# Forum Home Renovation General Odds & Sods  Best dog breed for detering snakes??

## DBR

Gday, 
My family and i purchased a house that backs onto bushland. According to the neighbours we would see one or two black snakes each year during summer. Whilst i have no concern for myself i don't want my children walking around without noticing and stepping on a friend. 
We are considering purchasing a pup simply because we want a dog, however if i can find a breed that barks like crazy when they see a snake that would be fantastic. Please don't get me wrong, the last thing i want is for our dog to be bitten by a snake,, however if we are going to get a dog anyways it would be great to have one that alerts us to this danger... 
I have been told jack russells are good but I'm not a fan of this breed, any other suggestions. 
thanks,

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## OBBob

One of the facilities that I work with on occasions has  cat, which in the course of it's tenure has caught and killed a few snakes (probably getting through its nine lives I suspect)!  
Sorry ... that doesn't answer your question. I imagine a smart breed of dog could be trained to recognise a snake using a rubber toy.

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## phild01

I was taught as a kid to watch for snakes.

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## Marc

My dog's name is Twelvegage   :Smilie:

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## ringtail

No dog has a predisposition to bark at anything. You can train one to bark at anything though. The best thing you can do educate your kids and keep your yard clean and tidy and have lots of open grass. Snakes hate crossing open grass as they get picked off by birds. Backing on to bush means should also have lots of birds. Kookaburras and eagles clean up the snakes well. Birds themselves are a great indicator of snakes. The noisy minors go off their nuts if a snake is on the ground. If they are black snakes leave them alone as they kill the browns. If you get a dog don't get a terrier ( jack russell etc...) as they hunt anything that moves. Gets them into all sorts of trouble. Snake bite treatment at the vet is $1800 minimum.

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## OBBob

> My dog's name is Twelvegage

  Because you shot him whilst you were both chasing the same snake?

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## phild01

> The noisy minors go off their nuts if a snake is on the ground.

  Horrid things go off their nuts at just about anything especially bush turkeys.

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## PlatypusGardens

I did a job for a bloke who had two Jack Russells.
He showed me photos of the remains of a 2M eastern brown they caught, ripped to shreds and were playing tug-of-war with when he came outside to see what all the racket was about. 
They had bitten the head clean off and were playing with the middle part.
He never found the tail.   
Foxies and Jacks are the best snake catchers, I believe.
Many dogs will approach a snake but they ^ (mostly) go in for the kill straight away.  
As for a snake "alarm bell", that depends from dog to dog, not breed.
You can probably TEACH a dog to bark when he/she spots a snake however. 
I always know when there's a snake in the backyard as our Staffy has a specific "snake bark"   :Smilie:

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## PlatypusGardens

> If you get a dog don't get a terrier ( jack russell etc...)

  
Meh

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## jimfish

I had one on Saturday get in the way as I was digging, unfortunately I accidentally severed its head with my shovel.only the second one we've seen here in the 5 years we've been here. Agree with keeping the grass down and don't leave anything around they can hide in.

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## OBBob

> I had one on Saturday get in the way as I was digging, unfortunately I accidentally severed its head with my shovel.only the second one we've seen here in the 5 years we've been here. Agree with keeping the grass down and don't leave anything around they can hide in.

  Jack Russell?  :Tongue:

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## jimfish

Tiger 🐍

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## gpkennedy

Jimfish, we found a tiger snake at a school where I taught. It was discovered  just before the go-home bell. Potentially kids everywhere. I rang the council to send out a snake catcher. Protected species I was told. By the time I got off the phone a gung-ho teacher had killed the beast. I rang the snake catcher and told him "no need to come". Knowing that it was a protected species I was reluctant to offer details. He asked "How come?" Trying to keep the conversation short I made a brief reply, but the bloke got in in one. All I said was, "No problem, the snake has been spayed."

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## ringtail

> I did a job for a bloke who had two Jack Russells.
> He showed me photos of the remains of a 2M eastern brown they caught, ripped to shreds and were playing tug-of-war with when he came outside to see what all the racket was about. 
> They had bitten the head clean off and were playing with the middle part.
> He never found the tail.   
> Foxies and Jacks are the best snake catchers, I believe.
> Many dogs will approach a snake but they ^ (mostly) go in for the kill straight away.  
> As for a snake "alarm bell", that depends from dog to dog, not breed.
> You can probably TEACH a dog to bark when he/she spots a snake however. 
> I always know when there's a snake in the backyard as our Staffy has a specific "snake bark"

  My two kelpies killed a small brown and bit it in two. We came home to see both halves of the snake going nuts on the ground and the dogs looking well chuffed. Well, we took the two halves down to vet and he crapped himself. After said crapping he drew some blood from each dog and put the stop watch on. If the blood doesn't clot after around 9 minutes they have been bitten. One clotted at 7 and the other at 10. All good and thankfully spared spending a small fortune. This was at Sunshine Beach ( Noosa) and that particular vet has the largest stock of brown snake anti venom on the east coast.

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## Uncle Bob

I've got a Jack Russell, quite like this:  
But after a recent trip to the vet he looked more like this:     :Biggrin:

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## phild01

> I've got a Jack Russell, quite like this:  
> But after a recent trip to the vet he looked more like this:

   :Laugh bounce:

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## PlatypusGardens

> Tiger 

  JimFish
TigerSnake
SpongeBob
SquarePants   :Party:  :Trumpet:  :Yippy:  :Laugh bounce spin:

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## notvery

DBR having the same question in my head for the last 18 months, for the same reason as yourself, ive done a lot of research on dogs. there is no definitive answer but if you HAVE to have a definitive answer then the "Australian Terrier" is the dog for you. can be a bit of a nutter.... well it is a terrier. it was basically bred for the job.  
the downside is like all terriers can be great with kids.. and in that case its probably rubbish with snakes... or visa versa. really likes company so you might need a companion dog or needs to be well in with your kids for playtime.
probably best to just get a dog that is good with the kids and its plodding around the yard will deter the snakes, they arent interested in eating you or your kids they just dont like being surprised and cornered.  
havent seen any this year....yet.

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## SilentButDeadly

If you want the perfect breed of dog to dissuade snakes then go for the well known disposable breed known as the Bitzer.  Commonly available in a wide ranges of shapes, sizes and colours from the local council pound or vet.  
Frankly...you'd be better off with a guinea pig.  Dogs don't do snake alarm duties at all well.  A guinea pig or three on the other hand will on sight of a snake with either freeze, run like Hell, squeal or all three. As a last resort, it'll throw itself down the throat of a snake in an attempt to choke it for you...and you will definitely see that!  The bonus is that they will mow your lawn whilst doing it - double bonus. 
Other than that...keep the yard tidy (to prevent cover for the skinks, small snakes and frogs that black snakes really enjoy eating) and dissuade mice/rats from taking up residence.  After that the very activity of kids and the like will deter your average hungry serpent.

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## OBBob

Rofl

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## enasni

Maybe try a goose? At least the kids won't cry so much if it gets bitten and died. And they do makes heck of a racket as guard animals

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