Thursday, May 31, 2012

Learning Lessons

Lesson number one is for me. Once you have caught a snake; kill it! This was a chicken snake that was caught in the bird netting around my pond. It scared Chili and she hollered. Then I saw it but decided since I was going to eat pizza, I would take care of it when I came back. I came back and it was gone. That is the first time I have seen a snake get out of bird netting. The next night just guess where the snake was. In my shed where the chickens lay eggs; eating an egg. My brother came down and killed the snake.

Then Oscar was after it. I don't know if Oscar has ever encountered a snake before, but he knew it was bad. Skylar just walked past it to bring me a stick to throw.

Now Molly is learning this is a bad thing and you have to be careful. I've got to tell you though, both of these dogs would have been bitten if the snake had been alive. I guess you have to learn. When I was young I saw our catahoula curs kill rattlesnakes. It was something to see.

Okay, we got this.

Here is another problem. You might notice it is inside the pen where I keep my little biddies. They are locked up in the cage at night where big bad critters can't get them.

And here is the remedy. He is in the cage and Molly had no idea what this is. She does know it is something she is not getting close to. She kept making a wide circle. That stupid little Oscar would have been right next to the cage. He has no fear.

Time to say bye. He's off to another location.

4 comments:

LindaG said...

Wow.
I wondered how to train animals about snakes.
Glad the Raccoon didn't get your chickens!

I'm annoyed to see Blogger brought back the stupid wavy verification crap.

Jen said...

Snakes scare me... glad you caught that raccoon before it ate any chickies.

www.FarmLifeLessons.blogspot.com said...

We've trained our dogs to let go of anything or to stand clear of something by the harsh command of "DROP IT." We practice while playing catch. Even if they have a ball or stick in their mouth, we say, "DROP IT" and they do it. But, it took a lot of work to get to that point. We did have a snake get in our house a few weeks ago and the Australian Shepherd immediately went to pick it up, but only because it was at my daughter's feet. He actually took it in his jaws and flung it with a hard shake into the opposite direction. There was no time to yell "DROP IT" and he was on guardian instinct mode. Dogs and snakes are a scary combination. I hope my dogs don't ever get bit by a snake! You sure had more than your share of critters around to shake things up! Glad everything worked out with the snake being caught and the racoon being deported!

Lana

Miss Lizzy said...

That was one big snake! Scary looking! Funny how fearless Oscar is!
How did the raccoon get in??!