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Everybody knows that dogs have a far better smell than us, but I don't think anybody can really imagine how much better.
I have been amazed by a few dogs sense of smell a number of times in the past (different types of work) and must say that on overall, I highly respect working dogs, whatever type of work it may be.

I guess that training dogs to detect blood or humans is in essence not that different from training it to hunt for a dummy or game.
If you use blood trails and reward dogs for finding that trail, it will soon pick up what is required. I presume that any human and every blood trail smells different, but a dog will make the distinction just like every dummy or every game bird will smell different.

I don't want to claim that it is easy to teach a dog to look for a blood trail (just like training a dog to be a good hunting companion is also not easy), but I can imagine that if you apply some basic rules that are logical to the dog, you can already come a long way. For some part, I think the dog learns himself to make a distinction between which part of a smell is relevant and which is not. No matter what training you give a dog, it is there that you can see a difference between a good dog and a great dog. As to how they make the distinction and what are the boundaries of their ability, I think we will never really know 100% certain. (Mind you, who knows what tests they will find in the future)

Dave