Barn Ratting / Chasse en grange

Barn Ratting requires good communication with your dog and its ability to discriminate odors and live animals. Barn Hunts are held either indoors or outdoors. The land or building used is defined by fences or walls. Depending on the level of difficulty, many tubes may be used. These can be empty, or containing either rats and/or rat litter. Tubes are hidden between bales of hay or straw. The tubes must be in plain view of the handler and the judge, being more or less visible depending on the competition level. The Team is allocated 2 minutes to find the rat/s. The handler and the dog enter the ring at the same time. The handler can give one verbal command then must remain silent for the first 30 seconds while the dog hunts. Afterwards, the handler may encourage and direct his dog verbally. The handler is responsible to make the timer stop, calling ‘Rat!’ to the judge, when he believes that his dog has found a rat. Should the team be in error and and have identified a wrong tube, the timer will continue and 5 seconds will be added to the final time of the test. Touching the dog before the judge confirms that the last rat tube is found or touching a tube that has not yet been identified leads to an automatic disqualification. You may however pet your dog shortly after he has found a rat tube. The tube(s) where the rats are hidden are switched places for each blind. At the novice level, there are 3 tubes: 1 rat, 1 litter and 1 empty and clean. Completing a run in less than 2 minutes is considered to “PASS” and goes for placement but your run must be fault-free to earn your qualification. Qualifying in your first or second ever sanctioned novice barn hunt run leads to Barn Ratting Instinct Title (IBAR).
★ Novice Rules
★ Advanced Rules
★ Master Rules

La chasse en grange se pratique à l’intérieur comme à l’extérieur. Le terrain ou le bâtiment utilisé est démarqué par des clôtures ou par des murs. Selon le niveau de difficulté, un nombre de plus en plus élevé de tubes, avec rats et/ou litière de rats sont utilisés.
★ Règlements novice
★ Règlements avancé
★ Règlements expert