How do you protect your dog from snakes and spiders?

cptn · Post by **cptn** » Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:20 pm

Dogs are curious creatures, and where I live, we have a surplus of snakes, particularly copperheads.

And we're in a black widow/brown recluse expansion area.

What can you do to prevent bites?

If it happens and you're in a field, what do you do?

Has it ever happened to you?

RayGubernat · Post by **RayGubernat** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:16 am

My dogs are kenneled outside and so are subject to infestations by various insects...ticks, spiders, ants, whatever. I deal with this in a two pronged approach. My first defensive layer is a strip of long acting pesticide applied to the outside of the fenced back yard. My second layer of defense is to periodically spray the inside roofs of each kennel with insecticide. As winter approaches, I bust open a bale of hay that I am going to use for bedding, spray it with insecticide and let it sit.

I don't have poisnonous reptiles where I live, but my wife is not at all fond of snakes of any kind, so I put a string of naphalene mothballs
all around the house and spread a line of powdered sulfur in where the mothballs are to discourage snakes.

If I lived where poinsonous snakes were common, I would also have elevated kennels and put 18" to 24" of aluminum flashing around any base, in addition to the mothbaslls and sulfur, to prevent them from gaining entry to the dog area.

In the field, I treat any interest in snakes the very same way I would treat any interest in deer... a high hard one from the e-collar. The fact that the snakes by me are not poisonous makes no difference. I don't want the dog messing with any of them.

RayG

JIM K · Post by **JIM K** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:03 am

in 46 yrs i never had my dogs bit by a rattlesnake or copperhead here in clinton county,pa.
you could say lucky, yes. i hunt early in mornings in october for grouse if its warm out.
if its real warm, i dont hunt that week at all.
snakes like culverts etc.
so i dont hunt near them in warm fall.i stay in clearcuts away from roads.
mice live near culverts etc. water is there too. snakes eat mice.

we have lots of snakes.i do take a snake when my pups are about 6 months old and throw in yard and say, NO, NO ,get away.

that seems to help if dog gets near a snake.

rinker · Post by **rinker** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:10 am

I had a female pointer several years ago that was an escape artist. I bred her and about a week before her pups were due I moved her to a different kennel that I used for raising puppies. The fence in this kennel was about five foot high and did not have a roof of any kind. I knew under normal circumstances she could jump this fence with no problem, but as heavy as she was with pups I didn't think she would try it. That night as I was going to bed I looked out the window and saw her running around the yard, out of the kennel. I lived in the country with no traffic and I decided to just leave her out and deal with it in the morning. The next morning when I got up I looked out to check on her and she was walking up my drive way and her left front leg was swollen to five times or more the normal size, I knew immediately that she had been bitten by a copperhead. I contacted the vet and he said that the only thing to do was give her some antibiotics to keep the actual bite from getting infected. Her leg slowly returned to normal size over about 4 or 5 days. She whelped the pups just fine and never had any more issues with it.

Steve007 · Post by **Steve007** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:22 am

My dog is heading for SDakota at the end of summer, where they do have prairie ratllers. He will get rattlesnake vaccine before he goes, long enough in advance to develop full resistance. Best I can do, but if I skipped it and something happened, I'd be in serious emotional trouble.

Risks are inevitable, but I owe it to him to reduce them if I can, while not interfering with his career.

brad27 · Post by **brad27** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:40 am

Steve007 wrote:My dog is heading for SDakota at the end of summer, where they do have prairie ratllers. He will get rattlesnake vaccine before he goes, long enough in advance to develop full resistance. Best I can do, but if I skipped it and something happened, I'd be in serious emotional trouble.

Risks are inevitable, but I owe it to him to reduce them if I can, while not interfering with his career.

The vaccine only buys you time to get your dog to the vet. It could still die if vaccinated then bitten. Aviodance training is your best option against snakes.

Post by **Sharon** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:33 pm

No snake or spider problem here. Coyotes are aor biggest problem. Move to Canada.

Steve007 · Post by **Steve007** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:09 pm

brad27 wrote:
Steve007 wrote:My dog is heading for SDakota at the end of summer, where they do have prairie ratllers. He will get rattlesnake vaccine before he goes, long enough in advance to develop full resistance. Best I can do, but if I skipped it and something happened, I'd be in serious emotional trouble.

Risks are inevitable, but I owe it to him to reduce them if I can, while not interfering with his career.
The vaccine only buys you time to get your dog to the vet. It could still die if vaccinated then bitten. Aviodance training is your best option against snakes.

No. BOTH of them --together--are your best options against snakes.

Here's a link for those not familiar with vaccines to "Rattlesnake Vaccine Basics".

http://www.rattlesnakevaccines.com/

brad27 · Post by **brad27** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:32 pm

Steve007 wrote:
brad27 wrote:
Steve007 wrote:My dog is heading for SDakota at the end of summer, where they do have prairie ratllers. He will get rattlesnake vaccine before he goes, long enough in advance to develop full resistance. Best I can do, but if I skipped it and something happened, I'd be in serious emotional trouble.

Risks are inevitable, but I owe it to him to reduce them if I can, while not interfering with his career.
The vaccine only buys you time to get your dog to the vet. It could still die if vaccinated then bitten. Aviodance training is your best option against snakes.
No. BOTH of them --together--are your best options against snakes.

Here's a link for those not familiar with vaccines to "Rattlesnake Vaccine Basics".

http://www.rattlesnakevaccines.com/

Thats not what you wrote in your first comment, which is what i was responding to. I agree, both aviodance are vaccine are better then nothing, but if it came down to only doing one or the other i'd pick aviodance.

dougroch · Post by **dougroch** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:56 pm

Google "snake breaking dogs". Basic gist of it is finding someone who offers to do this, putting an e collar on the dog and putting dog in a field with a number of caged poisonous snakes spread out in cover in a field. When dog smells the snake and goes to investigate he gets a shock on a higher setting and thru repetition learns that snakes equal pain. I have seriously considered doing this with my britt pup as I spend a lot of off season weekends camping and hiking in areas with a high population of copperheads and rattlers and would like to be able to take pup with me.

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