Exploring Life & Business with Cody Will of Rattlesnake Ready

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cody Will.

Hi Cody, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
I grew up in a rural area where snake encounters were common. I was always fascinated by nature, especially the creatures most people seemed to loathe. My first job in high school was working in a pet store, and a customer came in one day inquiring about rattlesnake aversion training for dogs. I told her I hadn’t heard of it but that I’d look into it. When I discovered what it was and that there was likely a need for it, I decided to take the plunge and try it myself. After all, I grew up with dogs and absolutely loved reptiles. Little did I know the need was far greater than I could have imagined. After some careful research, prayer, and planning – I was able to develop a full-time business and reputation for the service. Years later, we’ve trained thousands of dogs to stay away from rattlesnakes, thus protecting them from the horrific, expensive aftermath of a snakebite. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As you can imagine, working with live rattlesnakes is the nature of the business, which poses certain unique and unforgiving risks. While I’ve been bitten by a few dozen dogs over the past decade, I have only been envenomated once by a rattlesnake. Like many other bite stories from herpetologists, it was completely my fault. While I wanted to have a perfect record of no bites in my entire career, I don’t regret the things I learned from my bite experience. Thankfully, my bite was relatively mild. I’ve kept all my fingers and plan to keep it that way as best I can. Aside from the risks involved working daily around venomous snakes and people’s pets (and all the normal challenges of starting a business) – it’s been a relatively smooth road. Our customers are typically wonderful people who care deeply for the safety of their pets, and they do quite a bit of talking with other dog owners about our services. Can’t beat word-of-mouth advertising! It’s also very rewarding to see pet owners walk away from the training with better peace of mind and often a newfound respect for rattlesnakes, too. Unfortunately, as word spreads, the pictures going around of our muzzled training rattlesnakes get shared out of context, and people jump to conclusions that we are abusing snakes. In reality, these are some of the most valuable and well-cared-for reptiles around – and we encourage a visit to our facility to prove this. We use a special medical tape that doesn’t harm the snake, the snakes are only out for training for brief periods, and the workload is spread over several snakes that we rotate through. We’ve had the same training snakes for years and still have the original western diamondback that we started the business in Arizona with. The particular specimen, named “Apache,” is likely 20 years+ old and still plays a role in teaching dogs to be safe. 

We’ve been impressed with Rattlesnake Ready, LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I essentially operate two sister businesses on our property. We have a licensed reptile zoo we call Rattlesnake Ranch AZ – which refers to our property as a whole and our rattlesnake exhibit. Adjacent to the nature center is where we have our training grounds for dogs. This is where our original business (Rattlesnake Ready) continues to train dogs in rattlesnake aversion throughout the year. Using an extremely realistic and exciting 4-step process, we carefully train dogs to avoid rattlesnakes and their cues – including their scent and sounds. While there’s a few businesses that also offer their own versions of this training, we completely specialize in it and offer an unmatched process involving real snakes, plus some extras. After dogs and their owners complete the training in our desert-landscaped space, visitors can also check out the zoo afterwards. Our showroom houses what is likely the largest and most diverse rattlesnake exhibit in the country. While Arizona is a hotspot for wild rattlesnake diversity, our collection has specimens from the rest of the United States down into Central and South America, too. While the dog training is our primary and most popular service, we also host several educational events at our facility and allow visitors to see the snakes by appointment. While we built the exhibit to house our “work” snakes, we wanted to go big and serve a far greater purpose than that. Field trips, presentations, classes, research, among other activities, regularly take place here. I guess you could say some people come here to get “Rattlesnake Ready,” too! 

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I think our love for pets, people, and wildlife is evident. When combined with our professionalism and the quality of our operation, we’ve been able to develop quite the reputation. It’s been a rewarding journey watching it grow, especially seeing the impact our services really have in the real world. We regularly hear great success stories of dogs (and people) making safe decisions around rattlesnakes, and that’s what keeps us going. We really think our business produces an outcome that ultimately helps people, their pets, and wildlife live as harmoniously as possible. We care deeply about each snake here each dog that visits, and want to see people leave more comfortable and educated about snakes – and this is most of our customers’ experience. 

Pricing:

• $200 for new dogs (never been through snake avoidance training)
• $100 for follow-ups (testing/reinforcement for dogs who have undergone training before)
• Discounts available for dog owners with more than 1 dog
• The dogs learn in just ONE 30-minute lesson, but 1-2 annual follow-ups are recommended to be certain.
• Zoo visits are $6-$11 for admission to see the snakes. Tours also available.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rattlesnakeready.com (dog training) and www.rattlesnakeranchaz.com (rattlesnake zoo)
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rattlesnakeranch.az/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RattlesnakeReady/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAkHNbjxFhwzgyA-3j7uwJA

Image Credits
Trent Adamson Photography