Ratting with terriers. Which terrier is top

[Boronia]

This article which 'Dogs Outside The Ring' shared is interesting,  it's just not just terriers that are excellent in the ratting game

The last picture has some lovely varminty dogs in it 

https://www.thefield.co.uk/country-house/ratting-with-terriers-26835?fbclid=IwAR0vBiwcLhMPRMiT54ntY8Ksc0_L1qFMHqBOTkp6l0OMyTgsqF4433AmP9A#YYmhG53HTtSmSOS0.01

[sandgrubber]

One of my Labs is rat obsessed.  She'll wait patiently for hours to catch and kill the occasional rat that gets into the pantry. (I leave doors open and rars do come in). 

I suspect rat drive is present in many (most?) breeds, but stronger in some individuals. 

Edited November 9, 2018 by sandgrubber
Clarity

[karen15]

Must say our corgi was an excellent mouser. Only took her once to figure out more mice would be coming out of the burrows and from then on she'd kill the entire nest as it got flooded with the hose. She was super quick.

[sparkycat]

My Lappie is a great mouser/ratter - the Borzoi are completely hopeless

[Kazm]

My mini schnauzer prefers the cat does the race/mice killing 

[Papillon Kisses]

Malkie decided he was a ratter at the grand old age of 11 and scored a scratch on his snoot!

[asal]

our stray to moved in, green eyes was the best ratter i have ever seen, not even a rat on a bean 14 foot up the side of the barn was safe, she climbed to the top of a cupboard then lept the intervening 6 feet to grab it and didn't let go in the fall to the floor with her trophy.

 

still miss her, nope feline not canine. when old age finally caught up with her, her successor was Yeti, another someone didnt want, although very pretty, (I thought she was a himalayan) was living skeleton until the vet figured out her health problems.  hopeless mouser and ratter, sniffed a mouse and bitten the nose for her trouble, later discovered she was a rag doll.

 

even the chihuahua green eyes had trained,  tried to teach her to no avail.

 

chi's make good mouser and ratters

 

[Two Best Dogs!]

Thyme caught and killed a mouse when he was about 6 months old and nobody was more surprised than me. 

 

We joke it was the one that got away from Thistle earlier in the same week. She must have weakened it ;) the sight of her trying to fit under the bed to get it when I had already seen it escape out the other side was hilarious. That is when small size much better! Ratter in her heart but not her size ;)

[PossumCorner]

We always have a rat population visiting from the silos, I so dislike everything about them.  Can't get another dog while we have Rheneas, he couldn't cope and I wouldn't cause him any stress at his age.  Two Jack Russels would be my choice, seen it work well.  But not same sex, and not puppies - I'd like dogs that are already proven ratters.  Imagine getting terriers for the job, watching them chase rabbits then saying as they ignore the hay shed "Meh, we don't do rats, only rabbits".  (Cats are effective but generally good hunters also target native birds, so not even considering that option).

[Rozzie]

My Mini Foxies are awesome at it. 

[BJ.]

My parents have had lots of different terriers on their rural block, the best ratter they ever had was their Westie. She was lightning fast and lethal. She was a pampered town dog for the first 4 years of her life but adapted quickly to farm life. The other terriers they owned were an Aussie, Irish and Lakeland all would rat but the Westie was the quickest.

Edited November 12, 2018 by BJ.

[luvmybulldog]

My Hoover ( Scottie ) would kill any wildlife he could catch in the yard. I used to get a lot of bush rats, mice. blue tongue lizards, possums, toads and the occasional snake. He must have taught my Bulldog because she would join in. He wouldn't just kill them though, he used to completely pull them apart. I used to come home from work sometimes to what looked like a crime scene and have to clean it all up. He was never allowed off lead at night in the back yard. I always knew when he spotted something cause his body would freeze and his tail would be going a million miles an hour.

When I lost him Crumpet took over, she woke me up at 3am one morning and I thought she wanted to go out to wee but when I opened the back door she took off after a possum. She must have thought she'd killed it because when she finally dropped it and walked away it got up and took off up the nearest tree. She caught a lorikeet once and before I could take it off her she ate its head. 

Now it's just Shab and I and while she doesn't chase to kill she usually lets me know she has something cornered by barking. One day I came home to find her with a baby bush rat between her front paws completely covered in her slobber from licking it, poor thing must have been in shock. I had to get it away from her and let it go in the front yard. 

[RuralPug]

When rat baiting was a legal sport, the all time UK champion was actually a Bull Terrier who, if memory serves me correctly, dispatched 100 rats in 6 minutes.

Another awesome breed for ratting was the Black and Tan Terrier. These days it is known as the English Toy Terrier(Black and Tan) but I can assure you that they have not lost their drive! Here is a pic of one at work:




I have to add that I think domestic rats make great pets (I love the hoodies) but I can't have ratties and ETTs as well.  Any field rats that are silly enough to enter the house yard are rather quickly despatched, then carried around like a trophy until I remove the corpse.

[Guest]

My Lab (who prob had some Newfie in that nearly 60kg bod) could catch anything, she may have been as chilled as could be most of the time, but damn, could she move when she felt like it! Scored lots of birds.

One day, neighbors with a chicken coop (idiots...) decided to clean out the rat frat house-err, coop...annnnd my girl stood up to nab a huuuuuge white rat which was on his way over the fence.

I was too young to appreciate that she’d saved me having to experience the rat being in my place so I was rather traumatised lol but in hindsight I’m super proud  

 

My absolute cross breed was the best ratter I could imagine, he would spend hours standing still, staring at the fence, until suddenly he’d fly down to the other end, and just reassume the staring and being still. A whole day could pass like this.

He could spot a rat climbing the fence (what is with that anyway???) from a mile away and take off, the rats just aborted that plan asap!! 

He caught one that followed a possum over the fence one day, knocking two adult men over in the process.

 

Other dogs (ahem, mine...) will just quietly sit behind you if they even see a suspicious looking bug. And not in a fearful way, in a “well, was nice knowing ya” human shield way :p