Search dogs for lost snakes

[MoshBalls]

The post about the drug dogs hitting on the shipment of snakes made me think... There are so many post about lost snakes and trying to find them in your house. Would you pay a service where a trained dog came in and found your snake by smell? How much would you pay for something like that?

[LizardPants]

Don't use a dog, use a cat. A dog won't find it unless trained, however nearly any cat will. However the tricky part is finding a cat that won't immediately go into hunting mode and try to eat it.

[angllady2]

I remember a show where I guy had a trained mongoose to find snakes in peoples houses.

I agree, my dog could not care less about my snakes. But my cats ALWAYS know when one gets out.

Gale

[Cendalla]

I have yet to have an escape (knock on wood) but I know I'd be frantic. I'd pay but I'm not sure how much. Guess it would depend upon the level of panic.

[MoshBalls]

I was thinking a trained dog.

I didn't know that about cats but I think it would be hard to train any cat to do what you want them to when you want them to for other people.

[LizardPants]

Dogs are definitely more trainable though. I would trust a dog not to harm someone's snake much more than I would a cat, mongoose, honey badger, or any other animal. In that regard, dogs are amazingly awesome. However there will be a lot of training work ahead, and my guess is you'll have to train it to recognize each species, because they probably smell different at least to a dog.

[wendhend]

My husband's German Shorthair has located several escaped corn snakes for me over the years. She got our attention by barking at them, and we were able to catch them before she could even think about harming them.

[Anatopism]

Dogs are definitely more trainable though. I would trust a dog not to harm someone's snake much more than I would a cat, mongoose, honey badger, or any other animal. In that regard, dogs are amazingly awesome. However there will be a lot of training work ahead, and my guess is you'll have to train it to recognize each species, because they probably smell different at least to a dog.

This is why you train it to be an ordinary search/scent dog and train the same as you would for tracking in the field. Don't train it how to recognize and find snakes, but rather train it to pick up the scent you give it (a whiff of newspaper or aspen from under your snake's favorite resting spot) and to follow that scent to it's conclusion.

This way, there is still work outside of the highly specified niche of snake finding. lol

[python_addict]

i lost my caramel albino for a week guess who found her? my cat! but my cat knows not to mess with snakes as big as her lol she just kept flicking her tail around and watching it till i picked it up