Monthly Archives: June 2015

Apocalypse Now! Evacuating with Your Dog.

Dog Safety

Apocalypse Now?

In July 2011, I wrote: “2011 marked one of the West’s driest summers ever. Temperatures and winds are high, forest fires have broken out around the Southwest, including one in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains across the Rio Grande Valley from us, and there’s a new one just starting in the Jemez Mountains behind us. In 2000, our town was evacuated for three weeks from a fire started in about that same area. Satellite images showed the heavy smoke plume crossing hundreds of miles into Kansas and beyond.  A friend sat in his car in his driveway for two hours after the evacuation order was given, trying to back into the street amidst all the traffic from panicked citizens…. We returned from the three-week evacuation to find scorch marks on our deck where chunks of charred timber had fallen, and whenever the wind blew, we caught the scent of burned wood from the ash that had accumulated on the roof. I shudder to think of going through that again….”

The article begun in the paragraph above is modified below from a column I wrote in July 2011, published in the October 2011 issue of the AKC Gazette, and republished in both Pepper ‘n Salt, the magazine of the Standard Schnauzer Club of America, and the SSCA Newsletter.

Fire in Jemez Mountains 2011.
Fire raging down Pajarito Mountain behind Los Alamos NM USA, looking west from the town’s entrance. Photographer unidentified.

As I wrote this column, I saw a thin trickle of smoke a few miles away in our mountains. By the time I was ready an hour later to hit the “Send” button to ship the column off to my editor at the AKC Gazette, the fire was raging and smoke was pouring out over the mountains and canyons surrounding Los Alamos and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, situated high above the Rio Grande on the Pajarito Plateau.

The fire started deep in the Jemez Mountains when a tall ponderosa pine, blown over by high winds, fell across an isolated power line and generated sparks that instantly ignited the tinder-dry grasses and brush below. In mere minutes, the fire had burned a swath of over 60 miles of the mixed-conifer forest, killed wildlife and some domestic animals, and destroyed many of my friends’ homes in the mountains. It spread to the neighboring Santa Clara Pueblo, where it continued to burn and smolder for months. The town of Los Alamos where I live was evacuated completely, this time for only a little over a week—but my worst fears once again were realized.

In the 21st Century, the world has seen a plethora of apocalyptic natural and not-so-natural disasters, some seasonal and some not. Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, and some areas have not yet recovered. The eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington in the 1980s blanketed the Pacific Northwest in ash and left huge swaths of the volcano bare of vegetation even now. Los Alamos’s 2000 and 2011 fires demonstrated how quickly a large house can burn to the ground—a little over five minutes from an intact standing house to a pile of smoldering ashes, with only the chimneys left standing.

Mother Nature has a way of striking out at us when we least expect it, causing untold and often immeasurable destruction. As the cartoon character Pogo once said, “We has met the enemy, and he is us”—war, riots, civil unrest, and man’s inhumanity to man can also plague us. Preparation is the key to surviving catastrophes yet to come.

Your disaster plans should have preparations in the event of:

  • catastrophic fires;
  • house, apartment, or condominium fires;
  • catastrophic floods;
  • hurricanes;
  • tornadoes;
  • earthquakes;
  • tsunamis;
  • mudslides;
  • drought and famine;
  • volcanic eruptions;
  • disease, plagues,pestilence, and epidemics;
  • rioting and military intervention;
  • war.

Having a disaster plan prepared and an emergency kit already assembled well in advance of a disaster can mitigate the effects of the disaster for you, your family, and your furry companions. If you must evacuate, take your pets with you—despite the heartwarming stories shown on post-disaster television, most animals left behind during disasters are never reunited with their families, and many die.

  • Designate a family member to be responsible for each dog or cat.
  • Pack an emergency kit for each family member and for your dogs and cats, and keep them near your exit door so you can grab them quickly.
  • Specify a meeting place for people, pets, and gear both at home before a possible evacuation and after arriving at the evacuation destination.
  • Choose another outside the danger zone in case of separations.
  • Include a safe place to leave your pets in the event you must go to an emergency shelter: most shelters don’t allow animals.
  • If  possible, shelter with friends or in pet-friendly hotels well away from the disaster area.
  • Be sure to take sheets for covering beds or furniture in your shelter destination if your pet isn’t trained to stay on the floor.
  • Prepare your family well in advance of any emergency.
  • Make sure each pet has been microchipped and registered in a national database, and have him wear a collar with both current rabies tags and your ID and contact information.

