Shane Stover Teaches Dogs New Tricks by Cheri Kemp
The enthusiasm in his voice as Shane Stover spoke about his dogs was very apparent as the words fairly flew from his mouth. This is obviously someone who loves dogs and loves working with them. Most of us have or have had a dog at some point in our lifetime and enjoy the championship a dog offers. Shane has always had an affinity for the canine species and has developed that love into a hobby that gives him great pleasure. First training dogs to retrieve birds, then to shed hunt (this means to hunt for deer antlers) as well as training dogs to dock dive, has kept Shane a very busy man. He not only trains his own dogs, but has been asked to train dogs for other people. I asked Shane how he got started training a dog to be a shed hunter. Shane said that about 12 years ago, he started training his own dog, Sadie, a yellow Lab, to retrieve birds, such as ducks, pheasant and quail. “I wanted something to keep Sadie busy, more for fun and not for competition, so started training her to be a retriever.” Sadly, Sadie has since passed. Over the years Shane continued to train his other dogs to retrieve. Then about 4 years ago, his interest was sparked by hearing about shed hunting dogs. This seemed a natural progression from training dogs to retrieve birds to training them to retrieve sheds. Every April Shane takes his dogs to the world finals in Minnesota. This year Shane said there were over 120 dogs qualified for this final. “I took 4 dogs and did OK but I have done better. Still, it was a good experience for all of us. I have even organized some of my own events. In September 2014 I organized the very first event ever held in Illinois, in Kirkland. There were about 35 dogs at that event. Then in 2016 I organized one in Pecatonica.” Currently Shane has Jake, who is a Chesapeake Bay Retreiver, and Lucy, one of Jake’s pup’s who are part of the North American Shed Hunting Dog Association. Jake is a Master titled shed hunter for the NASHDA and Lucy is a Senior titled shed hunter. In training, a dog practices shed hunting with a dummy antler that begins with a little playing and retrieving the dummy antler from obvious places. There is even a deer scented wax that is put on the dummy antler that helps the dog find it. “It is a lot of nose work for the dog.” said Stover. As time goes on, the dummy antler is moved and hidden in more difficult to spy places and the amount of the scent wax is reduced to make it more difficult to find. In active competition, real antlers are used. The judges hide 6 antlers in various places in wooded areas. The dog has 15 minutes to find all 6 antlers. As the dog improves its time and score, he or she will move from Junior status, to Senior status and finally Master status. Shane has taken his dogs to competi tions in Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Minnesota and Ohio. Through these competitions Shane has met a lot of people and through word of mouth, has earned a reputation for training dogs. “I had to go to classes to be trained to be a trainer. I have gone to seminars to learn more; taken bits and pieces from talking to other trainers and have developed my own style over the years.”
14 Crest Ink July, August & September 2017
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