Antler Shed Hunting with Dogs

Are you looking for an alliteration lesson (repeating consonant sounds at the beginning of each word) or are you curious how your hunting dog can be a salutation to finding those antler sheds?  We’ve all seen the rubber deer antlers sold in the local Cabelas with a bottle of “secret sauce” attached to it that imitates horn smells.  I’ve also been a sucker for the wax you can buy to add to the horns to carry  more of an enhanced buck scent.  Do these things work?  Can you train any dog to hunt for whitetail sheds?  I don’t see why not.

I’ve been working with my dogs on and off for 6 months and they love the idea of going hunting for these sheds.  I’ll put on their orange vests, lock them in my bedroom, the hide the sheds anywhere in the house or outside.  They always find them!  They will be Kentucky deer hunting machines yet.   As long as you associated a task along with a treat that is given to the organic life form performing that task, you will develop that desired behavior. 

The problem I’m having is that my dogs are indoor dogs.  So once I take them outside to a place they’ve never been before, they are simply to excited to go hunt for deer antlers in my wonderful state of Kentucky.  These dogs might locate the sheds, but then they are forgotten about because a butterfly distracted them.   Now this too can be overcame with more practice being outdoors in a strange environment.  The idea of collecting a basket of sheds from those large 140+ inch Kentucky trophy deer sounds appealing.  How great would it be find large antlered buck sheds in the woods in January, letting you know that big buck is still out there.  Chances are when you find these horns in the favorite food plots is that they will be deer you haven’t even caught on camera. Locating mature Kentucky whitetail bucks is difficult, but after hunting season when they’ve gone nocturnal and are scrounging for thick cover, you’ll find new bucks crossing your property in search of this safe deer sanctum.