Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Discussion about shed antlers, etc
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Pike
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Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby Pike » Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:14 am

Here are some pics of our training sessions of my lab pup Mojo that I adopted on Feb. 1st. at 10 weeks old. I try to work with him twice a day for 15-20 minutes at a time then just try to have fun and wear him out. (which is easier said than done)
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I decided that the snow had melted enough to take Mojo out for his first shed hunt on Sunday Feb 28th. We arrived at 1:50 PM. and started walking up the steep hill and into a large cedar thicket, there was a lot more snow than I thought there would be, varying between 6-12 inches with some bare spots under the cedars. We immediately got into deer trails and deer droppings and we started following one of the well used trails. Not even 150 yards from the truck I look at a bare spot about 18 yards to my left and I see a nice shed laying there, then I look 4-5 feet from it and I see another shed laying on the ground. I decided to stay put and let Mojo work the area until he finds them (even if it takes 3 hours) I then tell Mojo to find the bone as he is sniffing every deer track etc. and after 10 minutes or so he finds the larger shed ( a real nice 6-pt shed) he seemed as shocked as I was to find it laying there and just stood there for a minute, then he laid down and started chewing it and I told him to bring me the bone, which he did, I put on a rubber glove and took it and placed it in my back pack, then gave him a huge hug and a treat. After a couple minutes I was able to coax him to forget about the shed we found and he started to search again in the area of the first shed, after another minute or so he discovered the 2nd shed ( a 2-pt shed) and stood there like he was puzzled again, I then said bring me the bone, he picked it up and took off running with it this time instead of bringing it to me so I had to catch him to get it away from him and gave him another hug and another treat as he tried to get in my back pack laying on the ground. I was able to finally get him going back to searching but we didn't find any more sheds, just way too much snow and by 3:30 PM. he was plum tuckered out. Below are pics of our awesome afternoon. Pike
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I was able to get out for a couple hours Tuesday eve. (March 2nd) with Mojo for our 2nd shed hunt and ended up finding one 3-pt shed and unfortunately a dead 1.5 year old buck. When I saw the shed laying there I told Mojo to find the bone and it took him about 5 minutes to locate it.
Most of the snow should be gone by this weekend and I cant wait to get back out! Pike
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Mojo and I were able to get back out to the woods the afternoon of Sat. March 6th. about 3:30 Pm. for our 3rd shed hunt of the year. (we were going to head to OH. today but there is still too much snow left on the ground) and hunted right up until dark and ended up finding 5 sheds today including a nice matched set which were laying about a half mile apart. Pike
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Took advantage of the great weather and spent last Wed. & Thurs. in SE. OH. with Mojo and ended up finding 14 sheds and a dead 10-pt including one that Mojo found all by himself and brought to me!! It is the first shed he has found by himself without me seeing it prior to him! (the first pic.)
The 2nd. pic. is of Mojo after I saw some gobblers and we got behind a bush and I told him to lay down and he did the entire time while I called them into 35 yards.
The 3rd and 4th pics is of Mojo on the ATV., we road all over and every time I tried to put him on the ground he tried to jump right back on. (I might have spoiled him!) Pike
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Mojo and I were able to get this afternoon here in PA. and ended up finding 4 more. bringing our total up to 26 sheds even though we were only able to get out 6 times this year due to the deep snow. And with things greening up as fast as they are, today might have been our last REAL shed hunt of the season. Pike
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dan
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby dan » Tue Apr 06, 2010 12:24 pm

Great post Pike! 8-)
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby Slider1005 » Tue Apr 06, 2010 2:57 pm

Looks like you have one heck of a dog there. Nice pics 8-)
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Tue Apr 06, 2010 3:08 pm

:shock: Sweeet... thanks for sharing Pike!
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby Casper » Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:36 pm

Thats awesome. He looks so happy when he finds one. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby WiBowhuntress » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:56 am

I love it Pike! Love the pics! Love the fact that you've been training your dog to find them too. I am really into shed hunting and if I could keep a dog in my apartment, I too, would be training it to shed hunt.

Great post! Keep us tuned it to how he is progressing throughout his training. :D
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby Pike » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:44 am

Thanks guys & gal! Since I never trained a dog to hunt antlers before and only dogs for waterfowl, grouse/woodcock etc. and also rescue dogs to train them to be adoptable etc. I really wasnt sure how this was going to turn out since there really isnt any helpfull info on the net or in hunting magazines etc. There was plenty of article's on the subject but the trainers/experts all were vague and contradicted each other on how to train one. I think they do this because of how much $$$ they charge to train people's dogs to hunt antlers for them and also how much they charge for a started pup, or a finished dog.
Anyway Mojo pretty much picked up each step of his training right away and even though he was rescued from a Amish Puppy Mill he is as inteligent, has just as much drive to hunt, willingness to learn and please as any Lab that I have bought from a top notched breeder with best hunting stock. Pike
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby Boo » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:49 am

Nice work Pike! That is awesome!
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby magicman54494 » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:56 am

Nice looking pup! I love his name!
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby dan » Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:07 am

Because they are finding the sheds based on scent, I am thinking they don't do well on sheds that have been out a year? I would also imagine that if you train them with the same antler over and over the scent gets worn off from dog slobber and chewing? So a person would need to keep giving the dog fresh antlers or adding scent to the used ones...
Thoughts?
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby Pike » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:37 pm

Dan actually the older the shed the more scent it gives off.
Also since I never use to keep my sheds unless I decided to use them as rattling horns I just always took pics of them and gave them away, and since we got 43 + inches of snow during Feb. I didnt get out to find more until Feb 28th. So I only had one shed to start out training Mojo with. So after every training session I ran the shed thru the dishwasher with out detergent and then placed it outside in the bushes. But now that I have 27 sheds to use, I have 5 different training sites and hide 5-6 sheds at each site and dont return with Mojo for atleast 7 days. Once he finds all the sheds at a particular site I put him in the truck and hide them again and leave them sit for atleast another week. Pike
Last edited by Pike on Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby PredatorTC » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:51 pm

dan wrote:Because they are finding the sheds based on scent, I am thinking they don't do well on sheds that have been out a year? I would also imagine that if you train them with the same antler over and over the scent gets worn off from dog slobber and chewing? So a person would need to keep giving the dog fresh antlers or adding scent to the used ones...
Thoughts?


Dan i tried to train our lab/shepherd. In the end i would take the shed and hold the dog by the collar. I would toss it into the cornfield as far as a could. Then i would let him go. To my amazement he found it every-time. But he never could find his own new sheds. Personally i think he was just sniffing out the human scent that my hands left on the antler. So i wonder if i shoulda used rubber gloves and switched antlers. But i kinda gave up on that because i got sick of chasing the dog around and watching him while i was trying to scout
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby Pike » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:54 pm

TC, Yeh you should have either used rubber (not latex) or plastic gloves. Pike
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Re: Shed Pup's Training & First Shed Season!

Unread postby dan » Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:40 pm

Dan actually the older the shed the more scent it gives off.

I don't get it? Wouldn't it have the most scent when it 1st leaves the deer?
Otherwise its just like bone..

?


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