Walking In Summer - Snakes

[JulesP]

How much do you consider snakes when walking your dogs in summer? Do you stick to onlead only? Only well mowed ovals? Don't worry too much but avoid long grass and water?

I found a nice place to walk that I thought would be lovely in summer as the path is in a treed area but someone else said that they wouldn't walk in there in case of snakes.

My dogs have a thing for bushes which is worrying me a bit if I let them offlead.

So how does your walking change when the snakes are more active?

[ness]

Yep we tend to stick more to ovals with short grass rather than our normal winter walks which are up a bush track.

[J...]

Completely change the dog's exercise routine in warmer weather. Rely on swimming and water retrieves in summer, and off lead on mowed areas if they aren't swimming. Winter we do a lot of off lead running in the long grass around the lake, once Spring starts I only do that on very overcast/cold/rainy days and not at all from about now on to mid to late Autumn.

[DobieMum]

As long as your dogs won't stray too far off the path and will come when called, put something noisy on them and you step heavily, the snakes will hear you coming and move away before you get there.

[Hafhafa Hounds]

I do my block (20 - 30 min) in the mornings, winter & summer on lead.

I do bush tracks during winter and the beach in summer. And yes, I do stress about snakes - esp. when I had the little dogs and could walk them offlead.

My dogs are mainly walked on lead anyway (Salukis), except at quiet times at the beach.

[tlc]

How much do you consider snakes when walking your dogs in summer?

All the time, it is on my mind constantly!

Do you stick to onlead only?

No.

Only well mowed ovals?

Pretty much and areas I know don't have too many bushes etc

Don't worry too much but avoid long grass and water?

I do avoid if possible, one of our great off lead parks has lots of bushes, horse jumps tyres etc so if it is really hot I steer clear of there.

So how does your walking change when the snakes are more active?

Yes definatley there is a few places we don't go near in Summer, I am lucky to live near the beach so we do a lot more beach stuff in summer. We have a few good areas that are mowed regulary which is great.

[tlc]

As long as your dogs won't stray too far off the path and will come when called, put something noisy on them and you step heavily, the snakes will hear you coming and move away before you get there.

We were out walking early last summer along a path, lots of noise and people but my youngest managed to find a snake just curled up right next to the path, all the other dogs 4 of them ran past the snake but the youngest must have spotted it. He had his nose right on it and I never realized till I wondered what he was doing till the snake slithered. Luckily he wasn't bit but it was a close call and with all the yelling for the other to come back, they all ran past the snake and on lead to head the other way. All the snake did was come out on to the path and stretch out. Think he might have missed the memo about noises etc. I can laugh about it now but it was very scary at the time!

[Kiara&Heidi]

Yesterday when I was walking Kiara we walked straight over the top of a large blue tongued lizard before even noticing it. Lucky it wasn't a snake . I was surprised Kiara didn't see it because last time when we did come across a snake she tried to get at it.

[lilmisssascha83]

Yep I still to mowed ovals or dog school. Although there is currently a brown snake at dog school so its all onlead unless I know where the snake is and even then I walk around stomping. Was WAY too hot today though for her to have a run. Just took her for a nice onlead walk though. So glad I'm going to the beach for a few days in Dec. My girl loves the beach. How I wished I lived closer to it.

[snake catcher]

Unless your dog is trained not to, or dosnt naturally approach strange animals,

such as rats, lizards,roos,

birds ect.

I think you are taking a chance by not preventing

it by use of a lead in the snakey areas.

If your dog habitually hunts and dosnt back off when told,

then it will always be in danger when off the lead in these places.

If you can train your dog to sit when he or she sees a bluetongue skink

then the chances of the snake bite are lessened dramatically.

Like about 99% for example.

Dogs are only bitten when they provoke a snake.

Please be careful this summer as it may be redhot for snakes.

[bonniek]

Always on lead, had a scary experience once, thankfully the outcome was good, but am not prepared to experience it again.

Holes scare me also, we live in an area where we have rabbit warrens, so am very aware of not letting my dogs stick there heads in them.

[greytpets]

As long as your dogs won't stray too far off the path and will come when called, put something noisy on them and you step heavily, the snakes will hear you coming and move away before you get there.

Snakes don't have ears so won't hear you coming. I once heard of one that was lying in the grass & was run over by a ride on lawn mower so I don't believe they always feel vibrations either.

[Tay.]

Snakes - the one thing I hate about summer,

Total on lead walks arent really an option for my dogs I would have to walk to Melbourne and back to tire them out! So we swap our usual bush type snake paradise trail for a boring oval, not ideal but it works.

