Understanding rats is Bailie’s latest project. She has decided to pursue her barn hunt career this fall, as she has one of three legs towards her novice title, so why not keep going? In order to be successful she needs to take the task of finding the rat in the hay seriously.
Monday night there was an Intro to Barn Hunt class. Mom and Bailie went to give Bailie an opportunity to really get up close and personal with the rat in a tube concept and to work on the importance of finding the tube with the rat in the hay bales. I have no interest in the sport after trying it back in June, so I stayed home and relaxed while she was busy working on understanding rats!
She got some nice video of herself meeting the rat and getting pretty excited about it. She also did a good job finding the rat tube in the hay. Remember, the top priority in the sport of barn hunt is rat safety. The woman on the floor in the video raises rats for pets and barn hunt. They grow up with dogs and tubes and are not scared at all. The tubes are completely safe for the rat, and correct handling of the tubes is paramount.
Hopefully Bailie will get to meet up with some more rats in a practice group a couple times before the next barn hunt trial in October. She is pretty excited about it! Me, I’ll stick to wabbits and squirrels when it comes to animals.
omg yes… it’s alive!!! my granny screamed like an air raid siren as she saw that you had a real rat in that tube hehehehehe… boy I would love such a barn hunt :o)
You would love it more than Bailie does I think!
Good job, B!! Real alive rats are exciting. When they move, it’s even MORE exciting!! So fun!
Love and licks,
Cupcake
It’s pretty wild when they move in that tube. Hopefully, she will keep her drive to find them in the hay.
Bailie should move to New York. We have rats all over the place. Katie chases them all the time. Distinguishing.
Oh no! We don’t want her chasing loose rats. She can have the tube ones where she can’t actually get at them!
I may borrow Bailie when we get a mouse in the RV, same thing right? That’s a fun exercise for Bailie. I bet she does great.
You might do better if I mail out cat bro Bert to you. He is a avid mouse hunter and even hunts them when they are already in a trap. He is good at being patient and going in small places to find them.
Just think – it they put tree rats in those tubes – dogs would be flocking to that ;0
Now that is a sport I would get my paws into immediately. That would really be something!
I think I would choose to stay home with you, Emma! Rats and my mom do not get along well…. XOXO Sparkle
My mom doesn’t have feelings one way or the other for the rats. She would like them if they had fur on their tails, but the naked tails turn her off. No matter, they stay in their tubes.
Now this Taffy could do! Love Dolly
You should let her try it. They have the competitions listed on the website http://barnhunt.com/ You don’t need to take a class to try it, and it is pretty inexpensive. I bet it would be fun.
Cool! How’s her mouse drive? I might have a job for her!
It looks like Bailie is going to do very well at her new sport!
She is pretty happy with finding the rat right now. Hopefully it will continue until trial time.
Bailie has a hunting call just like Sister Tiki (Ethos Tropical Punch)!
We have lots of wabbits in Texas.
I think Bailie and Tiki could be twins really from that litter. She has a much louder, obnoxious hunting call for wabbits and squirrels. She did it for a rat at the barn hunt and all the people were talking about her since she was the only one! Tiki should give barn hunt a try!
Good luck Bailie!! We’re kinda with you Emma…we’re not that into rats. Give us a bunny or bird any day!
Smileys!
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
Bailie is much more open to trying new things like rats, than I am.
Maybe Bert could give you some rodent advice!
He definitely could as he is an expert hunter of mice. He might figure out how to free that rat!
That means if a mouse ever gets in your house, you don’t have to get it. Send Bailie after it! BOL!
Maybe, but cat bro Bert is the chief mouser in this house. He is an excellent hunter.
oh RATS, that looks like fun!
I bet you kitties would like this sport too!
You’re a braver girl than I 🙂
Bailie is quite brave at times. Not me, I don’t want any rat.
Outstanding job, Ms. Bailie! ? for you.
She is working hard on hunting rats!
My feline sister Rosie is super impressed with Bailie’s rat hunting abilities
It was a bit slower starting out than we anticipated. We think it is the tube that throws her off a bit, but she is catching on.
Chloe would go absolutely CRAZY!!! She caught a live chipmunk so I’m sure she’d be fast enough to catch a rat! Not to worry…I saved the day and the poor little guy was just really scared…all safe!
We catch and kill wabbits and squirrels, but for some reason the rat in the tube is different. Bailie is catching on now and I think she will do well when the next trial comes up.
Well, everyone has different hobbies and important things to learn, so WE are happy to learn that both you and Bailie each have your own “trials” to exceed at.
Way to go, both of you!
We are very similar, but also very different. Our ages also play a factor I think.
Looks like Bailie has found her sport. My sister Tallulah’s littermate SoBe does barn hunting. When SoBe visited with her human mom a few weeks ago and we were all posing for pictures, SoBe’s mom would say “Rat!” to get her attention. It got the attention of all the humans around us, too!
LOL! Good one. Bailie is a tracking ace, but she is picking up on barn hunt pretty well.
Gambler loves rats. We save barn hunt for the winter.
Bailie will probably do more of it in the winter too, but she started in the summer and wants to stick with it when opportunities arise.
I’m thinking about taking Bruiser just to have fun and to check out the rats in the pipes – even if Walter couldn’t have cared less. We have TWO Nosework trials in September so we’re kind of freaking out about that!!
Our trials are getting so hard to get a spot. I have a L1E in Sept, then there is a big trial in Oct and Nov we hope to get a spot or two in each, but one never knows these days. Oct is also tracking test and barn hunt test month. We are entering stuff pretty much every weekend and hope to get spots in something!Just relax with your NW trials and practice your mental management. At your level think of how simple it is…probably just finding one hide in each of four searches…you do it all the time in practice! If the area looks complicated, forget about it as it is the dog doing the work and they don’t see it like we do, they just smell the odor and go.You will be fine!
She did very good! I would love to do this with Delilah but I’m afraid they would remind her too much of chipmunks and I’d be afraid she would grab that tube and do dog knows what with it~
Can’t wait to hear more about Bailie’s adventures.
I think she would be fine with it. The tube changes things, and there is so much protection for the tube and the rat. You should give it a try.
Good go,Bailey!!! Mom won’t let me try yet, and Chablis got disqualified- he peed on the rat. Elbe
Oh dear, that is not good! At our last barn hunt trial, the rat peed on the wrangler, but that is allowed.