Bronson is a retriever extraordinaire. Ducks are his specialty, and sometimes cell phones and other out-of-place odds and ends. But this 11-year-old black lab recently came up to his owners with a startling quarry: A deadly copperhead snake.
As you can see by the photo to the left, the snake was coiled around his snout. The viper’s head appears to be clamped firmly in Bronson’s mouth. Bronson looks rather forlorn at his predicament.
This Australian dog was lucky his owners, Deborah and Peter Allen, were home when he arrived with his frightening muzzle. While they quickly tried to figure out what to do, Deborah grabbed a camera and snapped this shot to document the event.
The Herald-Sun reports the extremely obedient Bronson stood stock still — rigid, in fact — because he has been trained not to move his head while carrying anything he retrieves.
His owners were able to use his excellent training to help them get him out of his scary situation alive. Deborah put a chaff bag on the ground and pulled it up over the bottom of the snake and released its coil from Bronson’s snout. Then she gave the command.
“And as soon I said ‘Give’ he dropped it right into the bag and we sealed up the ends,” she says.
They rushed Bronson to their local vet, where tests showed he had been bitten at some point during his adventure. He spent four days on a drip at the vet’s, and is now fully recovered. He has undoubtedly struck slithering objects from his retrieving repertoire permanently. We hope…
