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 updated;

 Aug 15, 2010

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Smelly Dogs by Dan Wheeler

I once read an article about the Saint Bernard's ability to find people who were either lost or buried in the snow. It said that, depending on the wind and snow conditions, Saints have been able to locate a person up to five miles away and may have been able to smell a person buried under the snow up to 25 feet deep. This is either a real plug for the nose on the Saint or it could make you wonder whether you should keep your designer deodorants or not.

Having worked a few Saints in the area of tracking, I have found that you better have a good sense of humor, or stay away, as teaching a Saint Bernard to track can be a very rewarding experience, or it can make you want to forget even knowing what kind of dog they are. Believe me, while there are some, so called "natural rescue dogs, even they must receive some training. But as luck would have it I have had a turn at a few of these. One was a little female called Diane. Now Diane was a very smart dog. She got her C.D. and her C.D.X obedience titles very fast with very high scores, and was able to get her Saint Bernard Club of America Draft Dog title with very little training. So when the idea came up of starting her in tracking, well this is one thing I knew she could do. After all, she knew when the fridge was opened every time no matter which part of the home she was in. and if it was a favorite food i.e. "hot dogs" , get out of her way she would be a blur heading to the kitchen. True to form, she picked up the "art" of tracking or following a scent to get the reward (what else but a hot dog) . In fact she got to the point where she could follow a track 800 to a 1000 yards long, but let one little breeze pick up the scent of the hot dog or the article to her and well just forget the track, she would head straight to the "article" for her reward. Diane could always find the article, but could never pass the certification test as she always cut the corners and a couple of legs off the track.

Spunky was a natural, he learned to track in about 3 months, and was set up for the certification test when my vision of my first T.D. died with the dog. while he was still very young.

After working with a few other dogs and helping other people train their dogs, I finally was set to teach our Champion/CGC "Beau Jay". It did not take very long to start Beau on the idea of what a track was for, after all Beau had a one track mind if you could get his attention. Problem was he would spend 5 minutes at each foot print, inhaling deeply and savoring the "aroma" like a fine wine, or chunk of meat. It would take him what seemed like an hour to go the first 60 yards. As one Judge put it in an attempt to get certified, "I know the rules say as long as the dog is visibly working the track, he may continue.......BUT ......I didn't bring my lunch or dinner!!!". Well Beau didn't care, he had eaten a good breakfast, and he knew, he would never miss dinner!

Compadre was the second natural I have had the pleasure to work with as a team. After proving he hated the conformation ring (you can't drag a 160 pound dog around the ring and look good) disliked the obedience trials, but got his C.D. and C.G.C. then would not work towards his CDX obedience title, He came alive at the sight of the tracking harness. You could see his eyes light up and you could not stop him. He would put everything he had in an effort to follow the track, and got his T.D. at the age of 7.

Lacy was next, she didn't want to track, didn't like it and flat would not do it. But she liked the lunch I would bring and share with her, and always wanted a hug!!!

Buzz was a couple dogs latter. He finished his Championship in a very short time, got his CGC and at the ripe old age of 2 was willing to retire to the kennel to see about siring puppies. But when we lost Compadre to age, Buzz was brought out of "retirement" , to learn the art of tracking. So at the age of 5, We started.

Now Buzz has a lot of "nicknames", in fact his first nickname was when he was born. When he was handed to my wife to be dried off, at the age of 2 minutes, he let out a loud bark ( no wimpy squeak here ) and then had a bowel movement, hence his first name-- B.S. (stand for bark and you can guess) Well at around 10 weeks of age my wife decided that "B.S" had to have a real name. Too many people wanted to know what B.S. stood for. So after a lot of though.....maybe a minute, we came up with Buzz. ( that's B.S.ssssssssss rounded out )

The first day of training brought a lot of new ideas to our class as a result of the new methods of teaching variable surface tracking. Some of the ideas were to motivate the dog to follow over any type of surface, and so the first 3 weeks your "partner" would handle the dog while you "laid" the track, with the idea that the dog would want to be with his master and so would work harder to get to the end of the track where the master was hiding. Now this was a great idea except that our class consisted of only one other male other than myself and about 10 women. So from day one, "Buzz" was a real challenge for them. It seemed that the first lady to handle the "Buzzsaw" weighed about 115 pounds-vs-160 or so in Buzz's corner. So as soon as Buzz figured that I was far enough away from him, he didn't wait for a command to find me, he knew where I was at and came after me at a dead run, with you guessed it my partner dragging behind. She made it the first 50 feet and slid the last 10.

Well Buzz and I progresses very fast that month and by the start of the second month we were doing 350 to 400 yards with 3 to 5 corners. Sometimes I would lay a track and let the girls handle Buzz. the second his "handler" would give the command "find it" the race was on. Buzz didn't care if the sage brush was 4 foot tall, if the mud was 4 foot deep, uphill, downhill, over rocks or through the cactus, he would set his own pace and you had better follow, or let go of the lead ( he would follow the track with or with out you ). Soon every new-comer and visitor would be talked in to "handling Buzz, as they were told that they couldn't know what it was like to track until they followed "Buzzy". True to form, he would take them on a track following mission they would not forget, some for the 440 yard slide if they fell and forgot to drop the lead.

Well when it finally came time to take the certification test the, judge asked for a lawn chair remembering a couple of my "fast" saints I had bought out over the years, and even asked if I would provide lunch during this test. Buzz gave me a bit of a heart attack when he had a very slow start, but then showed the way to the glove in just under 11 minutes, a very respectable time for any dog. So after filling out the paper work and sending it in, it was time to wait for the drawing to see if we were to get in the test. ( I had spent 4 years as an alternate with Compadre waiting to get in a test ) Finally the wait was over----I had come up as a number 8 draw out of 12, we were in !

On the day of the actual test we again had another draw but this time it was for the running of the tracks. When it came my time to draw I reached into the hat and pulled out the slip of paper and read " Could be snow--could be sun-- be a winner on track one." Buzz and I would be first out. Tuff spot to be in, knowing that the first run sets the pace for all to follow, for if the first dog passes the test everyone's spirit is lifted up.

After waiting over a half hour (which seemed to be half the day ) for the judge to call the Buzz and myself, then the 5 mile ride to the tracking test site, we were given the final instructions and when we had no questions we were told where the start flag was and to begin when ready. I found that Buzz didn't need to receive the command to track, as he knew what was required of him and started as soon as he got to the starting flag. As I pulled hard on the lead as it slipped through my gloves to prove that he had the scent, we passed the flag of no return in a light rain into the open field. By the time we got to the first corner the rain had turned to snow and when Buzz indicated the second corner there was an inch of snow covering the land! We found ourselves right on the leading edge of a storm front. What luck! Even though Buzz was only 40 feet in front of me, I could only make out a dark shape, and had to totally rely on the indications of what he was doing through the lead. I hoped that the last couple months of practice would not fail me from trusting him. With the wind out of the north at about 8 mph, coming out of the 4th corner, Buzz set a course straight into that wind, due north. The snow seemed to be headed by us a hundred miles per hour and all I could do was to follow the dog hoping the disqualifying whistle would not blow.
Then as suddenly as the snow started, it stopped, Buzz stopped, I stopped and Buzz indicated the article, a white leather glove covered up by the snow. Buzz had received his T.D. ( and my second ) in less than 10 minutes. Less time than it took him to certify. What took almost three months of hard work every weekend was over.

Now who's next? let's see we have Bart or Annabelle, or Jenna. Hey I know Flash, lets see he just qualified in 8 minutes, now that's a flashy dog!