Any advice on keeping dogs away from rattlesnakes?

I've heard of people using live snakes with their fangs removed to teach the dogs to stay away. I guess that would be fine except for the whole "removing the fangs part". Your vet should have a vaccine you can give your dog to protect it if it does get bit. I reckon I'd opt for the latter of the two ideas.

They also staple there mouths shut when doing snake avoidance.

I just can't get over the fact someone would have to staple the snakes mouth. I wonder if it would work if the snake didn't have a head at all. That's the only way I mess with 'em.

You need snake avoidance training for your dog. You should probably have someone do it for you, not something I would try to attempt to do by myself, it is not much, like $50 or something. Depending on where you are located, WAL1809 (Wayne) here on the forum could do it for you, below is his website. Where are you located?

http://www.snakebreaker.com/

You will also want to give your dog the rattle snake vaccine, also realize this process takes a month, 2 shots are required to fully vaccinate your dog, they are given a month apart. Also, the vaccine does not make your dog immune to the poison, it just buys you enough time to get your dog to the vet. So both snake vaccination and snake avoidance training are your best safe guards.

Tell me more about this vaccine...please.

I have heard various stories about the vacine...

SNAKE OIL is one of them, but it depends on who you talk to

The other is that it reduces the damage that is caused by the venom.

Both my dogs have had the vaccine, but I hope to never have to put it to the test. Where you hunt is probably a good ways from the nearest Vet, so anything that caould help me get my dog to the Vet after a bite is a good thing IMO.

I have used the snake clinic done by the Lone Start German Shorthair Club and you can usually get the Rattlesnake vaccine there.

The Rattlesnake clinics are AVOIDANCE TRAINING. The snakes are "milked" and then defanged.

The dog has an E-collar put on with the power UP!!! They usually use a spong to wet down the dogs neck.

They use 3 stations the dogs go through and you are on the far side of the snake while someone else walks the dog in on a check cord. You call the dog t COME. When the dog sees the snake they usually try to investigate and get "negative reinforcement".

Station 1

The snake cannot strike
Station 2

The same setup except the sname can short strike.

Station 3

The same setup but the snake has more room to strike. The snakes here are usually the most active due to having some room to move. They usually stand up when the dog gets closer.

The objective is to get the dog to circle to one side and come to you when called avoiding the snake.

When we went last year my GSP went straight up to the snake at the first station. After the first "experience" she started to push the handler toward the snake. She was trying to get him to protect her from the snake. She wound up jumping over the snake to respond to my "HERE".

We has her circling the snake in less than 10 minutes.

We had a field experience early last year. I couldnt get her to come out from behind me and couldn't figure out why. After thinking about it I realized there has to be a snake around..... was 5 feet from me.

There is a snake clinic on the 4th of August put on by the Lone Star GSP Club. They usually take reservations, but they may be taking walk-ups, but not sure.

The flyer is at http://www.lsgspc.org/2007_Desnake.pdf

The clinic is running $40 per dog.

I would be going this year for a refresher, but I can't take a dog that is in Standing Heat.

How many here have had a dog bit? I'm sure I know of others but only one comes to mind...friend of mine had her dog bit and it died. I'm thinking in most cases the dog will probably die...but wondering.

I have seen 2 dogs that have been bitten in the past and both lived. Probably due to the location of the bite and the care they received after the bite.

1 bitten in the front Rt. foot - the dog had the vaccine and only experienced minor swelling. The owner swears by the vaccine now.

The other dog was bitten in the hindquarters and did not have the vaccine and experienced severe muscle and skin damage. The dog was 2 points away from their Conformation championship and was never shown again due to the damage.

The dog was hunted over after that, but it was always a short day and never in the early season. The dog was only brought out after the weather got cold.

See this post.

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/221110/an/0/page/0#Post221110

...and this one (and the links in it)

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/ubbthre...true#Post183612

I can't for the life of me understand why people (not anyone on here)would refer to the snake vaccine as snake oil. It is absolutely the best insurance you can possible buy for $25 a shot. At each of my clinics I have people tell me about a dog lost to snakes. To date not one dog has been lost that had the rattler vaccine. Not one reported anyway. It is one shot then a booster at 6 weeks. That will give 100% coverage for 6 months and then it dwindles to nothing over the next 6 months. Then it is a booster every year. the vaccine allows the animal to create it's own defense towards the damaging effects of the venom. It starts before the venom can even begin to spread. It attaches itself and does not allow the venom to do it's damage. Most dogs will have a 1 or 2 day stay at the vet with no antivenin which is expensive as all get out. The average bill for a vaccinated dog is about $150 and you have an alive and healthy dog. The bill for an unvaccinated is about $1500 live, dead or mamed. Stay with the training for avoidance and vaccinate in case. Cheap cheap insurance on both counts.

Is a 3 month old lab old enough for the snake avoidance?

I think 3 Months is a bit young for the snake avoidance clinic. The collar is put on a pretty high setting and at 3 months it is a bit too soon. You also have to think about the fear that it puts into the dog - a dog that is too young could have a problem the rest of their life.

My youngest dog was just over 6 months the first time she went to an avoidance clinic and was completely scared of the snake after the first station.


She had already had a E collar on before so she knew what it was. She had already been introduced to gun fire and birds, but the snake was a total suprise.

She was walked in the first time and went right up to the snake and got a shock. After that she pretty much stayed behind the handler and was pushing him toward the snake - to make sure he protected her from the snake.

6 months is early for this type of training, but 3 months would be way too early - you have to make sure that you never take a dog during the fear imprint stages of their development.

Some dogs are wary of hoses and anything that is similar for a while after the clinic.

Yeah, as TXGSP says, 3 months is too early. You want to wait till after e-collar conditioning (at least 6 months) and man, they will zap the hell out of your dog with the e-collar, they even get your dog's neck all wet for better electrical contact, and your dog will let out a scary a$$ yelp like you have never heard before. I knew all this, but it even took me for a surprise, may heart dropped, I thought my dog actually got bit by the snake. They walked her by the snake which was all curled up by a rock, my dog stuck her nose right into the middle of the snake, took one sniff, and the trainer just rolled her in dirt with collar , man you could not get her to go more than 20 feet next to the sake after that, they had like 3 snakes out in different spots where I went. It only takes like one zap for the dog to learn.

But this training needs to be repeated, probably once a year is good. I’m really interested to take my dog through this training again, just to see if she goes near the snake again. The trainer told me, if the dog naturally avoids the snake, the dog will not get zapped, they praise the dog for that. After they zapped my dog, she avoided all the snakes, and she got plenty of praise for that. It was funny, because the trainer would try to get my dog to got by the snake, my dog would not do it, the look on her face was “like no way man, please no!” And the trainer would say “Good girl Molly”, and my dog was like “whoooeeeeew, glad to know that is what you want me to do!”