Walking in the woods and along the field lines, you never know what you or your dog may find — maybe even an antler that a nice buck recently dropped.
White-tailed deer shed their antlers over late winter and finding these unique pieces of nature is a fun activity for people of all ages as well as dogs. There are also a variety of things you can do with antlers as well.
For a southeastern Pennsylvania woman, her dog has been successful at finding antlers that are lying in the leaves and fields.
Janis Robertson of Unionville, Chester County, has been collecting antlers that her dog, Buck, has been finding on their adventures through their local neighborhood.
“He started it all,” she said about her 12 1/2-year old wire fox terrier.
How it started
Robertson, 67, lives in an area known for horses and is able to walk on the open fields and woods near her home.
“We were out walking one day, we were a quarter-mile from the house and he found this fresh shed that had blood on it. And ever since then, him and I started walking fields and doing stuff,” she said.
Now Buck is determined to recover any antler he detects.
“Last year he pulled me. I wanted him to go in one area and he kept saying ‘No, we’re going to hunt this area’ and I kept saying, ‘No, come on let’s hunt this area’ and he’s like ‘Nope, I want to go over here,’” she said about him pulling the leash. “He took me to a thicket and there was a shed. Trust your dog.”
Once an antler is found, Buck likes to walk with them in his mouth. “And he has to carry them home.” One time he found three antlers and she had to hide two in her coat so he could carry one. “He also has to show off one, like here it is,” she said about the prideful walk back home.
The dog is willing to find antlers wherever they’re placed. She remembers one time that Buck just sat near a tree and she wondered what he was doing. “I see him looking up and (I noticed) somebody put a shed up in the tree. That’s how good his nose is,” she said. The antler was in the tree about six feet high.
The duo have been shed hunting for five or six years. “He has a nice collection. So far 35-40,” she said.
Most are smaller antlers. “They don’t seem to be too big. I think he would be very happy to go out to Colorado and go elk hunting. It would give him a run for his money because he’s only 19 1/2 pounds,” she said.
“He’s a really good retriever.”
How did Buck earn his name?
While some may think the dog was named after his love for antlers, Buck was actually named for the state where he was born. “He’s from Ohio. He’s a Buckeye,” she said. Buckeye is the official state tree in Ohio. It’s also a nickname for Ohio residents and the official mascot of The Ohio State University.
“My husband didn’t want me naming him that, but I like the name Buck. When I told my father that I named the dog Buck, he said, ‘Oh, after your grandfather.’ My grandfather was a game warden,” she said. “Everybody kept saying that’s an awfully powerful name for a little dog and I said he’ll live up to it and he has.”
Buck has earned a variety of accolades over the years. He has a shed hunting title from NASDA, the North American Sport Dog Association. “They have a shed hunting event and he went in last year and got first place three times. In 7 seconds to the shed, he found it,” she said.
He also has titles in rat hunting. “He loves to hunt,” she said.
Buck competes in many different dog competitions and has earned 14 different titles. He has 11 performance titles from the American Kennel Club (AKC) and he picked up different honors from NASDA and he used to do Parkour events, too. “We do a lot of outside stuff,” she said. He has a title for dock diving, too.
Where to find antlers
They walk in areas where they believe deer are bedded in the colder weather and where they feed in fields. “Where the sun is shining on that side of the hill,” she said.
She read a book about finding antlers entitled, “Shed Hunting: a Guide to Hunting White-Tailed deer Antlers” and she watched online videos about the hobby, too.
She learned to walk in areas where the sun warms the hillsides early in the day and in places that are away from the wind. She noticed that right after a severe cold spell, that deer started losing their antlers.
When it comes to finding antlers, she said, “It just amazes me how his nose is. When we went to the thicket, he pulled me 100 yards across the fields. Wow, what an amazing little dog,” she said.
Her husband, Dave, was a hunter but he can’t go for walks in the woods because of health-related problems. “I tried (hunting,) but it was too cold for me. I would rather walk the fields and stay warm, but I have no problems with hunting at all,” she said.
She starts looking for antlers at the beginning of the year and continues until the grass becomes too high in the fields.
Uses for antlers
When she gets home with an antler, she writes the time, date and location of where Buck found it, “as a memory and I’ll display them.”
She also uses the antlers for games like fetch before he receives a food prize. Deer antlers are popular chew toys for dogs but Buck doesn’t ruin his found treasures. “He just likes to carry it around and show it off,” Robertson said.
Antlers make good decorative pieces as well.
“Some people do carvings with them. They carve in them and do all kinds of stuff,” she said.
She made a tabletop display with string lights, added antlers to seasonal displays and placed some with her lamps and on a mantle. She’s hoping Buck can find enough antlers to complete a larger piece. “I want to do a chandelier, we have goals,” she said with a laugh.
She’s used a drill, wire and zip ties to hold the displays together. Shed hunters are only limited to their own creativity in what they do with the antlers.
“When friends come over they are ‘look at his finds,’” She said. They’ll ask if they can buy them and she says no because she’s working to get enough antlers to make a “Buck Chandelier.”
Why look for antlers?
“I love nature and I just like being out. It’s amazing how when they first drop and they still have a little blood on it (the base), they’re smooth and then they get a little knobby at the end and it’s really neat to watch how that changes. And I like looking at the color. I like seeing how little spikes come off it. Some people get some really fascinating ones. Maybe one day we will find one,” she said.
The hobby is something she enjoys doing with her dog.
“We just like going out in the fields. Sometimes we run across different horseback riders and sometimes we see coyotes out in the field,” she said.
For anyone who wants to have their dog find antlers, Robertson advises, “Start them young. There is a scent, but I think it’s just a natural ability for dogs. They either have it or they don’t.” She’s heard from owners of other wire fox terriers who say their dogs don’t care about antlers.
She makes a game out of the activity and maybe that would spark some interest by a dog. “When he does find one and will release it, I toss it and he goes right after it and he comes back all proud like here I am,” she said.
“He’s just a remarkable little dog that loves to hunt and has a wonderful nose.”
Regulations on antlers
The Pennsylvania Game Commission regulates wildlife and encourages people to spend time in the woods looking for antlers on grounds where they have permission. While you are allowed to keep antlers that were shed from a deer, the agency requires you to get a permit for antlers you find that are still attached to a deer skull. To keep antlers that are still attached to a white-tail deer skull, you need to pay the agency $10 per point. Elk antlers still attached to a skull are $20 a point.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website’s homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.
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