The dogs found this, about one foot from the house:
Yep, it's a timber rattler. You can't see the rattles in this picture (although you can in these other ones by Gretchen), but it had three.
So I put it in a box. It didn't like that: it really rattled. We drove it to a better spot in the woods, where it's very happy now.
Good dogs, Yellow Dog and Brown Dog! They notified us but did not try to bite the snake.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 1 June 2011.
-jsq
Update 8:45 AM 3 July 2011: Fixed picture link and added link to flickr set with Gretchen's additional pictures.
My American bulldog SAM was bitten by one in my back yard a couple of years ago. 2 vials of anti venom and $1200 later he was fit as a fiddle. Beautiful creatures, but not a fan.
Posted by: Julie Bowland | July 02, 2011 at 10:22 PM
Our dogs have taken on a beaver, a raccoon, and several rattlesnakes.
They won all those. (Beaver is tasty, by the way.)
Then they tried a nest of cottonmouth moccassins. Not so happy; the dogs
got all swole up and sad looking. Significant vet bill.
This year one of them tried a copperhead. Same result.
And the other one tried a rattlesnake and lost. Same result.
Finally they seem to have learned to alert us but don't attack snakes.
Good result!
-jsq
Posted by: jsqrisk | July 02, 2011 at 10:43 PM
Huh. Why does the picture link to a video titled "Dr. Dennis Marks honored by DPG 25 June 2011"?
Posted by: Andrew A. Gill | July 03, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Good question! Fixed now, plus pictures by Gretchen showing the rattles. -jsq
Posted by: jsqrisk | July 03, 2011 at 09:02 AM