Shed Pups Training & Hunts!!!

[pike]

Here are some pics of our training sessions of my now 16 week old lab pup Mojo that I adopted on Feb. 1st. I try to work with him twice a day for 15-20 minutes at a time then just try to have fun and wear him out. (which is easier said than done)














I decided that the snow had melted enough to take Mojo out for his first shed hunt on Sunday Feb 28th. We arrived at 1:50 PM. and started walking up the steep hill and into a large cedar thicket, there was a lot more snow than I thought there would be, varying between 6-12 inches with some bare spots under the cedars. We immediately got into deer trails and deer droppings and we started following one of the well used trails. Not even 150 yards from the truck I look at a bare spot about 18 yards to my left and I see a nice shed laying there, then I look 4-5 feet from it and I see another shed laying on the ground. I decided to stay put and let Mojo work the area until he finds them (even if it takes 3 hours) I then tell Mojo to find the bone as he is sniffing every deer track etc. and after 10 minutes or so he finds the larger shed ( a real nice 6-pt shed) he seemed as shocked as I was to find it laying there and just stood there for a minute, then he laid down and started chewing it and I told him to bring me the bone, which he did, I put on a rubber glove and took it and placed it in my back pack, then gave him a huge hug and a treat. After a couple minutes I was able to coax him to forget about the shed we found and he started to search again in the area of the first shed, after another minute or so he discovered the 2nd shed ( a 2-pt shed) and stood there like he was puzzled again, I then said bring me the bone, he picked it up and took off running with it this time instead of bringing it to me so I had to catch him to get it away from him and gave him another hug and another treat as he tried to get in my back pack laying on the ground. I was able to finally get him going back to searching but we didn't find any more sheds, just way too much snow and by 3:30 PM. he was plum tuckered out. Below are pics of our awesome afternoon. Pike




















I was able to get out for a couple hours Tuesday eve. (March 2nd) with Mojo for our 2nd shed hunt and ended up finding one 3-pt shed and unfortunately a dead 1.5 year old buck. When I saw the shed laying there I told Mojo to find the bone and it took him about 5 minutes to locate it.
Most of the snow should be gone by this weekend and I cant wait to get back out! Pike








Mojo and I were able to get back out to the woods the afternoon of Sat. March 6th. about 3:30 Pm. for our 3rd shed hunt of the year. (we were going to head to OH. today but there is still too much snow left on the ground) and hunted right up until dark and ended up finding 5 sheds today including a nice matched set which were laying about a half mile apart. Pike















Took advantage of the great weather and spent last Wed. & Thurs. in SE. OH. with Mojo and ended up finding 14 sheds and a dead 10-pt including one that Mojo found all by himself and brought to me!! It is the first shed he has found by himself without me seeing it prior to him! (the first pic.)
The 2nd. pic. is of Mojo after I saw some gobblers and we got behind a bush and I told him to lay down and he did the entire time while I called them into 35 yards.
The 3rd and 4th pics is of Mojo on the ATV., we road all over and every time I tried to put him on the ground he tried to jump right back on. (I might have spoiled him!) Pike



















Mojo and I were able to get out Sat. afternoon here in PA. and ended up finding 4 more. bringing our total up to 26 sheds even though we were only able to get out 6 times this year due to the deep snow. And with things greening up as fast as they are, today might have been our last REAL shed hunt of the season. Pike

[grizz1]

Now there are some great pictures, thanks for sharing those, great to see the dog work. I would like to hear more about how you started MoJo to hunt sheds. You have a great collection started and if the dog keeps up the great work you could have a SHED full soon.

[pike]

Thanks Grizz!! He is a great pup but the only problem is I dont get to keep the sheds anymore, he thinks they all belong to him.

Also I just found the hunting dog forum,(still learning my way around the place) sorry I posted this thread in the wrong forum.Pike

[pike]

Grizz here is a post a made on another site on how I went about training Mojo.


