How to Track your Dogs Using the Garmin Smartwatch Dog Tracking Widget 

For those who hunt and work alongside dogs, the best feature is the dog-tracking widget, which allows it to “talk” to a variety of Garmin handhelds, including the Alpha 200i or Atemos 100, via an in-range Bluetooth connection (typically 10 to 14 meters). With a Fenix 6 or Instinct on their wrist and a tracking-and-training collar bundle on their dog, users can keep their tracker in their coat pocket, backpack or lanyard and still see the distance and direction of up to three dogs at a time by simply looking at their watch.

Follow these simple steps to start streaming dog data straight to your wrist for quick-look functionality without having to switch menus on your handheld.

• Update all of your Garmin gear to the latest software using Garmin Express. You may be able to skip this step if your gear is fairly new, but if your equipment is older, the update adds Broadcast Mode to your handheld and the Dog Track widget to your watch.

• Enable the Dog Track widget on your Fenix 6 or Instinct.
  • Press “Up” button to populate the menus
  • Select “Settings”
  • Select “Widgets”
  • Select “DogTrack”
  • Set status to “Show”

• Enable Broadcast Mode on the transmitting handheld:
  • Select “Main Menu”
  • Select “Setup”
  • Select “Dogs”
  • Select “Broadcast Dog Data”
  • Select “Enable”

Once your dog-tracking handheld is set to Broadcast Mode and tracking a compatible dog tracking collar, the widget on your Instinct or Fenix will show the dogs’ names, status, distance and direction from the handheld.
The widget will also alert you when the dog has treed or is on point, ­­­just like the transmitting handheld does. For these alerts to show on the watch, you need to be on the Dog Track widget screen. These notifications will not appear on the watch if you’re on the watch screen or another widget screen.