Category: Common Problems ¤
  Author: Helix Fairweather ¤
   Title: Snake Proofing ¤

Hi Helix--
   THE FOLLOWING IS A DEFINITE KEEPER! Thank you so much for posting it.
As soon as I can find a live snake (that I don't have to feed--it'll
have to be someone else's snake), I am going to do this with my dogs.
After I have it figured out for my dogs, the Iowa SAR group has asked me
to do it with their dogs. Your post will do a lot more good than you may
have imagined.


> I am still mulling my possible move to Southern California. I am warned 
> that where I would be living, rattlesnakes are increasingly common, and 
> dogs are bitten quite often. Can anyone offer me any pointers on how to 
> train a dog to stay away from all snakes?
> 

The traditional-style class that I first took in ABQ had a segment on 
snake-proofing. It was *very* effective as the trainer had many
follow-up stories of dogs from her classes avoiding snakes. New Mexico 
has a high number of rattlesnakes so it was particularly important to 
this trainer (Trish Spradley) that she include "snake-proofing" in her 
beginner classes.

This class was not OC but I'll describe what she did and you figure out 
how it fits in OC or if you choose to use it.

She used a bull snake - a *live* one! She first took the snake to each 
dog in the room and let them sniff it while she held it - she wanted
them to get the scent of snake. Next her assistant held the snake in the 
center of the room. One by one, each dog and handler walked toward the 
assistant with the snake. The assistant would sort of thrust it in your 
direction. At the same time the handler was to yell "Look out!!" and
rush that dog away from the snake, with praise as he turned away from the 
snake. The idea was to build fear. And it surely did that! After the 
first few dogs, fear was rampant in the room. The later dogs were
already afraid by the time their turn came. Upon doing "Look OUt!" and 
dashing away we were to do all that comforting and cooing that actually 
reinforces fear.

Next step was to have the snake on the floor in the center of the room. 
The assistant used a broom to keep the snake from getting to far from
the center. Again, each handler and dog did the same thing, walk towards it, 
yell, turn and run, comfort and coo. After all the dogs had done this 
once, it was repeated. By now almost all the dogs were avoiding the 
snake, some even pushing their owners away from the snake.

Snake-proofing was part of the graduation from every beginner class. She 
had a standing invitation for any dog she ever graduated to come back,
as many times as a person wanted, for a refresher.

> want to make any of her training a strongly unpleasant experience.
> 

I can't say if this training was "strongly unpleasant" or not. Dogs 
seemed to get what they were supposed to learn. Folks reported back many 
stories of hiking in the mts. and having their dog purposely avoid a 
snake - lives being saved and all.

You might wonder about Maggie (my fearful Beardie) - how did she do with 
snake-proofing? She froze in place, was paralyzed with fear. After 
several runs at it, she was able to turn away. We never came upon a 
rattler so I have no idea if her snake-proofing was effective. The time
I had a rattlesnake in my bathroom, the dogs had already been put outside 
for the a.m. I didnt' need "snake-proofing" to learn to be afraid - I
was plenty scared on my own!

Helix Fairweather