It's suddenly summer here in Omaha which means the ribbon snakes are out in full force in our yard, and my Standard Poodles have resumed their jobs as snake hunters.

This in turn makes me a snake handler for the summer.

I spend my springs & summers clearing snakes out of the yard, often by picking them up and carrying them to places on the other side of the fence so that they are out of the way of my dogs.

There are few things grosser than seeing your dog standing there with a snake hanging out of her mouth.

Strangely, I don't think they actually want to kill the snakes, though this has happened once or twice - but it seemed by accident. I think they like how they smell and taste (maybe this is very gross too...). Chloe especially seems to like to stand there and just slobber all over the snakes. It's very disgusting.

Anyone else have to do this sort of thing? Snakes or other unsavory creatures?

(PS - they do hunt squirrles and rabbits too, and bark incessently at pigeons - poodles are actually hunting dogs by breed. But the snake thing is gross!)

I had a cat that was a major snake hunter. She "hunted" a copperhead and is now fertilizing the garden from the bottom. That sort of sucked.

My dogs leave them alone, but Keisha, the lab, would probably play with one if she found one. She thinks everything exists to be tasted, chewed, or carried.

Anyone else have to do this sort of thing? Snakes or other unsavory creatures?
(PS - they do hunt squirrles and rabbits too, and bark incessently at pigeons - poodles are actually hunting dogs by breed. But the snake thing is gross!)
I have a Stan Poo Indi (black) 4 yrs old - she barks (outside but not in) but does not hunt snakes - squirrels and rabbits but TG no snakes. She never catches anything but she loves to act like she's gonna - the squirrel TEASES her - throws stuff at her from the tree and stands just out of reach and chatters in her face.:) Indi loves to carry stuff in her mouth - she is a total water/hunting dog. I call her my Lab in a poodle suit. Our other dog is a Scottie - she is a ratter and she DOES kill em - stone dead in 10 sec or less and then just leaves em for us to clean up - not a mark on em, she breaks their neck clean and quick. Indi thinks they stink and never touches the rats - she makes the "yucky smell Mom" face when she finds Jet's dead ones and drives me crazy till I get rid of them. Dogs are so funny!

I like snakes so the dogs killing them would bug me - we have a big ol King snake and I want it here - having the King snake means NO COPPERHEADS, RATTLERS or WATER MOCCASINS! King snakes EAT other poisonous snakes - they are immune to the venom of all NA poison snakes.

the squirrel TEASES her - throws stuff at her from the tree and stands just out of reach and chatters in her face.:)

Last year I watched a squirrel drop a huge green walnut from the top of a phone pole onto my other Std Poodle's head (Malcolm). He's the squirrel hunter of the two, and he regularly "trees" them (poles them, whatever). This walnut bonked him pretty good & he looked around like "WTF?" I was cracking up! Didn't know squirrels had such good aim!

I call her my Lab in a poodle suit.

this is what Chloe is too. She's not very poodle-ish, but is very much like a lab. She's just not sharp the way poodles are supposed to be! She is 100% instinct, no thought to anything she does. It's kind of hilarious. She even walked into an open drawer today b/c she was on her way to something else... just not paying attention.

(Malcolm on the other hand is a crotchety old Harvard Professor in a poodle suit.)

Here are photos of the activity... (fortunately, we have no copperheads here, and rattlers aren't in my neighborhood - too urban. Just harmless ribbon snakes!)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/inkstudios/indiSno.jpg
Indi is scary smart but she is definitely "prey driven" outside. She just goes into hunt mode - think she could run for HOURS non-stop. No weather is too nasty, too cold, too wet, too hot too anything for Indi. She LOVES outside. The Scottie - she just goes out if it's "just right" out there and she HATES the rain - she looks so tortured when we make go potty in the RAIN - we are so cruel!
Our squirrels drop stuff on her too! I have even seen them chew off a little cluster of leaves and drop them on Indi - but I think they LIKE the chase and run game. If she doesn't see them they get right on our lower wrought iron fence IN HER FACE and tease her till she chases. The Scottie just sits on the 2' rock wall and watches them - she could care less. Funny, she'll spend an hour waiting on a rat to appear but totally ignores their relatives with the bushy tails. Indi LOVES the squirrels but hates the rats - you'd think all rodents would be the same to a dog, but no, at least not to mine.

