Last year I did some shed training with my lab and things went great. I only found afew small sheds but we both had a blast. While training him I used to by 8" antlers from a local pet store for him to chew and play with to get him interested. Well, I still have the 3 small sheds I found from last year. I have been using 2 of them for training purposes but I was wondering if the 3rd would be okay to just let him chew/ play with? Should I clean it with something?
If you plan to continue training your dog as a shed hunter i would completely throw out the idea of using the antlers as toys or anything other than training. Im not sure how serious u take teaching your dog this skill but if u exchange the reward after the find, for the antlers being always available will make the training much more difficult for yourself, and confusing for the dog. My two cents. Good luck either way
I would agree with the training aspect of not allowing it to be available all the time. My dog, however, has a decent size shed I gave him 3 years ago that he still chews on on occasion. I didnt do anything special to it, just walked in and threw it to him. He even sleeps with it sometimes. They are about the only thing that will last with him as he is a 95 lb. american bulldog and can shred any other toy in minutes.
I've probably got 7-8 hurried in my yards. He loves them. Last forever and its the only thing a pitbull can't destroy. Even those black kings get torn up Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
My lab is also trained to find them. she only gets to play with them if she wants to carry them back to the truck the day she finds them! Otherwise they are decorations for my home!
