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Shed Antler Training

7K views 21 replies 6 participants last post by  dozer 
#1 ·
Jus got my first pup, I plan to train to hunt antler sheds. She's 12 weeks now and loves to play fetch. I'm think through around thanksgiving were goin to work on basic obedience (sit,down, here,crate train and kennel up). Also probably do up to 5 retrieves every day or two, releasing her on "find a bone". Does anyone have any advice her? I've ordered dokken's shed dog book and roger singlers DVD...
 
#2 ·
still pretty young yet. might want to hide it around the yard and have her find it rather than a typical retrieve. you can also do a search as it's been discussed a few times on here already. dokken also came out with a shed hunting dvd recently and he goes into the different steps of teaching a dog to find antlers.
 
#4 ·
I believe the dokken's I got is 21 pgs not that that can be extremely discriptive. I reckon I'll order it as well. The reason I am planning to start with fetched is from my understanding you have to get a que for the pup that says go get antler, so you throw the antler and say "fetch a bone" or whatever. Once she knows fetch a bone means fetch antler you begin to go out and place very visible antlers outside. Then bring your pup out and say fetch a bone and begin transitioning away from throwing it. Then begin making them less visible and try to remove scent and so on until she is finding them with no visibility and as little scent as you can leave on them. The retrieving also gets the dog used to bringing you the antler.. Again this is all new to me so feel free to critique, this is what I have gathered thus far in a generalized form...
 
#5 ·
From my understanding of the Dokken training you do start with fetch saying "fetch the bone" of whatever you want the que word to be. After he understand your que word or phrase means go get the antler and bring it back, stake your shed cutouts you got in the kit in the yard and throw the bone to to the cutouts. Then you start putting them on the ground by the shed cutouts and using your que word without throwing anything. Start short and work farther. Then start putting the shed 5 or 10 yards from the cutouts. Once you can use your que word and your dog starts running to the cutouts on que and finding the bone consistently, start getting rid of the cutouts and hiding them somewhat in plain sight but with nothing to que the dog there might be an antler over here. One thing i found useful when you first start hiding them with no cutouts is using an alley way between backyards thats a little grown up. That way he can't get too far off the path. The Dokken dvd is great on showing the training techniques to get your dog to zig zag back and forth and cover lots of ground. You've got a good foundation to start on. Lots of scent at the beggining. Try and use gloves, you want the dog searching for the antler not your smell on the antler. Use the wash from time to time. Tons of praise everytime he brings the antler back. I use small hot dogs, if you bring me an antler i'll trade you for a hot dog. Most dogs wouldn't argue with that. Good luck. P.M. me if you have any more questions. I've only trained one dog that just turned a year Sept. 6 to hunt sheds, we went out the last weekend in September at a local national park battlefield my buddy works at. He put us in the right place to find sheds, so that helped, but we found 10 total and 2 whole pair out of the 10. Hope this helps.
 
#8 ·
baking soda, perfect! thanks for the tip.
this summer I got a box of antlers from a guy on another forum. very gracious of him. this spring I plan on washing them up and placing them on my lease land and finding them, after marking them with ribbon. we tried that this past spring when he was more of a pup and didn't have much success. had a buddy put them out the day before we got up there. the dog went off on his own and came back with some random bone however!!

any possible idea what the rack wax is made up from?? what smells like marrow????????

Dog breed Dog Canidae Patterdale terrier Carnivore
 
#10 · (Edited)
I had a guy telling me what a great shed dog he'd trained. I happen to have a bunch of sheds I'd picked up in SoDak hunting. I went out around the farm stashing them in obvious upwind locations. His dog couldn't find a single one. He was baffled.

I asked him to come back with his antlers a few days later so I could watch his routine. He kept the dog put away, he walked out and placed an antler in open view not far from where he'd start his walk to give the dog the idea that they are hunting. He placed a bunch of pieces he'd cut up in cover here and there marking the locations. He came back and got his dog. His dog did a perfect job of finding all the sheds.

Only problem, he'd just taught his dog to be very skillful at tracking his own scent. The dog followed his foot path with near perfect precision straight to antlers. What made this the most evident was because the dog hooked on ground scent ran straight downwind into thick cover and pulled out a piece of antler. Dog also had his nose on the ground. A dog searching for objects further in the distance will hold his head higher trying to catch scent on air currents at distance. Dogs with their face to the ground are not. They're hunting close. The antlers were just like the piece of cheese that tracking folks place on gloves as rewards for the track. I felt bad because the guy spent a lot of time over a few months with shed hunting in mind.

If you teach shed hunting, my opinion is the sheds need to be stored away from your home or, anything which smells like "Your stuff". You need to have someone with a scent the dog doesn't recognize place the sheds adn use a different person to do this regularly. If you can do this on private property where the sheds can be put out and left out for a few days to lose a little scent it is a good idea. Remember, this isn't an HRC or AKC test with a rule book to follow. This isn't live birds producing excitement which get a dog pumped up. This is teaching a dog to find something which to them is just a funny smelling stick.

