A few dog breeds are bred for particular reasons. For instance, the Terrier breeds such as Rat Terrier are small and often used for hunting vermin. Ratting breeds are majorly bred for hunting to safeguard grains. Coming to this day, these breeds still enjoy the adventure of hunting and thus, Barn Hunt for dogs offers these dogs a chance to put their hunting skills to use and compete, without harming vermin.

Working of Barn Hunt

Barn Hunts are a new dog sport that starts with developing a pathway full of straw or hay, replicating a barn, whether indoor or outdoor in a full fenced, protected area. It is decked with well-ventilated aerated and decoy tubes to test the senses of the dog. The goal is to let the dogs find as many rats as possible, scoring points with every rat found in a specific time. The dog should show the rat to the handler.

As the dog moves through the course, the difficulty level increases and the sports gets more challenging with increased size of the course, increase in the number of rats or higher tunnel difficulty. The judgment is done on the basis of their sense of smell, agility, and instinct.

While all breeds of dogs can compete in this sport, but they should be fit into an 18 x20 x 22 inch tunnel and should be a minimum of six months old.

Different levels of Barn Hunt

A dog should pass the four levels to acquire the Barn Hunt Champion and Barn Hunt Elite Master Champion crown.

The levels differ in terms of difficulty which includes searching for the number of rats, height of the hay stacked, difficulty level of moving through different tunnels and time taken to complete the course.

Novice

The dog should find one rat in three tubes and navigate through elevated hay bales by climbing. The time limit here is two minutes and the dog should pass through a straight tunnel.

Open

This level has a time limit of two minutes and thirty seconds and the tunnel is tougher with a 190 degree turn. The dog should search for two rats in this level.

Senior

In this level, the dogs have to navigate through more hay bales and pass through complicated tunnel with 90-degree turns. Dogs should find four rates in three minutes and thirty seconds.

Master

This level has more hay bales to climb and they have to find one to five rats. There are 90-degree tunnel turns and the time span is four minutes and thirty seconds.

Benefits of Barn Hunt

Barn Hunt is a great opportunity to bond between an owner and a dog. It offers:

• Develops confidence in dogs
• Mental and physical stimulation
• Helps exercise natural instincts

Conclusion

Barn Hunt offers every dog, irrespective of the breed, an opportunity to compete in a fun and adventurous event. It offers a bonding opportunity between the owner and the dog and work as a team and allows a dog to develop their natural hunting instincts.