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Barn Hunt
Just a quick Barn Hunt follow-up. Last weekend, we set off for another weekend of Barn Hunt trials with our friend, Amy Wernecke and her Poppy. Both of our young girls went into the weekend with a start toward earning their first Barn Hunt titles and they both came out of the weekend as certified ratters. Gudgeon and Poppy earned their Instinct and Novice titles and it seems that we've all been bitten by a new bug.
When you try something new, it's always fun to do it in the company of good friends. My friend Amy Wernecke and I have begun to explore the sport of Barn Hunt with our young girls: Poppy and Gudgeon. The sport pays tribute to the role that dogs have long played in ridding barns of pests. Terriers have their Earth Dog Trials, but they are limited to dogs that can "go to ground" in small tunnels. The relatively new sport of Barn Hunt is open to all breeds that can pass through a tunnel made with bales of hay and, therefore, many more breeds can participate. Even a Scottish Deerhound participated in the trial we attended last weekend!
It's been three weeks of back-to-back ratting for Amy, Poppy, Gudgeon, and me, which led a good friend to refer to us as "The Rat Pack.". We went to our first training day which was enough to give us confidence to enter a trial the following weekend. Both of our girls earned their first legs in the Novice Class which requires the dogs to use their nose to discriminate between three different PVC tubes that are all hidden amongst the hay. One tube is empty. A second tube contains a rat. And, a third tube contains rat litter (intended to deceive the dogs.) The dogs have two minutes to achieve three tasks. They must locate the tube with the rat and signal their find to their handler who must be able to read their signals. When the handler believes they've received an indication from their dog, they must call "Rat!" to the judge who reveals whether the dog has chosen the correct tube. Also, within the allotted time period, the dog must pass completely through a tunnel of hay and they must execute a climb upon the hay bales. As soon, as the dogs have accomplished all three tasks, the judge records their time. The fastest dogs receive placements. And, of course, if all tasks are not completed within two minutes, the dog does not qualify.
In our first weekend of trials, both Gudgeon and Poppy qualified and placed in their classes. They NQ'd a few times as well, but it is those shiny ribbons and the joy of watching our girls learn and grow with us that has us going back again this weekend. Anything that stimulates our dog's minds and deepens our partnership is a good thing in our book.
If you'd like to learn more about the sport of Barn Hunt, please visit the Barn Hunt Association's website at barnhunt.com. Barn Hunt titles are recognized by the American Kennel Club.
