What should I play against this opening

There is this opening called the Rat Defense: Accelerated Gurgenidze from e4 g6 d4 d6 Nc3 c6. It has a very good winrate for black in both master games and lichess database games, and it seems really annoying to play against. Most opponents will go Bg7 and then h5 and start an attack. Its really annoying to play as white. Since I play the pseudo-austrian attack against modern defence normally (e4 g6 d4 d6 Nc3 Bg7 f4) should I switch to playing f4 before Nc3 so that if they go with the gurgenidze variation then I can go Nf3 and eventually c4 since I haven't played Nc3 to block my c pawn?

Black ends up playing b5 things start to get hairy... unavoidable I guess but still pretty unpleasant.

There are big tomes covering this line. You think there is an easy way?

The simplest approach would seem to be for White to play e4, d4, Nf3, Nc3 and rely on having what some call 'pawn on 4th vs pawn on 3rd'. That's not a forced win for White, but perhaps more space. Eventually, Black will play something like e5 or c5 and White will have to decide on pawn exchange, pawn push, or maintaining the tension. You probably know this, but I mention it here for others.

The alternative of adding f4 or c4, gives White a broader center with more options for dealing with Black pawn pushes, but slows up White's piece development.

By the way, 1.e4 g6 2.d4 d6 3.Nc3 c6, that last move by Black does not seem good to me. Too many pawn moves by Black, and he is definitely going to be cramped. I know; that's expected in the Rat Defense. White can play 4.f4 or 4.Nf3 in that line.

@Sarg0n said in #5:
> There are big tomes covering this line. You think there is an easy way?

Not at all. I’m just asking for some suggestions. If you know where I can find some of these ‘tomes’ for white then I wouldn’t mind looking at those too.