Don't Always Shoot the Snake!!

[TxHuntermn]

Tragic evening on this Monday. We were having an early season quail expedition at a friends deep South Texas ranch. We had put up a really nice covey, and three shooters took four birds on the rise. Really thick "cactus-ey" , cover. The handler let out two labs and three English cockers, in addition to the two pointers that were on the ground. The horde of dogs were with myself and the property owner looking for our three birds, when the third shooter, who was about 80 yards to our right, fired a shot. The retrievers, (the cockers and labs) hauled ass over there to get what they thought was a freshly shot bird, and surrounded the other hunter. He had killed one little rattlesnake, and was in the process of reloading to shoot the other two there with the first one, when the dogs surrounded him. It was really hot, and windy, and the dogs in their excitement did not scent the snakes. Cookie, our hosts 15 lb cocker took a strike in the ribcage, and was dead within 30 minutes, even with antivenin being administered within 5 minutes and a shot of dex, and a good icing down. Cookie was 11, and an incredible dog, with well over 2000 retrieves. She was also the dog that went home with our host to his family every trip out.

Moral of the story, after 40 plus years of handling dogs ,and hunting wild quail, both our host and myself made the mistake of assuming the third shooter knew what to do in that situation. We did not do the perfunctory "rules talk" prior to setting out.

When you encounter a poisonous snake, particularly when retrieving dogs are on the ground, yell SNAKE!!! so the dog handler, and the other shooters, know what the situation is, and make every effort to keep yourself between the dogs and the snake, until the dogs are either kenneled, or at least have hands in their collars, before shooting the offending reptile. Retrievers in particular are going to go to a gunshot. In this case the hunter did kill the little snake he was shooting at, but there were two more there, and he knew it. In the case of a big single snake, unless you tear his head from his body with your shot, that snake is still VERY capable of delivering a lethal bite. I have seen rattlers with the last third of their length missing, make solid strikes on dogs and snake boots. I have also seen a dog pick up a snake head, cut from the snakes body, and take one in the mouth.

Sorry to get on my soapbox. This is the worst time of year for snakes down here, and a cool head in a tense situation can save a dogs life.


Me and Cookie from a hunt there a couple of years ago.

RIP Cookie

[Mills]

Sorry to hear the news. You can never be too safe and I never tire of the safety lecture before the hunt

[BS]

I completely agree. We had to shoot a Prairie Rattlesnake in South Dakota last week.
-Brett

[Kentucky Bird Hunter]

What a tragic story, Mark, but thanks for sharing it. We can never be too safe or too cautious when we are in the field with our dogs and other hunters. Even if it is not snake country, there are all kinds of risks and basic safety rules that should be reviewed prior to a hunt.

Thanks for the reminder. The hearts of all of us dog lovers go out to your friend on the loss of Cookie.

Dave

[Double Lab]

That just put a knot in my stomach Mark. Really, really sorry to hear about Cookie.

[10ga Hammer]

Loss of a dog is always heart breaking. To lose one like that is horrible.
So sorry to hear such sad news.

[Sara LeFever]

So sorry to hear that! Thank you for sharing the details, I learned a lot, and hopefully it spreads the word to others.

RIP Cookie.

[charlie cleveland]

i too am sad about your loss....charlie

[C.O.B.]

Losing a dog to any set of circumstances is tragic enough but to lose Cookie in this manner is horrifying to me. Never assume someone knows the rules.

I appreciate you sharing this experience and maybe by doing so Cookie has saved a dog or two.

[TxHuntermn]

It is interesting that the “3rd hunter” is a guy that I have known for 25 years, and hunted quail many many times with at his place, and other ranches. At his place, we have never used dedicated retrievers on the quail truck. He always used guides that had retrieve broke pointing dogs, including every dog i ever trained and hunted with. I never had dedicated retrievers, just fetch broke Setters for 30 years, and the last 15 or 18 years, Vizslas. So he was not accustomed to the circus of having several other dogs down with the pointing dogs......

Which just further edifies the importance of defining the rules of the game for that day, and according to the wishes of either the host of the shoot, or the outfitter, if such is the case.

Shooter number 3 is beside himself with guilt, but the blame is not all his, it is our fault for not pointing thie practice out.