Snake aversion training involves the use of one or more live rattlesnakes. The snakes are alive, and for the pet's safety sometimes their mouths are taped shut. The dog is affixed with a shock collar in a separate location from the snakes, and either a handler or better yet the owner approaches the snake with their dog. When the dog 'keys in' on the snake, he or she gets an electric shock, and the handler or owner does and abrupt about face and runs away from the scary snake, praising the dog for doing likewise.
First, is this cruel to the dog? Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but the way you learn not to drop bricks on your toes as a child is by dropping bricks on your toes. Likewise the way that we learn that bees sting is to get stung. Pain is not cruelty, especially if it is purposeful, brief, and associated with an action. Grab the bee, get stung, don't grab bees. Your dog has probably learned this very lesson with bees.
Snakes are not bees. Snake bites can be fatal. They are always dangerous, always expensive, always serious, and always extremely painful.
Does snake aversion training sometimes fail? Yes. When I was a kid my neighbor had a pit bull who sat down at the horse corral and swallowed so many bees and wasps that she had to be hospitalized because of swelling in her throat. Did she learn from this experience to not eat wasps and bees? Not especially. Terriers have been bred for hundreds of generations to kill and attack in the face of pain or even injury. These dogs can be difficult if not impossible to snake aversion train.
Because it sometimes fails is the whole idea to cruel to attempt? No. Snake bites kill dogs. Hiking in snake country is never a sure thing. I've seen dogs bitten in 'snake proofed' yards, and at the end of a 6' lead when it stuck its nose into a bush. The only safe way for your dog to be around venomous snakes is to be scared of them, and it is my contention that in the absence of complex language skills, pain is the most effective way that we have to get our point across.
Do I aversion train my own dogs? Yes, every one. As soon as a dog enters my yard its future will involve snake aversion training. My dogs live in the desert, they run with me, they run dirt roads, Hell, I've had rattlers on my deck (four this year!). Have I ever had a dog bitten by a rattler? No (fingers crossed - I don't think Cody 'got' her training, she seems blissfully ignorant of snakes - she will be retrained in the fall). I have had my dogs alert me to snakes on both the front and back porch. I have had them alert only on rattlers, or on anything that is vaguely snake-shaped. I recommend it to every client, and every veterinarian has recommended it without hesitation.
When you see what snake bites can do to a dog, there is no reason to do anything but teach dogs to avoid them in the first place. Veterinarians are in the same boat as parents trying to tell a teenager to avoid heroin. I cannot think of any intelligent person trying to point out all the good things that will happen to you if you avoid heroin without ever pointing out that you can die if you touch the stuff! We cannot live in a dangerous world and promise our pets only rainbows and kittens forevermore, that is just ridiculous.
Is it cruel to the snakes? How do I put this? I don't care if a snake snatched out of someone's yard has a frightening few hours. I like snakes, I do, and I certainly avoid killing them, even on my own property. But, really? Wearing a tape muzzle for a few hours? That isn't cruel - annoying perhaps, frustrating maybe - I certainly cannot speak for the intellectual depths of a snake, but regardless of their momentary discomfiture, I believe whole heartedly in snake aversion training.
Is there some positive non-aggressive way to snake aversion train a dog? I have heard that people have tried it. I have no idea if it successful, and honestly, I wouldn't risk my dog's life over a rigid, untried philosophy.
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