Dogs as prepper companions

In our mod­ern world, prep­pers need to be con­cerned with guns, ammu­ni­tion, food, gaso­line, med­ical sup­plies… the list goes on and its daunt­ing.  But don’t for­get about the fam­i­ly pets. An often over­looked and very help­ful resource to your preps is a dog.  In our every­day lives, a dog is a loy­al com­pan­ion, an ear­ly warn­ing sys­tem, a ver­min erad­i­ca­tion sys­tem, a pack ani­mal, and much more… in a SHTF sce­nario, a dog can be a life saver for all those rea­sons but to a much greater degree.  There is also some­thing very com­fort­ing about hav­ing your best friend by your side in a dis­as­ter know­ing they will do their best to take care of you… you owe it to them to take care of them in return.  With some basic preps, you can do just that.

First and fore­most, pick up some basic sup­plies for your dog.  Food is num­ber one… you may have a years’ worth of freeze dried food in your base­ment for each per­son in your house, but how much do you have stored for your dog?  I sug­gest pick­ing up a min­i­mum of six months worth of food and store it in a cool dry place. Rotate it the same way you rotate the human food you have stored (first in, first out).

My food is stored in buck­ets and Rub­ber­maid con­tain­ers next in my pantry… I even built a cab­i­net to fit dog food stor­age under it.  Next, get a ken­nel that you can trans­port and house your dog in.   In a

“manda­to­ry evac­u­a­tion” the nation­al guard or red cross or who­ev­er is pro­vid­ing aid will not trans­port or lodge your fam­i­ly unless your dog is secure (or the ani­mal is left behind…Ive seen it hap­pen).  A sim­ple wire ken­nel or vary ken­nel fits the task per­fect­ly and are rel­a­tive­ly cheap at garage sales or on ama­zon. Also think about oth­er items you dog uses every day and get spares. Pur­chase sev­er­al leash­es of vary­ing lengths… I rec­om­mend a short leash to walk the dog at heal (about 1 foot in length), a reg­u­lar leash that you nor­mal­ly walk the dog with (about 3 feet), and a check cord (20+ foot line that allows them more move­ment).  Your dog should have a bug out bag too… yes Im seri­ous.  Think about pur­chas­ing a dog back­pack so he can car­ry all of his own gear (a few days of food, dog bowls, leash­es, etc).  Get him used to the bag by tak­ing him hik­ing and mak­ing him car­ry some water, snacks, etc. 

Involve your dog in out­door activ­i­ties.… 

espe­cial­ly activ­i­ties where he has to pull or car­ry more than his own weight

This brings us to the next top­ic, you should include your dog in your bug­gout train­ing.  An untrained/uncooperative dog can make a bad sit­u­a­tion much, much worse.  Imag­ine try­ing to leave your home because of an impend­ing brush fire only to have Fido not will­ing to get into a car because its new and scary… leav­ing him behind would break your fam­i­lies hearts.  Get him used to jaunts away from home… go hik­ing, for long walks, camp­ing, boat­ing, etc. with your dog and make him a true part of the fam­i­ly.  Get them used to car rides, either in a back seat or in a ken­nel.  Some dogs hate to be in a car… they are only in them to go the vet or the board­ing ken­nel or oth­er unhap­py places so it makes sense.  Take them on car rides to fun places and this aver­sion should sub­side.  If they are severe­ly averse to car rides,

there are sim­ple steps (baby steps) to get them to coop­er­ate.  If you cant even get Fido into a car with­out a strug­gle, try feed­ing him next to the car for a few days or even weeks.… then once he real­izes the car isn’t going to hurt him, try feed­ing him in the car with his feet on the ground for a while… then, feed him in the back seat with the door open… and even­tu­al­ly, feed him in the car with the door closed.  These baby steps help teach a dog that a car is a hap­py place and noth­ing to be feared.  After this process, be pre­pared to give Fido a quick treat for hop­ping in the car when you head to the park for a walk… think Pavlovs dogs haha.  You can also try these steps if your dog hates ken­nels.

Make your dog a part of your preps… and take steps now to ensure you will both be safe and sound if a cat­a­stro­phe strikes.