Disaster Preparedness With Pets Part 3 -- Evacuation Plans and Training

There is one last area that needs to be addressed when we talk about disaster prep with your pets, and that is your plan for evacuating to safety, and training your pets for that evacuation plan. I’m going to use evacuation as our word for getting to safety, even if you’re taking shelter in your home.

Evacuation is something that happens suddenly. It's an abrupt change in routine and it's usually accompanied by high stress. If you haven’t provided your pet with at least some training or acclimation in regards to the evacuation, you can have serious problems.

For example, if your evacuation plan includes having your pet crated, you will want to have them acclimated to the crate. If you will need to have them on leash they should be well trained to walk on a leash during hectic and high traffic situations.

The first part of the process is to formulate your evacuation plan. I know that right now everyone is thinking tornado, but that may not be the only time you need to evacuate. You also need a plan for fire, both home and wild, and if you’re in a flood prone area you may need a plan for flood. A good fire evacuation plan can also be put into effect for other emergencies such as bomb threats, gas leaks, or other non-disaster evacuations that might occur.

Whether you’re fleeing a fire or taking shelter from a tornado, your evacuation will begin and end with your “safe zone”. The first thing you need to know is where you’re going to go before you can start figuring out how to get there. For a tornado your safe zone may be a cellar, a basement, a safe room, a shelter, or an interior room of your home. It may be a neighbor’s property or a relative’s home. In the case of fire or flood it will be a location outside the danger zone. Once you have established the location of your safe zone, you need to look at the location and determine how you can best utilize the space. What, besides yourself, your family and your pets can you fit in your safe zone? Is there room for additional emergency supplies beyond your “go kit”? Do you have electricity available? Do you have cellphone signal? How will you contain your pet safely within the safe zone? Will you be sharing space with other families?

Once you have determined where you’re going and how to best utilize the space, you need to determine how to get everyone that needs to be in that safe zone there in as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is where good training comes in. Evaluate your pet’s response to the preparations you’ll need to take for evacuation. Do they like to play ring around the rosy with you when you go to put their harness on? Do they get overly excited and become difficult to handle? Are they anxious about riding in the car?

If your dogs are like ours, putting on “clothes” is cause for great rejoicing and becoming complete and utter spazz dogs for about 15 minutes. Because of this we harness them early so that they have time to settle down. Those dogs that are hard to catch we place in confined areas like our bathroom, so that we can grab them more easily.

For tornadoes, training your pet to enter whatever shelter you will be utilizing on command can be very useful. This will require some pre-work on your part. Take your pet into the room, shelter, or cellar on a frequent basis and make them stay in that location for short periods of time to acclimate them. Use a command such as “go underground” when you take your pet into the sheltered area, and give them a treat. Keep them there for a few minutes and then let them go. If they will enter the shelter on their own praise them voluminously. Even if you have to carry them into the shelter, make a big deal about how good they are to “go underground”, and reinforce that getting into the shelter is a good thing.

If you have to leave your property to reach safety, training your dog to “load up” in the car is also highly recommended.  Take them for frequent car rides. Then train them to unload at their destination and enter whatever shelter you have traveled to utilize.

If you have multiple pets, training them to evacuate on command can be a life saver. It can save precious minutes in evacuation time and help prevent lost pets. You so often hear, “I just couldn’t get the dogs out in time…” But what if you could just open a couple of doors and yell “load up” or “go underground”?

With proper planning and training there should be very few instances where you have to leave your pet behind in an evacuation. Know where to go, how to get there, and make sure that your pet will be ready to go.

Disaster Preparedness With Pets Part 2 -- Emergency Evacuation Kit

Probably everyone at some point has heard of an emergency preparedness kit, and what they should have in it for their family. I'm not going to rehash what you need for people. I'm going to address the fact that most of those recommendations don't take into account our pets.

With large animals such as horses there's not a lot you can do to have a kit ready. Their needs as far as food and water are too large to be easily contained in a quick grab kit. The best you can do is have an extra halter and lead per horse.

With pets though you can make a grab and go kit, or a kit to be stored in a safe location.  It it's a grab and go kit you'll want to pack it in something portable... a duffle bag, large back pack, or other quickly portable container.
A kit to be stored in a safe location such as a cellar or basement can be contained in a plastic bin to keep moisture and critters out.

