Shed dog "Lightbulb turned on!"

Two years ago I gave up on training my black lab for sheds, I could hide them around the yard in bushes and wood piles. He would search for them, until he found them. I had already introduced him to birds in the mountains and else where and so whenever I would go out with him the only thing he would find was birds. Well fast forward to this year, I take him every time I praise him trying to get him to find horns but all I can get him to do is hold them or pick them up when I say fetch.
But on the recent trip with a friend something in my dogs brain clicked!
1.5 miles in my friend says "oh my hell" I look over and see an old 4 point horn with extras in my dogs mouth. 40 yards later he finds a trashy based horn, and throughout the day he found a couple more.

It's awesome to turn around and see your dog with a horn in his mouth!



Toby with his two biggest finds of the day

Nice job Toby. Looks like he earned that nap!

treats when he finds one motivates my little turd burglar to no end....

My dog has yet to have the light bulb click yet but I have definitely found a good way to keep him focused. I have been training him for almost two years now with the same stash and find method. At this point he has found a good handful of antlers on his own. I noticed a pattern developing with him. With the antlers he picked up he would immediately pass up all other antlers in pursuit of the matched side. I realized the methods we use for teaching shed dogs is similar to the method used to train rescue dogs based off scent. I took this thought and experimented with it. After shooting my bow in a field I lost several arrows. I took my dog out in the field with the same brand of arrow and used the same method. Let him smell it. Get him interested in fetching it and sent him out with the find it command. Within 3 minutes he located the three missing arrows snaked in the grass. I then took this same concept and applied it to shed hunting. Untill the "light clicks" I have found it very useful to carry 3 or 4 smaller fresh antlers with me. Every 5 minutes or so I will call my dog over. Have him sit, hold him under the chin and hold all 3 or 4 of the antler burrs up to his nose. Let him smell them all and send him out again. I use to do this with just one antler but have found it to be much more helpful to use multiple antlers to give them a "well rounded" antler scent rather than a single scent to lock onto.