Last week The Eastwood Sisters loaded up and went to a Barn Hunt workshop at Canine Solutions LLC in Beaver Dam, WI. Polly Dake-Jones the owner and operator of Canine Solutions along with Barb Berry of Marshland Pet Supplies held this fun event. Barb brought her ratting equipment along with Polly’s training equipment a mock barn hunt trial was set up.
What is Barn Hunt Association?
From the BHA website
Barn Hunt is the new and quickly growing dog sport catching fire across the country! Barn Hunt is based on the traditional roles of many breeds in ridding farms, barns, crop storage areas, and homes of destructive vermin. Some breeds were specifically created to fill this role, and for many of those breeds, Barn Hunt provides their first true opportunity for responsible breeders to test proper working traits in their dogs. Barn Hunt is also open to any dog of any breed or mix who wishes to play the game and can fit through an 18″ wide by bale-height tall tunnel. Barn Hunt has titles, levels of increasing difficulty, and championships. Barn Hunt is an independent sport, but titles are recognized by both the American Kennel Club (AKC) and United Kennel Club (UKC).
Barn Hunt is committed to creating a safe and fun sport for dogs, that also holds rat care at the highest level of consideration. The rats used in Barn Hunt are often beloved family pets. They jump eagerly into their safe, comfortable aerated tubes and truly enjoy interacting with the dogs.
We’re a great sport for older dogs, and older people too! Tripod dogs can compete, and so can deaf dogs. To get started first read the rules, then find a club near you, or even think about forming your own club. You can also find events on the event calendar. We hope you try it, we think you’ll like it!
The photos without the ©SandSpringChesapeakes were taken by Jill Wagner. She took some fabulous photos and said I could use them for my post today so Thank You very much Jill.
The workshop attendance was great with many different breeds of dogs.
Barb letting the dogs sniff the rats in the pen.
The Eastwood Sisters, Gambler and Rizzo the Rat Terrier checking out the rats.
Polly talking about the event.
Barb putting the rats in the tubes.
First Barb and Polly passed out the Barn Hunt Association booklet along with papers explaining each level of tests. They then talked about Barn Hunt, they explained how it came about, explained that the rats are family pets and that they are taken care of and handled with the utmost care. Once they were done explaining about Barn Hunt Barb brought her two rats around in a aquarium with a wire top so each dog could smell the rats and get a feel for what they would be sniffing out.
Josey checking out the tubes.
Rizzo, Josey’s brother checking out the tubes.
Preacher & Gambler checking out the tubes.
One of the pvc tubes with holes in it contained the rat, one was empty and one had rat bedding in it. The three tubes would be placed in the “mock barn hunt” area. The dog is suppose to find the tube with the rat in it and alert you of it. If they alert you of the correct tube then you pass, if they alert you when at the empty or the tube with the bedding in it and you call rat you will fail so you need to watch your dogs body language closely so you know if they really have the tube with the rat in it.
Gambler doing his mock trial run.
Intense Gambler.
Josey doing her mock trial run.
Polly and Billie Jean doing their mock trial run.
Each handler and dog got to go into the “mock barn hunt” area to try their paw at finding the rat. When your dog alerts you and you are confident that they found the rat you yell RAT. A rat wrangler will come over and pick up the tube and let you know if your dog indeed found the rat. When your dog is doing the hunt they should start out on a slip lead then the lead is taken off, the judge tells you that you can start, the hunt is timed so you get your dog at it and find the rat as quickly as you can. Once you yell rat you can put your arms around your dogs chest to hold them from attacking the rat tube while the rat wrangler comes in and gets it. You can not scruff your dog at anytime. Your dog can not beat up the rat and tube at anytime. These are live animals and care needs to be taken for their safety. Dogs can not pee or poop in the ring either if they do you are disqualified.
Barn Hunt Basics: The different titles – Instinct – Novice – Open – Senior – Master
Elements to complete:
Instinct Title (RATI) – Qualify once. This is an optional title. Go Through Tunnel – Short, No Turns, Climb On Bale – both of these elements are optional for this title, Find The Rat. There are 3 tubes in sight, 1 empty, 1 rat and 1 litter.
Novice Title (RATN) – Qualifying 3 times. Go Through Tunnel – Short, No Turns, Climb On Bale (Bales stacked up to 2 high on course), Find The Rat. There are 3 tubes hidden, 1 empty, 1 rat and 1 litter.
Open Title (RATO) – Qualifying 3 times. Go Through Tunnel – 1 Turn (either direction), Climb On Bale (Bales stacked up to 3 high on course), Find All Rats. There are 5 tubes hidden, 1 empty, 2 rats and 2 litter.
Senior Title (RATS) – Qualifying 3 times. Go Through Tunnel – 2-3 Turns (judge’s choice), Climb On Bale (Bales stacked up to 4 high on course), Find All Rats. There are 8 tubes hidden, 1 empty, 4 rats and 3 litter.
Master Title (RATM) – Qualifying 5 times under 2 or more judges. Go Through Tunnel – 2-5 Turns (judge’s choice) may have more than 2 entrances, Climb On Bale (Bales stacked up to 4 high on course. At least 1, but nor more than 2 places), Find All Rats. Handler tells judge when course is clear of all rats. There are 8 tubes hidden, 1-5 rats and 3-7 litter (to make 8 total).
Tired Preacher.
This was a fun day, there will be one more workshop that we will be attending in March and then once a Barn Hunt is near us we will be going and competing which will be May 14-15, 2016. It will be at the Dodge County Canine Club UKC dog show held at the Dodge Cty Fairgrounds.
Thanks again Polly and Barb for all your hard work.
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Oh that sounds great! I would love to go with you to the next barn hunt…. give me a sign when a house in your hood is for sale, we rather come over till we die from winter blues here
Really fascinating stuff, sounds like a great time and a great way to tire out the pups in colder weather.
I’ve been hearing a lot about this lately, and have actually wanted to learn some more about it and maybe write something about the rats. (Since I’m a rat person!) I don’t know that Jack and Gus would be up for this, but I bet Nibblet wouldn’t have minded it one bit.
We know we would love that sport too, but it conflicts with nose work as we need to ignore critter scents and focus on the odor, so it probably won’t be in our future. Enjoy, it is a fun sport.
Wow…that’s a really cool and interesting competition. G-Man looked pretty intense about it. I wonder if the ‘Dimwit’ aka Sam, could do something like this?! 😉
What a fun activity to try!
Never heard of “barn hunts”. Sounds like a blast!
My boys would LOVE this sport, especially Pierre! I have never heard of it before.
Sounds like a lot of fun – I’m afraid Jack would lose on that not eating the rat part…
I have heard of this before, but never really knew how it worked, it’s much different than I thought! I had no idea they used pet rats. It sounds similar to nose work. Our first dog, Shelby, who had some terrier in her would have loved this!
Look like you all had a great day! I took Rocco to a Barn Hunt fun day when he was a pup and we loved it! Fun post!
This sounds really fun. I bet Barley would love this–combining her sniffing skills from nosework with her high prey drive sounds like the perfect game. Our reactive dog trainer has gone with her dog before, but it’s over an hour from our house, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for training closer to us.
Now barn hunts sounds like great fun!! We’ll have to give this a try!
Barn hunting sounds like a fun sport!! How cool that you’ll be going to a Barn Hunt in May – I’ll be looking forward to your post about it.
What a fantastic post! I seriously want to find one of these events in our area because Haley would absolutely love it. Thanks for getting me inspired to seek one out.
Sounds like fun and looks like a well attended seminar.