I have had great luck with my Garmin, I have friends that have had minor issues with them(I think they got them all corrected though) but I haven't had any problems with mine at all. Do you live where you have snow? If you do it makes it easier, at least you can tell if there are rabbits around know if your dog is messing with deer. Do you have anyone that you can hunt with that has a good dog? It's not a bad way to start a young dog by taking it out with a good solid older dog, they usually will figure out what to do off the older dog.