Part of the reason your dogs may drool all over snakes is because they have no scent. Drives the dog nuts because they can't figure out what the hell it is! They also often "lose" the snake when it stops moving if it's on a surface where it blends in.

I had one dog that was with me on a hike. I saw a rather large snake sunning itself, so I dropped the leash to take a picture. The dog wandered over to see what I was up to. When she saw the snake, she took off, hightailing it down the path. She was trailing the leash and she kept hearing it dragging behind her, so she kept looking back as she ran away, thinking it was the snake after her!

Part of the reason your dogs may drool all over snakes is because they have no scent.

Actually, this isn't true (though I thought it was until this activity started). I can even smell the snakes on me after I've touched them!

Actually, NPR ran a story last year about how two nature reserve workers were dealing with the problem of people releasing their pet snakes into the wild when they get too big (pythons, etc). They were using a dog to hunt them in the swamps & they did the entire piece about how dogs can track snakes by their scent. I felt completely vindicated after hearing the story!!

So maybe they have a funky taste to them too - the smell sure is funky.

The latest chapter to this story is that yesterday I witnessed SNAKE SEX in my yard. Seriously. Two were joined together & stayed that way, even as they slithered into a log. (In poodle breeding, after the dogs are done they "lock" together for 30 min or so - maybe snakes do too?) The one had to slither backwards. It was the weirdest thing.

Call me Ranger Rick... it's what my yard feels like!

Standards are AWESOME dogs... my parents have had four of the "Royal" (which just means "really big") Standards over the years. They are smart and gentle...

Our cat use to hunt snakes too! My wife freaked one morning when Gertie brought a baby garter snake into our bedroom and commenced to playing with it... of course, I just rolled laughing (not very heroic of me!!) :oops:

:D

I could have used your dogs last summer . . .

We bought a house that sits next to a large open expanse with hills and lots of brush - perfect Rattlesnake country. So, we are in this house for about a week, when I step out the front door to get something out of my E, and get bit by a Rattlesnake that was just sitting on my front porch. No rattle, no warning of any kind, just ZAP! The little bastard.

To make a long story short - I was laid up for a week while the venom worked its way out of my system. Not a very good way to spend a week.

I could have used your dogs last summer . . .

We bought a house that sits next to a large open expanse with hills and lots of brush - perfect Rattlesnake country. So, we are in this house for about a week, when I step out the front door to get something out of my E, and get bit by a Rattlesnake that was just sitting on my front porch. No rattle, no warning of any kind, just ZAP! The little bastard.

To make a long story short - I was laid up for a week while the venom worked its way out of my system. Not a very good way to spend a week.
Wally you don't need a dog, you need a couple of hungry King Snakes. King snakes EAT poisonous snakes and are immune to their venom (unlike a dog). Here is one that would work for you but ALL King Snakes are immune to rattlesnakes (and ALL North American venomous snakes) and they are harmless to YOU. You can even BUY them from dealers and release them on your property. I have a pair at my house in Dallas - awesome snakes and all poisonous snakes in the area are gone.
http://www.oaklandzoo.org/atoz/azkgsnke.html

I don't think they are completely immune to venom, I just think they are quiet tolerant and much faster than the venomous snakes.

I actually had a King Snake "pet" as a kid. Lived in a glass terrarium, tossed in a mouse every once in a while, I guess it was a happy life for a snake. I would take it out and wrap it around my neck and walk around the neighborhood like that. It was very docile, never tried to bite me.

I also had a Ball Python a few years ago, and it did bite me. Bit me and wrapped my hand like it was a rat. Of course, this is after I had handled the rat I was about to feed it (dummy!). As soon as it figured out my hand wans't the rat, it let go and retreated back into her ambush spot on her branch. Poor rat - never even hit the ground. She caught it in mid-air, wrapped it, and ate it right there on her branch.

