Barn hunt?

[SarahandSam]

Has anyone participated in barn hunt events with their dogs before? There’s a new venue opening about three hours away from us that is having a training day/“open mouse,” and I was planning to take one of my dachshunds (possibly two dachshunds if I get the newest and final addition to the pack next weekend as planned). It looks like a lot of fun, especially since I love rats and will have fun getting to play with them between runs. I also like that they will add ramps and steps to help with the bale climbing, as I was worried about that with dachsies. Would love to hear thoughts from anyone who’s tried it or is familiar with it!

More info for anyone like me who had never heard of it before… http://www.barnhunt.com/

[threedogpack]

I don’t have a venue near me but a lot of my friends have tried it and the dogs seem to LOVE it. I’d do it if there was one close and I had the weekend off.

[Bicoastal]

I did it once

If you love rats… I had a hard time watching the rats linger in cages between being harassed by dogs. Barn Hunt stresses rat safety: the rats were rotated, moved to the shade, ensured limbs & tail were safely within cage wires, etc. Still, I felt kinda sad for them.

My ratter seemed to quickly figure out he couldn’t get to the rat. He started offering Look At That. This dog has successfully hunted live rats as part of his farm dog duties (there was a huge infestation in Malibu).

I won’t take him again and probably wouldn’t take a dog in the future. My friend’s dog loved it and she isn’t sure she’ll do it again. She felt sad for the rats, too. She thought letting your animal harass another animal in a cage was ironic and pointless. Say her family gets a hamster one day? NOT the behavior she wants to promote.

[bdj]

There’s a venue very close to me that’s gotten pretty active lately. I got to very casually test a couple of my girls (Cardis) and they weren’t terribly interested - both thought it was way more fun to run around and play on the straw bales. (They’re agility dogs…) That said, I have another who I think would love it and have a bunch of friends who are getting into it with a variety of breeds.

I wouldn’t even think about getting to “play with the rats” between runs - the ones at the test I was at were NOT let out at all (probably for their safety more than anything - some of the dogs are VERY into it and if one of the rats did get loose? That would take it right into bloodsport category, I suspect.

[SarahandSam]

Thanks for the responses! The organizer for the “open mouse” event I’m going to uses her pet rats, who are pretty chill about the whole thing, though maybe it’s different at other venues. My pet rat used to lure the cats up to her cage and then suddenly and repeatedly smack them, so while I think some rats can obviously get too stressed by the experience, I think there are probably some out there that are smart enough to know they’re safe in the tubes and find the dogs entertaining.

Though you’re right, I guess I probably can’t cuddle them. Sigh.

[handydandyjake]

I’ve done barn hunts with my dach mix and I was extremely impressed with rat welfare. Not only were they frequently switched out, but the dog was not allowed to ‘harass’ the rat - one the rat is found, the dog signals, you point to the tube and tell the judge you found a rat, and that’s the end of it. The dog isn’t permitted to go crazy over the rat, and you have the dog moving on almost immediately after identifying it.

My issue was that when my dog signaled that there was a rat, she was so subtle about it that I couldn’t always tell based on her actions whether there was a rat in the tube or not. She was far more interested in sniffing out the entire space. But yours may be a lot more obvious - a jerk or cock of the head, freezing in place, etc. Mine just casually noticed on the go and failed to tell me, haha

Peeing on a hay bale is disqualification, so if you have a male dog, be careful about it as it’s tempting!

[Houndhill]

I think my Irish Wolfhounds are too tall to go under the hay bales, but I have several friends who do this activity and have gotten titles, a Staffy Bull, a GSP, a Border Terrier. I too was quite concerned about rat welfare, but have been assured that great care is taken to avoid stressing the rats. I believe some are “Professional Rats” and are quite unstressed. One friend brought mice in tubes to practice in my barn, she was very careful with the mice, to the extent of apologizing for clicking too close to the mouse as she didn’t want the noise to bother him!

[SarahandSam]

Just came back from our first barn hunt seminar, so wanted to update… it was super fun! Seamus loved it. He was totally fine with climbing the bales and doing tunnels, and totally fixated on the rat right away. He did an instinct test and did great–wandered around looking at everything the first time, but then finally figured out the tubes and clearly indicated the rat. He definitely had a blast. I hope more venues start opening up and hosting trials as the sport picks up!

And I did get to cuddle two adorable rats, Brulee and Gorgonzola. They seemed quite comfortable with the dogs.