rubicon_in_ga
Senior Member
Wasn't sure what topic to post this under, so mods, feel free to move it if necessary.
I want to use some squirrel hides for training my lab to retrieve squirrels. I'm not looking for presentation quality squirrel pelts, and I'd like to keep some of the natural smell of the squirrel and the blood left on the hide to help teach him to sniff out the hides during training and associate the smells with finding squirrels in the woods. Should I do any sort of actual tanning to the hides or is it sufficient to just scrape the membrane and let it dry thoroughly into rawhide? I'm not planning on keeping them any longer than necessary to train him, so long term preservation isn't an issue.
Thanks!
I want to use some squirrel hides for training my lab to retrieve squirrels. I'm not looking for presentation quality squirrel pelts, and I'd like to keep some of the natural smell of the squirrel and the blood left on the hide to help teach him to sniff out the hides during training and associate the smells with finding squirrels in the woods. Should I do any sort of actual tanning to the hides or is it sufficient to just scrape the membrane and let it dry thoroughly into rawhide? I'm not planning on keeping them any longer than necessary to train him, so long term preservation isn't an issue.
Thanks!