Alessia, a 100-pound cane corso, does a victory lap around the ring, evading her dog mom, Candace Hood, as she dances, spins, and bounces off straw bales, prancing around entertaining the crowd. Alessia found the rat hidden in a straw bale maze, and she is celebrating dog style. On another weekend, you might find Alessia blazing down a track chasing a moving white bag attached to a string. Reaching top speed at 27.49 miles per hour, she is the fourth fastest cane corso in the country, and she participates in some of the fastest growing dog sports, Barn Hunt and FastCAT, which are now available in Columbia.
Barn Hunt is based on the long tradition of using dogs to eliminate problem vermin from both farms and cities. Rat catchers traveled from town to town with packs of dogs, making money by ridding the area of rats. Dogs, including Jack Russell terriers, cairn terriers, border terriers, and dachshunds, were bred to burrow into underground dens, pulling the vermin out or killing them. Other dogs, such as rat terriers, miniature pinschers, German pinschers, and standard schnauzers, among many others, were bred to be quick and agile for hunting vermin above ground.
The relatively new sport of Barn Hunt was created by Robin Nuttall for her miniature pinscher, Zipper. Robin was curious what work this 10 to 12-inch dog was meant to do. In looking into the history of the breed, she discovered its vermin hunting roots. She wanted to do something with Zipper to prove he could do what he was bred to do. Although the American Kennel Club had different sports available for dogs bred to hunt, Robin found that min pins and many other breeds were excluded based on breed. So, she created a new sport open to all breeds, and Barn Hunt was born. Since 2014, the sport has been taking the country by storm, becoming one of the fastest growing dog sports in the country. Just a year ago, Columbia got its first Barn Hunt Club through Shadow Dog Sports, a subsidiary of the Greater Columbia Obedience Club.
Barn Hunt is a team scent work sport for dogs and their handlers. It allows dogs to demonstrate their vermin hunting skills by finding and marking rats in a barn-like setting. In a Barn Hunt trial, the dog searches for live rats, which are safely ensconced in aerated PVC tubes, hidden in a straw bale maze. The rats are domesticated, not wild, and are carefully protected. The straw bales create a tunnel and climbing obstacles for the dog. The handler carefully watches the dog and waits for it to indicate it has found the rat. According to the Barn Hunt Association, “The sport tests speed, agility, hunt drive, scenting ability, surefootedness, control, and responsiveness to handler direction.”
The opening level of Barn Hunt is called “instinct.” The dog enters the ring, goes through an optional tunnel, and chooses between three tubes in a cradle on the floor. One tube is empty, one tube contains rat bedding, and a third contains the actual rat. In under 60 seconds, the dog must indicate the correct tube, and the handler calls “rat!” to win the instinct title.
In the novice level, the same three tubes are hidden in the straw. Within two minutes, the dog must climb on a straw bale with all four legs, go through a short tunnel, and sniff out the tube with the live rat, and the handler has to call “rat!” on the correct tube. Successfully completing three runs earns the dog a novice title. The team that tunnels, climbs, and identifies the rat quickest wins the class.
As a dog progresses from novice to open to the senior level, the tunnels get longer, the straw courses get more complex, and the hides get harder. At the senior level, the tunnel is 12- to 20-feet long with three 90 degree turns. Eight tubes are hidden, one empty, three with litter, and four with rats. The dog must tunnel, climb, and together with the handler identify the four rat tubes before time is called at three minutes and 30 seconds.
The master’s level consists of eight tubes on the course containing between one to five rats. The team must correctly identify all rats on the course and declare the course clear when they think all the rats have been found.
And then there is Crazy 8s, open to dogs at all levels. With a senior level tunnel, eight rat tubes, and four litter tubes, the team has two minutes to find as many rats as they can. For each rat found, they earn 10 points, plus 10 points each for a tunnel and climb. Whoever finds the most rats in the shortest time wins the class. Accumulating 500 points earns the Crazy 8s Bronze title.
Nell Jenkins first heard about Barn Hunt when someone at a GCOC meeting shared about doing an “Instinct Run” on a lark. When she saw a notice on Facebook that Rebecca Schnulle in Chester, South Carolina, was giving Barn Hunt lessons in her garage — surrounded by chickens! — Nell signed up. She hoped it might help her dog focus with distractions. What could possibly be more distracting than chickens?
It turned out that her dog, Mich, a Nova Scotia duck toller (also known as a toller), didn’t give a hoot about chickens, and they both enjoyed Barn Hunt. They went to a Barn Hunt trial right away and had even more fun.
According to Nell, “Barn Hunt is really different from anything I’ve done because it is so dog-directed. The dog is really making the decisions if it is done right. You have to observe the dog closely to notice if it is catching a scent and recognize when it finds the rat.”
