We had our third Barn Hunt trial this past weekend, and it was Remy’s first time in the senior ring! I’ve been warned about “senior purgatory” by seasoned barn hunters, and was a bit anxious going in since it is a big jump from open (double the rats; a bigger course, tunnel, third tier of bales; only one extra minute).
Remy did two senior runs on Friday and two on Saturday, and he pulled off one Q each day, placing 1st and HIC with a 1:34 run on Friday – couldn’t be happier with those results! Just need one more Q for the senior title.
I got to help with course builds and be an inside rat wrangler for the instinct, novice, open & senior ring all day Friday, and in the master ring on Saturday. I’ve really enjoyed learning all that goes into the sport, and I always glean some insights from being inside the ring with other dogs and handlers.
For instance, Remy has been lightly hitting on litter tubes recently – I think out of impatience/frustration because of the higher number of rats, and he’s hoping if he finds them faster, he’ll get to wrap up his run and be rewarded that much more quickly. He did this twice on the same litter tube during Friday’s run that he ended up getting the HIC finish on (really wish I had a video of this run!) – lingering and lightly pawing at the litter tube, but moving off of it quickly. Thankfully, he’s pretty faithful about staying on a rat tube until I call it and he hears the judge say “rat #”, so I correctly ignored it and we moved on.
Well on Saturday, he went into the ring, quickly found a rat, and then I thought I was being wise to that same litter tube situation – only the litter tube was elevated, and between a bale of hay and a wall, so I couldn’t have a clear visual of what he was doing without stepping on a bale, and so when he moved off it without even glancing at me, I figured “eh, must be a litter”. He found two other rats, then went to the gate and nosed it, then back to that same presumed litter tube and moved off it again, back to the gate and slapped it, hunted a little more per my direction…and then it just all fell apart with him throwing paws at the gate repeatedly. While it was happening, I thought maybe he was distracted by the various spectators/a dog going to the ring next door, and so I kept trying to redirect him to hunt…it’s the most I’ve ever talked to him in the ring. Then, once he timed out, the judge let him go to the final rat tube, and guess what? OF COURSE it was the tube I’d assumed was litter!
But I didn’t make sense of his gate-punching meltdown (lol) until I was wrangling in the master ring later that day. I noticed multiple dogs go toward the start mat/gate once they’d cleared their given number of rats, and then as their handler would encourage them to keep searching, they’d revisit spots where they’d already found rats…then they’d wander back to the gate. I realized Remy had been following that same pattern – in his mind, he’d found the 4th/last rat in the ring (although it wasn’t his best alert/I failed to call it…twice), knew he was done and was ready to get out of there and get his jackpot!
I know these dogs are smart, but man…sometimes they’re so much damn smarter than we even realize. It’s delightful – and humbling – to see their minds at work.
My husband got a video of his second run on Saturday (the one that he Q’ed on), and it’s kind of hilarious how close I got to the tunnel build in the back (like as close as possible without touching it) – I was determined not to miss if he alerted on something this time!
So, now I have some foresight about potential "all clear" tells once we get to master. And in the meantime, we’ll be working on reinforcing staying on rat tubes until I call them and verbally release him to “go find more!” – especially knowing that distance challenges will also be on the docket in master as well.
