BleepingBeauty wrote: Thanks for the link, Kira. I know next to nothing about dog shows, so the videos were interesting. One question: What's actually in the containers that the dogs are hunting for around the bales of hay?
Rats. Real, live rats. The rats are unharmed -- and in fact, I have 14 rats who are partners in Barn Hunt training. They argue over who gets to go in the tubes first. (There was one rat who entertained himself by grabbing a piece of straw and twirling it around so the straw went thumpa-thumpa up and down like he was opening and closing an umbrella under it. Freaked the heck out of some of the dogs.) My ratties know they get Good Treats when they go in the tube, AND that they get Good Treats when they are found, AND when they go back into their main cage. I even have rats who can tell the difference between a Novice dog and a Master dog -- they'll sit dead still and really make the dog work at it if they're a Master. But a Novice, they'll give the dog about thirty seconds, and then start chittering at it. "Over here, stupid dog! Get over here and put your paw on my tube so we BOTH get a treat! Over here, stupid dog!"
The Master level that Harper competes at has a random number of rats, from 1-5. There are a total of eight tubes on the course, so if there are three rats, say, there will be five "litter" tubes -- tubes with used rat litter in it so it smells like a rat, but isn't. The dog thus has to distinguish between Rat and Smells-Like-Rat. Harper has 4 minutes, 30 seconds to search an area roughly 24' x 24' (in Downsville, it's 19' x 30') and three bales high, find however many rats there are, do a tunnel (which has from 2-5 90 degree turns in it, and it's pitch black inside), do a climb (all four feet off the ground) and then indicate to me, "Hey, Missy, the course is clear!" and I have to call CLEAR. (I don't know how many rats there are.) Harper is better at finding the rats than I am at calling CLEAR.
Barn Hunt is based on the former role of many farm dogs who protected stored grain and foodstuffs from vermin. It is open to ALL dogs -- they do not have to be pure-bred. They just have to register with the Barn Hunt Association, BHA.
The rest of what Harper does is Conformation -- a beauty pageant, if you will. Who does the judge think most closely conforms to the standard of what an ideal Dachshund looks like?
So my Boy is not only gorgeous, he has Brains and a Nose, besides.