Soon three friends, including Jaye Pearce, wanted in on the fun and joined her in Chester for classes. They decided to see if they could drum up more people who were interested to start a Barn Hunt Club in Columbia.
Jaye became interested in dog training when she got Oakly, a diabetic alert dog, in 2010. Part of the agreement to own the dog included training to keep up her skills, so Jaye joined the GCOC. She found training and competing in agility, obedience, and other sports with Oakly so much fun that she has continued with successive dogs.
Now Jaye has a toller named Ty. Jaye and Ty love Barn Hunt so much that she jumped in with both feet; Jaye now has 42 pet rats living in 10 “rat condominiums” at her house and is building a barn in back so Shadow Dog Sports will have a permanent place to practice and hold competitions.
In the last year, Nell, Jaye, and a slew of committee members and volunteers got Shadow Dog Sports qualified as a Barn Hunt Club, taught classes, held “climb, tunnel, and sniff-a-rat” clinics, and hosted three Barn Hunt competitions. In May, the club held the Southeastern Regional Barn Hunt Competition at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds. Sixty-nine people and 83 dogs from all over the Southeast, and from as far away as New Jersey and Michigan, competed to win a spot at Nationals. With 399 runs, the competition was a huge accomplishment for the new Barn Hunt Club.
Candace got into training dogs when she retired from the military and had more free time. She began by joining the Augusta Kennel Club. Particularly interested in working dogs and guardian breeds, Candace had always wanted a cane corso. When it was time for her next pup, she got her cane corso, naming her Alessia, Italian for “defending warrior.”
Candace says, “I mistakenly thought that Alessia would be a companion dog, one that lay around the house, went for walks, and barked a little out the window. She literally ‘told’ me that she wanted to do more stuff. She is a bit of a talker. She would moan and make loud dog noises when she wanted to do something.”
Candace started taking her to Rally and obedience classes at the Augusta Kennel Club and there learned about Shea Brooks in Aiken, who taught Barn Hunt classes. “We decided to set up an appointment just to see if Alessia was interested in it. And she was completely interested in it from the first day. It was mind blowing to see how into it Alessia was.”
Alessia likes high drive sports in which she can move at her own speed — fast and strong. When Candace saw FastCAT listed on the AKC website, she took a chance on it and entered Alessia in a FastCAT test in Perry, Georgia. “She just took to it the first day.” Candace says, “At first, she tried to hop along with the ‘rabbit.’ She couldn’t quite figure out the game. The second run that day, she got it. She knew to lean forward and go for it. I think that was the most fun ever for her. She has been addicted ever since.”
FastCAT is a timed 100-yard dash for dogs. CAT stands for Coursing Ability Test. Dogs run one at a time chasing a lure, affectionately known as “the rabbit,” to see how fast they can go. The track doesn’t have to be fenced in, but most are. The dog’s time to run the course is converted into miles per hour, and then AKC points are assigned to the dog based on its size handicap. The dogs rack up points to win titles.
In FastCAT, dogs are competing against their own breed for bragging rights. At the end of the year, the top five dogs in each breed are invited to run in the AKC FastCAT Invitational in December the following year. Since Alessia is the fourth fastest cane corso in the country, Candace is watching the mail every day for Alessia’s invitation to compete.
FastCAT has no training as the dogs run on pure instinct. Register in advance, show up with your dog, two leashes, and a friend to help … and don’t forget water for your dog.
Before each run, dogs are visually inspected for soundness. After warming up and waiting in line for your turn, one person releases the dog at the top of the track and the other person catches the dog 100 yards later at the finish line. In between is pure bliss for dogs who love to run. Beyond titles and bragging rights, some say the best part of this sport is the photographs, capturing the dogs at top speed with ears flying and big smiles.
Traveling to competitions from her home in Augusta, Candace was frustrated that there were no opportunities for FastCAT in the I-20 corridor between Atlanta and Charlotte. So, she convinced both the Augusta Kennel Club and the GCOC to join in. Now Candace oversees FastCAT tests for both clubs, Augusta KC running at the Generations Park in Aiken and GCOC at the Camden Polo Fields. She was surprised and thrilled by the community response. The debut event in Camden hosted more than 500 runs drawing competitors from South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. FastCAT is off and running.
The next GCOC FastCAT competition will be in Camden, Nov. 17-19 and Jan. 5-7, 2024. Augusta KC will hold its next event March 8-10, 2024. Bring your dog out and join the fun!
For those interested in Barn Hunt, go to BarnHunt.com or come check out one of Shadow Dog Sports’ upcoming trials, Dec. 8 to 10.