Things you'll want to have in your kit:

1. Water: For a stored kit as with humans you want a gallon per pet per day, and should plan on having at least 3 days worth. Have 7 if you can. For a go kit have several liter bottles of water, at least 1 per pet. 2 is better.
2. Food: Again, three days worth per pet for a go kit and 7 days for a stored kit. If your pet requires specialized food this is especially important. If it's dry food you'll want to store it in an airtight container and swap your supply every few weeks to keep it fresh.
3. Can opener and something to scoop it out with if you're using canned food.
4. measuring scoop for dry food
5. A supply of your pet's medications. I like to keep an extra bottle of each med our dogs are on stored in my emergency supplies. As I run out of the bottle I am using on a daily basis, I replace it with my stored bottle and order a new bottle for the stored supplies. This keeps the meds from going out of date.
6. Copies of your pets shot and medical records an an air and water tight container. All of my dogs that have health conditions have a medical file that we keep on hand along with their shot records. This is useful if we have to see a vet that doesn't know the dogs.
7. An extra collar, harness, and leash
8. Toys and treats
9. Extra food and water bowl: I like collapsible bowls and recommend one of the rubber or silicone bowls such as the Kurgo Collaps-A-Bowl, the Ruff Dawg Ruff Bowl, or the Bamboo Pet Collapsible bowl
10. First aid kit for dogs and first aid guide book for pets
11. A list of emergency contacts and veterinarians around your area, and around the area to which you will most likely evacuate.
12. Extra ID tags
13. Proof of ownership: good clear photos stored in an airtight, waterproof container
14. Extra towels and blankets, and/or a bed
15. kitty litter or pee pads
16. Collapsible cat little box, such as a Sturdibox or Go Kitty Go.
17. A kennel or crate if needed. I like to keep a pop up kennel in my kit in case I need to contain a dog somewhere. Be sure that you've acclimated your dog to the confinement.
18. drawstring trash bags and small trash bags for clean up and lining the kitty litter pan.

It sounds like a lot of stuff, I know, but you can vaccum seal the dry food, treats and the soft items such as leashes, towels, soft toys, and dog beds to reduce the amount of space they take up.  Pack it all into a duffle bag and you're ready to go on a moments notice.

Come back tomorrow for Disaster Preparedness With Pets Part 3 -- Evacuation Plans and Training

Disaster Preparedness With Pets: Part 1 -- Identification

Every year about this time I start getting asked to give my talk about how to prepare for a disaster when you have pets.  Everyone who has read this blog, or spoken with me knows that Pug Hollow went through an F-4 tornado in May of 2011 resulting in the loss of all our physical property.
We had one fatality and one critical injury out of 22 dogs, and we were able to quickly locate all but one of the surviving dogs. He came back the next day.
It could have been much worse. It usually is much worse.

The first step is to be aware. Disasters can happen to ANYONE, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. They can be large scale natural disasters, and impact a whole neighborhood, town, county, or even state, or they can be small and just impact one house (as anyone who has ever lost their house to a fire can tell you). Taking some steps to ensure safety before hand is just good sense.

So let's talk about where I like to start with prepping for unhappy circumstance...

Identification

 I like to have my pets tagged 6 ways to Sunday, and it doesn't just stop with the dogs. It's the cats and the horses too.

1. Microchip:

The most certain way to get your dog or cat tagged is to microchip them. They can also microchip horses and other equines. Collars, harnesses and halters can come off. Rabies tags can get lost.A microchip is going to be there as long as there is a body left.

Microchipping is done at your vet, just like giving a vaccination. It's a one time fee, and there are a number of free microchip registries out there you can use rather than paying for a yearly subscription. Some rescues microchip their pets before sending them out to new homes.

 2. Rabies tag:

A rabies tag is also a point of identification. It provides veterinary information that hopefully links to the owner of the pet. You can also go one step further and engrave your contact information into the back of the tag. A small hand engraver will cost you about $20 to $50 depending on what and where you buy.

