Emergency Preparations - Fire Drills

You love dogs. You have several. You may even be a foster home, trainer’s home, or someone who winds up with the dogs no one else can handle.

Sometimes when we have multiple dogs in our home, they don’t always get along. You may be in a state of chronic crate and rotate. For some, that is daily life.

But what happens at 4am when the smoke alarm goes off. You need plan.

What if your dog’s are aggressive or you have a crate and rotate setup?

You need an emergency plan for your dog and to have fire drills just like you do with kids.

Tips For Emergency Planning With Dogs

• Know who is responsible for what dog, and in what order and where the dogs are going to go when you get them out of the house.

• Where are their collars and leashes?

• Do you have safety hooks permanently mounted cleats or hooks that you can quickly connect a leash to out of harm’s way? This may be on a tree in the yard, but must be out of the way of emergency personnel. Perhaps you and a neighbor work out shared system.

  • We used boat cleats on trees away from the building structures that would put a leash on quickly.

  • We also had cable tethers attached to fixed poles in the yard at well-spaced intervals that we could hook a dog too quickly.

  • Be sure to check the integrity of these devices at least 2-3 times a year just like you do your smoke detectors.

• Have a neighbor on standby to help you, assuming your dog is not aggressive to other people too.

Practice safety drills in the same way you teach your children to exit the house in an emergency.

In some cases, it may make sense to have back-up leashes, collars, muzzles, crates.

Wait your dog isn’t muzzle conditioned and you’re living a crate and rotate lifestyle? You need to get on that task! You may not use it often, but believe me you’ll be glad that it is one less thing to worry about when a crisis and stress is happening.

It’s important that you think about training through some of the issues you may be facing with your dogs rather than just living with them. There may come a time when an emergency happens and you need s many things to go right as possible. And if you are unable to go back into your home for a while, you need a much success as possible if your dog has to be boarded, stay with a friend, or be in a new home while everyone is under stress.

Now, what will you do if you are displaced from your home for a period of time???

See other Dog Safety Protocols