• Level 2 Class Graduation with Summit - You must complete at least one Level 2 class within our program before advancing to Snake Avoidance class. This is to set all of our students up for success and allow our Snake Avoidance classes to be focused on advanced skills. If you enroll in a Snake Avoidance class as your first service with us, we will ask you to reschedule to a Level 2 class first.

If you believe that you and your dog warrant an exception to this policy based on your previous training together, please contact us before enrolling to obtain instructor approval!

Note: There are no prerequisites for the online self-study version of our Snake Avoidance course.

Snake Avoidance is taught with positive reinforcement by focusing on what we want our dogs to do when they find a snake. The most useful behaviors are those that create space between the snake and the dog while alerting the owner to the presence of the snake. This course teaches the components of building an alert behavior that creates distance away from the snake, and then putting that alert behavior on the cue of the sight, scent, and sound of the snake.

You will need snake cuing supplies such as snake sheds, a decoy snake, a bluetooth speaker or phone, and possibly a few other props, depending on what you’re teaching your dog to do as an alert behavior. Oh, and treats or toys too! In the first week of the online course, we include links where you can purchase or find snake-specific props that you will need in later weeks of the course.

While we focus on snake avoidance for rattlesnake species found in Colorado (where Summit & Amy have their home bases), the concepts taught in this course can be applied to venomous snakes or poisonous creatures of many species. If you know a little bit about the types of dangerous creatures in your area, you can create a scent, sight, and sound (if applicable) cue picture most similar to that species, and use that for the cue for your dog’s recall and alert behavior.

For the safety of our students and ourselves, and in compliance with local laws, we do not use live snakes during our snake avoidance classes. We do use snake shed sourced from local rattlesnake specimens, and a taxidermy rattlesnake decoy (as well as other types of decoys).

The online course is designed to give you step-by-step instructions and support for Amy’s Snake Avoidance protocols - the same protocols we work through in-person! The main difference is that you will be setting up practices (using the snake materials we will help you source in the first week of the class) for yourself, instead of having built-in practice through an in-person workshop.

This 6-week online course (with hours of video support!) helps you and your dog to build your Snake Avoidance skills with thoroughness and lots of practice along the way.

In the first week of the online course we help students to source materials that they will need to practice at home like snake shed, snake visual decoy, and snake sound. If you get stuck anywhere along the way, you have access to our Student Community Facebook group for asking general questions, or a virtual training lesson with the Summit team.

This online course covers a training protocol for teaching your dog Snake Avoidance skills; just like with all training, individual results will depend on the implementation of your training plan. Taking this course does not guarantee that your dog will not get bitten by a rattlesnake (or other snake), but we know it will give you and your dog skills to work together to avoid them!