In my teens, one of our working dogs who laboured under the name of Dickens would bounce on the spot if he found a snake in the paddocks. The feed at the time would've been knee high, so Dickens was clearing three feet or so, on the spot.
He would do this a number of times, then pounce, and on the bounce back, he would fling it, the snake, almost with a flick - over his shoulder. Invariably the snake would have a broken spine.
He got the name when, as a pup, he would run/work with his Mum and do this in the middle of a paddock.
We couldn't call him 'Bloody Hell', so Dickens it was, as in - what the dickens is that dog doing now.