Well after long consideration my wife and I decided to get our girls a dog. At first we were going to pursue a rescue animal but after further discussing it we decided on getting a puppy that we could train from the beginning. At first we were just looking for a companion but then I thought I may need a companion to shed hunt with so our search began. We stumbled along a litter of labs with a little coon hound in them and we ended up with Sophie! She is quite the little puppy and very smart. She is learning fast and loves playing with her "sheds." I am having a great time with training so far and it seems to be going well! Just working on basic obedience and retrieving skills now.
I am going to use the Dokken Shed Dog training with her. You can get the training dvd's and such for a decent price. It is a lot of work and takes time but very doable if you put the effort in. I have started her out with a few different size sheds that she gets to play with all the time to get used to what they look like. I am hoping this will encourage her to continue to want to find her "toys" in the future.
Congrats on the new shed hunting buddy. I've been training with my lab for a little while now and have used antler scent on his rubber shed and real sheds with great success. Just make sure you keep those antlers as the primary toys because they will move on to something else quickly when they are in that puppy/chewing stage. I've had my 9 month old lab less than 2 months now and I feel he's ready to hit the woods. Hes crazy about his sheds! Good luck and keep us updated on the progress.
Yeah the only toys she has are sheds. We do give her a dental chew ring and a teething ring right now just to help keep her mouth clean and healthy. I am hoping she will be ready to hit the woods by March of next year but I am not going to push her too hard.
I got my pup at eight weeks in April of 2013. At 12 weeks, he found his first shed while we were out looking. I musta walked rite over it. Anyhow, this was his first yr. He found 14 unassisted. It was lots of work training him, but the delight of watching him come running over with a shed is amazing. You will have moments that are extremely frustrating. Just stick to it.
That's awesome! Yeah we work at it nightly and she seems to love it. We are working on retrieving right now and she is starting to do well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
