Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNot worth the upgrade
Reviewed in Canada on March 2, 2023
We have an older model of this style of training collar, and thought we'd buy this one for the extended range & night light (which is an amazing & essential idea...if done correctly)
If this is your first collar, then it will be fine, but it isn't worth upgrading for 3 reasons:
1) unfortunately the nightlight is just 1 tiny LED that is very directional -- it must be pointing right at you to see it, if the dog is running away from you then the light is pointed away from its neck, so 90 degrees to you, and you wont see it at all. So, though better than no light, it's not very useful and clearly was not tested before being manufactured. If in a wooded area or garden, it's possible you would see the light reflecting, but in a big open yard you see nothing. Seems like an easy fix to put a refractive lens over the light or a tiny dome so it's more visible.
2) the vibration strength isn't as good compared to the old collar. If you hold one in each hand, it is noticeably weaker. It feels like the vibration mechanism is on the outside of the little box instead of inside against the pup, so it doesnt work as well. Our little 20 lb dog is not fazed at all by the vibrate on this collar, but reacts well to the old collar. For that reason it's useless to us, as we do not want to use the shock feature.
<<Note to manufacturer - For the life of me I cannot fathom why you don't allow the vibration strength to be adjusted! You spent all this time and energy to redesign the "new improved upgrade", and yet still we cannot have the very basic feature of adjusting the vibration strength 🙄>>
3) The build quality seems cheaper, it's more cheap plastic-y and the remote, especially, seems like it will break easily. The old remote has a nice rubber coating over the whole thing that feels nice in your hand and provides some protection against dropping. If you drop the new remote on tile/cement it's almost certainly going to crack or break.
It's so close to being a winner, but a couple oversights will leave you wanting to wait for the next upgrade.