Antler Dawgs

02/01/2022

Winter nights mean a floor full of Antler Dawgs.

03/12/2021

New Hampshire Public Radio: Something Wild: The many benefits of antlers | New Hampshire Public Radio.
https://www.nhpr.org/show/something-wild/2021-12-03/something-wild-the-many-benefits-of-antlers

Shed antlers provide nutrients to a whole host of forest-dwellers, and are an important part of the entire forest ecosystem.

26/11/2021

Animal Training Quandary Unfolding - Help!

We live in a very big building with a flat roof. It makes a very bounded space outdoors without too many distracting elements. I’ve used it quite a bit with the antler dawgs before I started trying to drive the indicate times down. It seemed like it was time to leave the confines of the guest wing...

24/11/2021

The individual pages for the dogs are starting to take shape. Check out QBert's page. https://antlerdawgs.com/?page_id=78

This dog is a gentleman, and could easily pass for a Labrador retriever. He just really wants to be appreciated. QBert's Stats

23/11/2021

Would you risk it all? https://antlerdawgs.com/?p=70

I was afraid to try the next experiment because it could undo months of work if it went horribly wrong. I lay in bed ruminating about it until dawn. How could I hope to drive down the indicate times at two trials a day? I was desperate and then John gave me a bag of beef tallow and brisket trimmings...

22/11/2021

Handsome Tip is a bit lazy. He may or may not feel like hunting antlers, but rest assured he understands how the game works. He does things his own way.

22/11/2021

Qbert is the most even tempered of the dogs. He rarely gets crazy. He was the only male dog that could be called off the elk on the day we came across one on a walk. He is not a fast dog, but he is solid.

22/11/2021

Lassie has brindle legs and muzzle. She is the group clown and is always wagging her tail, especially when she knows it's time to search for antlers. She brings a great deal of enthusiasm to the hunt and often her average times will be half of next fastest dog.

22/11/2021

Frosty is a big goofball. He loves to follow his human around and sleep under the desk. When it comes to antlers, his averages are the fastest because he is generally quite consistent.

22/11/2021

The Bod is the littlest of the antler dawgs. He works hard and is very fast to refind the antler after the alert. Because he has a very short coat, he spends his nights in the house. He needs to be someone's house dog.

22/11/2021

Bailey is the brindle female. She is fast and already has one antler under her belt. The bad thing about Bailey is that she climbs fences.

19/11/2021

There is a science to Antler Dawgs.
https://antlerdawgs.com/?p=30

The antler dawgs each weigh around 40 lbs. An elk antler can weigh up to 40 lbs. Collecting elk sheds is not like collecting little sheds from white tailed deer, so I didn’t train the dogs to retrieve them. I trained them to come get me when they find an antler and take me to it. This is much hard...

05/11/2021

Workin' on a website.

05/11/2021

Total chaos ensued when the Antler Dawgs found someone had some antlers. He tried to hit them with his antlers a few times, then just stood watching and chewing his cud.

05/11/2021

Penn State News: Deer may be reservoir for SARS-CoV-2, study finds.

Does not make deer sick. Not in antlers.

More than 80% of the white-tailed deer sampled in different parts of Iowa between December 2020 and January 2021 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The findings suggest that white-tailed deer may be a reservoir for the virus to continually circulate and raise concerns of emergence of new strains that m...

05/11/2021

Bailey, the best of the pups.

05/11/2021

Tippy. The shaggy one.

29/10/2021

KPAX-TV: A Wilder View: What’s behind the size of a buck’s antlers.
https://www.kpax.com/news/a-wilder-view/a-wilder-view-whats-behind-the-size-of-a-bucks-antlers

This edition of A Wilder View takes a look at what really leads to a buck having big antlers.

05/10/2021

First find scored for Bailey.

30/09/2021

Caves are always an exciting find.

29/09/2021

The Dawgs found some interesting cacti on the walk about. Water in the Largo and two young trees smashed by deer rubbing their antlers.

23/09/2021

Dogs finding antlers is an air-scent event. There are many resources on the internet for training air-scent Search and Rescue dogs. I am going to be posting links to them here to share with anyone interested in this esoteric training topic.
One of the decisions necessary for training this type of behavior is what kind of indication behavior is needed for the dog to alert the handler that there is an antler? Sitting quietly by the antler is not going to work. The dog has to run back and get the handler to follow to the antler. So there is A) Ranging around looking for an antler; B) locating the antler by air-scent or vision; C) returning to the handler; D) Indicating the handler should follow; and E) refinding the antler with the handler.
I was going to just use targeting a specific glove as the indication behavior and as of the last time we tried the pups can do that to a distance of 20 feet away from the antler. I have since decided that the glove is an awkward solution. I am thinking now that I will get the dog to ask to be leashed on harness, so they can lead me to the antler. It will be pretty easy to teach this behavior.
I am also considering adding a bell on the dog when it is in search mode. I am trying to think through the consequences of having 6 bells on puppies going for a walk. Hmmm.
Because the antlers in our area are from elk and trophy deer, the option of antler retrieval seems like an unacceptable choice.

21/09/2021

Today we walked down the dry riverbed and posed on a rock. At least some of us did. The boys from left to right: QBert, the Bod, Tip, and Frosty.

10/09/2021

Our search took us to the ridge overlooking home.

05/09/2021

The stray female dog that some oil-field workers brought us had 6 puppies in late April. I imprinted them to antlers by making antlers predict meals for their first two months of solid food. Now the project is teaching them to airscent and indicate, besides teaching them how to be good dogs.

05/09/2021

05/09/2021

05/09/2021

02/09/2021

Introducing the pups