Rattlesnake Avoidence Clinic
May. 12th, 2007 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furtechToday 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!
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!
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Date: 2007-05-14 07:40 am (UTC)