I smell a rat! For group or private lessons/practice you have a several choices of times/days/instructors:

Group Lessons: Barn Hunt Judge Barb Krause normally teaches group lessons at SchaSam Farm Monday afternoon/evenings (late spring, summer and fall) and Wednesday late morning to early afternoon (year around). From now until end of April, Barb is only teaching on Wednesdays at the Farm. Barb can take your team from introduction to the sport to master/Champion level, work with you on the team event strategy, or address any hunting issues you find during practice or competitions. Effective 1 Jan 2024, cost is $35 per session and payment is due at time of training. To sign up for a specific time for Barb’s sessions please go to the Events & Classes page and scroll down to Barn Hunt Group Lessons.

For year round private lessons or practices, please use the contact page to link up schedules for a session with Sam. She has been participating in Barn Hunt since 2015 with multiple dogs at Master/RATCH level and two youngsters - terriers and border collies. From introduction to master she can help you work through issues or learn more about the sport. The cost for private lessons is $30 for a 30 minute private lesson, or three practice runs or one “intro to barn hunt” session. Payable via cash, check (SchaSam Farm) or paypal (SchaSamFarm@yahoo.com) - if using PayPal the cost is $32 to pay the paypal business fee. Payment due at time of training.

RATS!!!!! Barn Hunt is all about letting your dog use it’s natural instinct to find rats hidden among numerous straw bales. Dogs over 6 months old and registered with Barn Hunt Association may play in competitions (trials) or sanctioned Barn Hunt Fun Tests. At the beginning levels of Instinct and Novice they need to find one rat and to distinguish the live rat (in a PVC tube) from a tube with stinky rat litter in it and a blank tube. In Instinct the three tubes are out in the open and in Novice they are hidden with straw. In the next level (OPEN), the dog is searching for two rat tubes on a course that has litter tubes and a blank tube. In SENIOR level there are four rats. In the MASTER level, the judge uses a random number generator to hide anywhere from one to five rats for the dog and ensures there are always 7 tubes on course - could be one rat and six litter tubes or maybe five rats and two litter tubes or any combination in between. At all levels in order to be successful the dog must find the rat(s) on course, climb on a straw bale and go through a tunnel made of the bales. The length and complexity of the tunnel varies by skill level. We also play a game called CRAZY 8 where there are eight rat tubes hidden, along with four litter and the dog has two minutes to find as many rats as they can, go through the tunnel and climb on bales. The team is allowed one “fault” - indicating a rat when in fact the tube only has litter in it. All work is done by the dog while naked - no leash or collar. SchaSam Farm hosts Barn Hunt Association (BHA) sanctioned barn hunt events. Click on the link above to be directed to the Barn Hunt Association to view their calendars, rule books and other Association information.