Snake School's Cary Quashen — featured on KTLA, with the rattlesnake rescue covered by the New York Post, CBS, NBC and more.
Led by a professional balanced dog trainer who learned rattlesnake avoidance training from one of the top providers in the country. Scott's also a rattlesnake wrangler trusted on film and TV productions — because a real rattlesnake should only be handled by someone trusted to keep your dog safe, and training should be provided by somebody who's been taught by one of the best in this specific niche.
Our 20-acre primary training facility in the heart of the SCV — wide open terrain with real rattlesnake habitat.
30035 Bouquet Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91350 ↗ Learn more about our locations →"As someone with training experience, I was thoroughly impressed by their methodology — they work at a lower level to find the dog's specific working threshold, which teaches them effectively without traumatizing them."
About 25 focused minutes per dog, every sense trained on its own, 3–4× the course length of a quick clinic — and built from the ground up to be the safer program.
Built in association with Cary Quashen Rattlesnake Wrangling — over 1,300 rattlesnakes caught at people's homes, 350 this year alone. Scott himself works as a professional snake safety officer on major film and TV productions. The people who train your dog handle wild rattlesnakes for a living.
Real rattlesnake musk and shed — the scent your dog actually meets in the wild — not the snake feces or urine some programs substitute for it.
A low-level e-collar paired with positive reinforcement, timed to the exact moment — no hard shocks. We keep 3 professional-grade e-collars on hand so every dog, down to 5-pound puppies, gets a properly fitted collar without ever causing harm.
Every station, every sense, and exactly how a session runs.
See the full program →
Scott built The Snake School by merging three obsessions: a lifelong love of dogs, professional rattlesnake wrangling on film sets, and dead-serious rattlesnake safety. He trained under one of the top programs in the country — until he watched a fang hang out of the side of a double-muzzled rattlesnake's mouth — and walked away to build the program he'd actually want his own dogs to go through: every rattlesnake caged, never muzzled, run by someone who handles wild rattlesnakes for a living.
We use the bare minimum level on the correct sized e-collar to ensure no dogs are ever harmed.
We train your dog to recognize and avoid rattlesnake scent — including the snake's musk and droppings, a major real-world signal in the wild. So a hidden snake gets detected and avoided by smell, before your dog ever sees or hears it — trained across two stations, with proofing.
As your dog approaches, we play adult and baby rattlesnake sounds — isolated, real recordings — through a hidden Bluetooth speaker — training isolated recognition and avoidance of the rattle itself. So even when your dog can't see or smell the snake, they still learn to turn away on sound alone.
For the sight stations we use muzzled non-venomous gopher snakes — both large adults and babies — so your dog learns to recognize snakes of every size and can walk right up to one on the ground, with zero risk. The rattlesnakes always stay caged. There's no such thing as a safe muzzled rattlesnake.
Your dog encounters four live rattlesnake stations — adult, juvenile, and baby, every one securely caged — building to the final den: a cluster of live rattlesnakes coiled together, securely contained, with no prompts, no cues, no corrections. When your dog turns and walks away on its own, this isn't training anymore. It's instinct.
Between the real snakes, we seed the course with decoys — a coiled hose, scattered sticks — and mimic-stations paired with treats. Your dog learns to read shape and movement, stays relaxed, and finishes the course food-motivated and confident.
One-on-one, 12-station rattlesnake avoidance training — with every rattlesnake in secure containment, never muzzled.
Each dog finishes the day with a graduation diploma, a happy family, and a behavior pattern that lasts.
Real feedback from dog owners who trained with us — recapped from their post-training debriefs.
Local veterinarians refer their own clients and professional trainers bring us their own animals — because preventing a rattlesnake bite (a $2,500–$5,000+ emergency) is exactly what they'd want for any dog they care about.
As someone with training experience, I was thoroughly impressed by their methodology. The setup is out in a dirt field — exactly the real-world environment where you'd actually encounter a snake. It was the ultimate test for my three crazy Jack Russells, who go after absolutely anything.
This course is clearly better than any other rattlesnake avoidance training course we've had — safer and more well thought out than what other trainers do, and the effectiveness is superior. Any way a dog encounters a rattlesnake, the Snake School gives it the best possible chance to avoid it and not be bitten.
Scott was incredibly friendly, professional, and knowledgeable. He used live rattlesnakes in a safe, controlled environment, along with scent and sound, to teach dogs to recognize and avoid the danger. It gave me confidence that my dog, Kalani, was getting realistic, effective training. I highly recommend it to anyone with a dog who hikes, camps, and lives in California.
Happy Pets Veterinary Center featured The Snake School to their clients — and brought their own team's dogs through the course.
Photo taken during training for another program
We will never use muzzled venomous rattlesnakes at The Snake School.
Rattlesnakes kept securely in professionally purpose-built containment units.
Every rattlesnake in our course stays securely caged — never muzzled, and never within reach of your dog. Every other full 12-station program we've found instead uses live rattlesnakes with their mouths taped or banded shut, and muzzles slip and fail — handlers get bitten, and the snake behaves unnaturally, so your dog learns the wrong picture. We do it differently, and it shows: more effective, much safer, more humane, less traumatizing, at a better price point, and run by friendlier people.
Our Safety Approach →A peek at our trainer, our handlers, our dogs, and the ranches where we work.
Our 12-station course spends significantly more time with your dog, proofing each sense individually — that level of conditioning takes longer, and it's something you won't get from a $100 course.
We are available to talk 7 days a week, and would love to chat with you. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions.
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