ORIGINAL: zrexpilot
How does one train a dog to track wounded animals
This is how I was told to do it, and so far it's working:
Take the skin off a recently killed deer and tie a rope to it. Take the deer heart and cut it up into small chunks. Drag the bloody skin thru the woods where you want to train the dog and leave it. Don't let the dog see you do it. Take the dog to the spot where you started the drag. When the dog finds the skin, give lots of praise and some of the heart meat. After a couple of times, the dog will get the idea. I also ask her "Where's the deer?" as a verbal prompt to get her going.