Ratting With Terriers: The Ultimate Guide

Ratting With Terriers: The Ultimate Guide

Ratting with terriers is a traditional rat catching method that is still used to this day, as it is highly effective and reduces the impact on other wildlife and the local environment.

While ratting with dogs might seem inhumane, it actually causes less suffering than other rat control methods, such as glue traps or even using cats.

Many people think cats are the best way to manage rat populations on large sites, but cats aren’t very good rat catchers. Instead, they play with rats, and will often cause pain and distress before killing their prey.

Dogs are effective and quickly dispatch rats, so they feel minimal distress. This method is particularly useful for dealing with large numbers of rats on commercial sites or homes with vast gardens.

Using terriers to catch rats is environmentally friendly and doesn’t cause issues for non-target species or leach chemicals into the surrounding foliage.

That’s why Riddex Pest Control is proud to carry out ratting with dogs throughout Bradford, Leeds and the surrounding area.

Here’s our guide to rat catching with dogs and how this traditional method works.

Why Is Ratting With Terriers Important?

Rats are a serious pest that can cause harm to homeowners, customers and local residents. Rats carry a range of diseases, including Leptospirosis, Hantavirus, Salmonellosis and more. They can also spread parasites, including fleas.

Additionally, rats have incisors that have no root, meaning they grow throughout their lives and need to be worn down through regular chewing. Rats can chew through walls to get into properties, so even if they’re outside, they can quickly make their way indoors.

Once inside your property, rats can cause issues such as noise disturbances and even a fire hazard if they chew through live wires.

For property owners, having rats even outside on your land can be a significant issue. Rats are commonly found on farms, as they can eat animal feed and hide among outbuildings and straw.

Whilst rat traps can be effective in homes and on small outdoor sites, they are hard to use on large expanses of land. Also, many rats have built an immunity to rodenticides, meaning these techniques are increasingly ineffective against these invasive rodents.

How Does Ratting With Terriers Work?

Ratting using terriers is a traditional approach to rat control that is effective and simple. It’s important to note that you can’t use just any dog for ratting. Only trained dogs should be used, to ensure that they don’t run off or get hurt.

Trained terriers are bred for ratting, and are skilled at digging into rat burrows and pulling out the rats. They will then quickly dispatch them with their teeth.

Many rat catchers use two dogs, with one digging out the rats from their burrows, and the other chasing any vermin that run away.

At Riddex Pest Control, we make sure our terriers are more than just non-human employees, but also part of the family. They get the best care and training, and if we notice signs of distress or illness, we don’t push them to work.

Thankfully, that doesn’t happen often, and our dogs enjoy hunting for rats. Our current Lakeland Terrier has a high prey drive and loves nothing more than to sniff out rats and get herself very muddy in the process!

Is Rat Catching With Dogs Legal In The UK?

In the UK, while killing mammals with dogs is usually illegal, ratting with terriers is legal, as it is a specific exemption under the Hunting Act 2004.

It is legal to kill rats with dogs provided the rat hunter either owns the land or has permission from the landowner.

At Riddex Pest Control, we always make sure that we have the right permission before we allow our dogs to start hunting rats.

What Dog Breeds Are Used In Rat Hunting?

Several dog breeds were specifically created to hunt rats. While every pest controller is different, some of the best ratters include the following breeds.

Jack Russell Terriers

Jack Russell Terriers, and their close relatives, Parson Jack Russell Terriers, are excellent ratting dogs. With a compact body and strong determination, they are fearless rat catchers with a strong history of hunting success.

Lakeland Terriers

Named after the Lake District, where they originated from, Lakeland Terriers are small brown and black dogs with wiry coats. They are active, tenacious dogs with a strong prey drive, making them perfect ratters.

Patterdale Terriers

Patterdale Terriers are popular ratting terriers due to their stamina and fearlessness. These small, black or dark brown dogs will dive headfirst into a rat burrow in search of their prey.

Bedlington Terriers

While they are now mostly kept as pets or for show, Bedlington Terriers were originally bred for ratting. Their agility, trainability and eagerness to please make them great ratters, and they are still used by some pest controllers to this day.

Rat Terriers

As the name suggests, rat terriers were bred specifically for hunting rats. The breed was developed in America, but are sometimes used in the UK.

Choose Riddex Pest Control To Manage Your Rat Problem

As you can see, using trained terriers for rat catching is a humane, effective way to get rid of rats. More effective than cats and faster than ferrets, dogs are the perfect companion for rat catchers looking to quickly find and remove these nimble rodents.

At Riddex Pest Control, we are experienced at rat hunting with dogs, and have a fully-trained pack of terriers at our disposal. Our team operates throughout Bradford and Leeds, and we can help remove rats from homes, gardens, hospitality venues, farms and more.

Where dogs aren’t the appropriate method, we can use other techniques, such as rat traps and rodenticides that aren’t available to the general public, to control the rat population.

As well as rats, we can also remove all rodent pests, including mice and squirrels. We can also control wildlife such as deer, foxes and moles, as well as insects such as bed bugs, ants, cockroaches and wasps.

If you’re ready to work with a trusted local provider of rat control using terriers and other traditional pest control methods, contact us today on 07706 674706 or by emailing info@riddex.co.uk.