Rat practice is always fun, but it is even more fun when you haven’t hunted them for a while! It’s been six weeks since our last barn hunt trial. Mom is afraid the government is going to lock us all up again, so she wanted to get us out for some practice before that happens.
Both of us were over the top excited to be at the rat place again! Madison is working on her last couple Masters legs to get her Masters Champion, and I’m working on Senior to get myself into Masters. Tunnels are always fun, so Olivia had to check that out right away. Getting photos is hard because Mom has to watch us and we are always moving. She can’t use the good camera because she can’t hold on to it in the ring, so the phone is the only option.
The ring set up had a distance challenge so we both practiced that and had no problems with it. In a distance challenge the human can’t go into the area unless a rat is found. It is a test to see if dogs can work on their own away from their person. We both do everything really well on our own.
I got up on top of the bales to sniff around. It is a good place for air scenting up there too. Mom hid some rats up there for one or two of my searches.
This is me finding a rat. I sniff, dig at it, and they try to chew on the tube. I really love it when Mom plays with the tube and I can pretend to catch it. It makes me really wild. I never had any interest in the rat in the tube until about a year ago, and now I love to try to get those guys out, but have not had any success yet.
Olivia is a gently hunter. She is where I used to be, no interest in the actual rat. When she finds one, she very gently puts a paw on it or sniffs it for a second but that is all. In the photo above, she has found a rat.
Once she sniffs or puts a paw on it, she bounces back and gives Mom an alert look. We both searched a lot for the hour and fell asleep on the way home. Last night when we went to bed, Mom accused me of snoring. Normally I don’t snore, so that is saying something about how worn out I was! Rat practice is super fun. I sure hope they don’t cancel our next trial in January, but we will have to wait and see.
My GBGV Life is joining Brian’s Home Blog in the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
Y’all look amazing hunting those rats and I’m glad you enjoyed your practice session! Thanks for joining our Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
It was so much fun. We’ve missed it the last weeks.
Oh, rats! You both look li9ke you are having so much fun! You mom did a fantastic job taking pictures with her phone. Sore away tired babies. XOXO, Sparkle
It is a lot of mental work finding all those rats, and it is tiring climbing around too, but we love it.
We would like more rat hunts in our area – Zachary and Mia are super hunters……
We wish you had more too because they are super fun.
What skilled huntresses you have become, I love those photos. Have a wonderful Thursday!
I’ve been doing it for a few years and Olivia for about a year and a half, so we have learned a lot about how it works.
we love such events! Oh why we don’t have them here? the mama will ask at the club if we can organize such a barn hunt… but we bet with the european laws and rules we would get a sh-storm from greta&their bunch…
We have an online friend in Norway who does barn hunt. Maybe you could go there and give it a try? We found the following on the barnhunt.com website: Running overseas events from the United States is not really practical or feasible. However, we are happy to offer license opportunities for countries wishing to hold events outside the U.S. and Canada. The first country to offer Barn Hunt outside of the U.S./Canada is Norway, who began competitions in 2016. In 2019 the UK started operations. We welcome other inquiries.
They are having a Blast!!
We had so much fun. We almost killed Mom trying to get from the car into the building we were so excited.
It’s good that mom keeps you busy. I love to watch all of you work.
Have a woof woof Thankful Thursday. My best to your smart mom. ♥
She adores our sports and we try to do as much as we can.
are these real rats? That must be fun hunting them real or not real! Have a lovely day!
Yes, they are rats in really sturdy containers that are buried in the straw. The rats are trained to do that and there are a million rules for the rats that have to be followed to make sure they are never harmed and that they get enough breaks.
Thanks looks like so much fun for y’all!
You know, we really enjoy our sports and so does Mom.
It sure does look like fun!
The owner of the local Barn Hunt club has a pup just like you who is really good at this sport.
What a blast you both had…We wonder if we would be more like you, or like Olivia…..We sure hope the government doesn’t shut us down again, but it looks like California is already telling us to stay home….
We got more restrictions to start tomorrow, but we still are out and about doing most of the usual things. Most of our sports break now for the winter, so it is a good time to be shut down. We just want to keep practicing.
It looks like it was a great time for all of you!
We had a lot of fun hunting for those rats!
It looks like you had lots of fun! All paws crossed here that your next trial goes on!
We are feeling 50/50 at best for the chances, but one never knows. This whole thing is really tiring and we wish it would finally go away.
Glad ya got in some practice!
Our governor has said we are going to shut down, but momma is never shure.
We don’t like our governor. He is a teacher and loves to throw out rules. Boooo…