Scott founded The Snake School for Dogs and runs the program — a professional rattlesnake handler with five years handling venomous snakes alongside his father, wrangler Cary Quashen, plus many years working with dogs. Hundreds of dogs have been through the course he built. It isn't a dog-training operation that figured out snakes — it's the other way around, and it shows in the dog's response.
Built from what works — and what doesn't. Scott trained under what is probably the top rattlesnake avoidance trainer in the country, made the course safer, and built a team where everyone is both a rattlesnake person and a dog person.
Scott Quashen is the founder and Rattlesnake Avoidance Trainer (Director), and a professional rattlesnake handler. Cary Quashen is the most trusted rattlesnake wrangler in Santa Clarita — together they have caught over 1,300 rattlesnakes at people's homes in Santa Clarita alone — 350 this year alone.
Scott's specialities include scent work, sound work, and e-collar calibration — safe, low-level corrections calibrated to each individual dog.
It sounds impossible. It isn't — it's just what happens when a dog learns rattlesnake avoidance from an actual rattlesnake, run by an actual rattlesnake handler who's also a professional balanced dog trainer. Every dog we've put through the course has stayed snake-safe in real-world encounters. To our knowledge, not one has been bitten after going through the course.
Long before The Snake School existed, Scott had two constants: a lifelong love of dogs, and life on a ranch property in Santa Clarita — the same open, rattlesnake-country terrain his own dogs got to run free on. That love of dogs goes back to age 5, when his first dog became his best friend, sparking a lifetime passion for learning canine behavior so he could understand and communicate with his own dogs better — and build a life that let him spend more time with them.
Living out there means living with rattlesnakes, and Scott wanted his own dogs to enjoy that ranch life without it ending in an emergency vet bill or worse. He learned 12-station rattlesnake avoidance training hands-on under what is probably the top rattlesnake avoidance trainer in the country — until he saw the real safety problems with muzzled rattlesnakes up close, and decided the whole thing could be done better.
So instead of walking away from dog training, he built it right: not a wrangler who added a dog-training side business, and not a dog trainer who bought a snake, but a professional rattlesnake wrangler and a professional rattlesnake avoidance dog trainer, built into the same person — running a program built on balanced training, with every rattlesnake securely caged and never muzzled, working from the same ranch he wanted his own dogs to be safe on.
"This is a way improved version of rattlesnake avoidance training for dogs. I have a highly anxious and sensitive dog, and Scott handled this very well. My dog left non-traumatized, and highly prepared for rattlesnake encounters."
"Baxter and Stevie were trained very well. They're as prepared as they possibly could be for a real-world rattlesnake encounter."
"Thank you guys for training my German Shepherd — the rattlesnake training could not have gone better or been performed better."
Scott's dog-training reputation reaches beyond pet owners — bird dogs, gun dogs, and working retrievers come through the course too, since off-leash hunting dogs spend hours nose-down in exactly the terrain rattlesnakes live in.
Same trainer, same standard: every rattlesnake securely caged, never muzzled, and a course built by someone who handles wild rattlesnakes for a living.
Working dogs don't get to sit this one out — a service dog trained to detect cancer, or a K9 partner on duty, still walks the same terrain everyone else's dog does, and can't afford to get it wrong.
Scott adapts the course to each dog's job and training history rather than running every dog through an identical script — which is how Gracie, a service dog with special needs, went through the program and came out doing exactly what she was trained to do: working mode, pushing her handler to safety.
Whether you're deciding between a ranch class and a private on-location visit, have a question about your dog before booking, or just aren't sure where to start — reach out. I read every message myself, and I'm the one who calls or texts you back.
Every weekend at our private Santa Clarita ranch — a multi-station, scent-first rattlesnake avoidance course built around the standard you just read about.
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