America is a land of pets. Several people have pets in our home and in many homes the pets are treated as good as the kids are. There are pet spas where Jack can get a new doo and even pet morticians who can help beware of Jack’s final resting place.
I really don’t know when man first started domesticating the dog, but it’s to go pretty way back. Dogs are a part of helping mankind in the struggle for survival since long before we had our modern conveniences creating our lives comfortable. Dogs are used in work and in searching, to increase their owner’s ability. They’ve also been protectors, guarding over youngsters, sheep and whole families.
If you’ve got dogs, then you need to make them part of your survival plan. Huge dogs are a lot of helpful for this, but even smaller dogs can be very useful in watching over your home and family.
Dogs as Guards
It is usually accepted amongst the prepper community that in the case of any major disaster, we can expect to own marauding bands of looters looking for food and whatever else they can find. This shouldn’t surprise us, because the looters come out for pretty much any disaster, to see however they can take advantage of it. The massive difference in a major disaster, will be that they’ll be looking for food and different necessities, more than looking for massive screen televisions to steal.
For this reason, a number of different books have suggested keeping guards on watch at your home or survival retreat. There’s just one downside with that; guards who agency ar watching for marauders aren’t doing much to assist your family survive. That’s not a very efficient use of manpower.
On the other hand, dogs are nice natural guards. They’re territorial, so it’s natural for them to raise the alarm once anyone approaches their territory, friend or foe. Even little dogs work in this capability, although their bark may not do a lot of to scare any would-be intruders away.
While it’s natural for dogs to act as guards, this natural ability can be enhanced by training. One factor that they need to be trained to do is to stay on their own territory and not run off to check out the neighborhood. A dog checking out the neighborhood isn’t much of an alarm. They will even be trained so that you can silence them with a command; permitting you to talk to the person, once the alarm has been raised.
Dogs as Defenders
Dogs are natural defenders of their family and property, especially massive dogs. A dog doesn’t think anything of attacking an armed unwelcome person, even though the unwelcome person is larger and higher armed than they’re. If there’s a threat, they’re likely to attack.
Actually, there’s something frightening regarding an offensive dog, which will scare several criminals who would face you with a gun in your hand. People don’t know how to respond to it and therefore the dog moves quick enough that they don’t create a awfully simple target to hit.
If you’re planning on using your dogs as defenders, you definintely want to get them some training. They don’t need to be trained how to attack, as their play teaches them that. What they need is the training to only attack on your command and to prevent attacking on your command. Otherwise, you could end up with a dog who may be a menace to neighborhood kids.
Dogs as Babysitters
One of the most important issues with surviving with young children is the problem of attempting to get any work done, while watching over the kids. Dogs can be plenty of help there also. Dogs have a natural affinity for watching over young children and protecting them from danger. You’ll see totally untrained dogs do things like move to block a staircase in order to stop a baby from falling down it.
This is even more vital in the wild, where there’s way more that can hurt our kids than there’s in the benign atmosphere of a suburban home. Dogs naturally understand the dangers in nature and will defend the kids from them.
It is possible to train dogs for watching over children, increasing their natural ability. The Pit Bull, which is usually known to be a very mean dog, used to be called the “nanny dog” for their great ability with young children and their naturally protective nature. Families would leave the Pit Bull to watch over the kids while they were busy, knowing that nothing would happen to them.
Be Prepared to Care for Your Dogs
If you’re going to make your dogs part of your survival plan, then you’d higher be ready to pay attention of your dogs. That means taking into account their food and water needs, stockpiling those along with your family’s food and water. Fortunately, dry pet-food is fairly cheap, so you can stockpile lots for a very little amount of cash. Also, figure out the questions like “is corn safe for dogs” before you stock up on your pets favorite canned meals and dried food goods.
Don’t forget that your dogs may be ready to augment their food by hunting. Some breeds of dogs are natural hunters. That’s good, as rodents and alternative pests tend to multiply during times of disaster. You might need Jack to take out some rats or raccoons to keep their population at bay.
You should also put aside a stock of medicines for your dogs. Fortunately, you don’t need a prescription for getting veterinary pharmaceuticals. Make sure that you have medicines to take care of the most common issues, as well as enough rabies vaccine to last for many years.
Finally, you want to be able to keep your dogs away from people who are just passing by. The majority keep their dogs in the yard, however if you’re expecting the dogs to assist act as alarms against intruders, you may want to keep them in the house or in the front yard. That may require adding some additional fencing or some chains to hold the dogs and keep them from leaving your property.