I LOVE snakes but I can't keep anything for a pet that requires live mammals for food. I know - the food chain and all that but I personally can't do it. Turtles are a lot easier - slugs worms and crickets - THAT I can handle.
The King snakes really are awesome to have around on your property. My pair are very friendly and mellow. I saw one of them yesterday sunbathing on the rocks by the pond. Dairy farmers used to keep them in and around their barns to keep the vermin and poisonous snakes under control. My Dad said they had a huge one in their milk barn when he was growing up that would come beg for milk at milking time. They would fill a pie pan up for him and he would drink the milk. If he looked too thin they would leave an egg out for him to eat.
Rattlesnakes are just kinda unpredictable as snakes go - they probably bite more people than any other snake and even one who has been non-threatening in the past will suddenly get nasty if it's shedding, hungry or just having a bad day. I know a couple of reptile people who (legally) have "hot" snakes. Keeping them properly (and safely) is very complicated and tedious. No Thanks!

I am cracking up that the EOC has a thread about snakes now!

I have to say that now I know they are in my yard & I go out looking for them, I am more fascinated and less grossed out by them. I have seen all kinds of snake behavior in the past few years that makes these little guys interesting. The snake-sex last week is just one example.

Last Saturday I went out & started my sweep of the yard before letting the dogs out. There was a PILE of snakes in the corner of the yard. I got closer, not knowing it was a pile, wondering how many there were (sometimes my contacts don't focus so well). Suddenly they scattered in all directions & it was obvious that there were 6 or 7 just all laying in a heap on each other. (Snake-orgy??) What was that??

Another time last year one of my dogs had got one and stunned it pretty well. It was just laying frozen in one spot after I got the dogs inside. I stayed and watched to be sure it wasn't dead... and next thing you know it's like the snake-EMS team was called in. From my deck I spotted about 5 or 6 other snakes making a bee-line for this stunned one from all directions in the yard. They all slithered over the top of him (like, "It's OK now, brother snake..."??) until he slowly unfroze & slithered away with them.

I am very thankful that these are just ribbon snakes & I don't have to fear for my dogs or my own safety with regard to handling them!

I was telling my kids about the "Snake Thread" and my son just reminded me - we had a pet Ribbon Snake a few years ago named "Fisher"!

We fed him gold fish in his water dish. It was really preety cool watching him "fish" by weaving back and forth in the dish until he caught one, then working it around with just his mouth until he got the head of the fish in the right position to swallow it. All with no hands.

We moved to a place that did not accept pets, so we had to give him away.

Obviously - we love snakes.

Here in Central IL, we don't have much to worry about on the venomous side, but I still don't know what kind of snake I'm looking at when I see one. That's what bothers me... is it one that I can pick up and move or one that is going to lay into me and hunt me down. :)

We do some hiking down near St. Louis in a park that has rattlesnakes - even a rattlesnake trail - but we've never seen one and I don't particularly want to. I think it comes down to education...if I knew what to look for and what I was seeing, I'm sure snakes would be less of a stress/worry on hikes or around ponds.

I am cracking up that the EOC has a thread about snakes now!...

:oops: I have a confession to make. I didn't even OPEN this thread until today because I assumed, from the title, it was about snakes hunting dogs!

Since I have been playing with live snakes since I was a kid, I have no trouble telling one species from another. However, in trying to teach my kids the difference between one that is safe to handle (at least not venomous) and one that is not, I found the most remarkable feature of each is the shape of the head.

Non-venomous snakes most often have longish, narrow, heads. This comes from not needing venom glands. Rattlesnakes, Cottonmouths, etc, all have triangular, broad, heads. The venom glands are on the outside of the scull, along the outer "corner" of the head. The one exception to this rule in North America is the Coral Snake, which has a head that very much resemebles non-poisonous snakes. It also looks like a Royal King Snake (or the King Snake resembles the Coral Snake).

When I was just out of high school, I used to "milk" rattlesnakes for a summer camp I worked at (to show the kids the fangs and venom - lots of OOO's and AHHH's). We would squeeze (gently) along the outside at the angle, and the venom would just squirt out into the jar we used.

All this being said, I would caution everybody to never handle a snake of any variety unless you knwo what you are doing and are comfortable doing it. Even non-poisonous snakes bite and cause damage.