A pic of my tracker gettin her nose bloody on a deer....
We use Wire Haired Dachshund in Alabama. My Mom and Stepdad got them from hunting stock in Germany. We trained with deer blood and internal organs from deer so the smell they are training with is the same as you want them to find in the woods. The first deer they recovered the dogs were only 6 months old and we tracked it for 1.5 hours alomost 1.5 miles and crossed 2 creeks and one clear cut but the finial out come was a buck in the truck. These dogs have found about 25 deer in the 2 hunting season that we have used them. When they are not hunting the are my mom's lap dogs. Their are books out there that will teach you how train the dog. But the best thing is get some blood and orgains from a deer or hog and start working with the dog. I am sure Skunk Ape will agree all dog are not cut out to be traking dogs. Some will do and some want. The best thing start with a dog from good hunting stock and go from there.
10-4 on that,I've heard of guys using dachsaunds before. I still prefer smaller breeds as compared to larger driving dogs myself. Dave T has some good ideas and methods as well. A good dog does not need blood to trail an animal though, deer and hogs leave scent from glands in their hooves. If your dog is trained,trust him even if you don't find any blood.I really don't train dogs for this,I just use one of my pack dogs if necessary.
A good friend of mine uses 2 chocolate labs. He would take one of them as young as 4 months and when they shot a deer while running dogs he would put it on the blood trail and the dog naturally picked it up. He found nearly every deer they put him on that year (of course the hounds had found most of them first). He finds the deer, he gets a treat- positive reinforcement.
The other was trained with deer hides and fresh deer blood a few times, but he picked it up mainly from the other older lab.
One night several years ago the older lab was trailing a good buck he shot with his bow. The unleashed lab trailed ahead of him and he heard the buck trying to get up right ahead of the dog. The dog ran up to the still alive buck and it must have scared him to death because he ran one way and the buck took off the other. The dog ran back to the truck and wouldn't go back in the woods. They looked for blood and the deer the next day and couldn't find it. Three days later he found his skull and backbone of his buck. This is the main reason I like to use hounds are because mine would run him down while barking and bay/catch him.
