My dog may have saved my life while herping

[d_virginiana]

My dog Bear has always been my favorite herping partner. She always finds the snakes/frogs/whatever but never actually chases or attacks them. In fact, she's so helpful that I've pretty much given up herping when I can't take her with me (I find no snakes, so it just ends up being hiking).
Well, on a recent trip we were on one of our favorite paths down near the creek when she started acting funny and circling a wide area along our general path and trying to discourage me from walking there as well.
Turns out that what she was trying to avoid was a nest of newly hatched baby copperheads. Normally I wouldn't say that this was a lifesaving thing, as most of the time the copperheads would just run when we got to close, but the babies were very newly hatched and there were about seven of them in the same area basking, and very well camouflaged; in other words, it would not have been a good idea to walk over them!

Silly little story, but I felt like sharing it :rolleyes:

[Chondro788]

Very cool story, and a good dog!! ;) I bet the little copperheads were cute as ever!!!

[guidofatherof5]

Dogs Rule.
Thanks for posting your story.

[Enneirda.]

Great dog. :D I got a reptile finder too, though she's not as good a Bear yet.

[ConcinusMan]

oh man, no pics? I would love to see that.

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, Bear's a good dog :) She found me a much larger copperhead yesterday, but it was under a nice safe rock. We have so many this year, it's crazy. It's no wonder we're the number one state in the country for bites!

[BLUESIRTALIS]

I've found at least 75 coppers this year. This is a special year for a certain cicada that only emerges like every 13 years and it is one of there favorite snacks.

[guidofatherof5]

Copperheads are a beautiful snake.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Yes they are. Have you seen the spotted morph?

[guidofatherof5]

None. I've yet to see any Copperheads in the wild. Yet.;)

[Sonya610]

I've found at least 75 coppers this year. This is a special year for a certain cicada that only emerges like every 13 years and it is one of there favorite snacks.

Wow...good to know! We just had the little 13 year cicada's here, incredibly noisy little guys; sadly they are pretty much gone now.

Must be a real feast for the animals that like to snack on them, when they started departing for the afterlife there were dead cicada's everywhere! Sheesh even ending up in the isles inside the grocery store.

One in my backyard:
http://www.grayanimalrescue.org/garters/cicada.jpg

[BLUESIRTALIS]

http://www.venomousreptiles.org/data/libraries/35/2289.thumb (http://www.venomousreptiles.org/libraries/showfilepage/2289?offset=2)

Here is a pic of the spotted morph.

[ConcinusMan]

Freaky

[guidofatherof5]

http://www.venomousreptiles.org/data/libraries/35/2289.thumb (http://www.venomousreptiles.org/libraries/showfilepage/2289?offset=2)

Here is a pic of the spotted morph.

Very beautiful.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Very beautiful.

I'm wanting to buy a few, but the price is still way up there. When they come down to around a $1000 then i am going to buy a male because it is a codom trait.

[d_virginiana]

I'm wanting to buy a few, but the price is still way up there. When they come down to around a $1000 then i am going to buy a male because it is a codom trait.

Wow, never thought about owning one. We usually try to stay away from them :rolleyes:
I've seen a few that looked like that spotted one before, and always wondered if they were actually copperheads since they looked so different from the ones we usually see and there were never many of them.

[Sonya610]

I've seen a few that looked like that spotted one before, and always wondered if they were actually copperheads since they looked so different from the ones we usually see and there were never many of them.

See now you shouldn't have said you have "seen a few". Just waited until you saw another one and you could sell it to Infernalis for a cool grand!

[d_virginiana]

See now you shouldn't have said you have "seen a few". Just waited until you saw another one and you could sell it to Infernalis for a cool grand!

Darnit, missed my chance! :p

[RedSidedSPR]

I have a lot of copperheads at my house.. I love 'em but it's not the best thing to have... but i don't kill 'em so i have to keep them.

Awesome dog! mine likes herping with me too.

[Sonya610]

ONE dog may be great for herping. A pack of dogs is just the opposite. The 2-3 times they have found a snake in the yard (that I know of) the pack of them barking at it and dashing at it means I never get to see what it is (just a glimpse) especially if it is in tall grass.

I am too busy grabbing them and dragging them into the house in case the snake is venomous, when that's done and I race back out to see the snake for myself it is always long gone. : (

[RedSidedSPR]

Yeah, I rarely take mine out because he gets so exited. But he;s a bird dog ( a britany, formally known as a britany spaniel) so he'll just freeze and point, or stay back a little sometimes... maybe that's because he expects me to shoot them so he can retrieve like when I hunt (rare, just some squirrels and such for his sake)... But often he gets too exited.