Steel City Ratting Coalition

04/24/2025

On Tuesday evening we took Robbie out to a local job for a first time visit. The home owner has been battling rats for sometime and wanted to make sure they had their place on lock down. Robbie started in the yard where he showed us a rat hang out. After James and I dismantled that Robbie took us to a large concrete slab and told us that there were rats currently under it. With no way to lift the slab and the permission of the owner we decided to flush it with a garden hose. No rats emerged but also no water ran out. That kicked off an investigation and with Robbie insisting on going into the garage the homeowner was able to locate the problem area inside in the cold cellar under the floor. Robbie also found a well concealed hole into the cinder block foundation where us humans were also able to smell the rats once some brick, mulch and dirt was removed from the entrance. While the rats evaded Robbie the homeowner was delighted with him reveling travel paths, hideouts, and entry points to the home. We always hope for a good hunt where Robbie gets to sink his teeth in but our main goal is helping people and sometimes helping looks different than a line up of dead rats.

04/22/2025

Thank you Ivy Fox of Ivy Fox Illustration for our beautiful offical logo

03/27/2025

03/25/2025

We haven’t been busy with ratting this month due to some dog shows and also sporting events with my other working dog.

Robbie was busy taking 3 majors, a Winners Dog, Best of Breed Owner Handled and earning his AKC Championship over a 4 day cluster. He is ready to get with his friends and get back to some serious work. He got to sink his teeth in since being home but nothing major so hopefully we’ll get some jobs scheduled for April. Keep checking back! 

02/23/2025

River, Robbie, Flora, Poppy and little baby Ronnie got together today for a little ratting at a revisit.

It was hard diggin for the dogs today. The rats moved out of the chicken house but the dogs alerted to this multi den tunnel system. Ten rats total out of that! Love seeing a huge dent in a rat problem like this.

Four month old Ronnie finished off a decent sized rat for his very first dispatch. River def stepped up her game his trip and killed a couple rats all on her own! Flora took care of the resident raccoon that was making a big mess in the hay loft. Poppy did not care about the chickens which is a huge leap for her and she started showing more interest in the rats. Proud of everyone today.

Great job teams.

02/22/2025

When you’re too big for the den so you gotta take the rat smells where you can find ‘em

02/21/2025

Hey all!
There is a big interest in SCRC with dog owners. I love that! Unfortunately since we’re just kicking off we don’t have the jobs to support all the teams that want to give wild Euro rat mitigation a shot. Another thing is all my current teams I’m working with are at a novice or intermediate experience level. Once they start gaining more real world working experience and we get more opportunities to work I’ll be able to add other teams to our crew who are looking to break out or just try it. But for now I really need to focus on my current teams. They are doing great by the way!

Some great points from the Suffolk and Norfolk Rat Pack that I feel are critical to understand for owners who want to try this line of work with their dog are:
Your dog has to be good around other dogs-
“When the chase is on and the adrenaline is pumping the dogs need to keep their heads and focus on the quarry, not the dog next to them. We accept that dogs scrap, especially when they are in hunting mode. They can be split up and go their separate ways. However, if one dog keeps coming back then it's time to put them on the lead. If it continues, pack work is not possible for this dog without further training.”
Your dog has to be *great* around livestock-
“We work around many different types of animals, many types of poultry chickens, geese, turkeys for example, pigs, cows, horses, goats... the list goes on... however, all dogs MUST be stock broken and focused on the intended quarry.” This is an absolute must. As we want to build good rapport with our fellow farmers.

I will add that all new dogs start off in a harness and on a line so they are in hand until they can be assessed properly as safe for the other dogs, safe for livestock and demonstrates recall ability for saftey of itself.

I’m looking forward to lots more rat work, watching our teams grow, introducing new teams to the crew and introducing all around newbies to the work. So stick with us as we grow!

02/17/2025

Bob and Flora had another great Saturday at barn hunt 🐀 Bob earned his first Senior Q and tried out Crazy 8s, and Flora got her RATCHX title! Plus they both took home yet another High In Class award.

They’ll see each other next weekend for another rat-filled adventure - this time at a farm we’ve visited once already.

02/08/2025

Little get together today with Ashlyn, Flora, and Robbie.

Flora’s rat took a taste of her nose, you can tell how mad she was by the state of it.

These dogs truly work so well together. Robbie was happy to have two big friends helping to excavate. They were happy to have a buddy small enough to fit in a wall and shake the rats down. All the dogs helped each other equally, some tug o war but no scrapping.
This property was tricky. All the rats are in the exterior of the barn walls. We smoked them and flushed what we could with a leaf blower. Robbie got in where he fit in. Only one rat we seen got away from our crew.

All in all great day!

01/31/2025

Unique trap you can build at home.

I now have an EXCLUSIVE CLUB where you can interact with me 1 on 1, see videos I can't share on YouTube due to their CENSORSHIP, and see pictures/read storie...

01/28/2025

Den work with Robbie and River.

01/18/2025

SCRC had a great hunt today! 29 rats in the bucket!
River and Poppy joined Robbie today at a farm where we focused on the chicken house for this visit.
This was River and Robbie’s first time working together and Poppy was in the “audit” spot. River and Robbie made an excellent team with River flushing *and* holding rats to their dens while Robbie was dispatching them. River did sink her teeth into a couple and even managed to dispatch a young adult herself, not bad for her first official live rat hunt. Poppy is making leaps and bounds watching and learning! She’s feisty, once she gets fully accustomed to the work and can focus in she’s gonna be super.

The property owners joined in on the fun and banter, they were great! We cannot wait to go back.

01/16/2025

When the “feels like” temp is single digit but you got work to do.

Good boy, Robbie 😘

01/14/2025

Robbie burning that midnight oil.

01/04/2025

We would LOVE to work a place like this!

12/30/2024

Speeding into the new year!

With the holiday season wrapping up I’m starting to look at scheduling. If you’re hanging out in our inbox we will be getting with you soon! Thanks for being patient.

James has our leaf blower and our rat fogger up and running!

12/25/2024

Here at SCRC we hope that whatever flavor of holiday you celebrate this time of year brings joy to you and yours.