3. Identification tag:

These are the simple hanging tags that attach to your pet's collar or harness. If your dog has a medical condition this is a good way to let people know as these can be double sided with engraving.  If you do double sided engraving I suggest your pet's name, and medical condition(s) on the front side and at least 2 contact numbers on the back. Make one of the contact numbers a land line number to someone outside of your immediate household, and preferably outside of your neighborhood. It can be a friend, family member or your veterinarian. This will ensure that even if everything around you including your cell phone is destroyed, there will still be one valid number on the tag.  I prefer to use both of our household's cell phone numbers and my father's land line number.
The downside to id tags is that they can be pulled off of the collar or harness and lost just like a rabies tag.

4. Collar plates:

Collar plates come in three types. Rivet attached, sliding, and adjustable sliding.

Rivet attached plates need a little work to get them in place, but it's not anything that your average person can't do.

1. For a nylon collar you need a nail, a pair of pliers, an oven mitt, open flame heat source, rivet kit and a hammer.  
2. Use the tag to mark where you need to put holes in the collar. 
3. Put on the oven mitt and grab the pliers. 
4. Grasp the nail with the pliers near the head, and insert the other end of the nail into the heat source.  The heat source can be the flame from a gas burner, a small blowtorch, large candle, campfire... Be sure to be careful and not set anything on fire.
5. Once the nail is hot, use it to poke holes where you've marked the collar. The nylon will melt and it will stink but this is the best way to make holes.  
6. Once your holes are the correct size for your rivets you can place the plate on the collar and use the instructions on the rivet kit to set them in place.

For a leather collar you will use a leather punch to make the holes.

If you need to remove the plate from the collar you can drill the rivets loose from the back side with an electric drill and bit.


Sliding plates are easy to put in place, and easy to remove but they only work with standard non-adjustable buckle collars.

Adjustable sliding plates are harder to find but they work with adjustable collars as well as standard buckle collars.

I don't waste space on names on collar plates. I just load them up with as many contact numbers as they can fit. 

5. Embroidered collars:

Embroidered collars can be a more expensive way to ID your dog, but there is no plate or tag to lose. They are however, susceptible to being scratched into illegible fuzz.

6. Tags for Horses

You can get halter plates that screw onto a halter and halter tags that can attach to a halter or be braided into a mane.


Considerations:
If you chose an engraved tag or plate, I suggest one that has been diamond engraved. The engraving lasts longer on a tag than laser engraving.

While I've included some links to several shops that you can purchase identification for pets and horse equipment, you may want to shop around and look for cheaper prices. e-Bay can be a good place for that, but remember... you do chance getting what you pay for.

Placement of identification is important as well.

I like to put my rabies tags on my dog's walking harness.  They don't need it when lying around the house, and it keeps them from losing it in the yard.
I also like to have two rivet plates per dog... one on their collar and one on their harness near the leash ring. If the dog has a medical condition that needs daily medication or consideration (such as diabetes, thyroid conditions, hypoglycemia, seizures, heart problems, liver or kidney problems, Addison's, etc...) I also add a medical tag to both harness and collar.

I suggest a reflective breakaway halter like the Lami Cell with plate or tag for your horse to wear in emergencies and a tag braided into the mane. A breakaway halter will keep your horse from getting into a wreck if the halter gets caught on debris and the tag braided into the mane will give ID if the halter is lost.

And that pretty much covers all the possible types of identification with the exception of tattooing or branding.

Keep an eye out for "Disaster Preparedness With Pets Part 2 -- Emergency Evacuation Kit" coming tomorrow.

Happy Tails

It's been a good month here at Pug Hollow!

Out of our nine adoptable dogs we have placed four in the last month!

The wonder twins, Marvin and Martin, found a home with a wonderful retired school teacher. We were glad to place them together as they were litter mates who had been together their whole lives.

 

 

Fennec went to a graduate student who wanted an active companion. It was love at first sight! We think Fenn will be more than able to keep up with him in everything he wants to do, and her social butterfly personality will be a hit at the dog park!

 

 


 Ms. Aster is our most recent placement. She went to an older lady from Texas. Aster has been looking for an older person with a relatively quiet household, and she found it!

 





We hope they will have many many years with their forever families!