Barn Hunt for Dogs - What is it?

Barn Hunt is one of the fastest growing sports for dogs and is a fun activity to do with your dog that will work its nose and brain. Barn Hunt is a way to test your dog's hunting ability using rats hidden on a course. We cover all the basics and the levels of achievement in Barn Hunt. The cool thing about Barn Hunt is that any dog of any breed may participate!
We attended a lovely event in Ellijay, Georgia hosted by the North Georgia Kennel Club at Rambo's Barn. A special thanks to all who put on the event, the volunteers, amazing judge, Darla Lacey, and the host, Heather Anderson. What a fun time we had watching various breeds try their noses at hunting!
For the full rules, more info, and local events, be sure to visit:
www.barnhunt.c...
Have you tried Barn Hunt? Let us know in the comments!
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[@trinityjagdeo8567]

This is EXTREMELY useful, and resourceful. Can you do the same for Fastcat, explaining titles and terms as well? There’s a huge facebook community for these things, and with the warmer weather coming around and more people getting out, there are going to be more and more people interested in it. I tried reading the rulebook on these things but FB and YT have been the key to understanding it. And! I would be more than happy to link all of these in the FB groups for these sports, I think it would help the channel as well 🙂 If you could do one on AKC vs other Facilities/organizations that run events that would be so helpful too ( i’m still trying to understand it ) bc AKC requires more than other sport organizations ( like neutering ).

[@DogNerdShow]

Thanks so much, we're thrilled you found this episode so helpful! Yes, we'll definitely do a Fastcat episode and plan to cover other canine sports too. We can cover the differences between AKC & non-AKC events as well. Thanks so much for your feedback & for sharing!

[@SpankyJ59]

Great episode! My dog, Piper, does Barn Hunt and she absolutely loves it. She currently has her RATO title.

[@DogNerdShow]

Thanks so much for watching and subscribing! We're so glad you enjoyed it and we hope we didn't miss anything. That's so cool that Piper loves Barn Hunt and that she has her RATO title!! We wish we had done it with our dogs when they were younger. We may give Riley a shot at an event this Fall...

[@SpankyJ59]

@@DogNerdShow You both did great explaining the sport of Barn Hunt. I’m sure you know Zipper passed away on August 1st. 😢 Definitely give Riley a shot. Piper started training when she was 5 - maybe 6, and because of COVID didn’t start trialing until this year.

[@DogNerdShow]

@@SpankyJ59 I just heard about Zipper...and 8/1 is my birthday. :( It's so sad, but what a wonderful tribute this sport is to Zipper. Riley is 14.5, but a terrier who has still has some gusto, especially if there are critters involved! It would be fun to give it a whirl. We did a Barn Hunt fun day years ago at an Earthdog event and she excelled...but this was so long ago and when we didn't have time to train with her. I'll keep you posted!

[@lauracramer1729]

Nice explanatory program. I just wish we could have actually seen one or two dogs do the full hunt so we could have seen an example.

[@DogNerdShow]

Thanks! I think we have footage of a complete session so we'll add that so you can see how it works. If we don't have footage, we'll work to get some and share! Thank you so much for watching and for your input.

[@bridgetallen7544]

Does there have to be so many people in the competition area? It seems like a distraction to have 3 and 4 people standing around in the fenced area.

[@DogNerdShow]

Thanks for watching and for your question! We'd have to look closely at the rules, but I think it's just the judge, the rat wrangler, and the dog's owner. The gate steward stands outside the gate and ensures it's closed so the dog cannot get out.

[@bunniesbunniesbunnie]

it seems insane to me that the dog doesn't get to kill the rat. like, the worst tease. you're proving their nose, not really their hunting capability. and who cares about rats? there are billions of them and they breed like crazy. the whole point of hunting rats was to kill them and not allowing the dogs to kill the rats just blows my mind. Imagine a herding competition but the dog can't chase. Or a coon dog that isn't allowed to bay. It's stupid. Kill the rat or use a fake.

[@bunniesbunniesbunnie]

like legitimately: you can easily buy frozen/thawed rats for this instead of keeping the disgusting filthy little things in your house.

[@xozudo]

@@bunniesbunniesbunnie I really think that you need to educate yourself. Meet a rat. They’re incredible little animals who act like tiny dogs. They groom themselves like cats and have designated potty areas in their cage, making them very clean. They’re very intelligent and personable and not at all like you’ve described. Personally, my dog doesn’t care about killing the rats. She lets the tubes go easily and moves on to the next, she really enjoys finding things but probably doesn’t have the energy to kill a bunch of rats, and it’s just a sport, not a job for her. I hope you have the joy of meeting a nice rat some day 😊

[@bunniesbunniesbunnie]

@@xozudo rats are trash. The only good rat is a dead rat.