Over the last few months, prior to adopting my pup Mojo I researched this very same topic on the net, hunting mags etc. and even though I found numerous articles they were very vague and not very informative on how to actually train an antler dog. All the experts seemed to contradict each other and seemed to make it look more difficult that it really is.
So I just decided to train Mojo just like any other hunting dog that I have trained over the years.
Here is what I did and still currently doing.

Feb. 1st, I adopted Mojo from a rescue when he was 10 weeks old after spending an hour so with him to make sure (as much as you can with a pup) that he would make a good hunting dog.
When I got him home the first thing I did was give him his only toy/chew toy etc. he will ever have, a deer antler. (I don't worry about my human or other scent on the antlers that I consider his toys)

Feb 2nd I started doing two 15-20 minute training sessions per day and still do. (many of those take place after dark)
First it was just playing tug of war and fetch in the house and outside in order to get Mojo as attached to the antlers as possible. Every time I tossed the antler I told Mojo to find the bone!!
I also took some antlers and washed them off very good and then put them out side on the picnic table to get any human scent off them and then stored them in a tupper ware container.

Feb. 11th I started placing these sheds wearing plastic gloves (never use latex) in the yard in plain sight ( in my opinion at this point playing fetch were Mojo could see where the antler landed and not have to locate it, was useless) I would again tell Mojo to find the bone!! And purposely walked Mojo right past them, when we got to each one I made a huge deal about it even if he didn't pay any attention to it. Said gooood boooy and gave him hugs etc, then picked the antler up (wearing gloves) put it in a garbage bag and then put the antler in my back pack, then I gave Mojo a treat
( treats caused me problems later on with his training) but since he learned to be house broken using treats I thought it was good idea at the time.
I did this same process over and over, twice a day every day (repetition is the key)
Once Mojo was at the point where he was stopping and picking up the antler or laying down with the antler and chewing on each one etc. I moved on to the next phase in his training. ( but I was going nuts because it was mid Feb. and we had over 15 inches of snow on the ground and I really wanted to be using fresh sheds by this point, but because of the snow shed hunting was useless.) I then started placing antlers in plain site in the yard and then told him to find the bone!! And just let Mojo wonder across them on his own by accident with out me walking him past or leading him in the right direction etc. Again repetition is the key!! After a week or so of this it seemed like some thing inside his cute little head just clicked and he realized that the reason we were in the yard was to find deer antlers (or to him, new and exciting play toys) then when I told him to find the bone he started looking for them on his own.
(it was that simple)
I then started hiding some of the sheds in harder to find places as well as some still out in the open, I then would let him out of the house and tell him to find the bone, over and over and again for 15-20 minutes twice a day and every time he found one I repeated the same process. After a few days he was getting very good at this, (too good at it) I started getting suspicious that even though I was wearing knee high rubber boots that he wasn't picking up the scent of the shed and figured out to just follow my scent right to the antler. So I started
throwing the antlers from the front of my house (came inches away from breaking one of my windows when the shed slipped out of my hand one time) over the roof and into my back and side yards so he couldn't follow my trail, and because of the deep snow they were hidden very well because they sank down in it. But this didn't slow Mojo down at all, he was finding the antlers just as fast, even though he couldn't see were they landed or hear them hit the ground because of the deep snow. Doing this also (by accident) taught Mojo to bring the antler back to me because I started staying in the front yard while Mojo went off to the back and side yards to find the bone(see pics below)












