Ratting with the West Sussex Warreners

Spirits are high as 18 dogs and their owners brave the rain to clear rats from an area of cover crop on a shooting estate in Hampshire.

It’s a “bobbery” pack of different breeds, from a sizeable lurcher to a mini sausage dog, along with terriers and hounds. Host Kate Fairweather marvels at how the different breeds instinctively apply their skills to the jobs that suit them best - marking the rat holes, digging or standing by to chase any rats that slip past the terriers. 

After months spent gorging on grain left for the pheasants, the rats have multiplied in the area around the grain bins and ‘cover crop’. Poison is the only alternative to dogs, with the attendant risks to wildlife, so the gamekeeper welcomes the rat pack as the most effective and humane option.

It’s noisy, it’s muddy, it’s exciting and it’s certainly quick - a hard bite to the neck, combined with a shake kills the rats instantly, and the dogs move on to the next, cheered on by their owners. 

Kate Fairweather was guest of the West Sussex Warreners. Feel free to get in contact with the West Sussex Warreners if you have a farm or a shoot with a rat problem in Hampshire, Sussex or Surrey. They are fully insured and all their dogs are broken to livestock.

Connected Episodes

Dogs with Jobs features the full range of working dogs, therapy dogs, military and service dogs, assistance dogs, bio detection dogs, sporting dogs and other more unusual occupations such as truffle hunting, modelling and conservation detection work.

If you enjoyed this, you may also like other episodes that feature sporting dogs and hunting hounds:

• Meet the Sealyham terrier rat pack , recorded at the Game Fair (August 2023)
• Who’s winning at the South of England Hound Show? (August 2023)
• Meet the South Down Bloodhounds (November 2022)
• Meet the Beagles! (October 2022)
• Debit and Dervish, the hunting hound pups (November 2021)
• An insight into the breeding of hounds (November 2021)

Do you work your dog or dogs?

Kate is generally obsessed with working dogs and loves to hear about them – the more varied the better!  Keep the introductions coming! 

If you, or someone you know works their dog or dogs, and would consider being interviewed on Dogs with Jobs, please get in touch with Kate via [email protected].

© & ℗ Kate Fairweather 2026

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