re: German Sheperds trailing wounded deer

Like I said earlier, pretty much any dog can smell it. The main things you need are handling and a desire to do a job, and some bloodlust is a nice bonus. My neighbor has some kind of mutt ankle biter thing that does a good job.

Labs have pretty much everything going for them with tracking. They have very good noses, a strong drive to work, very good handling, and as a bonus they're usually pretty big and willing to fight. They're nice and easy to find when they're growling/barking rather than just moping around after they find the deer. It usually only takes one or two trails in the yard for a lab to figure out what the game is, and when you get them in a routine they know what the difference is between looking for a crippled deer and just playing in the woods.

I've fooled with hounds my whole life and just don't see any advantage to using one for tracking. Sure, they have incredible noses and don't care about anything other than work, but they almost all have their own definition of work.