The idea of snake proofing is to get the dogs to understand that they shouldn’t go anywhere near a rattlesnake. From what we were told, all rattlesnakes smell the same. So the idea is to let the dog smell the rattlesnake and then get an unpleasant experience so that they’ll avoid rattlesnakes at all costs.
I am not in favor of shock collars at all. I know people use them to train various behaviors such as no barking, come, etc. I could never do that. In fact, I've been dreading this day for quite some time. But I know that in this instance it is being used for something that could save the life of each one of my dogs....and possibly Mike or me.
The first thing the trainer does is put a shock collar on the dog and attaches a light weight rope to the dog’s regular collar. He doesn't use full strength shock as he doesn't believe that is necessary - I was glad to hear that. After getting the collar and rope on we then walk the dog up to an empty wire and wood box. The reason for this is to show the dog that the box is not dangerous in any way.
From there we walk straight up to a box that has two rattlesnakes in it. The box is closed and locked (he just opened it so I could take a picture when the dogs weren't around). There is a double wire cage around the outside so the snakes can't possibly strike. I will say they all rattled to beat the band - they were none too happy we were there. They kept sticking their tongues out at me too! I'm so glad they are in a box!
The first dog we did was Wazzu since she is the leader of the pack (second to us humans of course). We are to just walk normally, straight to the box without calling or pulling on the dog.
Wazzu followed me to the box and even from a distance she immediately noticed there was something interesting in the box.
But as you can see she had no fear of it at all....she walked right up to the cage and stuck her nose right up against the cage. You can see why this training is so necessary.
I had told the guy that Wazzu is very sensitive so he had turned down the shock collar below where he normally sets it. Since Wazzu was showing interest in the snake he shocked her....no reaction. He did that three times and got absolutely no reaction. So he turned it up one notch. As you can see, Wazzu wants nothing more to do with the snakes.
At that time you turn and run away from the snake. About 20' feet away you then stop and coddle the dog....like, oh poor Wazzu, are you okay sweetie. Then you walk back toward the first cage. Wazzu wanted absolutely nothing to do with the cage and she wouldn't let me get close either.
From there we move on to the second box which also has two snakes. But these are much bigger - in fact one of them is named Goliath.
From there we walk straight toward the second box. This time we watch our dog's every movement. The reason is so that we can learn what type of behavior the dog does when it smells the snake. That way when we're out hiking we'll know what their signal is that a snake is nearby.
As you can see Wazzu was very leery and gave the snakes a very wide berth.
We approached it from a few different directions but there was no way she was getting near it. Good girl. Then we take the leash off and we walk up to the cage while watching to see what the dog does. Even though Wazzu always wants to be close to me she didn't take a step toward that cage. She circled very far around the cage. Perfect!
Next it was Slugger's turn. We were really curious as to how he would react as we had a little game when we had a house in Washington. There were lots of garter snakes in our yard. When it was sunny he would go snake hunting. At first he would jump away but as time went on he got more brave and went from being frightened to punching at them and finally to biting them. It seemed like a fine game at the time...but now I'm very sorry we let him do that. But who knew.
Mike walked him up to the first box. He was excited and eager to see what fun adventure awaited him.
He was extremely interested in what was in the cage.
Unfortunately I was too busy watching Slugger and forgot to take pictures at this point. When Slugger got shocked he jumped up in the air and did about three back flips before coming back down to the ground. I had warned the guy that Slugger is afraid of most anything - and he certainly was afraid of the shock. But for some reason he didn't connect that to the snake at all. As soon as he got done being the star acrobat he went right back to sniff the snake. On no - this is not the reaction we'd hoped for. Once again Slugger became a star acrobat. This time he then ran away. Good boy!
Now it was time to walk toward the second box. Just like Wazzu, the dogs are not supposed to want to go anywhere near the second box as they should be able to pick up the scent of the snake quite some distance away. But as you can see, Slugger is walking right with Mike toward the box.
Not only did he walk toward the box, he was still very interested in the snakes and walked right up to the box. He absolutely is not supposed to being doing this at this point!
Poor Slugger got shocked again - no acrobatics this time but he definitely reacted.
I think it finally sunk in - rattlesnakes are not good. Now when Mike tried to walk him near the box he took the widest berth possible.
The final test was to take him off leash and see what he would do when we all walked up to the box. Nothing doing! He walked to the other side of the yard and just stared at us. I think from the look on his face he was no longer interested in getting near those snakes.
In fact, the minute we all stepped away from the cages and went towards Slugger he ran to the car and wanted in. Poor guy. But I sure hope he understands now.
Next it was Sparkie's turn. Just before Sparkie was to start, Mike mentioned that she is part Whippet. The trainer was glad we mentioned that as he said he turns it way down for whippets and greyhounds. Sparkie eagerly walked toward the first box with Mike and went right up to it to investigate.
Suddenly she jumped in the air and screamed.
As she did that Mike started running away as he's supposed to do. Unlike the other dogs, she screamed the entire time. Good thing the trainer had turned the control down! Sparkie always has been our little drama queen. Poor Sparkie. But after a couple minutes she calmed back down.
From there it was time to walk to the second box. As you can see she didn't want to approach the second box. Good girl.
Like Wazzu, she caught on very quickly. That's really important as Sparkie is the one that goes out ahead of us and clears the area while doing her hunting. So it's most likely that she would come across the snake first.
When we took her off leash, she stayed very far away from the box looking very scared. I don't think she liked Mike being so close to the scary snakes. We're pretty sure she understands that rattlers are bad. Perfect.
Finally it was little Boogie's turn. He's never seen any kind of snake before so this should be interesting. He was gung ho right from the beginning. In fact, he was pulling me to the first cage.
Even as we got closer he was still pulling me so we could get to the prize sooner!
He was extremely curious about the snake.
Perfect time for his lesson.
But unlike the other dogs this just made him mad. He was going to show those snakes who's boss! He didn't just go investigate again - he charged them!
We knew border terriers were dogs that thought they were tough but the trainer said none have reacted like this - not even Boogie's half-brother Klev'r was this crazy. So we had to do it again. After the second time he was more cautious but still was getting way too close - there is no way he should be this close!
After leaning in a bit he was just getting more confident and going closer. What is he thinking??
Oh here we go again. This time Boogie decided to take off. Finally!
It was decided we should go to the second box now. It didn't phase Boogie a bit - he wanted to go right up to the snakes. Where is his brain!
So the trainer worked with him a little more. Finally he decided to carry Boogie right up to the box. The idea was that when carried close he should really start squirming (which he didn't do).
Then when set down he should run away from the box. Boogie did actually shy a little bit away from the box.
But instead of leaving like all the other dogs, Boogie circled the cage fairly close. He is one stubborn dog who thinks he is "the big man on campus."
We'll just have to wait and see how he does when we go back in a month for the re-test.
Now that we were done with the snakes, the thing we wanted to test now was to make sure Boogie wouldn't be afraid of the cages since the rats that are used for earthdog are kept in cages very similar to the ones we just used for the snakes.
Boogie had no trouble distinquising rats from snakes. He barked, dug, and bit at the cage. Phew. That was really good.
This training really wore the dogs out. They slept all the way home and for a few hours after that as we packed up the RV and moved to the trial site. I'm guessing they'll enjoy agility a little more than the snake proofing....as will I.
All evening I kept hugging the dogs and telling them how sorry I was - I really felt so bad. But Mike kept assuring me that we were possibly saving their lives. I know that - but it still hurt my heart to know we put our dogs through some pain.
Hugs all around.
Debbie
12/14/07
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