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I think this dog has been tricked so many times that he's used to the toy snake prank they keep pulling on him. He was not phased at all and infact you looked elsewhere to check and went back to sleeping.
But speaking of real snakes meeting dogs, are dogs afraid?
I think almost all dogs are freaked out by snakes. Some probably have it built in or at least I think they do, but I guess not every dog express their fear in the same way. Some breeds seem like they would be more cautious than others.
The fear that dogs have of snakes isn't always evident to the average person. A dog may bark at a snake from far away or freeze up and will not move toward it if they feel threatened. Just look at the dog when they spot a snake. They've changed from their normal body posture to a tense, rigid position. It's also interesting to think that this fear is instinctual and has been passed down from their wild ancestors who avoided venomous snakes to survive. But I've noticed that some dogs don't seem to have received that same "warning gene" for the lack of a better work, so they approach snakes with curiosity instead of being scared.
Puppies especially have no idea what is going on when they see a snake and they usually approach them like they would any other new or unfamiliar thing, with far too much confidence and no concern for safety. But the older dogs are generally far more cautious, though not necessarily so.
But I'm also thinking of whether dogs fear the way the snake moves or the snake itself, because the way snakes move is not something that dogs experience on a regular basis so probably the strangeness.
In any case if your dog has a fear of snakes, you should consider that to be a good quality in the relationship you have with your dog, it's certainly better than having a dog that is not afraid, but then it complicates walking the dog in certain areas.
