80 Saber Tails Fall 2017
Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America
reason to stop or deviate from her course), I was thinking “glove” while I gasped for air, “glove” (gasp), “the glove has to be
coming up soon (gasp).” Then suddenly, Eleanor stopped, sat, and went to her victory voice. There it was…the GLOVE.
I threw both arms up. Then I picked up the glove and waved it for the judges and the gallery (spectators) to see. The
glove signaled the end of our track. I could hear the judges and tracklayer somewhere behind me give a “Woo Hoo” and
clap. Then the car horns from the gallery started honking. WE HAVE PASSED OUR TDX! I got down on the ground so I
could be on Eleanor’s level and told her she was a very good girl. She, of course, just wanted her treat and continued the
PBGV “Aroo.” Hugs from the judges and gallery soon followed. After 12 minutes on track and a couple years of training
and tests, she had earned her TDX. Eleanor is one of only a few PBGVs to earn the TDX title.
Eleanor’s VST
O
ne of the first things we needed to work on was when we started training for VST was slowing Eleanor down. Every
dog has their own tracking and article-indication style. Eleanor was fast and pretty honest in the fields. But, VST is a
different animal altogether. Speed can kill in VST. At first, slowing her down got me a lot of not very happy looks and at
times she would sit down as if to say “What?” But we continued to train and started entering tests when we were ready.
We travelled to Overland Park, Kansas for this VST test. It was March 19, 2017. Like our TDX experience, this was not our
first VST attempt. Eleanor is now over 12 years old and at times, I can feel the clock ticking for her to reach the pinnacle
of the tracking world. It was cloudy and cool on this Sunday morning and there was moisture in the air. I was thinking
some rain would be good because it had been really dry in this part of the country and moisture intensifies scent. We
took a 20 minute walk at the hotel hoping to take the edge off. This was one of the more recent ideas we had tried to
get Miss E to slow down. Eleanor’s other quirky VST issue was her need to check where the track was not. It was like she
wanted to be sure the track wasn’t somewhere. She has drawn many a smile with her affinity for sewer inlets. But they
are scent suckers, so it makes sense. It is my job to not let her get too far off course while checking.
W
hen we got to the draw site, a parking lot by a Burger King, I bought Eleanor a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant
for after her track. I also got some coffee then wandered over to chat with the other competitors and the many
workers helping put the test on. Tracking is a very labor intensive dog sport. It may take a village to raise a child, but it
takes a small army to pull off a tracking test.
A
t 9:30 AM, the draw began. I would be the 4th of 5 competitors to draw for my track. When I got to the basket hold-
ing the draw articles (key chains - cute little green L.L. Bean Wellies with a piece of paper with the track number in
them), I picked the one on the left. Track 1. Aroo! No waiting around, but also no chance to watch how the dogs work
and see how the site environment is impacting tracks. As soon as the last competitor draws their track and everyone has
one last trip to the restroom, we head to the actual test site, a business park a few blocks away. This is a wonderful site.
It is open with plenty of vegetation and big areas devoid of vegetation. Our track started on grass on the backside of a
building with a wooded area and creek to the other side of the track. The judges pointed us the start flag and wished
us luck. We approached the start flag, Eleanor took at good whiff of the started article (a small cloth bag) and we were
off at a nice easy pace. Our first turn came 80 yards down the track. Eleanor indicated loss of scent, turned to the right,
and headed into a small parking area that opened into a larger parking area. The question: did the track continue into
the parking lot or did we overshoot the turn and the track continued on grass? Since Eleanor was not her usual rocket, I
assumed she had not overshot by far and followed her into the parking area. She looked right, then headed left into the
rough off the parking lot. Then she came back and turned up the lot. She wasn’t indicating strong scent so I took only
a step or two, waiting for her to indicate she was on track. While watching her work, I caught sight of a bright orange
object ahead and off to the right on a sidewalk. I think, “This clearly has to be our 1st article.” Thank you judges for an
earlier positive re-enforcement. I stood my ground and Eleanor swung over to the grass and found the article. I picked
it up and held it high so the judges could see it. The interesting thing here was Eleanor didn’t do her usual vocalizing
for a reward, she just put her nose down and headed across the larger lot. This was where I started doing what you
shouldn’t do. I told myself, “There is going to be a turn out here.” Eleanor continued across the lot, across a narrow grass
island, across a driveway and up a sidewalk to the next building. I began to feel like we missed a corner, something just
didn’t feel right. I stopped to let Eleanor work the area a little, then she turned around and headed back across the lot.
I expected her to make a turn, but she didn’t. She headed all the way back to the vicinity of the article and then turned
left, going down along the front of the building we had started behind. I knew it couldn’t go all the way down to the end
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