In addition to microchips, we also have ID tattooed on the inside of each of our dogs’ right thigh. For our own dogs, each dog has his/her AKC registration number because most veterinarians and shelter workers recognize the format of AKC numbers; the AKC has a database with breeder and owner information (be sure to let the AKC know if your contact information changes). If your pet does not have an AKC registration number, select a single word or number for all your pets’ tattoos that is both easily recognizable by rescue workers and is likely to remain unchanged for the life of the pet (phone numbers or addresses often change, for example, but social security numbers do not).

Your dog’s (or cat’s) emergency kit  should include the following:

  • his medical records and vaccinations in a waterproof zippered bag;
  • food and water for a week’s stay, a water bowl, and food bowls for each animal
  • necessary medications, with instructions for use;
  • written prescriptions from your veterinarian for any prescription medications your dog is taking; remember that your source for these medications could be destroyed in the ongoing catastrophe;
  • a first-aid kit including a muzzle, antibiotics, bandages, thermometer, etc. (see http://www.akc.org/pdfs/clubs/template_evacuation_kit_for_pets.pdf);
  • warm blankets in case your dog goes into shock;
  • treats and toys to reduce your dog’s anxiety level;
  • leash, tagged collar and/or harness, and crate with bedding;
  • towels, blankets, disinfectants, odor controllers, plastic pick-up bags, paper towels, other sanitation supplies, and large plastic bags for general disposal;
  • several recent photos of you with your pet(s)  in a waterproof container for identification if your pet gets lost;
  • combs, brushes, waterless shampoo, towels, and other interim grooming supplies;
  • a list of contact numbers outside the disaster area for veterinary facilities, kennels, animal shelters, pet-friendly hotels, and friends and relatives with whom you might stay during the emergency;
  • a list of national emergency help information, such as poison control centers, veterinary hot-lines, and so on.

Include in your own emergency kit:

  • clothing, food, water, and whatever else each of your family members need for at least a week away from home—and remember that in some disasters, your home may be destroyed;
  • all medications, including prescription bottles;
  • written prescriptions from your doctor for refilling your prescription medicines elsewhere;
  • cash, credit cards, checkbooks, bank books,negotiable securities, and other financial account information so you have access to funds in case of a long evacuation;
  • a laptop computer, power cord, and recharging cord;
  • cell phone and recharging cord;
  • a hand-cranked or solar recharger or power supply for your laptop, cell phones, and other electronic devices;
  • a hand-cranked and/or solar flashlight;
  • a hand-cranked and/or solar radio for current information about the emergency.

During an emergency or disaster,

  • Keep your dogs close at the first sign of trouble.
  • Don’t let them roam your property–do leashed potty breaks.
  • If you have time, call ahead to make necessary arrangements away from the danger area for you and your dogs.
  • Assemble pets, family, and gear at the designated place in preparation for evacuation.
  • If evacuation looks imminent, head out before the official order is given—traffic will be lighter, drivers will be less frantic, and you will be safer.

What will happen next? When it happens, will you be ready? And what about your family and your pets? Will you all survive the disaster? The Boy Scouts have the right idea: “Be Prepared.”

Are you ready for Apocalypse now?

Barn Hunt: To Smell A Rat

Dog Shows and Competitions
Barn Hunt Test
Guided by Ron, Emma smells a rat!

The first-ever Barn Hunt Trials in New Mexico (that’s the U.S. state south of Colorado between Arizona and Texas) were held in Albuquerque in March 2014. What fun to see our Standard Schnauzers in four trials hunting for rats, one of the tasks for which they were bred. I researched this new dog sport and wrote about it in my July 2014 column in the AKC Gazette.

