Rattlesnake Avoidence Clinic

[furtech]

Today I took the dogs on a long drive out to Victorville for the " Rattlesnake Avoidance For Dogs " session.

I was happy to see that I could take Pearblossom all the way out to Victorville, allowing me to avoid the whole I-10/I-15 mess. The drive out there was uneventful and the traffic was light: I made it out in under 90 minutes.

I had looked online for things to do out in Victorville: if I was driving all the way out there I wanted to visit SOMETHING of interest in the area. Man, was I wrong: the first listing of "Places of Interest:Victorville" in Wikipedia says, "The Victorville Wal-Mart is known as one of the chain's most dangerous stores. In 2006 their operating hours were changed from 24 hours a day to 5AM to Midnight due to high crime in the late night hours." Good thing they have a prison conveniently located there !

Yeah-- not going to find much there .

Major local industry.

I couldn't figure out what all these abandoned homes were until I saw this sign . Apparently this is the site of "George Air Force Base". The name wasn't familiar to me, but I drove around the base after the clinic. Apparently decommissioned around 1992.



I finally arrived at the reason for the drive out to this place: the rattlesnake clinic. The whole thing only took a few minutes for both dogs. I had to supress my self when Rondo and Apache were zapped: that's a healthy jolt. But they sure learned. Simply, the process is to let the dogs see a rattlesnake, then jolt. They also bring them near a hidden snake, let them get the scent, then jolt. The process sounds simple, but the timing is crucial: there's a reason that Patrick is so in-demand (and why he has so little competition). The man is -very- good.

The final test is to let the dogs go, with a rattlesnake between us. The dog should come when called, but should swerve wide to one side or the other (you want them to get well-away from the snake if they ever meet one). Both dogs passed with flying, terrified colors! No pics, though: they're afraid of PETA-types using them out-of-context. Fascinating work, though!

Then it was a long drive back, with a stop at a roadside stand I visited many years ago, Charlie Brown Farms! They were a quaint roadside stand many years ago...boy, have they changed. Enough for a post of it's own!

Comments

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

If that's their major industry, no wonder there's not much there. That stuff under the sign doesn't qualify as dirt. That's the sort of crap we spread on roads as grit around here.

Unless their business is to actually sterilize soil will grow in it, I wouldn't get topsoil from those guys.

Professional hole-fillers?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I have -no- idea what they do. It just sounded so appropriate for this godforsaken wasteland. Maybe their motto should be, "We put dirt back where it belongs!"

[mistahbojangles.livejournal.com]

Wow, isn't that the place where they tested the gamma radiation bomb and inadvertantly created the Incredible Hulk as a result?

Also, what do you mean by "zapped" and "jolt"?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I could believe the gamma-bomb...it's not like there's anything out here to make more desolate. I thought Lancaster was a hole...but this is more desolate and nearly an hour further away!

By "zapped" and "jolt" I mean ZAPPED!!! and JOLT!!! The idea is to put the fear of God (Old Testiment, wrathful God) into them when they see or even -smell- a rattlesnake. Some of the testimonies on his page illustrate the need for this. I honestly had to grind my mouth shut: I felt like a mom watching her kid in a boxing match! Rondo's reaction to the first zap was bad, but Apache's was worse: she looked like a live fish dropped on a hot sidewalk. But they sure avoided the rattlers in all the subsequent tests!

[mistahbojangles.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's my imagination that's getting the better of me but when you say "zap" and "jolt" I get the image of a sneaky electrical shock to the butt when they're not being careful enough around the snake... or perhaps a loud noise to startle the dog. I don't see how that would actually cause the dog to associate the sudden startlement with an avoidance of rattlesnakes unless the snake itself was somehow delivering the jolt. Must indeed have a lot to do with the timing as you say.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

It's probably a shock collar they're wearing that is activated when they're near the rattlesnake. And yes, they will associate it with the snake. When you get an underground electric fence to contain your dog, you put little flags around the boundaries of your property. The dogs soon learn that going near the flags causes a shock.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

What she said (it was a remote training collar)...I also asked him if I should wait for a while before I put a no bark collar on either dog (so an not to confuse or dilute the rattlesnake aversion). Patrick said that was a good question: he said that the dogs would -not- confuse the two different conditionings-- that they would not even associate the two different situations, despite the similarity of conditioner.

[tori04.livejournal.com]

I wish I could have gone. It sounds interesting and worthwhile.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Interesting to note that they use actual local rattlesnakes and not king snakes or gopher snakes because they want the dogs to be afraid-- specifically-- of rattlers (by sight, sound -and- scent).

Not sure if it would have been worth all the driving to watch twenty minutes of stuff...but Charlie Brown's would have been worth it!

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

These PETA types can be a PITA, can't they?

As you may have read, I lost the hard drive, meaning ~2 months of email, including yours :-( So please resend the email with which pics you want, plus also we got the "Rondo Bill." $545 (!) for a darn stitch!!!!! Once I know your email, I will send you a PDF of the scan..

richard at
imagecraft.com

Thanks

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can understand the problem they'd have with many animal groups, including pet and dog groups if they saw the zapping of the dog out of context.

[jonnywoof.livejournal.com]

It almost reminds me of Fresno!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Naw-- Fresno's MUCH nicer! At least there is SOME greenery around Fresno (even if it is just grape and peach orchards). Plus, Fresno's only about an hour from niceness (Yosemite, etc.).

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Great information.. thanks!

[dogteam.livejournal.com]

Shock collars are a fantastic tool when used properly. Dogs are very place and situation oriented, and usually don't confused conditioning given for different reasons and different situations, even if the stimulus is the same. For normal retriever training of the type that we do, the shock is very mild, barely a tingle. The only time the a "jolt" is used is when a lesson absolutely must be learned for the dog's own safety...like rattlesnake avoidance and poison-proofing.
And yes, we need to be very careful when training in public. Not only because of PETA types, but because of plain old concerned pet lovers whose attention we don't want to draw, but completely understand.;) We love our dogs like crazy.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah-- all you have to do is google "bark collar" and you'll get instant flame wars! Well, you'll get that and some complete psycho hillbilly named Jerry Howe.