Snake whispering (the knack, savvy)

[bcbob]

Didn't mean to call you Tony, Ryan. Type and think too fast for my own good. Read too many posts. Talked to too many folks. Sometimes forget my own name, and the way to the bathroom. Thanks for overlooking it.

Bob

[joey]

...you can also tell a LOT about a person by how they treat/respond to animals.

Abraham Lincolin said that you can tell about a man by the way he kept his barn---it should be in better shape than his own house.

[tonyj]

We seem to have run out of gas a little early on this fascinating, and highly interesting thread.

Not enough intrigue I suspect.

Back to 'snake whispering'.

A number of closely related issues came to mind when I was thinking of the 'attitude', 'knack' or 'savvy' that some of us display in varying degrees, when handling or interacting with our snakes or horses.

Firstly how do our friends who keep and raise 'hots', react to this topic? You people more than all others must have some thoughts on this subject.

It's one thing to get nipped by a young python or boa when we are practicing our 'powers of positive thought' as it only hurts a little if things go wrong, and a couple of drops of spilled blood is neither here nor there. We'll get the knack of 'mind' over 'snakemind' eventually. So we persevere.

We hope that the snake will eventually settle down and become aware of the 'non threatening' and 'love' filled vibes that we are feverishly transmitting to the little monster.

It is however no major deal if we fail or if the snake does not 'clue in'. We merely label that particular snake as 'aggressive' or 'unhandleable', - or perhaps we trade the little @$$#@ off!.

It certainly isn't our fault if the snake is 'unwhisperable' is it?.

Anyway back to topic.

How do you 'hot ' keepers overcome your natural fears and free handle your venomous reptiles, as the gentleman is seen doing in the current 'black mamba' thread?

Surely you have to be 100% certain that you are in control. The snake must also be made to feel calm and not feel any stress, otherwise all hell could break loose. How do you do it?

Can a snake be calmed by your 'attitude' and 'methods' to the point you feel safe?

And, my last point refers to those people who perform with real live rattlesnakes as part of their religious gatherings.

The snakes being held are seemingly within striking distance, yet on the videos that I have seen, no one gets tagged.

I know it takes 20 hours of filming to produce 1 hour of viewing but I hesitate to think that the producers are leaving multiple writhing bodies around the church in an effort to produce 1 hour of family viewing.

Is this perhaps the ultimate example of 'faith' or 'positive thinking' overcoming what ought to be an extremely dangerous situation?

I believe that unlike Eastern 'snake charmer' snakes, these rattlesnakes are not defanged or milked. How is it done? Can anyone do it? Can anyone explain this to me?

I would be interested to hear more on this whole topic, as I said in an earlier thread there is lots of food for thought here.