Heroic Dogs...But what would MINE do?

While getting my hair cut today, the conversation in the salon turned to the heroic little chihuahua in Colorado who jumped in front of a hostile rattler, saving the 1-year old grandson of the homeowners from a nasty, and possibly fatal, snake bite.

Since I hadn't heard the story, I Googled it when I got home and found there are many heroic dog stories out there - dogs who fetch phones for disabled owners, dogs jumping in front of lunging alligators, dogs chasing nasty critters out of houses.

The salon owners, knowing I hike with my dachshunds, told the salon group that my "lowdawgs" would probably do the same for me.

But I'm not so sure.

Yeah, they do the usual barking frenzy when anybody walks in front of my house and they happen to see them. Any and all delivery people are suspect and heaven help ANYBODY walking towards me while we are walking or hiking.

That is, unless the dogs are tired. Then, they are as docile as lobotomy patients and move aside. If I stop to talk, they stand there and allow themselves to be petted. Or they flop to the ground for a few minutes of panting shut-eye.

When the speech teacher at school brought me a baby glossy snake, I couldn't get it to eat. So, I decided to to let it go in an area rich with the glossy snakes' favorite food - juvenile lizards. When I released the snake, Augie sniffed around with much interest. When we passed the location on our way down the trail, Augie went back to the exact release spot - to sniff some more. But the snake was gone - hopefully dining on lizards and shouting, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, I'm free at last!"

But the most telling event that makes me wonder about my dogs taking a rattlesnake bite for me involves Duke and a walk up the San Francisquito trail.

Up ahead, about 20 minutes into our hike, I spotted a snake laying across the trail. Not close enough to discern a species, I called to Duke, who was trotting happily
ahead of me.

"Duke!" I shouted. "DUKE! Stop!"

Duke promptly jumped over the lounging reptile, turned around, and sat down. Luckily for both of us, it was a gopher snake and it couldn't care less about me, Duke, or
the fact that his long snakey body was completely blocking the trail. (Snakes do this because they CAN. Showoffs.)

And what do you say to your dog when he obeys - albeit a bit too slowly? Castigating him for the possibility of sitting down next to a rattler would only tell him, in
complete canine understanding, that he did a bad thing - so it's better NOT to listen when she yells, "Duke! Duke! Stop!"

Or do you praise him for sitting down, albeit a bit too slowly? In his canine brain will he think that sitting next to a snake is a GOOD thing?

It's just so complicated.

My friend and teaching colleague, Pam, spent $175.00 to take her two dogs to a rattlesnake "desensitization" class. She was very proud of this, since she and her
husband and just built a lovely home on a golf course - that backs right smack dab up against prime snake territory.

The course involved a live rattler whose jaws were muzzled shut, making him one happy snake, I am sure. The snake was placed in various positions while the instructor gave various directions to the dogs and their owners. Small electric shocks were involved. This serves to upset the dogs and unsettle the owners.

The muzzled snake probably got some perverse satisfaction out it.

"Now we can walk anywhere and not worry," Pam said happily and much confidence when I asked her how the training class went.

But a week or so later, Pam was not so sure. It seems she took the dogs for a walk behind the house, up on a trail. Not only did she completely miss the rattler laying in the road (she walked over it), her dogs did too. According to her husband, who was walking behind them, "all of them just stepped right over it without a look." One of the dogs even turned around to sniff it. The husband's sharp warning scared the dog more than any old electric shock, that was for sure.

So, while Pam's dogs will probably bond with any trail snakes, mine will probably hop over them. Or sniff them.

Not too big a chance our dogs will "take a bite" for either of us.

Unless they're tired. Then they might flop down ON them and wait to be petted.

:-)K