Barn hunt!!

Today the 3 big dogs went out to try their "paws" at hunting ratties.

First, Arnolds try at the RATI
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I love this so much, it's rare that Arnold gets to play and he has very few ribbons compared to the rest of the crew.


Sloan tied for the fastest find in the RATI, he stumbled a bit on the alert but Sloan was so clear!
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Backup
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Backup doing his RATN, he REALLY started to get it this time.
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Arnolds RATN, he's super hard to read his alert, people watching said he stiffened his tail wagging and focused but I didn't see it at first.
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You'll see a REALLY clear alert here and then Denis moving on trying to find the third pipe. LOL Ahhh it really is a team sport!
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All three with their RATI and RATN ribbons


Yeah, he was stuck.


Thanks for looking!

That's cool! I love the crashed dogs afterwards.

So the rats are in the tubes? How are the tubes secured so the dog can't throw them?

Ruby hates rodents.

I loved the videos! I want to do a Barnhunt now!!

They're not secured, if the dog is grabbing the tube, it's obviously a rat, so you call the mark and take the tube away.

That's awesome. I think Ozzy would be excellent at this. Indy maybe.

Yup but my pick-it-up obsessed dog only got the chance once with the practice tube. He thought about grabbing it but I called him off and resent him so he started digging at it and rolling it. We decided to walk away then because the practice tube had baby mice in it. :-x

The rules state you must be able to take the tubes away from the dog once it has alerted and it was explained to me this stems from the requirement of needing to take some prey animals away from dogs in other huntings like gophers and groundhogs or something like that? However, lots of dogs knocked the tubs slightly, for humane issues you need to stop your dog asap but that's a clear sign that, "hey, owner-dude! this is the rat!"

I should add Arnold has had some severe compulsion killing his prey drive so him being allowed and now encouraged to hunt was super fun and awesome, something I wasn't sure he would be comfortable even trying. I was so thrilled.

I... didn't even know such a thing existed. It looks like fun!

Oh that looks like a ton of fun! Congratz on the new titles!

Like nosework paired with finding a 'mouse'? Mia would be in heaven! I have to ask, were there any little dogs there?

It's a new sport, just getting started! Fun tests now, it will become a titling event next year. Yesterday, there were fun tests in NJ & this one in OR, today there's one in TX, all 3 of them had more than 100 entries! It's definitely catching on.

Adrianne's dogs were all amazing. So were mine, but in a goofier way. Well, except for Sloan's alert in the RATN, that rivaled my dogs goofiness.

Ahhh that's so cool! I'm so jealous, Keeva would freaking LOVE this. She once saw a rat run across the back of our garage and now she runs to that spot every. time. she goes out. LOL

If we've seen a squirrel or a mouse somewhere, Mia remembers. There's a spot on our walk where a vole ran out in front of us. Every single time, Mia is searching through that brush trying to find it. And she'll search for a good 30 minutes if I let her.

There was one in my house about 10 months ago. I can still say the word 'mouse' and Mia runs there and starts looking for it.

I didn't until Stardogs posted it on Chaz and then when Sarah said she was going I was totally game!


There was a very small yorkie there! They had a bit of trouble getting it to tunnel but it went over and detected just fine.

Is the 'tunnel' just under the hay? I think if I told Mia 'find the mouse' she'd be scrambling all over those hay bales just fine.

OMG I am soooo wanting to try this with Jackson now. Once he gets a wiff of something, he will trail it. He was just out back hunting a rabbit this morning. I can't wait until there is more events! Your gang did AWESOME. Sloan was *really* on top of her game. They all look so great with their ribbons too!

Yup, shouldn't be hard but if the dog is cautious in new settings it can be a bit of a challenge. Most dogs didn't have trouble but a few were weirded out.

Thanks all! It was super fun watching the terriers and dachshunds (those aren't terriers, right?) just fly through but it was equally neat seeing the odd breeds like even a lab that adorably stumbled along and made finds equally as well.

I... want this. Squash would love this so much.

Congratulations on the ribbons

Omg I must do this!

Your dogs are so great--this looks like a blast!