Our street backs onto a pine forest on one side and bush type land at the end, lovely for snakes! My brother had already seen two this season, ewww

[J...]

As long as your dogs won't stray too far off the path and will come when called, put something noisy on them and you step heavily, the snakes will hear you coming and move away before you get there.

Snakes don't have ears so won't hear you coming. I once heard of one that was lying in the grass & was run over by a ride on lawn mower so I don't believe they always feel vibrations either.

x 2.

There was a snake handler at our local show a few years ago. He explained that because they don't have a skeleton in contact with the ground, they don't feel the vibration. He had his two demo brown snakes who were incredibly feisty, grabbed his snake hook and slammed it into the ground right next to one of the snakes. No reaction at all - was amazing considering just how agitated these snakes were.

[corvus]

As long as your dogs won't stray too far off the path and will come when called, put something noisy on them and you step heavily, the snakes will hear you coming and move away before you get there.

Snakes don't have ears so won't hear you coming. I once heard of one that was lying in the grass & was run over by a ride on lawn mower so I don't believe they always feel vibrations either.

x 2.

There was a snake handler at our local show a few years ago. He explained that because they don't have a skeleton in contact with the ground, they don't feel the vibration. He had his two demo brown snakes who were incredibly feisty, grabbed his snake hook and slammed it into the ground right next to one of the snakes. No reaction at all - was amazing considering just how agitated these snakes were.

Well, he's wrong. See here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/03/04/2179359.htm His snakes have probably been through that demonstration many many times. Just because they don't react to the snake hook hitting the ground near them doesn't mean they are unaware of it.

My dogs walked over the top of a little snake back in early August. They didn't notice it and it was too busy making tracks to bother with biting anyone. Erik heard it and went to investigate and I called him off no worries. This winter we have done lots of walking along the river in amongst the rocks where there's not much of a path and supposedly great snake habitat. We found a dead snake one day, but the two live ones we have seen were both on the path. I think that snakes like paths. Somewhere to sun themselves. Roads at night are a good place to find snakes. During the day, when they are not sunning they are usually in hiding. We like checking rock crevices for critters with a torch. I have seen the odd snake in crevices, but not many. Found a crack with two snakes crammed in, once. They are happy in there. They will just watch you and not budge, even if you poke sticks down to try to move them to get a better look (that was not me!). Lots of smaller snakes hang out in deep leaf litter and we never know about it.

We are not doing bushwalks until next winter, although we might break the rule to visit the river. I am more worried about ticks than snakes. We have seen snakes and they have never given us any trouble. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. Our dogs are easily recalled. Spring and summer are nice down on the beaches, though.

[snake catcher]

Good link corvus, like your username to .

Big corvid fan.

I was going to say that snakes can hear some noises and they feel vibration

but just open corvuses link and it's all there.

The snake handler who said that was not very well informed

at all

and as corvus said,

the snakes used in these snake shows do not react the same as snakes in the bush.

[Sheilaheel02]

I tend to stick to roads or paths when riding horses or walking dogs wherever possible during summer. If I'm out of my yard, the dogs are generally on lead. I lost my beautiful Appaloosa mare to snakebite and while I know I can't prevent everything, I'd rather take whatever precautions I can.

I was walking back up my gravel driveway with a horse in each hand about a fortnight ago, so we would have been making a fair bit of noise and vibration I would have thought. However, my smaller horse (about 14.3hh) startled and as he pulled back I could see a big brown just lying there on the drive! It was basically the same colour as the gravel and was hard to see until it moved. It scared the bejesus out of me and all three of us backed up in a hurry, but it didn't seem to be particularly worried, it took a minute or two before it decided to move on. I think we were pretty lucky that for whatever reason it didn't strike - it was certainly within range.

I have really short (and I mean I scalp it on purpose) grass in my house yard but my puppy disturbed something this morning which looked like a small brown, but by the time I recalled all the dogs back into the house and went to have another look I couldn't find it. All three dogs had been running around earlier in the area and the two foster dogs then spent another 40 odd minutes chasing balls and screaming up and down the place. I've got those repellers all around the edge of the yard, but I honestly don't know if they work or not. I know I've had less snakes close to the house than in previous years though.

[FHRP]

So how does your walking change when the snakes are more active?

A lot. We don't do any forest or bush walks in Summer We are now pounding the pavement, basically walking through our suburb from one mown oval to the next where the dogs can have a good run off lead. My young dogs sire was bitten by a brown snake the other week and even though he isn't local to us, it immediately put a halt to us walking near the creek and less maintained oval in my suburb, an area we all enjoy I hate snakes.