dreamlike4paws

Snake Avoidance is taught with reward based methods by focusing on what we want our dogs to do when they find a snake. The most useful behaviors are those that create space between the snake and the dog while alerting the owner to the presence of the snake. This course teaches the components of building an alert behavior that creates distance away from the snake, and then putting that alert behavior on the cue of the sight, scent, and sound of the snake.

While I focus on snake avoidance for rattlesnake species found in Colorado, the concepts taught in this course can be applied to venomous snakes or poisonous creatures of many species. Once you understand the concept and your dog is reliable altering, you can expand it to other animals as well.

For the safety of our dogs and ourselves, and in compliance with local laws, I do not use live snakes during my snake avoidance classes. I use snake shed sourced from local rattlesnake specimens, as well as other types of decoys.

This course covers a training protocol for teaching your dog Snake Avoidance skills; just like with all training, individual results will depend on the implementation of your training. Taking this course does not guarantee that you or your dog will not get bitten by a rattlesnake (or other snake), but I know it will give you and your dog skills to work together to avoid them!