Shed hunting with gsp

[Sundby]

Hello, I have a couple questions, I currently have a 1 year and 3 month old gsp, this is the first dog that I am actually training to be fully broke, and he is doing great, I am a serious bird hunter and going to get into some trials this next year, I take him everywhere with me, fishing, farming, shed hunting, work, my question is, I took him out shed hunting last year, he loves it, I let him run around the farm when I'm working on equipment and working in the shop etc, once I get him fully broke do you think this is a bad idea to take a dog shed hunting or let them run around, since all my attention isn't on him, I personally think he knows we are not bird hunting, but there are defiantly birds in the area, and I usually have my eyes glued to the ground and let him run and hopefully find a shed, let me here your thoughts, I hate to leave my buddy home but all the work we put into the training I don't want it to go backwards since he so young if that makes sense, thanks for your opinion.

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[DudeRN]

I would curious to hear from folks about this, too. I have thought about shed training my Britt, but I have resisted because I worry about confusing her about what we are doing in the field. I hope someone gives us some input here.

[aulrich]

I played with this some this spring(more just for fun with a dog just over 3years) , I look at it like a duck search for antlers. search an area for a scent and bring it back. Just like duck search training does not conflict with upland training I don't see a conflict here. a warm bird will always trump cold antler. I would not do anything formal(though intro the dog to the scent and take the dog with you to the woods) until after duck search is done and force fetch, not so much because it would conflict is that once you got search and retrieve on a duck, all you need to do is overlay a new scent and a different command on the behavior the dog already knows and you got a shed dog.

[Sundby]

I guess I'm not to worried about my dog actually finding the sheds but being broke and steady on birds, while we are shed hunting , and letting them run the woods or farmyard and keeping them broke, because attention is not 100% on them, maybe I'm thinking into it too much,

[CDN_Cocker]

You won't confuse the dog. They know the difference - just like hunting different game. You can hunt ducks one day and grouse the next day with no issue. I don't own a GSP but I hunt grouse, woodcock, all types of waterfowl, rabbit and sheds with my spaniel. Get out there and have some fun!

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