I was reading a magazine, I believe North American Whitetail, and there was an article about using dogs to find sheds. They would even retrieve them. Has anyone heard of this or read the article. I believe they were using labs. They said that the scent stays on the antler for so long that it is easy for the dogs. They were finding sheds that were over a year old.
DT
A buddy of mine trained his black lab for shed hunting. It can be done, he brought the dog with every time and when he saw a shed he would sit there and wait for the dog to find it and pick it up. Now he is finding them on his own. I tried this with my golden retriever to see if he might have it in him….not so much 
It would be pretty sweet after a long hike and no antlers to have your dog come rippen’ out of the brush with a big old shed in his mouth. Dog bones for everybody 
i would love to own a dog that found sheds. I remember reading an article about a breeder that specialized in training Labs to find antlers. i also remember reading an article of a guy who had a dog he trained to find antlers. he trained the conditioned the dog to think that antlers were a play toy. He used antlers like they were a “ball”. pretty cool stuff if a guy had time
if you can train a pup to hunt birds you should be able to train it for sheds…no different then the scent of a bird for a hunting dog, of dope for a k-9 sniffer dog, or bomb dog, tracker dog etc…you just need to start em out young and the dog has to have good “ball drive” it will work for the reward..you hide the sheds, the pup looks for it and when it find it or them you “reward” it…its an easy concept but like anything it takes time…you would be supprised how quick police sniff dogs will work and be tuned in to different scents of dope and there is no different then the scent of an antler…to a dog anyway..Jay
there is an actual website for this http://www.antlerdogs.com has tips for training and all may have to replace the wifes cat 
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