About Music City Dog Sports

Music City Dog Sports, LLC is not a general obedience business – it teaches one sport, barn hunt, and teaches it from a small warehouse at 1443 Elm Hill Pike, Unit 302 in Nashville. Kristy Netzer teaches the classes.

What you can book here

The entry point is the Introduction to Barn Hunt class: five weeks, one session a week of roughly one to one and a half hours, $150. The site is candid that these run only when a slot opens – "We try to offer as many Intro classes as possible but can only offer them once a time slot opens" – and points you at a class-notification form rather than a booking calendar. The intro covers how the game is played with a demonstration by a Masters-level dog, introducing your dog to the rats and teaching them to indicate the tube, the Novice and Open level straw tunnels, and games to play at home to sharpen your dog's searching skills.

If your dog has already trained

Dogs with prior barn hunt experience do not join the intro class. The site asks you to email first; Kristy then sets up a short private lesson to meet you and the dog, evaluate where your training is and help build a plan, after which you can join an ongoing class. That private lesson is an entry assessment, not a standalone private-training service.

What barn hunt actually is

The site explains the sport in detail: straw bales stacked two to three high with a tunnel, live rats in secure ventilated PVC tubes hidden under loose straw alongside empty decoy tubes, and a dog who has to find the rats, climb at least one bale and complete the tunnel inside a time limit. Titles earned are AKC recognized. On the rats, the site states: "The safety of our rats is taken very seriously. Our rats actually enjoy the sport and willingly climb into the tubes. No rats are injured in this sport."

Who this suits

Owners who want a scent-and-hunt sport to do with their dog, and who can work around a class schedule that opens irregularly. It is not the place to take a dog for obedience, manners or behavior problems.