I've been training bird dogs for 40 years. In the old days, I would spend my summers training, and then in the fall I'd take my string of dogs and hunt the Saskatchewan prairie.

Master trainer Roger Sigler and his good friend Ayla, a yellow Lab, show off some of the mule deer and whitetail sheds found on their spring 2007 trek to southern Saskatchewan. Roger noted that antlers do have an odor that dogs can detect even several years after being shed.

In the fall of 2006, while reminiscing about the prairie, I remembered some of the big bucks I had seen. I also remembered the friendship I had made with Terry Barns of Barns Lures. Terry is a professional trapper. Suddenly a light went on! Why not take my antler dogs to the prairie? This time, it would not be in the fall to hunt birds, but in the spring to hunt shed antlers!

Last spring, Terry agreed to take a few days off from his spring beaver trapping and take me and my nephew Marc Sigler shed hunting.

We decided to take 11 dogs with us. They were all just over a year old, still just puppies, and this was their first real excursion to hunt shed antlers in the wild. I was amazed, as was everyone else who witnessed these dogs work. In 3 1/2 days, they found over 100 shed antlers!

Like a good, close-working bird dog quartering 30 to 50 yards ahead, when one of these dogs spots or smells an antler, it goes to it and retrieves it to hand. Long ago, I found that Labrador retrievers were the dogs of choice for shed hunting. They are great at retrieving and they have superior noses. Their scent work, and their ability to discern the scent of an antler from among all the other outdoor scents, is phenomenal.

NORTH OF THE BORDER
Preparation for our trip took months. The proper documentation for the Canadian and U.S. authorities was essential. With all of the necessary paperwork completed, Marc and I, along with the 11 dogs, piled into the truck and trailer and headed north from our home in Missouri.

Marc's Diary -- April 2, 2007:

First day's hunt, 15 degrees

We started the day out at a grain pile on 5 acres of land that Terry had scouted for us over the winter. We found 10 sheds at that location in about two hours. Many of the sheds were visible, but the dogs found those we couldn't see as well.

Terry next led us to a spot by the Antler River (appropriately named). It was a beautiful place to hunt for sheds. A trace of hawthorns, poplars and cocklebur bushes made for a nicely covered walk with abundant deer and moose sign along the trails. I had been out for about an hour and hadn't seen the others in our party, so I decided to go to the top of a hill to see if I could spot them. It was very quiet up there, almost too quiet. I could imagine the coyotes sneaking in on me for a meal.

Then a sly whisper of motion, followed by the pounding of footsteps through the tall grass, suddenly closed in on me with the speed of a perfect ambush. It was Ayla, Roger's yellow Lab. I could literally hear my heart pounding. She had found me, and I was reunited with my team. We didn't find any sheds, so we moved on.

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