Preserving Blood for Scent Training
 

Hello,

I'm trying to teach my dog to scent track the deer that I kill. I shot an eight point yesterday evening and I drained all the blood out of it that I could. I want to save the blood so I can use it to help train my dog to track wounded/dead deer. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me the best way to preserve the blood. Other than putting it in a fridge or freezer (not sure which one is better) is there something I should add to the blood to help it preserve better? Thanks in advance for any help!

If you freeze it it will separate and if you refrigerate it it will turn into a big blood clot. You may want to try to saturate paper towels with blood and then dry them very well and put them in an air tight container and use small pieces to lay a trail.

I dilute it with distilled water, maybe 10 to one or even thinner. I fill the container to the top, so there is no air and refrigerate. I started mine on Hog blood.

A good friend advised me to use Beef blood instead of game blood. The reason being you want to train them to follow any blood and not species specific.

Game blood, I was told, is overpowering to most Hunting breeds. Kind of like scenting a single turd in cesspool, was the way he said it. Imagine you trying to find an open Ammonia bottle in a closed room with your nose. Some scents are just overpowering.

I trained mine with thinned beef blood, he could follow a blood trail with tiny drops 15-30 yards apart at a dead run, if I let him run. He didn't even need to get his nose near the ground.

He did have an exceptional nose, I've watched him air scent a Fox from four hundred yards.

Just keep in mind, their noses are really sensitive. A little blood goes a long ways.

Something that I haven't tried that may work out, is to thin it with carbonated water, CO2 is a preservative.

You need to keep the blood from clotting.
There are two ways to do this.
1. CONSTANTLY stir the blood for at least an hour (or more)
2. Get ahold of an anti-coagulant (check with the lab at your local hospital or medical clinic).

.

As far as clotting, i just thaw my deer blood out and mix some hot water in it, stir or shake vigorously and the clots mostly dissolve.

I freeze it. They can't give you blood thinners like coumadin even when they expire. So if you want to do something you could strain it and freeze the watery portion.

Good luck with your training.

We would go to a local slaughter house to get 5 gallon carboy of beef blood filled as we used that to feed our stable fly culture so we could proprigate a healthy egg supply to keep the culture/ colony going. We would heat the blood to 98 degrees F. To keep it we would refrigerate. To prevent it from coagulating we added Trisodium Citrate when the blood was first added. That prevented coagulation. How much is what I am trying to find out.

JW