A question for folks experienced with dogs in the woods ...

My wife and I put down a deposit on a field bred English Springer Spaniel and we are to pick him up the first week of march. I spend a great deal of time in the woods during all seasons of the year and I want him to accompany me when I go. I've got all sorts of training plans; I've collected 26 deer hooves and 12 bottles of deer blood to use in training him to track a wounded deer, I want to train him to squirrel hunt, I hope that he can alert me of snakes in the area too.

Anyway my concern is for his safety with the snakes. I've never had a dog like this and I don't really know what to expect. Do I need to worry about him getting bitten? Will he instinctively know to keep his distance? What should I do if he does get bitten? The places I go are infested with rattlers, copperheads, and cottonmouths. I know they are there because I've killed a bunch of them ...

Thoughts?

Well, the best thing to do with a dog that has been snake bit is to get him to the vet as soon as possible. People will tell you all kinds of old wives tales, benedryl etc. Get it to the vet.

Someone I'm sure is going to say something about rattlesnake "vaccine". It is snake oil (no pun intended). It may have some effect in the Southwest (where it is developed from a local species we don't have here), but even the company that produces it will openly say they have no idea whether it works or not. The vet I work for in the summers has lost three dogs to snake bites in 35 years of practice. Those three were brought in days after the bite and tissue was already in necrosis.

I don't know what the vaccine costs and some people may argue that the cost is worth it. However there is no evidence that it works, and there is potential for adverse reactions as with any injection of a substance.

Hopefully the first couple he encounters will be bad tempered non-poisonous snakes. Once they strike at him a couple of times he will learn how to deal with them. A dumb puppy running up on a large venomous snake is a bad recipe. If bitten follow the above advice, get him to a vet.

Maybe not a bad idea to catch a garter or black racer for him to learn on ... They can have nasty attitudes

I got on my anti snake vaccine rant and didn't answer some questions. Most dogs are curious and will stick there nose down to see what it is. 95% of the snake bites we see are nose/head/neck with the remaining being front legs. I think they learn quickly to stay away.
We had a client with a boxer that the owner said had killed 15-20 snakes. He got bit many times but always killed the snake. For some reason this dog hated snakes that bad. Unfortunately he succumbed to what gets all boxers, the big C.

imo ,,, bout all you can do is worry about it happening . i ran around with a small dog a big snake could've ate almost for almost 15 years . snakes bites did cross my mind . only time he got in a fix was when a turkey hen ran over him .

I would talk to your vet and ask if there is anything you can keep with you for a quick response snake bite medicine. I think vitamin K might be a possibility, but check with your vet.

I believe as long as you have a good relationship with a vet, they will give you a fast acting steroid to buy you some time until you can get them there. However, most of the time they have to be given intravenously. If you can stick a dog in the vein by yourself after they have been bitten by a snake you are better than I am!

I'm sorry to hear that ... we lost two to "the big C" this year so I feel your pain

Well this wasn't my dog, but was a good client's pet. In the veterinary business you see a lot of death and you get pretty numb to it. However, the toughest is animals that could have been saved with proper preventative care and the animals that you see frequently and get to know them and their owners.

As a Vet Tech in my former life, I have to say about the only thing you can do is administer Benadryl and get them to the Vet for fluids, steroids and antibiotics. Our Lab was bitten on the nose by a copperhead summer before last. She got a good dose of venom but the Benadryl really helped cut down her response to it.

Same way with one my omc's, he got bit on the head and vet told me give benadryl and she was not available. His head got big as a basketball but he made it!

I found him and my pup with a timber rattler earlier this year and both were maintaining a 6 foot distance until I shot the snake. He learned something from the previous encounter. If you train with non venomous, you might consider shock collar.

Thats a great idea, pop him when he gets hit

Please elaborate!! A turkey hen got after your dog?

lol ,, we came up on a hen with just hatched little ones . the hen just eased done to the ground, she thought she was hidden and we didn't see her . dingo did see her and ease down to where she was at . when he got a few feet from her she just ran over him dragging a wing . i like to have hurt myself that day laughing . the look on dingo was , what the hell !!!!

i mean she rolled him . lol

I ain't gonna lie...I wouldn't mind seeing that. LOL Poor Dingo!

me and dingo

http://bamahunter.com/tur25.jpg

I would not worry about snakes to much. If it is going to happen, it is going to happen. It doesn't happen very often. I had a beagle bitten by a copperhead on the nose. Head was swollen, took her to the vet the next day and she was fine.

Good luck getting a Springer to hunt squirrels. They are flushing and retrieving dog. You might be able to do it, but that is certainly not the type hunting they are breed for.

I had one Springer. It was the most hyper dog I have ever owned. Make sure you get it a lot of exercise.

They have good noses, so with proper training, I would think they could be very good blood trailing dogs.

Thanks, squirrels would be nice but my main desire was to teach him to track wounded deer.

When we ran bird dogs, we always tried to snake break puppies.

The first time we came across a rattler we would kill it and stretch the headless corpse out on some clear ground. We would the. Put the shock collar on the puppy and light their but up every time they would ease up to the snake. It usually only took a few shocks for them to decide it wasn't worth messing with the snake. I don't know if it worked or not, but we never had a dog bitten.