Just my observations on shed hunting stuff.
 
#11 ·
Very good points Happy. Hunting into the wind is very important. Also keeping your sheds clear of human odor is also a key. I had my buddy's hide the sheds from time to time but that wasnt always convenient. Maybe because i use thed shed cutouts to train my dog it kept his head up looking at the cutout but at the same time using his nose to smell the shed. I did use gloves when i handled the shed, and washed them after 2 training sessions. I also used the wax and put it on the shed cutouts to put out more scent. Thats an interesting story though. Something to deffinately think about!
 
#13 ·
Afairchild, if I can get to where my dog will find them like that I'll be extatic! Did you use Dokkens kit, to any extent what was yalls timeline on training/ learning? What was the most difficult. Anything you wouldve done different? Also where we're your dogs break throughs? Sort for all the questions, I'm new to this and want it to work out!!
Thanks,
 
#14 ·
Patience is the biggest. Yes i used Dokkens kit read his little pamplet, i have the DVD, and i watched the youtube video several times. There is no schedule for training. You move on to the next step when your dog has the first one mastered. I like the saying i've heard on hear a bunch a dog does best what it does most. The thing he struggled with most was searching for longer periods of times for an antler, and getting him to zig zig the area we're huntnig. Theres all kinds of things I prolly could say I would've done different but where my dog is at today I can't say I'd change a thing. He really started figuring it out when we started hunting in an alley way. It really keeps him funneled into a small zone to find the horns. We spent prolly 3 weeks only looking in a couple alley ways and its like it all the sudden clicked in his head. Like I said before make it seam like your dog won the nobel prize everytime he finds the shed, AND everytime he brings it back. Take as many measure as you see necessary to control scent!
 
#16 ·
She's still pretty much a baby so I'm doin mostly socializing and obedience. When we do fetch a few bones, she fetches and I can easily excite her with it, but she likes to go lay down and chew on it. What is the best way to handle this w pups with out playing tug of war or keep away. Neither has happened because I kinda jus wait till her grip is loose and get it.
 
#17 ·
just like any retriever training as a pup, start at short distances and use a rope to get her to come back to you. You can also give her a treat when she comes back and gives you the bone. Reward her for the act of coming back and bringing you the object.
 
#18 ·
+1 on the rope. When your training a dog especially at a young age, control is everything. If you can't control her to do what you want how do you teach her? Deffinately keep the retrieves short. When she goes to get it, if she doesn't want to bring it back, jump up and down waive your arms sound as happy as you can to get her to bring it back, while at the same time pulling on the rope slowly bringing your pup back to you. When she gets to you lots of praise and pets, treats too if your using them to help train. When you take the bone from her, give her a command and take it from her. If she grabs it tighter grab her bottom jaw and pull the shed out. You don't want her slobbering all over it getting her scent on it. I used clicker trainer on obedience for my dog so it was easy to transfer that to shed hunting. One click for hunting on command, one click for getting the bone, and one click and a treat when she brings it back. If your not familiar with clicker training I would shy away from using it but if you are aware of clicker training and the methods behind it then that might be something you might try these first couple weeks!
 
#19 ·
I know a little about clicker training but I'll probably stay away just because of my comfort level. So far I've had her 2 weeks and after a week of parvo, we have learned sit, come, no, and are getting down, down is taking a little longer than sit. I first introduced her to a six point shed, but after she jabbed herself in the nose I decided to move down to a spike until she gets a little more coordinated. When the shed comes out her eyes go straight to it, so I think she enjoys playing w it.. I got to get her a a rope to improve on retrieving. I'm also using drop as my release command. Is it a bad idea to play fetch w other items such as tennis ball? Or should I only use sheds?
 
#20 ·
You can play fetch with anything. Fetch is a game to the dog, its where you can let her play and enjoy being a dog. I just wouldn't say fetch the bone when your playing fetch, but continue to use the drop command!
 
#21 ·
After about a week she knows what find a bone means, we started out fetching and I released her on find a bone, the I start telling her to sit and stay and I would walk away and place the antler on the ground, mind you she is watching, I then come back to her and send her after it. I am now starting to take a antler and place 3-4 shirts on the ground and hide it under one of them, making her use her nose some. Does anyone have any other good learning games I can use at this stage jus to keep things new and keep challenging her?
 
#22 ·
i bought some of the wax and gave it a try, it helped with his nose but he is wondering what that smell is. this will be our second year trying this. I play a game and put him in garage and then hide antler and then let him out with command find the bone, he goes nuts looking. I need to take him out in the field and give it a try with the wax
 
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