Sooooo…the coldest month of the year just happened to be the one in which I (Gianna) got to train a dog! Fortunately for me, it wasn’t as cold as it usually is in January. Cold or not, I really enjoyed my first experience training a Golden for shed hunting!
Jeremiah, the owner of the dog I trained, told us that shed hunting is getting fairly popular, and that it’s rather difficult to find people who train dogs for shed hunting. We were eager to take on the job and learn more about shed training ourselves.
The first step of the course was training Whitney to retrieve antlers. She was already used to the feel of an antler in her mouth and quickly got used to bringing back the antlers – especially when I gave a small reward every time she did. 😀 Soon I was able to alternate throwing the dummies while she watched with placing them out beforehand so she could find them.
Meanwhile, I was also working on leash training and obedience. Whitney had never been on a leash before January, which made our first session…interesting. By the next day, she had figured out that the leash wouldn’t hurt her and she shouldn’t be chasing it all the time. Things progressed much more quickly after that!
By the end of January, Whitney was heeling off leash with only a few corrections; she knew to retrieve an antler (and nothing else) even without a command from the heel position; and she was finding antlers from farther and farther away without any directions from me!
Overall, I’m glad I had the opportunity to train Whitney. It gave me a better feel of how to train a dog for shed hunting, and it gave me an appreciation for finding specific way tricks to teach each individual dog. I have also learned to appreciate the fireplace though!
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