By day, some dog owners and their animals are prepping for shows but by night, they take to the streets to hunt rats. INSIDE EDITION went out with a rat patrol unlike any other.
You won't believe what some show dogs do for fun when they're not competing for Best in Show.
Friday nights, some pampered pooches get down and dirty and you'll never guess what they're hunting.
Call them the rat-patrol!
The hunting grounds are the gritty, trash-strewn streets of Manhattan, home to millions of rats.
Here's how it works. The rat-patrol begins by strolling down both sides of a dark alley. The dogs lead the way, sniffing for any signs of a rat. It doesn’t take long before all hell breaks loose.
The dogs pounce and rats scamper for their lives. Two rats escaped in the nick of time. One dog captured a monster rat that was the size of a cat.
The dogs and their owners are all part of a loosely organized group called, R.A.T.S. and this is their idea of fun on Friday nights.
Richard Reynolds of New Jersey is a business analyst by day, but by night he and his terrier, Dudley, hunt rats.
He joked to INSIDE EDITION and said, “Doesn’t everybody do this?”
Brooklyn art historian Trudy Kawami has no problem getting her hands dirty. She said, "We help make the city a little safe and a little cleaner."
She tossed aside bags of stinking garbage so her dog, Veenah, can get closer to hiding rats. She said, “The rat will eventually bolt.”
Believe it or not, as dirty as these rat-chomping dogs get, they clean up quite nicely.
Veenah is a prize winning show dog, and so is patroller Judy Todd’s dog, Merlin.
Kawami said, "This is what they are bred to do and they enjoy doing it."
But would you let your dog on your couch after a night of hunting rats?
Kawami said, “Veenah will sleep on my bed tonight, but she gets a bath first!”
