Meet Fleur; my secret weapon

[sampotter]

Here is Fleur, my 3.5 month old black lab. I got her specifically for shed antler hunting. So far training has gone really well. I started by just tossing an antler 10 feet or so and have now progressed to placing antlers ahead of time or throwing them when she is busy finding a different one, thereby forcing her to find them with her nose. Its amazing to watch her work in a big zig-zag pattern across the wind and then Wham!, she smells the antler and follows the scent trail right to them and then brings them back to me. Can't wait for the real thing.

[132 eight pointer]

That is fantastic! What a beautiful Lab.Nice pictures,made me smile.

[Four Season Whitetail's]

Yuo she sure is a purrtty one..Good luck with her,She looks well on her way to findin the next nys pick up record!!!

[First-light]

Cool, my dogs favorite chew toy is an antler. He has found only one in the woods. I really never trained him though.

[sampotter]

Thanks guys. I have no doubt she'll find some this spring even though she'll only be 6 months old. Her drive is amazing. The antlers are the easy part, being a good girl around the house is another. She really likes to chew...

[wooly]

Too cool! Good luck to you two and keep us posted on her progress.

Would love to see a good antler dog work some day.

[skyzmine]

That is just to cool.  ;D

[outdoorstom]

Great looking pup!  Good luck with the shed hunting!

[fasteddie]

When the dog gets bigger , it bring back the whole deer .

[gjs4]

Great job.

Did you train using a particular method (liek that guy who sells the DVDs), or just your own? What do you do to keep your scent off the antler when handling them?

[WNYBuckHunter]

Awesome sam, Ive been wanting to train out lab, Maggie, to do the same thing.

[sampotter]

I've kind of used the DVD info and winged it at the same time. I started by doing short retrieves with small antlers. After awhile I started tossing the antlers into tall grass where she couldn't see them and had to use her nose. It has progressed to me placing antlers. Today I put out sheds in an open hayfield I had never used before and used rubber gloves as well. We went out and I gave her the "Search" command. She found the 2 that were fresher no problem. The 3rd was a little bleached and I had to work her in closer to find it. After that I threw them as far as I could while holding her. She knows at this point what general direction they are in, but still has to use her nose to find them. I spend about 1/2 hour every single day doing this.

[gjs4]

That is awesome! Great job and the best of luck Sam

[nyantler]

Coolest thing I've ever seen.. great looking lab

[jasons75]

That's awesome!!!! Maybe I'll try the same with my Jack Russell.... if I can get him to stop chasing the squirrels first