“City Slickers” visiting mountain states in the west often gawk at chandeliers made of antlers and agonize over the poor creature that sacrificed its life for a lighting fixture like the one at the right. It’s true.

News flash. Antlers are naturally discarded by deer, elk, moose and caribou (critters known as “ungulates”) every year who then grow a completely new set. This shedding procedure takes two to three weeks to complete, while the regeneration takes an entire summer to complete before the cycle starts all over again. Antlers are made up of a honeycombed bone-like tissue, and during the summer, higher levels of testosterone slow antler growth; veins and arteries around the velvet constrict, and blood and nutrient supply to the antlers is cut off. The velvet withers and begins to fall off, something the deer helps along by rubbing his antlers against trees. A drop in testosterone following the rut causes the tissue and bone at the base to weaken, and the antlers simply fall off.

Finding these antlers is a small but growing pastime (there are even competitions), and if one is seriously hunting for antlers, it helps to have a dog. Most any dog can be trained to be a shed hunter, but gun dogs in particular seem to have an innate knack for being “shed dogs” or “antler dogs” because they already have retrieving “built” into their blood.

You knew it was coming, right? There’s a growing business of training dogs to find horns, and at least a couple of kennels we found train Labrador Retriever puppies to become antler-obsessed adults. Most customers are hunters who scout the woods not only to find antler sheds,  but to get a look at the quality of herds for next season.  Using a dog increases the success of finding sheds by 50 percent to 70 percent than if attempted alone.

We found no evidence that the dogs who’ve been gnawing on antlers as “chewies” will be more inclined to be able to find a shed antler – but perhaps one of our experts friends has an opinion on this?

Photo of black Labrador Retriever found on Pinterest and happily credited upon receipt of information. The photo of the 8 Light Deer Antler Chandelier can be yours for $2,289.00. Find it here.