shed dog coming soon...suggestions wanted

[letrfly]

Hey fellas...my friend just had some lab pups and I have my pick of the litter. I would love to use him as a shed dog but this is a new adventure for me. Any suggestions on where to start and helpful tips would be appreciated. I have trained dogs before but not for this.
Thanks

 

[bowman]

I am in the same boat and it is hard to find any detailed information on training your own dog for shed hunting. I find siminars, or places you can send your dog, but the how to books or videos don't seem to exist for shed dogs like they do for training your own upland bird dog or waterfowl dog.

I found this information http://www.ventosakennel.com/shed_antler_detection
on how to pick a shed dog. Do some browsing and you will see that there are many ways to spend your money!

Good Luck!

 

[kurtish]

I'm in the process of training my 3 month old lab for sheds. I started my pup BB, by introducing a shed to her everytime before she ate.....held shed up to her nose and stated "shed". I did that for the first few weeks that I got her home. I then started stashing sheds around the house and telling her to "find the shed". She knew what shed meant and thus hunted around till she found them....lots of praise and a treat to reinforce the find. I continued that for a few weeks and started to hide them under rags or sheets so she had to use her nose. Last week I took a few sheds that I put into plastic bags when I found them last winter (no human scent) and placed them in the tall grass around the house. Leading her downwind of the sheds I said "find the shed" and sure enough she followed her nose right to them.
I'm not an expert shed dog trainer...basically just figuring it out as I go, but what i've been doing seems to be working.
I know that there is a training video that Is produced by the fella from missouri that has made shed dog's famous....can't remember his name but it's supposed to be a quality training video.