10 Saber Tails Fall 2018

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America

such as the Brilliant K9 (Lucy medium fits my PBGVs well) and a ten foot biothane line.  (www.palominelines.com). If 

a search is held in a secure area, the judge may give the option of searching off leash.

Stage One:  Odor is cool

• Place a cotton ball or half Q-tip containing 2 drops of birch in a small tin with holes punched in the top.  Wear gloves 

or use tweezers to avoid contaminating your hands with odor.

• Hold the tin in one hand and 5 tasty treats in the other.  Present both hands to your dog.

• Ignore any attempts by the dog to steal the treats.  When he orients to the tin in any way, feed him one of the treats 

close to the tin.  Repeat until you have used all of the treats.  

• Place the tin on the ground close to you.  When your dog investigates, reward on top of the tin.  Repeat 3-5 times 

depending on your dog’s level of interest.

At this point, we are not expecting any behavior change or “alert” signal from the dog.  Just let him stumble upon odor 

and pay him well for it.

In between sessions, be sure to store your odor in an airtight container like a Mason Jar.

Stage 2:  Introducing Containers

• Place your odor tin in the plastic container that you have marked “hot”.  Leaving the lid off for now, place the con-

tainer on the ground near your dog.  Reward your dog 3-5 times for investigating it in slightly different spots.

• Add a second container.  Allow the dog to investigate both, but only reward at the hot container.

• As long as your dog is actively engaged in training, add additional containers one at a time.  

Each training session should consist of only 3-4 searches and should last just a few minutes at this stage.  You may start 

to see very small behavior changes at the hot container at this stage, such as a tail wag, head turn, or simply lingering 

for a but longer.  This is great, but you should still reward as soon as the dog reaches the hot container.

Stage 3:  Changing to boxes

AKC rules allow for a variety of box styles within a specific size requirement, but the type most frequently used at  trials 

are plain white literature boxes.  To introduce boxes, follow the same procedure described in stage 2.  Work up to a total 

of ten boxes, but only add boxes when your dog is actively engaged and appears confident.

Presenting the Newest Member of Our Family

“Boone”

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Owned b

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Bred b

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Tamar

ah Taskey

Whelped M

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Coming S

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Cont’d on p 17