Be Proactive, Keep Your Dog Safe
Our dogs are beloved members of our families, and we spend a lot of time making sure they are safe and happy in their day to day lives. Something that unfortunately can turn a normal day with your dog from enjoyable to a nightmare is a bite from a venomous snake. Every year in Kentucky (and in surrounding states), veterinary ER clinics see regular cases of dogs being bitten by our native venomous snakes. These very scary medical emergencies can be difficult to treat, and often cost several thousand dollars between antivenin and supportive care. Because snake bite symptoms start developing a half hour or more after the bite, dogs also tend to not make the connection that the snake is what made them sick, and they will approach them again in the future.
Take Barry for example. Barry was just out for his morning potty break in the yard, and never yelped or showed any sign anything had happened to him. An hour later, Barry started acting lethargic and out of sorts. Within a few hours, his neck had swelled significantly, and it was discovered he had two punctures consistent with a snake bite, which was confirmed with a blood smear. After some critical antivenin and 4 days of ER treatment to help with his damaged clotting factors, Barry did make a full recovery, but Barry would not be able to connect his ER stay with an understanding to stay away from snakes in the future.
This is where snake avoidance training comes into play. In a controlled and safe setting, we can teach your dog to avoid the sounds, smells, and sight of a snake, and teach them to avoid going near any snake they encounter. Out west where rattlesnakes are common, it is common to teach the dog to be very aware of the sound of a rattle as the cue to avoid. We do have Timber Rattlesnakes in our local area, and they are a big concern for hikers, but not every rattlesnake will rattle, and we also have copperheads who do not rattle at all. This is why our program does include rattle cues, but focuses primarily on sight and smell.
Our “assistant”, Demo, is a non-venomous corn snake who very closely resembles the venomous copperhead in pattern and coloration. This helps establish a very clear visual recognition with your dog. We do multiple types of “encounters”, one where the snake is very visible, one where he is hidden and not so visible, and one with bedding and a shed skin to really ensure that your dog is also aware to avoid snake smells regardless of actual snake presence.
To start with, your dog will wear a remote training collar off and on for about a week before training begins. This is to ensure that your dog is properly conditioned to the collar and will not connect its presence to training. We then get together to do a session with your dog where we use a mild correction on the collar whenever your dog approaches the visible snake to investigate. We are creating an avoidance, but not a panic response, and the dog is then reinforced heavily for making the decision to not re-engage with the snake. We repeat this process with the non-visible snake as well as the shed skin and bedding, to ensure that have covered all bases and that your dog recognizes snakes by both sight and smell as things to avoid.
(As a note as we do get asked, we can provide snake avoidance training that does not include the e-collar, and we have a few options on how to accomplish that. We strongly suggest the e-collar as it is the most clear for the dog and has the most effective long term results, but we do recognize that not everyone wants to utilize one and we want every dog to be safe. Contact us to discuss other options)
Initial Training
2 Initial Sessions, each in a different location
$350
If you already have a remote training collar, you can use yours during this program. If not, you can rent one from us or purchase. To rent a collar for the duration of the program is $200, and this amount is a fully refundable amount once the collar is returned at the end of the program.
Workshops are also available for multiple people/dogs, and we can set these up with your local dog club, veterinary clinic, sportsman’s club, etc. Contact us for more details.
Below are some photos of copperheads (and one Timber Rattlesnake) from the greater Lexington area, including some showing incredible camouflage and really driving home the point of why including smell is such an important aspect of our training!
