SHTF and Pets

gmurphy,

A razor can be sharpened. HAHA

Preppersaurus

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My crew of dogs (6) hunt with me and for me. They will be by my side and my families side. A few of the 6 are very good at protecting my wife. They will learn this is their job for our son also. We are prepped to stay and protect due to a few reasons. I would protect my dogs as much as i would protect my family. You will find yourself in a bad spot if you harm one of my dogs. Major investment of time and money.

A lot of emotion here, more than I expected. Martha's post is both emotional and rational; a clear example you can have two often opposing views and a working solution. Farmgal's, a well thought out response. Others have a strictly rational/logical approach.

I don't have any pets now, but my family does. I don't think a person can deal with the issue of pets in a strictly logical fashion without being an 'ogre', which might interfere with the smooth functioning of a family or group in SHTF. A few made-up scenarios to illustrate my point:

A member of your group brings "Fluffy" along, a toy breed something-a-poo that won't shut up. A pet she adores and can't be without. What does the group do? What happens when during a 'dicy' situation, the dog won't stop barking and a group member reaches over, grabs the dog and dispatches it?

Or during a bug-out and your cat escapes from the car? The rest of the group wants to push on but you want to look for the cat? Do you split the group or abandon the cat?

This is just conjecture but you can see that making a solely emotional decision about your pet when yours and every member of your group's lives depends upon that decision is very important. That decision has to be made logically back at the beginning.

I hope that people who are bugging-in aren't making that decision purely for the love of their cat.

btw: eating anything that is near a starvation death does not provide nourishment. You and your pet might as well die together if it gets to that point. Anyways, my opinions etc.

Off topic but the point about barking reminded me of a few horror stories that I read about WWII. Babies and small children were "dispatched" for making too much noise that would give the whole group away. I can not even imagine what those people had to go through and the feelings that they had to deal with later.

My point is -- no matter how you think now, you can not know how you will react when the SHTF.

So what are some ideas for dealing with those issues before they could happen:

sedate critters? but then they would be extra weight to carry or wagon to pull
cut vocal cords? I know people do that for show dogs but there goes the early warning help

btw: eating anything that is near a starvation death does not provide nourishment. You and your pet might as well die together if it gets to that point. Anyways, my opinions etc. good to know

Oldschool, if there is a reason to hush a dog from barking, you can use a bark collar available at Wal Mart. You need to break the dog into it prior to "when it counts". I've seen a few dogs squwak like they're being tortured when they get the zap, but I'm sure the reaction is more based on the startle factor than the actual pain. I have a dog that used to do that, but got over it fairly rapidly.

It's funny but after a short time with the bark collar, my yappy dog did not bark at all for about two months after taking it off. And a yappy dog that doesn't bark is less psycho, something about the barking spins them into greater and greater excitability. So it was a great success for us. I've just recently dug out the collars again after a year without using them, I want to give my dogs a little "tune up" regarding the barking problem.

Oldschool, if there is a reason to hush a dog from barking, you can use a bark collar available at Wal Mart. You need to break the dog into it prior to "when it counts". I've seen a few dogs squwak like they're being tortured when they get the zap, but I'm sure the reaction is more based on the startle factor than the actual pain. I have a dog that used to do that, but got over it fairly rapidly.

It's funny but after a short time with the bark collar, my yappy dog did not bark at all for about two months after taking it off. And a yappy dog that doesn't bark is less psycho, something about the barking spins them into greater and greater excitability. So it was a great success for us. I've just recently dug out the collars again after a year without using them, I want to give my dogs a little "tune up" regarding the barking problem.

Excellent thank you.

I have 2 dogs. One, a mutt - lab, collie and ?, is invaluable to me for protection and keep bears and other wild life away from the cabin. Came out side this summer to find she had a bear treed beside the cabin. She will eat anything....this summer again came up the drive way with a rotten moose leg in her mouth...don't know where she dug it up from but she was proud as can be. Ate all but the bones.

The other dog is pretty much a rodent killer...Jack Russel. A barker and not good for anything but keeping rodents away.

SHTF - I would look after both dogs but would let them feel hunger so their natural instincts would kick in and they would become better hunters and scavengers and find food for themselves.

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Oldschool, not to get myself in hot water but that is not quite the proper case on the de-barking on dogs, even if they are debarked, many just end up with hourse sounding barks, that are greatly reduced in voiume but still very much there, second, while they will never have a growl that will raise hairs on the back of necks, they certain would have growls enough that could be heard and felt if you were working on being quiet.

A debarked well trained dog can be such a danger that in a certain state they are illegal to own in certain breeds as they are used for the drug trade..

Dogs are super smart, you can easily train a debarked dog to cue you, my mother-in-law has a debarked dog, many friends do and I have stayed with and traveled with friends who's dogs are trained and debarked..

«dogs are super smart` «Some of them certainly are but my opinion is that some aren`t, and they vary greatly in their motivation to please and to cooperate with what you want to teach them. «i know that trainers also run the gamut of intelligence, skill and motivation, but there does seem to be some dogs just not that interested in the program. They can only be coaxed so far with treats, a toy, or affection, then it`s time to bring out the bark collar««« «you can see «i`m no dog whisperer...

«i realize that bark collars have their downside. Dog might not bark when you need em to, they rely on batteries. But my sanity counts too, as well as the neighbor`s, who might take a notion to fix the problem with rat poison if «i don`t solve it first. «people wouldn`t poison dogs if owners were more responsible.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/04/the-heartbreaking-first-words-of-the-rescued-outdoorsman-who-was-forced-to-eat-his-german-shepherd-to-survive/

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Thanks for the post, Preppersaurus.
Pretty heart-rending decision for the guy, but ... he had to do what he had to do.
I read the story of the guy's survival on CBC news online; the only mention of the dog was that "it" saved him during or after the bear came into his camp site.

RE: 'lost guy eats his dog' I didn't read the details, just saw the headlines and I have questions about this because overall it doesn't make sense. Was the guy injured so he couldn't get around? He was in a wilderness during summer, in my mind that means he was surrounded by food. The bear didn't abscond with all his equipment, so he should've salvaged that. Actually he had the opportunity to excell and he eats his dog?