I have a rescue Dumeril's who is allegedly 3-4 years old and a sight to behold but terribly hissy, bitey, high strung, and makes any attempt at handling an unpleasant experience for the both of us. According to what I know from the undereducated couple who I obtained her from, she was a "show off" impulse purchase and was never handled after biting the guy once and refusing to let go. I'd like to try and work this temper out of her, but I'm not quite sure how.

Currently I'm giving her limited exposure to the hook, as told by someone else -- about 5-10 minutes at a time once a day to get her used to the sight of it again after a failed attempt to blunder in blindly with it (my mistake). However, today as soon as I begun touching her for the first time again, she pitches a fit; rattling her tail (I honestly thought this was only a colubrid thing, apparently not!) and "bucking" to get it off her even if its only a gentle stroke. I'm kinda alarmed! Is it okay to continue doing this for only a few moment at a time until she gets used to it, or am I causing too much additional stress? Should I just go in cold turkey and try to hold her instead for increasing periods until she gets used to it? What else might alleviate this sort of attitude? She has multiple hide boxes, deep substrate to burrow into, and half the enclosure covered with a blanket to ensure privacy.