Canine confidence: How gerbils are helping Edmonton dogs stay fit and have fun

Barn hunt helps dogs exercise natural prey drive An Edmonton trainer is helping dogs have fun and stay fit with a cruelty-free live hunt. David Ewasuk explains.

A dog training facility in west Edmonton takes a different approach when it comes to coaching your pup.

In Sync Dog Training calls it ‘barn hunt’ – a sport where dogs venture out into the facility with their owners and their natural instincts in search of gerbils hiding in protective, aerated canisters placed among hay bales.

Rebecca Long, the resident barn hunt trainer, keeps the gerbils' safety top of mind but adds that the dogs “love to hunt and use their energy to find their prey”.

“Lots of these dogs have been coming for years now,” said Long. “I do find also that some dogs, their overexuberance with their prey drive outside, does get a little better when they do have this natural out.”

The dogs first try out clear canisters containing the gerbils so they can correlate the smell of the gerbil to seeing the actual gerbil. As the dogs progress in their training, they graduate to an opaque canister so they can no longer see what’s inside and rely solely on their sense of smell.

Decoy canisters are placed among the hay bales in order to throw the pups off their scent. The decoys can contain the gerbil’s bedding – which can smell like a gerbil – or be empty. In that case, the dogs would be tasked with telling the owner or trainer where the gerbil is among them.

Dog owner Jennifer Antonio told CTV News Edmonton how rewarding the barn hunt experience can be for her and her four-legged friend.

“It gives the dogs so much confidence,” said Antonio. “Even though I have a dog that has a fairly high prey drive, I find it's a lot better use here chasing gerbils than trying to chase rabbits.”

The training grounds also offers obedience classes for all levels and other training such as agility, rally obedience, disc and flyball.

Dog owners can book a class online, or read up on the available resources for the old dogs who can learn a new trick.