68 Saber Tails Fall 2017

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America

We have three grown children and five grandchildren.  All of them live within a few hours driving distance making us 

very happy.   

We lost our Monique when she was 14 ½.  During her life we exposed her to all kinds of people and places and she 

participated in rally, obedience and agility.  It isn’t true that you can’t teach “an old dog new tricks.”   She learned things 

easily just like Marcel but being a hound, she didn’t always perform “on command”.  

Marcel is responsible for me getting into my hobby of dog sports.  He was our first puppy ever and what a terror he was!  

He was a whirlwind of destruction derby.  I had no idea how to train a dog and having him as a puppy was like being 

thrown into deep water and not being able to swim.  He chewed up everything including shoes, the TV remote, the 

phone, paper, magazines, and anything I was foolish enough to leave unattended.  His whole goal in life was to escape 

out the front door and he did with amazing regularity and ingenuity.  Luckily we live on a street with very few cars.   

When he escaped, he would  ‘zoon’ like crazy between three houses ‘arrooing’ in pure joy.  Because Marcel was such an 

energetic, smart, mischievous little guy, I took him to puppy classes, one after another.  When we ran out of basic train-

ing ideas, we enrolled in rally, obedience and agility class.  Then we started entering rally, obedience and agility trials 

and that has been my hobby ever since.  Marcel earned his Preferred Agility Championship (PACH) at age 9, his Rally 

Advanced Excellent (RAE) at age 7 and his Companion Dog (CD) one month before he turned 12.  I mention his ages to 

show that none of these titles came easily and early.  I learned that patience is a virtue with a PBGV and eventually they 

will come through and play the game the way you asked.  

When Marcel was 2 1/2 and Monique was 9, we adopted a 13-month old Australian Shepherd named Kai.  Australian 

Shepherds love doing dog agility and I wanted the experience of doing it with a dog that was more biddable than a 

PBGV who sometimes runs well and sometimes says, “not today!”   Marcel and Kai have been best buddies ever since.  

Unfortunately, after Kai had been here for a few months, it was apparent that Monique was not amused by him disrupt-

ing her life.  For the next five years, we had to keep Monique and Kai separated.  Monique was half the size of Kai , older 

and weaker but whenever she got the chance, she would go after him.  

When Monique passed, we waited several months.  I knew I had to get another dog if I wanted to continue to do agil-

ity.  I decided that as much as I loved doing agility with Kai, I enjoyed living with PBGVs more.  So I chose a PBGV puppy 

I thought would have the temperament and athletic build for agility.  Caprice is now four years old and is everything I 

wanted for an agility dog.  Of course, she isn’t biddable like an Aussie.  She is a hound and that means sometimes she is 

willing to work and sometimes the stars, the sun and the moon don’t line up the way she thinks they should.  Caprice 

was bred by Jo Quintenz and Gloria Swaine and is the great-great-great-great-grand-daughter of Monique.  We love the 

fact that we have a tiny piece of Monique in our Caprice.  

Caprice was the first dog that I took all the way through conformation to her championship.  It was a humbling experi-

ence.  From watching, I thought it was a simple process.  After all, what was so difficult about running with a dog around 

a ring?   I knew intricate agility moves so I figured conformation would be easy to learn but it is much harder than it 

looks.   After a very steep learning curve, I finally got there but with a new appreciation for those who do conformation.  

Josie came to live with us when she was 20 months and I was also able to finish her championship.  She was bred by 

Cathy Craft and Jo Quintenz.  She is now competing in agility with Caprice but is much more slow and steady.  She en-

joys the game but doesn’t have the competitive drive of Caprice.   Josie and Caprice are three days apart in age and exact 

opposites in temperaments.  Caprice is very active and we spend our days telling her “no barking”.  Josie likes to sleep, 

is slow-moving and never barks.   Both girls have very sweet dispositions and follow each other around during the day.  

We love sharing our home with PBGVs.  They are independent and yet so happy to see us when we come home.  They are 

always trying to outsmart us and sometimes succeed.   They are playful clowns and yet can settle down and relax when 

we do.   We love Kai, our Aussie, but he is more demanding of our time while our PBGVs are able to entertain themselves.   

We like their aloofness that lets us get on with things but when we want to cuddle, they are ready to do that too.  PBGVs 

are definitely pack animals that enjoy living together.  It’s fun to watch them race together out into the back yard just 
happy to be alive.   We cannot imagine life without PBGVs.