Zoe (above) was the victim of a rattlesnake bite in Marin a few months ago – a scenario we worry about every time we take our dachshund Walter on a hike. Recently we had our vet give Walter a rattlesnake vaccine, but if we’d known better, we might have gotten him rattlesnake avoidance training, aka snake breaking, instead. These are classes whereby dogs learn how to scent, see, and hear rattlesnakes (some trainers use de-fanged rattlers, others use non-venomous bull snakes). The vaccines buy you a bit more time if your pooch gets attacked, but the training can prevent the attack in the first place.
Photo by *jenni.
