Official Rule Book

What's in the rule book

Looking for a specific rule? Jump straight to it below. Page numbers match those printed in the rule book.

General rules and guidelines

Section	Page
Dog registration, eligibility, and restrictions	Page 4
Handler conduct	Page 5
Junior Handler registration, program, and titles	Page 6
Ring set-up, worker stationing, ring gate procedure, and competitor staging	Page 7
General competition and ring rules of conduct	Page 8
Acceptable behavior, faults, non-qualifying runs, and bonus points	Pages 10–11
Obstacles and performance	Page 12
Rats, containers, and removal guidelines	Pages 12–14
Dog conduct, contact, and incidents, with the incident flow chart	Pages 15–17
Notes for judges, and when things go wrong	Page 17
Ring roles — judge, rat steward, rat catcher, timer, scribe, score table	Page 19
Notes for hosts and trial chairs on late arrivals	Page 20

Standard classes and titles

Section	Page
Rat scoring, tube visibility and height, and timing	Page 21
Class level details — Ratter, Happy Ratter, Expert Ratter, Champion Ratter, Extraordinaire Ratter, Extreme Ratter	Pages 22–25
Summary table for the standard classes (print this one for the score table)	Page 26

Games

Game	Page
How the games work, and games titles	Page 27
A-MAZE-ing Rat	Page 28
Box-A-Rat	Page 35
Dump Hunter	Page 37
Earn A Rat	Page 38
Infestation	Page 40
Rats in the Garden and Rats in the House	Page 41
Rat Race	Page 43
Rat Trap	Page 44
Road Rage Rats	Page 46
Silent Hunt	Page 49
Ultimate Distance	Page 51
Village Rats	Page 52
Games summary tables for quick reference and course set-up	Pages 61–63
Versatility titles	Pages 65–66

Team games

Game	Page
Team games overview	Page 54
Double Dutch	Page 55
Three Dog Night	Page 58
Team games summary tables	Page 64

Appendix

Section	Page
Ring set-up suggestions and diagrams, ring size, ammo boxes, team games ring set-ups	Pages 67–72
Ribbons — qualifying colors, placements, titles	Page 73
Happy Ratters logo details for ribbon orders	Page 74
Dog incident reports, flow chart, and the incident report form	Pages 75–76
Step-by-step Secreterrier help	Pages 77–79
Record of Changes	Page 81

Handy alongside the rule book

Shorter documents and pages that pull one part of the rules out for quick reference.