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My dogs have a significant role in the care, supervision, and protection of the outdoor reptiles I keep at home. I believe there are situations where aversion-oriented training would be useful, but I would be risking trade-offs that I consider to be elements of role and personality as things are. Some of my dogs bring me errant tortoise and turtle hatchlings as one example of the services they provide. They also rush off or alert me to perceived predators. The largest part is patrol and alert of troubles that involve tortoise behaviors themselves. If a dog can detect nesting, new burrowing activity (there is a flinging of dirt that the dogs get excited by), a flipping event, a territorial battle, or breeding, I am alerted often. The flip alerts have saved several tortoises and the digging alerts have prevented escapes. They also alert me to newcomers. Both intentional and unintentional. I use some spacious pens. They are not fancy or pretty by design (more like functionally industrial), but they tend to look lush during some portions of the year thanks to plant growth and the large areas the pens cover. I get many visiting creatures. Wild gopher tortoises live on the property and on adjacent sections of land (outside of the pens) and Florida box turtles visit every now and then. When one of these comes to the pens (for food, mates, battles, or perhaps wandering), the dogs let me know there is something new present. They also let me know when there is a new tortoise added even though I am the person who added it. After about three days, the dogs settle in with the idea that the new animals belong there.
My oldest female corgi will bring me hatchling tortoises that have either escaped their primary confines (the first barrier) or if she finds them hatching and emerging from a nest I have missed. My Vallhund will bring me snakes and lizards (anoles and skinks) when they are too sluggish to flee. My "cowboy corgi" and Vallhund will spearhead the alerts. Their son's role is as of yet undefined, but he has been providing a variety of alerts that apes some from each parent. The older corgi cannot be bothered with alerts these days.
I have partnered projects as well and at least one dog at one site offers some protective benefit (and both dogs at that site have had some habituation to both the project-related reptiles and some non-project-oriented wildlife).
I selected breeds and a mix (and in one case created a mix) that were directed towards interaction with our animals both great and small. Raising each from a tiny puppy, they have been repeatedly introduced and habituated to a wide variety of animals. While I certainly would not want them to become harmed by some forms of wildlife, I think I kind of have to accept the risks along with the benefits I have mentioned or risk losing some elements. Back when we had small parrot types while living in the Midwest, the birds used the corgi as a taxi from room to room and she would also try to nurse baby rabbits that she would find. I want them to be safe, but I am also very hesitant to dilute or remove anything that I perceive as conditionally positive from their behavioral identities. I have come to accept the bad with the good.
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