Snake Avoidance - Equipment

EQUIPMENT:
Scent of the snake (or any animal that you will be avoidance training for).  You can get snake skin from me or from a fletcher or taxidermist.  Other animal smells, skins can be obtained from taxidermists, and I've gotten skins and fur from vendors at Renaissance Festivals and Gem Shows.

Sounds can be downloaded to your smart phone or gotten on DVD from Amazon.

Most dangerous snake species can be found as statues on Amazon.  Spiders, bugs, toads can also be found as  statues.  

Radio controlled vehicles for the squirrel games and drunkard's walk and most of the other games dealing with handling distractions.


You also said we need "Radio controlled vehicles for the squirrel games and drunkard's walk" Can you explain this further ? do you mean a remote control car?

Yes a remote controlled car. I like the RC cars because you can control where they go and make them hide under bushes and such. It works just having someone throw stuffed toys from a hidden place, but the cars work better.

A fake cat would work great. I use fake cats, dogs, bunnies and chickens in prey drive class and the dogs respond to those as if they are real if you have the scent.

I looked at fake snakes on amazon and was about to buy one when my husband said it will smell like rubber so I wanted to be sure.

Yes, they do smell like rubber, but when you combine the fake snake and the vial of snake smell, the dogs respond appropriately.

Find some copperhead skin or scent. Your local taxidermist or zoo should have one or both. If nothing else you can usually talk the zoo or a local herpetologist into letting you leave a piece of cloth in a cage with a copperhead over night. Then put that in a zip lock bag in the freezer and cut 1X1 inch squares off as needed.

Is it important that we get snake skin that has not been tanned? I'm going to call the local taxidermist tomorrow.

I've used both tanned and not tanned, the not tanned works better, but the tanned still does work.