The Barn Hunt Association (BHA) was founded by Robin Nuttall, a long-time dog trainer, as a fun sport to test her dogs’ working abilities, starting with her Doberman Pinschers. Unlike AKC conformation shows, neutered or spayed dogs may compete, and unlike AKC performance sports such as obedience or rally, bitches in season may also compete, but they must be last in their group and wear panties while in the ring. Even handlers in wheelchairs are welcome in Barn Hunt competition, although when I tried it in a husband-propelled wheelchair, it was extremely awkward because of the narrow passageways and height of the bales obstructing my view of my dog.

According to BHA’s easy-to-navigate website www.barnhunt.com (includes a map showing affiliated groups and a calendar of BHA events), “the purpose of Barn Hunt is to demonstrate a dog’s vermin hunting ability in finding and marking rats in a ‘barn-like’ setting, using straw/hay bales to introduce climbing and tunneling obstacles in the dog’s path.” Scores depend on locating rats within the allotted time, surmounting required obstacles, and dog/handler teamwork. Handlers announce when dogs alert to the rat’s location; a false call is one of several disqualification possibilities.

The sport “is for any breed or mix of dog who loves to hunt and who can fit through an 18-inch wide gap between two hay bales. It will test speed, agility, and surefootedness.” We saw many large  Working breeds, Terriers, Sporting breeds, and others, in addition to the expected earth dogs. Size divisions are under 13″, up to 18″, and over 18″.

Indoor or outdoor rings contain straw bales inside totally fenced, level enclosures. Rat Wranglers handle the rats–actually well-treated pets in ventilated pipes/tubes hidden anywhere in the ring. Equipment includes several ten-inch-long, light-colored, schedule-40 PVC pipes, 4 inches in diameter, sealed with a snap-in metal drain at one end and a screwed-in clean-out plug at the other. Rows of 5/16″ airholes are drilled about an inch apart into the pipes.

Trials begin with a Rat Instinct (RATI) test for dogs without BHA titles. Dogs travel down an 18″-wide bale passageway to three tubes: one empty, one containing only rat bedding, and one containing bedding plus a rat. Dogs have one minute to identify the rat-containing tube correctly and for the handler to announce the find. You can see a You Tube video of an instinct test and a novice run at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-nJtxfweXQ.

Like other performance sports, BHA titles, which are transferable to and recognized by AKC, require three qualifying scores in timed trials. Awarded titles are Rat Novice (RATN), Rat Open (RATO), Rat Senior (RATS), Rat Master (RATM), and, similar to AKC advanced performance titles, Rat Champion (RATCH), RATCHX, and RATCHX2. As title level advances, difficulty increases by height of stacked bales for dogs to climb, number of tunnels dogs must traverse, and number of rats dogs must locate. Each successive performance level gets harder with the number of rat-containing tubes, empty tubes, ratless bedding-only tubes, and time.

In Albuquerque, Judge Lori Oakley showed each disqualified dog the rat’s location, let dogs smell the rat, and praised him/her, making every dog leave the ring feeling like a winner.

Ivory (GCH CH Wustefuchs Ivory Mesa CGC RATN RATO) found the rats with great enthusiasm in the Rat Instinct tests and two trials, scoring High in Trial in one.She went on over the summer to complete her Novice title and her Open title, usually finishing in the top of her class and sometimes even for the trial. She now is competing for her RATS, the senior level that is even more difficult because the dog and handler must find an unspecified number of rats between one and five, and the handler, who doesn’t know how many rats are hidden, must also announce when the dog is finished hunting.

Clancy (CH Asgard Navigator Wustefuchs CGC, CD, UCD, RN, RA, RATN), who took second place in the fourth trial, discovered the rats early on, but it took us awhile to understand his subtle alert to their location. Clancy announces he has found the rat with a very quick wag of his tail. He, too, generally qualified with winning placements.

On the other hand, Emma (CH Asgard Mesa Mist Wustefuchs CGC, CD, UCD, RN, RA, RATN) clearly thought “This is boring—YOU show ME the rat.” She eventually got with the program later in the summer and completed the requirements for her Novice title (RATN) at our National Specialty Dog Show in Pleasanton, California in October 2014 by falling from a higher straw bale onto the rat tube with a fraction of a second to spare before time was called (my graduate-school advisor would have dubbed this “efficiency”).

