Shed Dogs

[Flyway12]

For the guys that got them, how hard is it? I've trained multiple retrievers in my lifetime, several that ran hunt tests/trials etc. My group has aged a fair piece and in the past 5 years I've gone from 5 dogs down to two. My chocolate male is 8 now and he's bored, I don't hunt waterfowl like I did. I thought shed hunting might be something fun for he and I to do as my focus has switched more to bow hunting and managing for whitetail deer. I've got some antlers around the house, I can teach that dog to hunt certain items with little effort and his nose is decent (I've had better, I've had far worse).

Do I basically just teach him to find the bone in the woods or is there more to it? Any reputable training books or videos?

I need another project like I need a hole in the head but I enjoy being outdoors too much. I've got a setter that I'm considering training on blood trails too.

[SaltwaterSlick]

I trained my last lab to hunt sheds. Have never trained a "finished" dog to do it tho... What I did was instead of bumpers, sticks and chew toys, I used sheds to work with my lab. I'd throw 'em, and such and she loved to play with them as a pup starting at 7 weeks... When she got to the training point of doing "blind" retrieves, (I trained her to retrieve all kinds of birds too) I'd tell her "hunt the shed, hunt the shed"... by the time she was 2 years old, when she'd go out with me to fill feeders or work on stuff at the deer lease, when she'd jump out the truck, I'd tell her to "find the shed"... Over the years, she probably found enough sheds to fill the bed of a pick up truck... Don't know if a 8 year old can be taught that or not. Never tried it...

[adam_p]

I taught my vizsla to find them but could never get her to reliably pick them up and bring them too me. She would just rather hunt for living things. If a shed would run from her she'd bring me every one.