instead sent me the 3/4-mile version which is the SD-1225. (The new version of the SD-400 will be called the SD-425.) Because I was so impressed with how SportDog handled the situation, and the quality of the new collar, I am writing a review hoping it will encourage others to give SportDog another chance if they’ve let you down previously.

I’ve had the SD-1225 collar since November and it’s been a dream. It only takes 2 hours to completely charge the collar and the controller and then they will last for two solid days of being on without recharging them. I use it not only as a training tool, but since we don’t have a fenced in yard, if I let my dog outside and happen to look out and can’t see him, I will send a tone to him and he arrives promptly at my back door. I’ll never need the collar to work further than about 200 yards because my dog is a duck dog, not an upland hunter. But I tested it out by taking him for a walk wearing the collar while I left my wife inside with the controller. When I got to the end of our street, which is about 250 yards away, I called her and asked her to beep the collar. It worked! She was inside the house and there was no direct line of sight and numerous trees and houses in between me and her.

I also like the new design of this collar because it is more ergonomical and less bulky than the original SD-400 I had. It curves around the collar and forms to the dogs neck more making it less likely to snag on things in the field. They also moved the on-off button to under the collar receiver so it is always pressed against the dog’s neck, instead of facing outward where it could be ripped off or damaged like my previous collar was. Because it does continually touch the dog, it is a little difficult to press (so it doesn’t turn off and on constantly by contact to the dog I assume), but after a couple times it’s a cinch.

Another addition to this collar over the SD-400 is that the charger comes with a dock for the collar to rest on. You just snap it  into the dock and it will connect through two metal charging discs which lie flat against the inside of the collar. The controller still plugs in with a plug, but it is also easier to use than the small one on the SD-400. SportDog also upgraded the lanyard with a plastic clip so you can remove the controller from the lanyard if needed. The controller has a pocket clip on it to keep it handy if you’d rather clip it on your belt. I think I’d lose it pretty fast like that, so I stuck with the lanyard.

The stimulation numbers seem to be the same as before. I didn’t test it on myself, but my dog usually ignored anything under Level 3 on the old one, and that was the magic number on the new collar as well. Remember, you don’t want your dog yelping when you give the stimulation, you just want it uncomfortable enough to get a response. I won’t give a training lesson because I’m not a professional trainer. If you’re dog isn’t responding to low levels of stimulation, I would recommend switching out the collar shocking prongs for the longer pair that is included for dog’s with thick hair. The shorter ones probably weren’t making contact with his or her skin.

I hope this review helped someone trying to make a decision on what type of electronic collar to buy.


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