How old should a pup, new dog need to be for snake avoidance training? I knew the answer before, but can't remember. I am sure it depends on the individual dog too somewhat.
TIA.

I would say a year. They are going to get a pretty heavy training collar stim as part of the process, so if they arent fairly well collar conditioned, it can set your young dog back

I don’t do it, until they are very confident in the field on birds.

Before their first hunting season and then a refresher each year afterward for a couple years has worked for me. Problem is if they get bit before training some dogs will try and kill every snake they come across afterward. Have a buddy that has one that has been hit 3 times, dumbass dog killed the second two and almost died this last time.

Sniper, Moon, my young one was about 8 months old when I took him to a de snaking seminar. Pup had been bitten about three weeks prior in training and that factored in my decision. Was already collar conditioned. Being a mentally tough pup factored heavily into my decision at that age. That is the youngest pup I have taken to a de-snaking. My older dog Cricket was mentally softer at that age. He was a year old when I took him. By the time you have your pup collar conditioned, you will have a read on it’s mental toughness to decide when the time is right.
Have fun with the new pup.

Thanks for the input y'all. I looked back on the forum to see when I had snake avoidance done on Dash. He was about 17 months old. For some reason I thought it was earlier than that. Dash already had hunt test titles on him by then. Rosie is showing to be even more bold as Dash was, so I should be able to plan on having Wayne take care of it when he starts his 2024 snake avoidance training season after next. I have had two dogs in the past snake bit. Both recovered just fine. And one of Dash's siblings in Florida died from a Rattlesnake bite. It's always on my mind while hunting.

I took my two V’s just this past Sunday. First time for both. My male is 2 and my female is 11 months.
It’s been about 11-12 years since I took one of my Vizsla’s to snake avoidance training.
These two went down, exactly how I remembered my last three going, very curious at first but then after the first zap they were done. On the second pass I couldn’t drag them anywhere within 15 feet of the snake.
My last three vizslas all got one refresher course and wouldn’t go near the snakes so I never took them back. The lab that went after my pups on a refresher class went after the snake and was about to bite it right before it got zapped.
I’ve been fortunate over the last 20 years to not have any of my dogs get hit by snakes, I’ve had a few close calls with rattlers that laid coiled up and silent while me and the dogs passed.

I always get my dogs a dose of rattlesnake vaccine each year, in addition to snake avoidance training.

Mine always got theirs in the backyard. They knew about snakes.