How to Find a Barn Hunt Club Near You
@charlottewithdogs Starsky and I enjoy competing in the dog sport Barn Hunt! We need one more qualifying Novice run to get his first title 😊 ##dog ##dogsports
♬ original sound - Charlotte With Dogs
I have a hound dog, so it’s only fitting that barn hunt was my introduction to dog sports. After all, the whole point of the game is to sniff out a live rat in a PVC tube – scent hounds were literally made for this!
I often get questions about how to get started in barn hunt. While the sport is becoming more mainstream, its popularity is fairly recent. Even when I started, just a little over two years ago, I had only heard of it from my sister who happens to be a dog trainer. It’s only natural that people don’t really know how to get started!
Hopefully this post will help you find a place to try out barn hunt with your dog! If you do, please DM me on Instagram and let me know how it went!
Check out the Barn Hunt Association website
Barn hunt is an independent dog sport, so although barn hunt titles are recognized by the AKC, UKC, and CKC, the BHA (Barn Hunt Association) is its own organization. That means you will find all the information you need on the Barn Hunt Association website.
Part of that site is a club listing that you can search by state. Any official barn hunt club will be listed here with at least one form of contact information. Some of these clubs may not be that active, but this is the best place to start looking. If you can get in touch with one of these clubs, they will either offer lessons or be able to point you in the right direction.
Search for barn hunt Facebook groups
I’m not a big fan of Facebook these days, but it is a great place to find community in the dog world, and barn hunt is no exception. I have been active with several barn hunt clubs at this point and most have a Facebook page, or better yet, a Facebook group.
You should also search for statewide or regional barn hunt groups on Facebook. I am a member of the Colorado and Utah barn hunt groups (the state I live in and the one I visit the most). These groups are the best place to find up to date information about lessons and events. While the BHA website may have inactive groups, you can usually find reliable information and even connect with barn hunt trainers to schedule lessons within the statewide Facebook groups.
If all else fails, start your own barn hunt club!
My first barn hunt trainers back in New York resorted to this! The two closest clubs were each over an hour away. The solution was to start their own – they learned about barn hunt, started competing to get experience, found some others who were interested in getting involved, and had just gotten the club up and running when I started training with them.
In my experience, most barn hunt lessons are private anyway (and I think that is the best way for beginners to start), so if you have the space and resources, you can definitely research and learn about barn hunt so that you can start at least basic training on your own.
Hell, not all dog sports trainers are even technically dog trainers! One of my current trainers is incredibly talented at working with dogs, but she always says “I’m not a trainer. I train dog sports.” She told me that no one around her was training the sports she wanted to do, so she taught herself, and then started teaching others.
There’s a lot of information out there and continuing education available, so who says you can’t start a club?! (Of course, you would have to become a rat parent in addition to a dog parent, so if that’s not your cup of tea then I understand the hesitation!)
