Barn Hunt First you need to pass the instinct test - Carsten Sully AHT
In order to compete you must first pass an "Instinct Test". 3 visible containers. One has a rat, one has rat "litter" and one is empty (altho human can see the tubes, you still cannot tell which one is the one with the rat). Dog has 1 min to "alert" the handler and the handler needs to call "rat" (perhaps you can say other things, they told us to say rat). If correct call, you can move on to the "test". Over a minute - you cannot move on. They CAN go in the tunnel...over the bales of hay...but don't have to in the instinct test. They have to run naked, and you cannot scruff them to hold them. 2 (of the dogs) feet need to be on the ground to start. Can I tell you that even tho Carsten has not done this before, holding him and getting feet on the ground was the hardest part. If he gets loose before the timer/judge is ready, you NQ. From the time I released Carsten, til the time he found the rat was miniscule....but I took awhile to "call it" because I wasn't sure, because he had not sniffed the other containers. Since I don't know what his "alert" is, I wondered if he perhaps found the rat litter...or just pounced on the first thing he found.