CHANNEL 3 TV - PHOENIX ARIZONA

Protecting Your Dog Against Snakes
By Steve Bodinet

It's hard to watch -- a dog, jumping straight into the air, yelping. Not once or twice, but five times. What's making this pooch scream is a shock that hopefully it will never forget.

The shock comes from a collar and the dog gets a jolt whenever it even looks at a rattlesnake in a wire cage. The place is Partners Animals Institute, an animal training center on Cave Creek Highway north of Lone Mountain Road.

"We want him to turn and run. That's the response we're looking for," says Leighton Oosthuisen, after watching a large German shepherd receive the first of a series of shocks. Right now, the dog has no fear of snakes and the owner brought the dog to Oosthuisen to change that. It doesn't take long. By the third shock, the dog knows the scent and sound of a rattler and doesn't want anything to do with them.

"See how he's wanting to hide now?" says Oosthuisen as the big dog works its way behind the trainer. "That's what we're looking for. He'll try to scoot out of the way."

Partners trains dogs and other animals for all sorts of jobs including herding, guarding and companionship. They also train other animals for movies, but Oosthuisen started snake training because he was tired of seeing so many dogs suffering from snake bites. He says most dogs don't even make it to the vet if they get a full face of venom, and if they do recover, many still suffer from long-lasting effects. For that reason, he only charges $50 to snake train and he donates half of that to an urgent care animal center.

So how successful is the zapping method? While I was there, two dog owners gave us a demonstration. Panda, a beautiful working border collie, wouldn't go anywhere near the snakes and she was trained three years ago. Gabrial not only avoids snakes, but warned her unsuspecting owner of a rattler on the front porch. Both owners say without the training, their pups would have been bitten.

If you would like more information on Partners and the snake training program, call (480) 595-6700 or visit www.animaltraining.com. It may be tough to watch, but as Panda's owner said, it would be a lot tougher to watch her beloved dog die from a snake bite.
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Steve Bodinet is a reporter for 3TV in Phoenix Arizona.

To see more of his travels, click here: www.azfamily.com/travel/roadtrip/index.html