Squirrel Hides for dog training

[rubicon_in_ga]

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!

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

I knew an old timer that would case skin them, salt the hides good ( there is usually zero fat). He would let them dry a little then stretch them over a pepsie bottle and add a little sand to the bottle so he could throw it a little. He taught his dogs to fetch the squirrels that way. You can wet the hide a little to refresh the smell. I would caution against using Borax for this, it is an acid. It’s pretty easy to get another hide. Just use some salt or nothing at all. I teach mine to “ hunt dead” if a squirrel buries up or I can’t find them easily right at dark. They catch on quick.