Shelties & disaster preparation

M

Mark M.

Forums Regular
Hi all. Greetings again from the oh so wonderful East Coast [/sarcasm]

I'm getting ready for the hurricane. I'm in West Virginia, so we probably won't catch the full brunt of it, but there are high wind warnings out and I'm afraid it could get terribly bad really quickly. We don't live in hurricane country, so I've never experienced anything like this. I'm mostly concerned what to do with Murphy if we have to leave the house.

Since the last time I posted, I have bought him a crate. And he's... somewhat good in it. Sometimes, he's fine. Other times, he's sorta hyper and barky. I have a feeling he'll be a problem if we have to go somewhere (like a shelter) where's there's a lot of people and stimulation around.

Any suggestions. I'm hoping we don't have to leave. Irony of ironies, we bought a whole house generator a couple of months ago. The crew came to install if Friday - and wasn't able to finish the job. They were talking about coming back Tuesday, but I'm hoping I can get them out here tomorrow to finish the job. If that fails, and we have to leave, we have a few options hopefully. My office, my wife's office, my brother's home (he has gas heat in a least one or two rooms). It depends on how bad things get and where there is power. We live at a high elevation and away from any water ways, so if we have to evacuate, it'll most likely be because the house lost power and is too cold.

Any ideas on how to manage him? We talked it over as a family, and decided, if worse comes to worse and we can't stay together, the wife and kids will go somewhere safe and warm and I'll stay with Murphy and figure something out. None of us are willing to leave him somewhere where we're not sure what's happening to him.

BTW, as far as the crate goes, he gets kinda barky, but doesn't seem too out of sorts. He doesn't bang around in the cage or pant excessively. If we have to go somewhere where he has to stay in the crate with a lot of people around, I think he might settle down after he gets used to it all. Should I be worrying that he'll make himself sick if he stays in the crate and doesn't settle?

BTW, on the vet's advice, we've tried Benadryl. It doesn't seem to do much for him.

Also, he seems pretty comfortable in colder weather. I always think he might last a lot longer than me in a cold house. Any idea how cold it could get before he gets too cold?

Thanks. Scary stuff.
 
My dogs play in the snow for hours, they tolerate cold better than us. I keep my house cool (windows are open now, in the 50's), but I will be cranking my heat tomorrow so when the power goes out I have half a shot at staying warm. 52 inside is really my limit.

I am in Baltimore, on high ground. I have one crate for every dog in case it gets bad. We might get water in the basement, and trees might come down, but the house will be fine. Brick, cinderblock and I-Beams, we are good.

On the downside, I sprained my ankle, knee (with suspected internal structure damage), and bruised my ribs yesterday, so my prep has basically been to get my parents to bring me dog food and ice cream. My landlord has done the rest. It's going to be an adventure!
 
Hey, I'm not sure what you are worried about at this point. Why are you thinking that you will have to evacuate? Yes, you might lose power for several days and that is a nasty inconvenience but this time of year does not mean moving to a shelter, I don't think - unless you are flooded out (and I don't think you are in a flood zone????)

Best you can do to prepare is stock up on batteries, candles, bottled water etc. If you are on well water and lose power, then for sure that can be an issue if power goes, so you may need to fill up bathtubs and have a bucket handy to flush down toilets.

If you do have to leave the house, then by all means crate. Even by force if you have to. You should practice now by throwing treats into the crate and eventually shutting the door for short periods of time. It really only takes a couple of days for dogs to get used to being crated. They might complain at first. By NO MEANS do not let them out if they complain. Poke another treat in and then when they quiet, let them out. Then treat them again to go back in.

The other thing to consider if you think you have a really nervous Sheltie is a Thundershirt. These are awesome! Of all the shirts I've sold, I think I've only had a couple returned because the owner did not believe it was working.

http://www.thundershirt.com/
 
I hope nothing unpleasant happens. We don't get such extremes in UK, (yet!) thank goodness. One thing I've found with Blue is that once a blanket is spread over his cage, he settles down. He used to get anxious in the car until I tried this. See if it helps.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try them.

It may not be that bad here. We're near the fringe of the storm zone. There is a high wind warning in effect to 24 hrs tomorrow, but most forecasters are predicting winds about 25 mph or so with gusts around 40. That's what we get with a typical winter storm. We rarely lose power for any length of time here, but these won't be typical conditions.

I'm mostly just trying to plan for the worst. It's a chilly 45 here. Not freezing, but not comfortable if the power goes out. Hopefully, we can get the generator wired up - if not tomorrow, Tues or Wed. Basically, I just want the family to be as comfortable and safe as possible. My parents are with us too. They live a few hours away in the mountains and were facing 2 feet of snow, potentially. At their age & health, I want to make sure we can get to them if something happens.

BTW, no, I'm not too worried about flooding. If the ground gets too saturated, water could back up into the basement, I guess, but other than that, we're good. We don't live near any creeks, streams, etc.
 
not sure about up there but down here, pets are not permitted in shelters which is why you hear the stories about people staying in their houses with their pets.
our evac plans in the past have been pet friendly motels out of the danger zone and/or going to stay with a friend.

covering the crate with a towel/blanket works very well- have done that for a long time. just don't let the dog out when he starts fussing, he'll learn to ask to be let out by doing that.

as for how cold can the sheltie stand- a lot colder than you or me- they do have those lovely fur coats. if you had more than one, you wouldn't need to worry about losing heat:winkgrin:
 
Mark, you'll be ok. I'm not far from you -- right on the WV/VA border. I've been through a bunch of hurricanes/typhoons, tornadoes, etc. You'll get a whopping load of rain, gusting winds, and probably snow. Before we had a generator, we hung plastic sheeting to keep the room with the gas fireplace warm and sealed.

We have four Shelties and aren't worried about being evacuated. You're not near the coast, so you'll be fine. If you stay calm, Murphy will, too.
 
Chris said:
Mark, you'll be ok. I'm not far from you -- right on the WV/VA border. I've been through a bunch of hurricanes/typhoons, tornadoes, etc. You'll get a whopping load of rain, gusting winds, and probably snow. Before we had a generator, we hung plastic sheeting to keep the room with the gas fireplace warm and sealed.

We have four Shelties and aren't worried about being evacuated. You're not near the coast, so you'll be fine. If you stay calm, Murphy will, too.
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That could be a problem. I'm not calm. Never been through anything like this, and all I can think of are the worse case scenarios. We're not very well prepared. Like I said, a generator is sitting outside, only partially hooked up. I don't think me or the workmen thought it would really be this bad. We have a fireplace, but haven't used it in.... ten years, maybe? I'd be a little afraid to use it. Not sure the chimney is clear. We did have a chimney sweep look at it 2 years ago. Not sure what'd we do for wood. There's some wood outside, but it's soaked through.

I really hope the power stays on, but I'm skeptical that will be the case. Really angry with myself for how I bungled getting the generator installed. That should have been done middle of the week, not leave it till Friday.

I kinda figured shelters wouldn't want pets. Hopefully, if it comes to that, we can go to my brother's or one of the offices.
 
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