How to Train Your Dog to Barn Hunt

A barn hunt is a necessity for some dogs who live on a farm and have the job of keeping rodents away from barns, hay bales, and animal feed. A barn hunt event is a fun game some dog owners play using rats, hay bales, and tunnels to test your dog's agility and skill. There might be several reasons a dog owner participates in a barn hunt with their dog, whether it be for fun or to train a farming work dog. Barn hunt dogs can be compared to detective dogs. They are trained to search and find, retrieve, and recover.

The sport of barn hunting is an organized sport with judges, teams of dogs, and rules. However, dog owners cannot let their dogs just run freely in a barn hunt; they need to understand the rules, the goals, and how to participate so they can catch the best prizes. Dogs who naturally barn hunt as part of a working dog duties may have similar rules in that the farmers use the dogs to keep their barns clear of vermin, so they have time to focus on farming. No matter the reason your dog is training for a barn hunt, the training is similar if not close to the same. Though there are rules in a barn hunt game such as don't touch the hay, if you are a farmer, training your dog to protect and hunt your barn, you could make your own rules.

You will need a few things to set up a barn hunt course and train your dog properly for a barn hunt.

• A maze of hay bales.
  
• Plastic tubes hidden within the maze.
  
• Live rats.
  
• Your maze must be such that your dogs can go through the tunnels and climb on top of the hay bales to alert you of the rat he is caught.
  
• Treats for Rewards.
  
• A dog small enough to go through the obstacles.