On Mother’s Day I got to go on a very special adventure with my mom (dad came too). We packed up the car and headed south to New Jersey for a Barn Hunt Practice!
Barn Hunts were created to honor the traditional role of “ratcatchers” in ridding barns and properties of vermin. Barn Hunts are open to any dog, of (almost) any size, type or breed. In a Barn Hunt competition you can earn titles and placements at various levels and degrees of difficulty.
At this Barn Hunt I met up with my Philadelphian gal pal Liebe, and we were both pretty excited to hunt for some rats! (Especially Liebe who is a city dog – and doesn’t get as many chances as me to hunt for vermin)
At a Barn Hunt you are required to go through straw bale tunnels and climb over several bales to earn a qualifying mark – all while in pursuit of a rat.
In the lower levels you are then met with various tubes, some of which contain rat bedding and one that contains an actual rat. Your goal as rat hunter extraordinare is to locate the rat and alert your mom or dad that you have found the correct tube containing it. Once found your mom/dad is responsible for telling the judge you have found the rat – in which case the time will stop (as long as you have completed the necessary requirements of completing tunnels and climbing straw bales too).
As the day progressed I got better and better at finding my rats. I even began digging at the tubes and making lots of noise once I found the tubes that contained a rat.
Mom said in the higher level classes I would even have to find multiple rats in one run – making sure to find them fast enough to not run over the time limit, many of which that are hidden under straw and in crevices. Sounds like a blast!
Liebe (who is just over a year old) even had fun locating the rats and as she gets older I’m sure she’s going to be one ferocious rat hunter just like me!
I had so much fun looking for my rats, that sitting on the sidelines while the other dogs had a turn was so hard!
I can’t wait to return again and actually compete in this fun new sport – it’s totally my kind of competition!
You can learn more about the rules of Barn Hunt and find competitions and practices local to you HERE. 
