snakes

[Triple Willow]

I love snakes they taste like chicken!

I love that pic of the dog and the chicken taking the dust bath, that is a Kodak moment. Get the shock collar it will work, if you get one that has intense power settings. I raise German Shepherds and they can be big and stubborn. I spent a little more than I wanted to on a collar but it was worth it. I bought a Tritronics sport collar for training bird dogs, from Bass Pro Shops. It has interchangeable contact tips for different coat thickness of different dogs. Plus it is good for a 1/2 of a mile. It has an audible alert option for training, which I really love because once the dog learns that No means NO and a shock is coming it will break the bad behaivior. Then you can teach a stubborn dog with the audible alert using it as a warning in lieu of a shock. Once the dog learns that the beep preceeds the shock he will think twice about trying you. When my dog starts having bad behaiviors like recently killing one of my chickens I put the collar back on her. It only took a couple of zaps and now she will not touch a chicken. When she starts to act like she is going to chase one I hit the beep alert, she hears it and puts on brakes, because she knows what comes next and she does not like it. Mine has a red boost button for when normal shock levels will not get their attention, I guarantee the red boost will flip them over. I have only used that twice and all stupidity stops right then. In fact it had been six years since the last time I used the collar. The dog had learned to obey. The chickens are new to her so that is my fault. I just don't understand why she watched for 4 months before she decided to kill one.

Yeah that would be frustrating for one you thought you could trust to kill one of your birds. Who know what they're thinking. Thanks for the information. One of these days I believe I am going to get a German Shepherd, never had one.

 

[Triple Willow]

Max was pretty intense, but when it came to the stimulation, he was no match for just the 300S.  I do wish I had gotten the 800 though because sometimes the range on the 300 just isn't enough.  

I volunteer at the local wildlife shelter and we have a local snake guy who knows how to relocate snakes safely.  This is a very sparsely populated area with not a lot of livestock, just a lot of standing timber and farmland.  I feel safe putting a snake into a bucket with a lid and shuffling it off to the "snake guy".  I wouldn't relocate one myself, sorry if I gave that impression, but relocating an animal should be left up to a professional.

I actually like snakes but the venomous ones are just too dangerous. I can't see letting them live when they could badly hurt or injure someone or even another animal. I may change my mind on that someday but I don't see it happening. I had a dog that was bit by (probably) a copperhead while in its kennel. The dog almost died. It was bit in the throat and a knot swelled up as big as a grapefruit cutting off his breathing. If a snake like that were to bite a child or an elderly person who is in fragile health to start with, they will probably die! I'm not going to have that on my conscience, the venomous snakes have to die if I see them.

 

[Triple Willow]

My nephews' dog was bit by a copperhead and they had to kill the dog. The bite messed it up bad. It had already started having convulsions.

 

[rbaker0345]

I have my degree in environmental biology, and I am really sensitive about top level predators and how killing one predator can allow thousands of pests to survive. I really feel adamant about the web of life, so I just keep an eye out and I educate my children to the point of them being a little hysterical about any black or brown snakes and black spiders. My dog is an idiot and I can't educate him, but I have a wifi collar and I keep him where the snakes don't go. When he was nose to nose with that copperhead, it was my fault for not having put his collar on.

I view every living thing on this planet as depending on the balance of every other living thing on this earth. It really takes a complete shift in your self and worldview paradigm to think like me, so I don't blame anyone for letting fear overcome the web of life.

 

[Triple Willow]

I have my degree in environmental biology, and I am really sensitive about top level predators and how killing one predator can allow thousands of pests to survive.  I really feel adamant about the web of life, so I just keep an eye out and I educate my children to the point of them being a little hysterical about any black or brown snakes and black spiders.  My dog is an idiot and I can't educate him, but I have a wifi collar and I keep him where the snakes don't go.  When he was nose to nose with that copperhead, it was my fault for not having put his collar on.  

I view every living thing on this planet as depending on the balance of every other living thing on this earth.  It really takes a complete shift in your self and worldview paradigm to think like me, so I don't blame anyone for letting fear overcome the web of life.  

Well I mean no offense but I don't see my view on venomous snakes as out of fear. I see it as common sense. You can't control where snakes will be and many times they have been in places that have surprised me. Had the snake been venomous and if I (or someone else) had been bit it could be very bad. I have snakes all around my house and three times IN my house. They are around my front door a lot. I don't kill those because they are not venomous and stay out of the way. About two years ago there was a copperhead by my front door. In the wrong situation somebody could have been bit and easily died from just walking in or out of the door. I have respect for that circle of life thing but around my place people come first and everything else fits in on down the line somewhere. If something puts people in danger it has to go. And when it is as dangerous as a venomous snake it has to die.

 

[rbaker0345]

I do have to admit that when I grabbed my dog and pulled him away from the copperhead, I felt myself looking around for some kind of cudgel, but don't tell any of my wildlife rehab friends. I had two of my dogs bitten by the same (huge) Timber Rattler in Woodstock NY and I have to say it was terrifying, luckily they were dry bites, the snake was sitting in a sunny patch on a trail, digesting a recent meal. I am just alwas at war with my hatred for the huge mouse population around my house (I live too close to the highway to have cats, plus cats pose a completely different threat to the environment in the form of songbird population decline) and the danger of venemous snakes. Luckily, we mostly have those beautiful red corn snakes, black racers and green garter snakes, all of which like eggs, but I'm willing to trade an egg a week for a lack of mice in my barn/garage/coop/house.

 

[Triple Willow]

This is a good thread for anybody with snake problems to read. Be sure to notice post number 126.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/515899/best-way-ive-found-yet-to-deal-with-snake-problems

 

[Triple Willow]

I do have to admit that when I grabbed my dog and pulled him away from the copperhead, I felt myself looking around for some kind of cudgel, but don't tell any of my wildlife rehab friends.  I had two of my dogs bitten by the same (huge) Timber Rattler in Woodstock NY and I have to say it was terrifying, luckily they were dry bites, the snake was sitting in a sunny patch on a trail, digesting a recent meal.  I am just alwas at war with my hatred for the huge mouse population around my house (I live too close to the highway to have cats, plus cats pose a completely different threat to the environment in the form of songbird population decline) and the danger of venemous snakes.  Luckily, we mostly have those beautiful red corn snakes, black racers and green garter snakes, all of which like eggs, but I'm willing to trade an egg a week for a lack of mice in my barn/garage/coop/house.  

Well ya know, you shouldn't hate cats if you don't hate snakes. They are just doing their "circle of life" thing too when they eat Tweety! LOL You were very lucky your dogs got a dry bite. If not you would have seen something really nasty happen to your beloved pets. I bet it would have changed your mind about venomous snakes.

 

[Triple Willow]

Those red corn snakes are beautiful. I wish we had them. I do have a pet one.

 

[rbaker0345]

I'm a vet tech and I have seen what a snake bite can do, that's why the people a mile down the trail heard my screams and thought someone was being murdered. I still understand the WEB of life and its delicate balance, once you learn and understand something, its hard to un-learn it. The only thing you can do is to endeavour to be willfully ignorant.

I used to have corn snakes too. They are wonderful, so mellow and beautiful. I had a red and a dilution. I got bored of them hiding under their rug all of the time. Unless I was feeding them, it looked like I owned a pet rock. I gave away the snakes and kept the rats, they're much more social animals.