Tag: barn hunt association

Ready, set, go: Getting started in dog sports!

by Pawrenting Tails, posted in training

Now that you know that there are so many dog sports to choose from, how do you pick?

General Research

Reading about the experience of other pawrents, or talking to friends with experience in dog sports, can be one way to familiarize yourself with the sport. So can watching YouTube videos of classes or competitions.

The websites of the various venues can also provide a wealth of information, including connecting you with dog clubs in your area that host competitions and/or classes.

Here are the websites of various groups I’ve referenced this past month.

find classes

Ziggy and Cookie waiting their turns in an agility class, circa 2019.
Ziggy and Cookie waiting their turns in an agility class, circa 2019.

Research dog trainers or dog clubs in your area. Sign up for classes to better gauge what the sport will entail long term. If you take a class and the sport interests you, but you’re unsure, consider trying classes with another instructor. Everyone has different teaching styles and personalities. Look for someone you’re comfortable with and that prioritizes the well-being of your dog.

Assess Personality & Interest

Cookie at a CPE agility competition in March 2019
Cookie at a CPE agility competition in March 2019
Ziggy competing in Barn Hunt instinct 2019. Credit: Pix N Pages
Ziggy competing in Barn Hunt instinct 2019. Credit: Pix N Pages
Chip goofing off at graduation time for his CGC certificate, November 2023
Chip goofing off at graduation time for his CGC certificate, November 2023

A good place to begin is assessing you and your dog’s personalities and interests. Is your dog high-energy? Agility may be a great fit. Does your dog have a knack for sniffing? Perhaps barn hunt or nose work would interest them. Can’t keep your pup out of the pool? Give dock diving a try!

If you recently adopted your dog, or perhaps your dog is still a puppy, you may not know their interests. Obedience is always a great place to start, even if you don’t compete, because obeying basic commands will be important in any sport, if for no other reason than good behavior in classes and competitions.

Safety

Safety and physical well-being is also important. This may be true of all sports, but the one that I’m most familiar with is agility. The high speeds, twists, and turns can put a strain on your dog’s body. If you’ve never used any agility equipment before, don’t introduce your dog to them without guidance from an instructor. Young pups are developing their bones and muscles. Introducing them to tight weave poles too young can cause long-term damage. This is an excellent article about preventing orthopedic injuries in dogs that compete in sports.

Budget Considerations

Depending on your goals for your dog, some sports are more expensive than others when you add up classes, entry fees for competitions, travel expenses, and any equipment you may choose to purchase for at-home training.

Start slow and make sure you want to commit to the sport before investing heavily.

Bottom Line

There countless canine sports available to try. Take your time to find one that best suits you and your pup. And, remember, the competition and titles are a distant second to having fun and bonding with your pup!

Get them rats!

by Pawrenting Tails, posted in Things to Do, training

Next up for National Train Your Dog Month is barn hunt!

As always, these posts focus on my knowledge and experience of the sport. Consult the various links in the posts for more information.

What is it?

Cookie competing in a barn hunt trial, January 2020.

The essence of barn hunt is hide and seek with rats in a maze of hay bales. Fear not; the rats are safely secured inside plastic tubes with holes. Depending on the level your dog is competing in, the number of rats hidden will vary. There will also be at least one tube that is completely empty, while another will have “litter” (or bits of hay/bedding that smells like rats).

The tubes are hidden in a course of bales of hay. Your dog is to sniff out the rats, signal to you that they found a rat, and you proclaim, “Rat!” In addition to successfully identifying all hidden rats, your dog must also climb atop a bale of hay and complete a tunnel.

As far as I know, the only organization that sponsors barn hunt trials is the Barn Hunt Association. Your dogs must be registered with them to compete in trials hosted by various dog clubs. When you earn barn hunt titles, the American Kennel Club (AKC) will recognize the title, for a fee, of course.

How we started

Ziggy finds rats in a barn hunt trial, January 2020

When Cookie started her journey with agility, we became members of a local dog sports club. Barn hunt was another sport that they hosted competitions in. I was a bit averse to the concept of searching for rats, but friends in the group suggested trying it, telling me that no training was needed.

So I did. Cookie and I signed up for an initial trial. She started with the instinct level, the most basic round. There are 3 tubes that are not hidden in hay. They sit in a rack on the other side of the tunnel. Climb and tunnel are optional at this level. The goal is for your pup to identify the tube with the rat, for you to correctly guess based on your dog’s cue, and move on.

Chip shows off his RATI (instinct) title, August 2023
Chip shows off his RATI (instinct) title, August 2023

Cookie, Ziggy, and Chip all competed in barn hunt, but Cookie is the only one not to title in Instinct. The reason is that titling in instinct isn’t required to compete in the next level up, and once you title in novice, you can’t compete in Instinct.

Once Cookie got started in novice, she quickly moved up to earn her novice title and came one qualifying run short of titling in the open. Cookie got stuck in open when Ziggy came along. When Ziggy started competing, he would bark the entire time that Cookie was competing, and she instantly became more preoccupied with the well-being of her brother than finding rats.

When the pandemic hit and Ziggy’s cancer journey began, all competition stopped. Last August, we signed Chip up for his first barn hunt trial. He’s a pro at finding the rats but is too nervous to tunnel. And Cookie remains uninterested in finding rats.

What they don’t tell you

The club that I started with in barn hunt always said that you didn’t need training in barn hunt and to just rely on your dog’s instincts. This worked for Cookie and Ziggy, but Chip would benefit from training (which I didn’t know was a thing for barn hunt until after his first trial). While the instinct may be there to find the rat, your dog may need training to learn to tunnel or also to exit the ring. Chip was hard to catch once our turn was up. The judge advised that it is something that he could be disqualified for, which would be a shame had he qualified in novice.

Competing in barn hunt is significantly more expensive than agility. It may seem surprising at first, but upon inspection, it makes sense. The equipment in agility can be used for years through countless competitions. But the key “equipment” in barn hunt are live rats. Additionally, while bales of hay can be reused while they remain intact, it’s not uncommon for dogs to mark on them (or paw or bite them). While it’s common to charge the owner a fee when this happens, bales of hay don’t last nearly as long as agility equipment.

How dogs signal that they’ve found a rat can vary wildly. I’ve seen some dogs go CRAZY barking and biting bales of hay to say they found a rat. Meanwhile, others, like Cookie, go completely still. (According to the judge who made this observation, Cookie was “disgusted” by the rats!)

I also learned how your dog signals can change over time. Once Cookie started getting stuck in open, I wish I had taken a break from trials and instead took a couple of classes or done a fun run to learn if she was changing how she was signaling or if she truly lost interest in the sport.

The bottom line

A proud Cookie showing off her barn hunt ribbons, January 2019 (before Ziggy came along).
A proud Cookie showing off her barn hunt ribbons in January 2019 (before Ziggy came along).

Barn hunt is a less physically demanding sport compared to agility. It leverages your dog’s natural hunting instincts but can benefit from practice and classes.

Like with everything else, explore your dog’s interests and simply HAVE FUN!! Even if your dog doesn’t find a rat in the competition, every judge we’ve competed under has made sure that a rat tube is presented to the dog to sniff and for excitement to be demonstrated so they leave the ring on a pawsitive note.