TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - As temperatures begin to rise, so do our chances of running into rattlesnakes.
Many people know the warning sound of the rattle, but what about our pets?
In the Tucson area, several hundred dogs are bitten by rattlesnakes every year. An estimated 85 percent of those bites happen in the dog’s own yard.
At Sublime Canine, they offer Rattlesnake Avoidance Training. The goal is to train dogs to use all of their senses to recognize rattlesnakes and stay away.
They do this by using two methods:
- Rattlesnake Avoidance Training - This is the most common form of snake avoidance training. The dog wears an electric collar and is allowed to find and approach a live, “devenomized,” rattlesnake. When the dog shows interest in the snake, it gets a stimulus from the electric collar. The dog associates the stimulation with the rattlesnake and no longer wants to interact with the snake. This is the training in summary, but there are many more intricacies involved in the actual training process.
- “All Positive” No-Shock Rattlesnake Avoidance Training - This method was added in 2015 in response to requests from clients who were uncomfortable with using electric collars on their dog. As with escape/avoidance training, dogs are tought what a rattlesnake looks like, sounds like and smells like, but then tought a safe response behavior much like a medical alert dog or a drug detection dog would do when performing its duties. This teaches dogs a safe behavior to perform when they encounter a rattlesnake without the use of an electric collar.
Sublime Canine offers private lessons and group classes for rattlesnake avoidance.
For more information, click HERE.