Training for disasters

I hope all of you are safe and well after the crazy weekend the North Island has had. Like everyone else, my thoughts are with Auckland, Waitomo, Tauranga and other severely impacted areas. It’s devastating to see the damage being caused and the lives turned upside down - I’m gutted for everyone involved.

Among this devastation, watching this unfold also got me thinking about whether I’ve done everything I can to prepare if we ended up in the same nightmare situation.

When we discuss disaster preparedness, we most commonly talk about emergency kits, water, food for you and your family for a few days, warm clothes, important medications etc. All super important to have ready to go in an easy to access location so you can grab it and go. But what we don’t discuss is the practicality of setting our animals up to be able to handle these situations. Which in an emergency event where time is of the essence and human lives must take priority, our dogs behaviour may well be a deciding factor in whether we can help them or not.

So if you are lucky enough to be safe and dry today, please have a think about what preparations you have in place in case of a future emergency - including your dog.

⚡️ Have they been exposed to a wide range of different surfaces and situations? It’s pretty tough to prepare for the stress of a true disaster situation, but if you’ve gotten them used to climbing on weird surfaces, coping with noise, busy areas, wobbly things in a positive manner ahead of time, it’s going to be a lot easier to safely get them in your neighbours ute or a rescue boat if needed.

⚡️Can they generally be safely handled by someone other than us if we had to have someone else rescue them from our house? Can they be safely restrained and handle a muzzle if needed? Start practicing this stuff now in a non-stressful situation.

⚡️If we had to evacuate, can our dogs sleep somewhere other than our bed at home and be happy? Could they go in a crate if they had to go to a shelter or foster home or be transported somewhere and not flip out? Make that crate their safe place now.

⚡️If, god forbid, something happened to us or we lost our homes, have we done everything in our power to make them as rehomable/fosterable as possible?

These floods and landslides have shown that this sort of thing could happen to any of us. I really don’t care if you hate crates with a passion, you live alone and your dog is never without you in day to day life, there may well come a time when they’re forced to experience this anyway, and any preparation you’ve done could make all the difference. If one positive comes from this nightmare, let it be your push to prepare your whole family if the worst were to happen to you.