Shed hunting with dogs

[Huntress]

Has anyone trained their dog to find sheds? I was wondering if anyone actually trained them or do you just take your dog with you and hope he/she finds one?

I have a friend that had an ex cadaver dog (trained to find human remains). He would take the dog along while walking in the woods and the dog always brought him bones, antlers, etc. I never wanted to go along as I was afraid of what the dog might find.

[THE GOB-FATHER]

I just seen an article in a magazine that was talking about the use of dogs for shed hunting. Quite interesting!

[4Pointer]

Watching a show on T.V. awhile back, this guy was training his Lab. pup with antlers, said he use's the older one fer Sheds & Ducks...
It was on one of them Odd Channels
Larry

[mrjbigfoot]

There's a guy here in Ohio that has several articles written about him & does exactly that. He's taken several B&C bucks and gives all the credit to his dog. He takes the dog out & turns it loose into various Urban parcels of land, that he doesn't have permission on... & if the dog comes back with a big antler, then he works on getting permission, scouting & shed hunting further and ultimately killing some monster bucks. Now I just wish I could remember his name and I wish I had his dog!!!

[Huntress]

admin said:

I just seen an article in a magazine that was talking about the use of dogs for shed hunting. Quite interesting!

Was that article in some no name, underground publication or can you share the name of the magazine with us??

[THE GOB-FATHER]

huntress said:

admin said:

I just seen an article in a magazine that was talking about the use of dogs for shed hunting. Quite interesting!

Was that article in some no name, underground publication or can you share the name of the magazine with us??

... I think it was either Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine or North American Whitetail... not sure but I think it was one or the other.

[Crysar]

Huntress, the January 2006 North American Whitetail has an article on training a dog to find sheds, check it out.

[Huntress]

Thanks guys! I'll be sure to pick up a copy of North American Whitetail and read up on it.

After a couple years of getting yelled at for sniffin around my customer's racks, my Springer doesn't pay much attention to them any more. If he ever finds a shed in the woods he'll probably just ignore it thinking he's gonna catch heck for touching it.

[THE GOB-FATHER]

spysar said:

Huntress, the January 2006 North American Whitetail has an article on training a dog to find sheds, check it out.

See, I told ya it was one of 'em... not too bad with the memory thing now am I?? What would you do without me and spy?? lol.

[Huntress]

admin said:

See, I told ya it was one of 'em... not too bad with the memory thing now am I?? What would you do without me and spy?? lol.

Yup, you guys are great...can only give one karma per hour so Spy got his last night and Gob this morning You both deserve it!!!!!!

[THE GOB-FATHER]

.... anytime!

[Crysar]

Thanks for the karma point. To thank you I gave you one. Did you get the mag? If not I can mail you mine in a couple of days or I could scan the article and send it to you.

[Huntress]

spysar said:

Thanks for the karma point. To thank you I gave you one. Did you get the mag? If not I can mail you mine in a couple of days or I could scan the article and send it to you.

Yup, I actually picked up BOTH, North Am Whitetail and Deer & Deer Hunting. They both have articles about shed hunting with dogs. Now all I have to do is train the bird dog to keep his nose to the ground and I'm in business!

[THE GOB-FATHER]

Great idea spy... gettin one from me too! So it was in both huh?? Kewwllll. I think it's an interesting topic. It just amazes me how great dogs are. In my opinion... they really are the best pets goin!

[Huntress]

Took the dog out this morning for his first shed hunting lesson. I hid two sheds in the yard and we played fetch with another to get him used to having the antler in his mouth. The fetch part went great but when I had him hunt for the other sheds he didn't want to pick them up. After a lot of encouragement (and a piece of hot dog) he did pick them up and bring them to me.

I don't know if his refusal to pick them up comes from thinking that he's suppose to find only the antler that we used for 'fetch', or because for years I've told him to leave antlers alone (in my taxidermy shop). Either way I still have a lot of training to do before he becomes a shed dog.