shed hunting dog training

[sebek556]

I am start to work with my healer on being a shed hunting dog. Yes he is not a traditional hunting dog, but his drive to please is second to only his drive for treats.  so I figured I would start by playing fetch with a shed I have, then praise and treat upon return every time I throw it I tell him to get the bone. I figure I will keep with this for a week or two then progress to dropping sheds in the yard while he is inside then taking him out and telling him to get the bone, once again praise and treat upon bring back the shed. what are you thoughts?

[Shed Stud]

You need to get a variety of sheds that haven't been handled to much. When you get a new shed put some gloves on when hiding it to mask your scent.

[sebek556]

  good tip thanks, think I need to go hunt for some more, most of mine have been handled alot

[ladyelkslayer]

that was basically how I trained my lab...I also didn't give him treats (or people food) unless it was for bringing an anter to me....made him want to do it that much more...now that he has it down and has over 100 "unasisted" (ones I wouldn't have found on my own), he gets spoiled and gets treats all the time!

One other thing I did was before handling dropping the antler or playing fetch, I would rinse the antlers in water to make the scent stronger, and used laytex gloves like Shed Stud mentioned.

[JakeLand]

I too have been training my australian sheperd , i have been going to the back 40 and hiding several blacktail sheds with the farthest shed being more hard to find and the closest one being out in the open.Now after several weeks of training alls I have to say is WHERES THE ANTLER and he knows what to do. make sure you use the same comands like you would with any other hunting dog and praise him with every one he finds. Now its just a waiting game for the antlers to start dropping.Good luck and have fun with it

[Devinshoe]

Thats how i have trained my dogs to do it. Seemed to work pretty good for me.