I continued to throw the antlers over the roof twice a day for 15-20 minutes per session until finally I decided that the snow had melted enough to take Mojo out for his first shed hunt on Sunday Feb. 28th. I didn't expect much out of him, I just wanted him to start getting use to the woods, briar's, dead falls, thickets etc. and the distractions like deer poop he was going to encounter in the near future. We arrived at 1:50 PM. and started walking up the steep hill and into a large cedar thicket, there was a lot more snow than I thought there would be, varying between 6-12 inches with some bare spots under the cedars. We immediately got into deer trails and deer droppings and we started following one of the well used trails. Not even 150 yards from the truck I look at a bare spot about 18 yards to my left and I see a nice shed laying there, then I look 4-5 feet from it and I see another smaller shed laying on the ground. I decided to stay put and let Mojo work the area until he finds them (even if it takes 3 hours) I then tell Mojo to find the bone as he is sniffing every deer track etc. and after 10 minutes or so he finds the larger shed ( a real nice 6-pt shed) he seemed as shocked as I was to find it laying there and just stood there for a minute, then he laid down and started chewing it and I told him to bring me the bone, which he did, I put on a plastic glove and took it and placed it in my back pack, then gave him a huge hug and a treat. After a couple minutes I was able to coax him to forget about the shed we found and he started to search again in the area of the first shed, after another minute or so he discovered the 2nd shed ( a 2-pt shed) and stood there like he was puzzled again, I then said bring me the bone, he picked it up and took off running with it this time instead of bringing it to me so I had to catch him to get it away from him and gave him another hug and another treat as he tried to get in my back pack laying on the ground. I was able to finally get him going back to searching but we didn't find any more sheds, just way too much snow and by 3:30 PM. he was plum tuckered out. Below are pics of our awesome afternoon.











Since that first shed hunt, Mojo and I have been out shed hunting 5 days so far (and still do our training sessions every day we don't get out shed hunting) and ended up finding 24 sheds in all, 23 of which I saw first and once I saw them stayed put until Mojo found the bone on his own. But last Saturday (March 13) during our first shed hunt in OH., Mojo found and brought to me his first un-assisted shed ever (with out me seeing it prior to him) while I had stopped to get a drink. It took me a few minutes to realize what just happened and was in shock for a while! Here is a pic. of Mojo's first shed.


Mojo's is at the point now that if you put a shed in a couple acre field etc., hide it in the wheel well of a truck, hang it off a fence post or in the camps fire wood pile he will find it with in 2 minutes after you tell him to find the bone.
I hope this very long post helps any one thinking about training their dog to hunt antlers since there is so little info on the subject out there. But just remember that like people, (kids more like it) dogs are all different and have different personalities and just because the methods I used to successfully train Mojo doesn't mean that if I got another pup today and trained it the exact same way for the next month and a half that the new pup might just end up running around the woods aimlessly eating deer poop and require to be trained using completely different methods.
Also never try to base when its time to move your dog onto the next more advanced stage by a time schedule etc., once again dogs are like people, and some dogs will pick a certain thing up faster than another dog and vice verca. Let your dog let you know when its time to move on to the next level or stage. Pike

[Buckhunter]

Now that is an awsome post. It looks like you guys are going to have a lot of fun filled years ahead of you. Nice looking dog too.

[sinatra81]

I would still like to have deer on my place like that.

[4Pointer]

THATS GREAT PIKE,, FINS LOOKIN PUP YA GOT THERE..
NOW YA KNOW WHERE THE BIG BOY'S HANG OUT COME NEXT SEASON..
THANKS FOR THE PIC'S AND STORY..GREAT TO SEE ACTION PIC'S..

[Ghost]

Pike,

Mojo's pics show him to be a pretty stocky dog. Am I seeing the pics right? He's going to be a big ol' boy when he matures. His body looks a lot like Belle's. My wife had Belle's paw in her hand the other night, Belle's paw was bigger than my wife's hand. Belle is only 5 months old! She has started to hit one of her growth sperts. I swear she has put on 10 pounds in the last week or so. I know her muscle tone is getting a lot better than when I first got her at 16 weeks. She is really filling out.

Mojo is an awesome lookin pup. Forgive me if I am wrong. But was Mojo a rescue dog? Or, did he come from a breeder? I would love to see his bloodline. It would be interesting indeed to see what is in it.

Sinatra and I were thinking about taking on of our next pups and training it to hunt sheds. I am glad you are here, because I know nothing about this style of training.


