The guide who helped my daughter shoot and recover her first deer used a boxer mutt. No idea what the other half was, some variety of "fence jumper.". That boxer mutt got out of the truck, the guide said, "Get it" and the mutt was off like a shot, circling about, then took off in one direction and found the deer piled up PDQ.
Granted the blood trail was less than an hour old, but I was surprised that such an un-specialized dog (that I thought was just a sweet companion dog of the guide's) made a terrific blood trail dog.
After seeing that, I suppose most folks would be fine with whatever dog they already have and if they have or desire one of the multi-purpose breeds (GSP, etc.) they would be good-to-go. And any scent hound, of course.
I had good luck using Great Pyrenees, started as pups, as that was what I had at the time. They had really good noses. I found lots of deer for people that would have been lost otherwise. By law, we had to keep them on a leash. They could also drag you through a pretty bad thicket.
I used to joke with people that sometimes I was bleeding worse than the deer. miles
Heh.