Go to the BHA website, find a Barn Hunt in your area, and sign up to participate. I guarantee you and your dog will have a lot of fun. You don’t need extensive training like you do for obedience or agility trials—on the job training is available in the Instinct tests that are run first thing in the morning before the actual trials start. Just take your dog and let him do what comes naturally. It’s fun for your dog, and you’ll enjoy seeing how the various breeds approach hunting rats!

Copyright © 2015, Suzanne T. Smith. All rights reserved.

Dog-related Charities

General Dog Topics

Not long ago, a friend asked me about dog-related charities that he and his wife, childless except for their dogs, could remember in their wills. That got me thinking about the incredible service dogs out there, so I wrote about this subject in my January 2013 column in the AKC Gazette.

Over the years, numerous news stories have featured dogs who sniffed out illnesses, including a Standard Schnauzer whose nose could detect cancer. Back then, I thought “How interesting,” but I didn’t tumble to our Standard Schnauzers—Murphy (Rainbow Bridge1999 at 14), Emma, and Clancy—sniffing and nose-nudging my left breast. Then in 2005, a phone call after a routine mammogram informed me I had left-breast cancer. Surgery turned up five small slow-growing malignancies; my surgeon thought they had begun growing at least twenty years before detection (there are two morals to this story–get your mammograms, and pay attention when your dog is trying to tell you something!).

In the USA, the Code of Federal Regulations for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (www.ada.gov/pubs/ada.htm) defines a service animal as “any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including, but not limited to, guiding individuals with impaired vision, alerting individuals with impaired hearing to intruders or sounds, providing minimal protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair, or fetching dropped items.”

The Act gives persons with disabilities the right to be accompanied by their service animal anywhere the general public is allowed. Additional federal laws protect people with disabilities partnered with service animals from discrimination in housing (the Fair Housing Amendments Act: www.ada.gov/cguide.htm) and on aircraft (the Air Carrier Access Act: www.disabilitytravel.com/airlines/air_carrier_act_details.htm).

Service dogs help those with visual or hearing impairment live near-normal lives. The late Nancy Aronstam (Stone Pine Standard Schnauzers) worked tirelessly for Guide Dogs for the Blind Inc, San Rafael, California (www.guidedogs.com).

Assistance Dogs International is a coalition of organizations that provide trained service dogs (www.assistancedogsinterrnational.org). Their website states: “Service Dogs…can be trained to work with people who use power or manual wheelchairs, have balance issues, have…autism, need seizure alert or response, need to be alerted to other medical issues…, or have psychiatric disabilities.” These dogs can retrieve objects out of their person’s reach; pull wheelchairs; open and close doors; turn light switches off and on; bark to indicate help is needed; find and lead another individual to their person; provide balance and counterbalance to assist ambulatory persons in walking; provide deep pressure; and many other individual tasks needed by a disabled person.

Seizure dogs assist persons with epilepsy (4pawsforability.org). Hairless or short-coat dogs provide soothing heat for people with chronic pain like fibromyalgia or arthritis (pawsforcomfort.com). Autism service dogs are trained to help calm their owners, minimize emotional outbursts, and help advance social skills (autismservicedogsofamerica.com). Diabetic alert dogs (dogs4diabetes.com) sense chemical changes in persons when blood sugar gets low. Trained service or therapeutic companion dogs (soldiersbestfriend.org) help our military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI).

At http://www.akc.org/dogowner/training/therapy/index.cfm is a summary of the AKC’s new Therapy Dog program, explaining the difference between service and therapy dogs, how  to earn the ThD title, and contact information for national and regional therapy dog organizations.

Our furry friends help strengthen immune systems, lower blood pressure, soothe emotional distress, elevate mood, relieve depression, increase seratonin and dopamine levels, reduce anxiety, combat stress, listen without judgment, absorb tears, provide fun and companionship, and most important, give unconditional love.
Shouldn’t we give back by contributing time or money to any of these dog-related charities that train dogs to help us?

Copyright © 2013 Suzanne T. Smith. All rights reserved.