New puppy, got any tips

[cornfed72]

Here is gunner, he is 7 1/2 wks old choc lab.  I picked him up on Thursday from Snake River Retrievers.  My goal is to train him for shed hunting.  I gave him his first antler and he went nuts over it. He was grunting and rolling around with it, it was pretty damn funny.  I was just wondering if anyone has any tips on good tech. for training them for antlers.  I know that I have a lot of work to do before he is ready to start training for that, but it will give me some ideas so when it does come time I can start the correct way. Thanks

[singleshot12]

Find a fresh shed pick it up with scent free gloves, hide it again somewhere in a known spot in the woods, take the pup near the location and tell him to find the bone(hunt it up!)Get him excited when he's near it,when he finds it then congratulate him with lots of praise and a doggy treat. Repeat but preferably with a differant shed free of any human or dog odor on it.

[singleshot12]

Oh and wear scent free boots and hide the shed a day or two before you take the pup out so she doesn't smell your trail.

[cornfed72]

thanks

[ladyelkslayer]

For starters, I would just work on having him fetching up the antler. Just toss the antler and say "find the bone" (or similar command). when he runs and starts sniffing it, get super excited and when he brings it back, give him a treat ( I use milkbone, but have heard of hotdogs or pieces of chicken).  Once he starts bringing it back repeatedly, make him sit and stay and toss the anlter to fetch up.  Once he understands that fetching the antler gets him praise and a treat, have him sit and stay, and hide the antler around the corner of the house or in a bush and give him the command.

Once my dog had that down, we would take him to the mountains or state park, since he had learned all the hiding spots in the yard. Before leaving, I would wash the antlers to get any dog/human scent off, and wear latex gloves when handling them.  Leaving him in the truck, Id hike up and plant a few. I never just dropped one down, I would always throw them, that way he couldnt follow my scent trail to where the antler is.

Even after spending a solid 10 months of training, he still struggled his first few times out looking for the real things.  But after starting to find a few natural sheds, he picked up on the concept and excelled.

[ladyelkslayer]

A few tricks that helped us with training I'd highly recommend:
-don't let him have a horn around constantly. the only time Bow could have the horn was when we were playing Find the Bone....this made it a special game, and he got twice as excited about them when it was time to practice
-only give them treats during training.  That way he associates treats w/ antlers, and it gives him more of a drive to fetch one up because there is a tasty snack. (I think this was the biggest trick for me, everytime he would bring the horn his nose would immedatly go to my hand.)
-really praise the crap outta him everytime he brings back or starts smelling one.
-once he picks one up, turn around and slowly walk alway, making him chase after you, and don't give him the treat until the shed is in your hand or on your feet. that way he doesnt get in the habit of bringing them halfway back
-if you see him starting to handle an antler sitting on the table or one he's not supposed to, dont yell at him. I've seen well trained antler dogs never pick up an antler again after being scolded for sniffing an antler lamp.  Tell him good boy, and just pull him away.
-patience, patience, patience! There will be days where it really clicks and he does awesome, and others where he has no clue what he is doing. Just wait it out and he'll eventually come through and be bringing you sheds!
- Most importantly, ENJOY WORKING WITH YOUR NEW PUP! Good Luck!

[Happy Gilmore]

I don't know of any specific books off hand although, I know there is some literature out there which details training for scent discrimination. I have a tracking book somewhere packed away I've read before which was interesting but, lacked much detail about specific training methods. Maybe looking for some search and rescue type training books might be helpful. I've watched a few tracking trials and don't completely understand what they are doing and have watched tracking people training. I can't imagine it would be much different than training a pointer to find birds, just replace birds with bones? Turning a dog on to birds is pretty easy because of the natural prey drive and introducing live birds to a pup at a young age flips their switch. Bones, obviously lack the excitment of a live bird so, I could only deduce that making a big fun game out of the bone with a food reward and praise would be the best way to get started but, then again, I know nothing about it?

[huntlakewood]

Alls I can say is one cute pup. I am going to be getting a new one a male choc also just one more week