My dad lived into his 90's and he lived where his back yard backed up to the woods and had several pecan trees in this yard. He always had a dog usually a rat terrier mix. He spent many hours training these little dogs to kill snakes, he would find non poisonous snake and through it on the dog, he said once the snake bit the dog, he became a snake killer right quick! They would go to the garden with him and take care of any snakes they ran across. He liked to watch these dogs try and catch squirrels, he said they would taunt the dogs, and knew exactly how far they could get from a tree, and still make it back before the dog could catch them!