Yesterday Mom told me it was time to go for a ride. Yippee! I love rides in the car! After a few minutes, we met up with Dusty and his Mom. Oh, this is going to be good! Dusty and I are going to have a play date! Woohoo!!
Off we went for a long ride. When we got out, I was super excited because we were at a pretty little park. I could just picture the fun Dusty and I were going to have with our moms exploring new trails together. Within a few minutes, tho, I began to realize something funny was going on here. Dusty went in this fenced area with his mom…but we didn’t go with him. Hey, what’s going on here? Aren’t we going for a hike, Mom?
Then I noticed Dusty was doing some kind of weird dance or something. Hmmm. I’ve never seen him so animated while going for a walkie. Oh well. I thought maybe he was just feeling frisky or something. I get that way all the time.
After a while, a nice man came and took me on my leash while Mom stayed a little distance away and watched. I thought this was a little odd, but the man was nice and I love walks, so I went.
All of a sudden I saw this weird thing that I’ve never seen before. It was long like a rope, but curled up and it had eyes that were staring at me. Wow, this rope’s alive, Mom!! I thought she should come check it out with me, but she didn’t. Oh well, I thought I’d just go check Mr. Live Rope out myself. I noticed he smelled really interesting, too. As I got closer to check him out, I felt a funny little * zing* in my collar. It didn’t hurt, but it sure surprised me!! I backed up and thought about it. Hmm. Must have been a weird coincidence. Ok, back to Mr. Live Rope… *zing* again. Now I started to think that Live Rope had something to do with all of this. He was still staring at me, his head following me around with a mean look on his face. I decided that maybe I shouldn’t sniff him after all.
So, this nice man kept walking along with me. Whew! Got away from Mr. Live…..uh oh. What was this? There are TWO more of them up ahead, and they are moving on the ground and making a funny sound.
I inched closer, when *zing*, there we go again. I don’t think I like these rope guys. Every time I thought about checking them out and started to move to investigate, I got the weird *zing* thing again. I didn’t dance like Dusty did. I’m not sure why he was dancing, but I learned he can jump really high!
Back to our walk. This kind of stuff went on for several times, but don’t worry, I learn pretty fast. No more Mr. Live Rope for me! Then the guy with my leash just let go of the leash and let me run. Yippeee!! My mom called me, so I was going to run over to her and tell her all about Mr. Rope when I noticed that there were more of these stupid Rope guys around here. I decided to run to her, but go waaaaaaaay around the Rope guys, just in case. Mom was super excited to see me and we jumped and played and celebrated. I’m not sure what we were celebrating, but whatever it was, Mom seemed happy that I had made a good choice of some kind. Then we left the fenced in area and went to be with Dusty and his mom. Boy, that was a weird way to play, and not even with Dusty. Dusty just wanted to get in his truck and go home I think.
Then we got to go to another park and Dusty and I went for a REAL walk, together, with no mean-eyed rattlely old Rope guys around. That was more like it!!! Whew, I’m glad it ended on a more fun note like that. I don’t think Dusty was in the mood to play with me after he met Mr. Live Rope. We’ll just have to get together again soon and run around for fun. Somewhere where we’re alone, maybe. Without any mean-eyed ropes, that is.
While we were driving home, Mom explained what all of that was about. She (and Dusty’s mom) were having us trained by a Mr. Patrick Callaghan to learn all about rattlesnakes. (oh, that’s why they made that funny noise..) We learned to recognize them by smell, sight, and sound, and to avoid them, AND alert our owners to the danger nearby!! She said that she has had another dog trained this way before me, and also told me about a cat that she had who was bitten by a rattlesnake. (he survived with veterinary care) Since I like to go for hikes with Dusty, she was protecting me from learning the hard way about the rattlesnakes. Now I understand.! Thank you, mom! Thank you, Dusty, for being a good sport and going to rattlesnake class with me.
Here Dusty is telling me he didn’t think my comment about his dancing was very funny.
Now, can we go for a hike please?
♥ Behr Behr, professional snake alarm dane
Comment from the mommers: Thank you, Patrick Callaghan for such an incredible organization to help our dogs stay safe. You are spoken of very highly by every professional dog trainer I know.
Just so you know, no snakes or dogs were harmed in the training. Surprised, yes, hurt, no 🙂 Yes, these were live, uncaged rattlesnakes. They had their venom “milked” that morning (not that that was so reassuring) and their mouths taped shut, long enough for 70 dogs to be trained. Yes, I said taped. I was wondering whose job it was to tape all of the snakes’ mouths shut that day. Can you imagine?
Hi, my name’s Frank.
Hi Frank, I’m Bob. So, what do you do for a living, Frank?
Oh, I put tape on rattlesnakes’ mouths when people come for snake training. Then I take the tape off later, taking care to not hurt those cute little snake lips any.
Then I put them back in their little snake houses and feed them din din, ‘cause they’ve been lookin’ at food all day, working up quite an appetite and all, ya know?
7 comments
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May 5, 2008 at 1:37 pm
jamesviscosi
Our guys have been through snake-breaking with Patrick twice. The second time they definitely remembered that they didn’t like snakes even before the corrections started, so we’re quite confident that his training works.
Hmm, I guess we’ll have to get Dennis snake-broken too at some point … but not yet.
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May 5, 2008 at 10:55 pm
The Zoo Crew
I’ve been through “snake-breaking” too when I was much younger. Not sure what I remember though…… Mom says my little sister needs to learn the rules of the trails too before long!!
Kai
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May 8, 2008 at 12:05 am
Paula
What a great idea! Though up here in the north country, it would work better for porcupines and skunks. No poisonous snakes around our area!
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May 8, 2008 at 6:44 pm
4urpets
We just stay in our own backyard. We are trained for gophers and squirrels.
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May 10, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Rusty
Wow! That was scary training! but I bet you feel great now that you can stay safe and protect your mom from those rope guys! Mom says that is really cool that there is training for that!
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May 12, 2008 at 8:17 am
Dusty
Behr Dude,
Whoa, what a day! No more “Mr. Live Rope” days for me. I fell asleep on the way home. Even once I was home, safe in my bed, I just slept the rest of the day. But my mom explained to me the benefits of this day. It could save our lives and our mom’s too. But I’ve decided to take dance classes now, majoring in the rumba perhaps, and my new favorite show is “Dancing with the Stars”. Maybe even try out for the next Cirque show. Talk to you later dude, I’m gonna watch some Fred and Ginger movies.
Your friend Dusty
I don’t know, Dusty….you seemed pretty grumpy with me after our snake class. I wasn’t sure if you were mad at me or the snakes 🙂
So, maybe you could have your own show. You could call it “Dancin’ with Dusty” , or maybe “Spam Dancing” 🙂
Behr Behr
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May 31, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Marie
We just took our two Great Danes to have them trained by Patrick Callaghan and it didn’t work; he couldn’t “break” them of their curiosity toward the snakes. Afterwards, Callaghan was very dismissive of his failure and blamed the breed of the dog saying “Well, you picked this breed of dog because their is obviously something you like about this kind of dog. I’ve done the best I can.” Then he went on to say that the dogs are “takers” and not “givers” and therefore it is difficult to train them. When I asked for an explanation he said, its exactly what the word means. Then he just walked off.
My dogs left severely bleeding from biting on the leads they use; upon close inspection of the leads they have metal screws embedded in them and when the dogs bite on them, they cut themselves.
In my opinion, Callaghan is a very condenscending and arrogant man. I would be very cautious taking a giant breed dog to his training.
His employees insisted that they have never seen a failure in the ten years they’ve worked with Callaghan. Really? NEVER? That is difficult to believe.
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