I know this is off topic. But is it your picture that showed the deer and a bobcat? If it is, can you post it? That is a huge cat!

Check your in-box, I PM'd you.

Any way, you have a great day and God bless you and your loved ones.

Your Friend,

Brian Spillman

[pike]

Ghost I adopted Mojo from a rescue that got him from an Amish puppy mill, I guess you can call the Amish""" breeders""" but the only thing they care about is $$$, they dont care about bloodlines, their pups health, laws or how their pups are treated etc. If their pups get Parvo for example they just let them die or kill them etc. The Amish do not care about any animal, and are the most un ethical hunters you will ever come across. They will take any type of shot while bow hunting, if they recover the deer fine, if not that is fine aswell, no guillt or remorse etc. They also do not obey any game laws, bag limits etc.
But with that said the Amish make a lot of money breeding pups, many city/suburbian folks are un aware of how they treat their dogs, they just think what a great family memory, lets drive out to a Amish farm in the country and pick out a puppy, after all they dont see the conditions the dogs and pups live in and they think who better to buy a puppy from? After all the Amish are farmers and who would have more exerience at raising and breeding animals than them? You can also buy a pup from the Amish for far less money than you can from a breeder or pet shop etc.
As far as mojo's size, he is putting on the weight but I doubt he will be as big as your Belle, the last time I weighed him was March 24rd he weighed 44.3 lbs when he was just over 18 weeks old.
I will more cat pics down in the trail cam forum. Pike

[Ghost]

44lbs at 18 weeks is a pretty darn good size to me. Either way, he is an awesome pup. As for the amish. I never new that and like most people, I would have never thought that about this group of people. Thank you for the info.

[Ghost]

one of your pics of Mojo looks like his hips are tapered. By this I mean he has a slight downward slope of his back leading to his hips. This is an awesome trait to see in a lab. It is also rare to see unless you get into the upper confirmation lines. Is he neutered yet? I am going to get you an article about this. Of course you probably already know about it. Spaying/neutering a lab to early being linked to hip and joint problems. I am going to refrain from spaying Belle. All the Labs that I have owned have been spayed or neutered and all have developed joint problems. I do not want to go through this with Belle. What are your opinions on this?

KT and Pike, what are your opinions on this? Since you both have labs.

[pike]

Ghost not to sound like an animal rights wacko, other than their treatment or lack of respect of animals and obeying game/fish laws they are pretty good people. Mojo's size is decieving, he is all muscle and very little body fat. But I have been working him out pretty hard since our OH. shed hunting trip. When we got back I started working on his conditioning and decided to start taking 2 tennis balls and throwing one as far as I can and once he retrieves that one and brings it back I imediately throw the other one and so on, (the reason I use 2 is because once he gives me the ball he wants to rest, but with 2, the 2nd ball is already in the air by the time he drops the one has) so he is constantly running back and fourth at full speed non stop. My only concern was that the tennis balls would start to rival his desire for and attraction to antlers but so far that hasnt happened. Pike

[pike]

Ghost yes his hips are tapered, infact I was suspicious that he had some pitbull in him early on. As far as getting him neutered, I have to. Anytime you adopt from a rescue they either spay/neuter the dog prior to you taking it home or make you sign a contract that you will have it done with in so many days. But because of my work with rescues and the fact that my Cousins own an animal hospital and do spays/neuters for different rescues they took my word that I would have Mojo neutered in the near future. (but Im going to put it off as long as possible) ;D
If it were up to me I wouldnt neuter Mojo but I would spay a female unless there was a possibility that I was going to breed her because of health issues. Pike

[sinatra81]

hey Pike if you go to huntingfootage.com they have a video of a dog hunting sheds.

[LongSpur39]

What a cool lil dude! Awesome pics bro! he definitely is a part of your family. And glad you adopted such a fine lab. I love em! As I have stated i'd have no problem owning several. He's way too cool.