By CATHY DYSON, The Free Lance-Star
BEALETON, Va. (AP) — Some dogs sprinted like deer into the drafty barn, with its tin roof that rumbled each time the wind gusted—which it did often on a cold Sunday afternoon.
Others did more of an amble as in the event that they had all day to smell every bit of straw and analyze the assorted aromas contained inside.
But to at least one degree or one other, nearly every dog that entered the training barn at Liberty Hill Pet Resort in Bealeton smelled a rat, which is the aim of the game often called barn hunting.
It’s just that some dogs know higher what to do about it.
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Sophie, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, wagged her tail excitedly as soon as she entered together with her owner, Sonya Baker of Manassas. Sophie looked too well-groomed to be rooting through straw and it wasn’t long before slim dried stalks hung from her silky brown and white coat.
But when she situated a canister that contained a rat, she put her little paws to work to clear straw around it. The rat was secure and secure the entire time, protected in an aerated tube concerning the size of ones used at bank drive-thru windows.
Sophie yipped and barked with excitement especially after her owner picked up the canister. Baker held it at the extent of Sophie’s nose, saying, “Git it, git it, git it,” and Sophie danced around with delight.
And that’s the purpose of the exercise, said Mary Ann Robertson. She’s Liberty Hill’s former owner and current trainer who began barn hunting in southern Fauquier County years ago.
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“It’s fun,” she said with extra emphasis on fun. “The dog is in charge, it’s not like obedience or agility or rally where you’re telling them what to do. They should inform you and my dog loves it. I assume he loves telling me what to do.”
She’s referring to Stojan, a Belgian Malinois who likes to squeeze his shepherd frame into tunnels arranged under bales of hay. She is just not referring to her other dog, Juliet, a poodle whose attitude suggests she will’t be bothered with barn hunting—or every other instructions, in fact.
While all dogs have a way of smell estimated to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times stronger than human’s, not all have the identical strong instinct to place it to make use of, Robertson said.
Barn hunting gives dogs of all breeds and sizes a likelihood to smell around and determine in the event that they can zero in on one distinctive aroma and avoid dozens others. That features the smells of other canines, dropped treats and even the barn mouse that skittered through the constructing just a few days ago.
Dale Graham of Culpeper County named her cattle dog–Shepadoodle mix Sherlock for the way in which he liked to explore all the things as a puppy. He showed his investigative nature as he hopped from pillar to post, looked out barn windows and licked anyone who got near him.
Graham tried to get him heading in the right direction, calling out, “No, not those rats” when Sherlock stood atop a hay bale and gazed at containers, outside the caged ring, full of rat cannisters.
“We now have a definite lack of focus here,” she said.
Drake, an immaculately groomed black poodle, wasted no time. He pranced across the stacked-up bales, sniffing within the crevices for the distinct aroma and quickly found one. His owner, Katy Stewart of Fredericksburg, called out, “Rat.”
Robertson or Danielle Cross, a delegated “rat wrangler,” let her know if Drake’s instincts were correct. What makes the sport tougher is that some cannisters contained rat bedding, not the rat themselves, and the ammonia-tinged litter may be almost as pungent because the rodent themselves.
While dictionaries consider rats and mice vermin, at Liberty Hill, they’re looked upon as pets and treated accordingly. No rats are harmed throughout the exercise.
Before dogs learn to barn hunt, they’re introduced to the black or dark gray animals to accumulate their smell. Robertson maintains rats are almost as smart as dogs and quickly realize those after them can’t get to them.
“We used to have some rats that might jump into the tube” because they were so desirous to play, Cross said.
Among the dogs like Toby, a border terrier, had ancestors trained to search out rats in fields or barns and exterminate them. Toby loves the sport—it’s his type of thing to do, said his owner Lynne Leeper of Warrenton. But he’s never shown any aggression toward the rats; he just lets her know when he’s situated one.
Barn hunting is an amazing likelihood for city dogs to practice the art of hunting “without their owners needing a shotgun,” said Kathleen Reilly–Olson of Vienna.
“We love coming here,” she said. “My dogs love this place.”
One in every of her dogs is P.J., a Hungarian sporting breed called Vizsla that may be used for rabbit hunting or retrieving waterfowl. When P.J. entered the constructing, she ran so fast along straw-covered mats that she practically tripped over her long, thin legs.
P.J. participated within the tougher master’s category where one to 5 rats were hidden among the many straw mazes and the owner needed to call out “Clear” when she believed her dog had situated all of them.
The event was just practice and Robertson used missed opportunities as teaching moments. She showed some owners methods to be more in tune with the subtle messages dog send after they smell their prey, whether that’s tipping a head or ear a certain way or practically stopping of their tracks. And she or he told others methods to encourage the dogs to point the presence of rats and never just proceed on like they’re on a shopping spree.
When Liberty Hill Pet Resort conducts official barn trials Feb. 18–19, none of that might be allowed. The power also plans more practice runs before then, when owners pay $12 to $17 for every run their dogs take through the constructing.
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