Monday, November 7, 2011

Prepping with Pets

Husband and I have an adorable Pooch and were something to ever happen, we'd want to be able to take her with us. To facilitate this, we've done some prepping for the pooch. I've broken down this prepping into three categories: Food, Medication and Training.




Food

Husband and I aren't planning on Bugging In as we live smack dab in the middle of a large city, but since said Large City also has occasonal weather related outages, we have a supply of food set aside for Pooch. Dog food can be expensive, so I usually wait until it goes on sale and buy it with a coupon. Ideally I'd like to have 3 months of food for all family members so I'm working on that right now for the dog as well. Dog food can easily be stored in it's original bag inside of a RoughMate tote. You can fit 3 of the 18lbs bags in there usually.

Since we plan on bugging out, our dog also has compact nutritional dog biscuits. Hers are made of compressed salmon flakes and smell god awful but are full of protien and nutrients for her to give her a quick meal when we're on the go. These biscuits stay in Pooch's backpack along with her regular food and other supplies.

Medications

The last thing anyone wants is a sick, flea infested dog. To combat this, we have set aside flea/tick drops, heart worm medication, and roundworm medication. We are working on getting 6 months of each of these. Since Pooch has her own backpack, these are stored there so that when it's time to bug out, we can just toss her pack on and go. I'd also like to get a supply of antibiotics for her and take a pet 1st Aid course to expand my knowledge a bit.

Training


In my opinion, if we're going to successfully bug out with the dog she needs to be well training. Since she's still a puppy (6 months old) we're doing a lot of that right now. We're  working on all of the basics (sit, stay, lay, shake etc.) as well as off leash training. As part of her training we're working on bark control and getting her to come back with verbal commands. As of now Pooch will bark when someone comes to the door until we tell her to sit. Once we tell her to sit, she'll stay quiet unless I back up to a certain spot in the house, in which case she goes into guard dog mode and barks and growls and gets all ferocious. It tooks some training, but it was worth it. I trained her that way so that I can open the door for mailmen etc. without worrying, but if I back up to go for a weapon she will jump into the fray. Since the Army periodically takes Husband, this makes me feel much more safe.

Another part of Pooch's training is backpacking with us. We go on a short jaunt (3-5 miles) every Thursday to practice our skills and Pooch is a part of that. She has her own backpack and the weight she carries will get gradually heavier as she gets older and stronger. It is generally accepted that dogs shouldn't carry weight more than 30% of their body weight, and shouldn't carry weighted packs before they're a year old. To get Pooch ready to bug out, she currently wears her backpack when we hike and carries her own food (less than a pound) and will soon be carrying her own little water bowl.



I think including your pets in your preps is a good idea that is not often discussed. I know I didn't discuss everything, but I think at least touching on it and getting people thinking is a good idea. I hope you found this helpful!


To recap, the contents of Pooch's BOB:
3 lbs. food
Trail Biscuits
6 months flea/tick drops
6 months heartworm meds
6 months Roundworm meds
Water dish
Gauze and self adhering bandage
UPDATE: Pooch now has earmite drops in her bag as well.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Welcome!

We're just getting started and don't have any content yet, but I need some spacer to work with in order to get the page layout working, so here's a some words:

Survivalist
Survivalism
Prepping
Newlyweds
Family
Dog
Backpacking
Hiking
Bags
Packs
Nature
Exercise
Emergency Preparedness
Disaster Preparedness


How about them keywords? I'll get a real intro up as soon as I get the layout working, give me a day or two. I'll have something by Tuesday, promise!