The first-ever Barn Hunt Trials in New Mexico (that’s the U.S. state south of Colorado between Arizona and Texas) were held in Albuquerque in March 2014. What fun to see our Standard Schnauzers in four trials hunting for rats, one of the tasks for which they were bred. I researched this new dog sport and wrote about it in my July 2014 column in the AKC Gazette.
The Barn Hunt Association (BHA) was founded by Robin Nuttall, a long-time dog trainer, as a fun sport to test her dogs’ working abilities, starting with her Doberman Pinschers. Unlike AKC conformation shows, neutered or spayed dogs may compete, and unlike AKC performance sports such as obedience or rally, bitches in season may also compete, but they must be last in their group and wear panties while in the ring. Even handlers in wheelchairs are welcome in Barn Hunt competition, although when I tried it in a husband-propelled wheelchair, it was extremely awkward because of the narrow passageways and height of the bales obstructing my view of my dog.
According to BHA’s easy-to-navigate website www.barnhunt.com (includes a map showing affiliated groups and a calendar of BHA events), “the purpose of Barn Hunt is to demonstrate a dog’s vermin hunting ability in finding and marking rats in a ‘barn-like’ setting, using straw/hay bales to introduce climbing and tunneling obstacles in the dog’s path.” Scores depend on locating rats within the allotted time, surmounting required obstacles, and dog/handler teamwork. Handlers announce when dogs alert to the rat’s location; a false call is one of several disqualification possibilities.
The sport “is for any breed or mix of dog who loves to hunt and who can fit through an 18-inch wide gap between two hay bales. It will test speed, agility, and surefootedness.” We saw many large Working breeds, Terriers, Sporting breeds, and others, in addition to the expected earth dogs. Size divisions are under 13″, up to 18″, and over 18″.
Indoor or outdoor rings contain straw bales inside totally fenced, level enclosures. Rat Wranglers handle the rats–actually well-treated pets in ventilated pipes/tubes hidden anywhere in the ring. Equipment includes several ten-inch-long, light-colored, schedule-40 PVC pipes, 4 inches in diameter, sealed with a snap-in metal drain at one end and a screwed-in clean-out plug at the other. Rows of 5/16″ airholes are drilled about an inch apart into the pipes.
Trials begin with a Rat Instinct (RATI) test for dogs without BHA titles. Dogs travel down an 18″-wide bale passageway to three tubes: one empty, one containing only rat bedding, and one containing bedding plus a rat. Dogs have one minute to identify the rat-containing tube correctly and for the handler to announce the find. You can see a You Tube video of an instinct test and a novice run at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-nJtxfweXQ.
Like other performance sports, BHA titles, which are transferable to and recognized by AKC, require three qualifying scores in timed trials. Awarded titles are Rat Novice (RATN), Rat Open (RATO), Rat Senior (RATS), Rat Master (RATM), and, similar to AKC advanced performance titles, Rat Champion (RATCH), RATCHX, and RATCHX2. As title level advances, difficulty increases by height of stacked bales for dogs to climb, number of tunnels dogs must traverse, and number of rats dogs must locate. Each successive performance level gets harder with the number of rat-containing tubes, empty tubes, ratless bedding-only tubes, and time.
In Albuquerque, Judge Lori Oakley showed each disqualified dog the rat’s location, let dogs smell the rat, and praised him/her, making every dog leave the ring feeling like a winner.
Ivory (GCH CH Wustefuchs Ivory Mesa CGC RATN RATO) found the rats with great enthusiasm in the Rat Instinct tests and two trials, scoring High in Trial in one.She went on over the summer to complete her Novice title and her Open title, usually finishing in the top of her class and sometimes even for the trial. She now is competing for her RATS, the senior level that is even more difficult because the dog and handler must find an unspecified number of rats between one and five, and the handler, who doesn’t know how many rats are hidden, must also announce when the dog is finished hunting.
Clancy (CH Asgard Navigator Wustefuchs CGC, CD, UCD, RN, RA, RATN), who took second place in the fourth trial, discovered the rats early on, but it took us awhile to understand his subtle alert to their location. Clancy announces he has found the rat with a very quick wag of his tail. He, too, generally qualified with winning placements.
On the other hand, Emma (CH Asgard Mesa Mist Wustefuchs CGC, CD, UCD, RN, RA, RATN) clearly thought “This is boring—YOU show ME the rat.” She eventually got with the program later in the summer and completed the requirements for her Novice title (RATN) at our National Specialty Dog Show in Pleasanton, California in October 2014 by falling from a higher straw bale onto the rat tube with a fraction of a second to spare before time was called (my graduate-school advisor would have dubbed this “efficiency”).
Go to the BHA website, find a Barn Hunt in your area, and sign up to participate. I guarantee you and your dog will have a lot of fun. You don’t need extensive training like you do for obedience or agility trials—on the job training is available in the Instinct tests that are run first thing in the morning before the actual trials start. Just take your dog and let him do what comes naturally. It’s fun for your dog, and you’ll enjoy seeing how the various breeds approach hunting rats!
Copyright © 2015, Suzanne T. Smith. All rights reserved.