I saw this in the morning a few days ago. Anyone in?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/nyregi...-hunt.html?_r=0

It was well after nightfall. The pack of dogs was split into two groups and was led to opposite ends of a desolate alley in downtown Manhattan.


A man collecting recyclable cans from the trash slipped out just before the owners unleashed the dogs.

The rat hunt was on.

The dogs raced toward a pile of trash bags in the middle of the alley, with the smaller dogs combing through the bags and chasing rats out toward the larger dogs.

Ernie, a 3-year-old hunt terrier, snapped up a fleeing rat in his jaws and gave him a hard shake. The rat quickly went limp. Ernie’s owner rejoiced over the kill — it was Ernie’s first, after just a few outings of hunting vermin.

My dogs hunt rats/mice all the time.

With dogs, the profession is well over 100 years old. "Barn Hunting" became a sanctioned sport just this year. AKC now recognises the Barn Hunt titles as well. Terriers are the most used I think, but there is at least two vizslas I am aware of with titles in the new sport.

Barn Hunting huh? Looks interesting.

I bet my daughters V Lucy could compete. She tore my firewood stack apart to get a mouse.

Great post Bill.

We had a Weiner Dog when I was younger that would kill any Rat, mouse or, musk rat around. That little dude was fearless...

There is a common term among bird doggers for when the pups are pointing and flagging around rose bushes or pear. We call it ratting. They point harder on quail and skunks.

My female gsp catches more mice than the barn cats do...ridiculous

Same here, we had one that was the scourge of all cats/possums, and uh, unfortunately, chickens in the neighborhood after we moved to town. Spent the rest of her life penned up. Unless there was a varmint loose under the house or one of the sheds.

I guess I can hijack my own thread. One of the red setters pointed a skunk this morning. He was down in a ditch. Cracker always backs, but she got down in the ditch in the scent zone, and boogied. The second setter got in there and the two of them caught the stinking polecat. Muffin was barking in the dog box. One the setters got sick and had to make a little trip to the vet.

I had Cash back away from a skunk couple of weeks ago. I wish June would have did the same. Instead she pounced in and grabbed it.

That's where rat terriers got their name and what they were bred to do.

And yes. Weiner dogs left to their own accord can take care of themselves just fine.

We used to have a fox terrier to get mice in out barn and tack/feed room. Go in the room, shut the door pull everything from the walls. The dog had a field day. Pretty cool to watch.

I'd be up for it, we used to use whatever dogs we owned at the time to take to grandma's feed shed to chase rats and mice. They'll all chase mice just some dogs make a bigger mess than others when they're tearing through small spaces.

So far my GSP has killed two opossums in my back yard, and keeps the squirrels out. ie big rat and tree rats