Relax...you've got a pair of winners. I started out with a 5 ft male black pine from the eastbay vivarium 3 years ago after a 25 year hiatus from reptile keeping. I checked him out very carefully, purchasing on the second visit and declining the adult female offered with him because she was spitting, hissing, musking, striking so much that the store clerk dropped her on the floor!
Oh well, I thought I've got the tame one and brought him home waiting out his shed to handle him. Wrong! He was a total monster for the first three weeks I had him! Bit me three times, almost took my glasses off on one occasion when I opened his cage! Called him Satan for about a week and almost took him back to ebv!
Anyway the short of it is this snake turned out to become the sweetest snake anybody would care to keep and I have no hesitation now whatsoever allowing other people to handle him freely. Each behavior dropped off gradually one by one, until the only reaction I would get would be a quick head turn when I reached into his cage to pet him. The acid test came about 3 months later when I accidentally stepped on him (lightly/slippers) and he gave me the first real hiss I'd heard in weeks. I thought, oh no, here we go again. But I put him back in his cage and he was find the next day. Just be patient...handle them everyday and don't grab just let them glide thru your fingers. If you want to pick them up while they're "acting out" just throw a towel or a hankerchief over them. I acquired a nice female after that who had been tamed by someone at the petstore and just hatched my first baby this fall. (without brumating...I'll do better this year) And the baby came out of the egg hissing and striking and calmed down within weeks...now I hold her up to my nose and converse frequently...they are very special animals and I suspect it may be easier to end up with a dogtame pituophis that begins with an aggressive attitude rather than a very nervous animal. Good luck!
