YANCHEP veterinarian Sam Sorensen says having to treat animals for snake bite as part of her job influenced her decision to have snake avoidance training for her dog.
“I run at Lake Gwelup with Daisy (her dog) off the lead and she is well-behaved but always running into the long grass,’’ she said.
“Because I treat so many snake bites here I had her do the training.
She said the training involving live snakes and an electro static training device takes from about 30 minutes to 1hr.
At the start of the training pythons are used on open ground and then it continues with a dugite and a tiger snake, which are hidden in wire containers in a bush setting.
“The dogs can smell them and within half an hour they associate the smell of the snake with the training device and they go to great lengths to avoid the snakes.’’
Her veterinary hospital has already treated one dog for snake bite this season.
Animal Ark’s head trainer David Manning said snakes will soon be warming up and on the move again – looking for food, mates and new territory.
He said dodging venomous species like dugites and tiger snakes was something that did not always come naturally dogs but they could be trained to avoid potentially deadly encounters with snakes.
Animal Ark will be conducting snake avoidance training for dogs at the Yanchep Veterinary Hospital on Sunday, September 29.
