Class aims to teach dogs how to smell, avoid rattlesnakes

WENATCHEE – One by one, 17 dogs were led up a manicured grass lawn to a live rattlesnake, and one by one, their experience was a shocking one.

After each got a good whiff of the snake enclosed in a wire mesh tube, Darel Ansley would push a button on a small remote, and the dogs would get an electric jolt through a special collar fitted around their neck. It was a painful moment, and every dog reacted with a yelp and a jump into the air, but the dogs’ owners all agreed it was worth it to teach them to avoid the dangerous snakes in the future.

Darel and Kathleen Ansley are back to offering a rattlesnake avoidance class that they had run in 10 previous years until a change in permitting shut them down in 2020. Their permit from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to keep a wild animal was determined not to be the correct one needed. They were directed to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, which offered an exotic animal importing permit.

The permit required a veterinarian to check the reptile, and Darel found one in Corvallis, Oregon, who would sign off on a healthy snake. This year Darel traveled to Biggs Junction in the Columbia River Gorge, caught a snake, and got the permit.

Last Saturday was the first class they have offered since being shut down.

Darel’s interest in training dogs to avoid snakes began in 2001 when his dog Heather was in the backyard of their Cave Creek, Arizona backyard and tried to play with a rattler. He pulled his dog off and then found someone who offered rattlesnake avoidance classes nearby.

When he and his family moved to Wenatchee in 2003, they brought with them a new dog, Checkers, who also trained in Arizona. “It would stop us if it detected a snake ahead,” Darel said.

In 2010, with new dog Lilly added to the family, Darel checked and found out there wasn’t anyone offering that kind of classes in the area, and he decided to begin his own. He trapped a snake on Horse Lake Road and used his previous experience to begin snake avoidance training here.

The premise of the class is that the snake’s scent will be imprinted in the dog’s brain and associated with the pain of the shock. Ansley said dogs aren’t naturally cautious about rattlesnakes even when the snake rattles at them. The rattle can even make them more curious.

And Ansleys’ snake cooperated with that detail on Saturday. Every time a dog came close, a buzzing rattle came from the wire tube with plastic pipe fittings on each end. Dale made the container that is secure but allows dogs to smell the scent of the snake without being bitten.

When it’s not being used for the class, the snake spends its time in a locked terrarium in the Ansleys’ garage. “I like to keep a healthy respect for it,” Darel said.

When the class began in the side yard of their Sunnyslope home, Darel explained he was just the facilitator. “The dog’s brain does all the work,” he said. “I just own the rattlesnake.” As he talked, the owners were attentive, but the dogs were busy socializing with each other with uncontrolled sniffing.

Ansley continued. “Dogs can detect and stay away, and you can also learn the dog’s sign for danger.”

He said the owner has to be willing to get close to the snake for the training to work. If the dog can’t smell the snake, there is no training, and if it senses the owner tensing up, it will react to that instead of the snake.

For owner Kay Arterburn who moved to Wenatchee from Lake Stevens a year ago, she wanted her dog to learn about rattlesnakes before she took Frankie on her favorite hike up Saddlerock.

“She’s such a sniffer,” she said, and coming from the West Side of the state hasn’t had a chance to learn about rattlesnakes. “I haven’t seen any, but I’ve seen pictures. I’m not taking her up there until we do this.”

Understanding a rattlesnake’s behavior is also a way to avoid encounters. Darel said snakes need to regulate their heat. In the spring and fall, and in cool summer evenings and mornings, they will be on rocks or on trails trying to keep warm. In the heat of the day, they will be in the shade. They hibernate in rocks from October to March.

Snakes also migrate, returning to their home in the fall.

More on snakes

He finished telling the owners that each dog reacts differently to a snake.

“Some are too curious for their own good,” he said.

He added some dogs take a couple of shock experiences to understand.

“Lapdogs take longer,” he said. “They aren’t thinking about smelling.”

After the first dog experience with the snake, Kathleen carried it around the house, hiding it beneath a signboard. Once again, the dogs walked toward the snake but couldn’t see it this time. More than half failed the test, their nose bringing them within biting range (if it hadn’t been enclosed), and they were zapped again.

The snake was moved, and those that failed were tested again. When they passed, their reactions were usually subtle, putting their owner between them and the snake or their tail between their legs. Eventually, all wouldn’t approach once they smelled the reptile.

Sabrina Windsor, Wenatchee, brought her poodle Windsor to the class. He was turning 3 the next day. She wants to do more hiking.

“I worry about him getting into something he shouldn’t. I’d rather be safe than sorry,” Windsor said.

More classes will be offered before the end of the fall, Darel said.

For more information, go to rattlesnakedog.com. The cost is $180, with free follow-up training if needed.

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