Bugging Out with Pets

We talk about situations on the Prepper Journal and other survival blogs that are so drastic or life threatening that you are forced to gather vital supplies, throw them into your car or on your back and flee from your current location as quickly as possible. We call this act of leaving while you still can, Bugging Out. There are entire volumes of work devoted to the question of whether one should Bug Out or Hunker down. Even I have written on the subject behind the decisions you should consider when you are asking this question of yourself. Should you stay where you are or leave everything behind except what you can take with you, maybe on your back and run to a hopefully safer place?

When it comes to bugging out, we have to look at this from a couple of different perspectives, but I usually take the most pessimistic when making plans. As I was considering what was right for my family in just about any scenario I could imagine, the sensible thing for me seemed to be to hunker down right where I am. There are a lot of very good reasons why this seems to be the smarter choice, but I know that life is really good at throwing curve-balls at you and it is foolish to not plan for contingencies.

Where are you bugging out to?

Bugging out is simply leaving your current location and moving to a location with more safety. The idea scenario is that the Prepper family has a fully stocked mountain retreat somewhere within a relatively short driving distance. If the situation you are in dictates that its time to leave your home, neighborhood or state, you would load up the station wagon (I know…) pile all your survival supplies in the back and drive through the countryside to your retreat well ahead of any danger, away from most people and without any trouble at all.

I for one don’t think that too many people will ever have the means to do anything remotely like this. If they do, there is a good possibility that you will wait until it’s too late and the roads, highways and streets will be impassable due to the millions of other people trying to leave too. Unless you have somewhere to go and are bold enough to check out before anyone else realizes the trouble you see coming, you will either be stuck in traffic, forced to walk on foot, both or still at home. That is assuming you have someplace to go. What if you don’t have a second home or friends on 50 acres who have planned to take you in? What will you do then?

If that isn’t enough to worry about, you also need to consider the family pet.

I am a dog owner and have written about our newest dog before. We chose our dog because she had qualities that would be beneficial to us in a grid-down situation like I described above. Like I said, our plan is to hunker down for as long as possible, but if the time comes when we are forced to leave we are taking our dog with us. Knowing that now, we had to consider what our pet would need if she had to bug out too.

What is the “right” pet to bug out with?

Why wouldn’t we leave her behind? Well the obvious reason is that she is part of our family. I say that with the full understanding that she is an animal and I wouldn’t place the value of her life over any humans in our family, but I would easily value her life above a lot of other humans. I am not a dog nut by any stretch, but as our pet, an adopted family member and an important aspect of our survival, our dog is going with us.

She is not our only pet, but she is the only pet we would take with us.

What about the cat or the bird? What about the chickens or the pet fish? The chickens would go if we had someplace to take them, but if we are forced to bug out it will be on foot and the dog is the only one who makes the cut for coming along. Sam is a Belgian Malinois and can carry most of her own supplies and water, she can defend us and alert us to danger. She is also a deterrent because usually when people see her, they think she is an attack dog. Sam has not been trained to attack anything other than a tennis ball at this time, but I don’t have any doubt that she would attack anyone who she thought was threatening us. Could your cats do that?

Now, I understand that there may be a lot of people who are planning to take their cats, goldfish or hamsters or any number of other pets. If you have a car and a place to go, why not? There are a lot of dogs out there that aren’t capable of hauling a hair bow much less food for three days and their own water and if you are forced to walk I personally wouldn’t take a pet like this with me. Can small dogs alert you to the presence of someone? Yes. Can they even bite someone who is hurting you? Maybe. Is it worth it to take this pet on a cross-country hike and have to worry about them and their stuff too? I don’t think so. To me, unless your pet is designed to do big things and go long distances and you are bugging out, the best thing you can do is kill them quickly. I wouldn’t take a toy dog breed for example with me.

Why kill your pets? As with anything, it depends on the disaster and I am sure people will give me examples where you would be coming home, or say that its more humane to let the pet live in the wild and fend for itself than it is to kill it. I also know there are stories of small dogs traveling great distances against all odds to reunite with their owners. I think there was even a movie about that… I understand this reaction, but I don’t agree with the logic.

In hurricane Katrina, it is estimated that over 600,000 animals were killed or stranded. This was due to a number of factors. Most animals were either locked in homes they couldn’t escape and died due to flooding, or worse starvation or dehydration. Others made it out of the homes, but when the city was deserted, they still starved because there was no one left to feed them. Do you think living like that is more merciful? I am sure that in some cases their owners hated leaving their pets, but as Preppers you don’t get that luxury. You know right now that bad things can happen and you should be making plans. The sooner you have a plan to either take your pet with you or deal with it humanely should you have to leave, the better prepared you will be when and if that time comes.

Pet Considerations

So enough of the sad facets of bugging out; let’s talk about what to consider if you think you may ever be bugging out with pets.

Bug Out Bag – Yes, dogs can have and carry their own dog bug out bag if they are the right size. A saddle on your dog will enable them to carry some or all of the weight of their own supplies. We have a large breed dog and for large breeds, a dog saddle should be able to hold their food, some water, bowl and possibly a mat for them to lay on and a lot of other things too. Stansport makes a saddle bag for dogs that fits dogs weighing between 30 and 90 pounds. That range covers a lot of dogs and probably includes only those best suited to bugging out in the first place. I would recommend trying this pack out well in advance of actually needing it to make sure your dog can handle the weight. Take Fido to the mountains or the park, load this pack with some weight and get them acclimated to it. Over time you should build up to the weight you think they will be carrying if you need to bug out with your pet.

Food – For humans we consider a good bug out bag load of 72 hours or three days’ worth of food. The same should go for your dog too but I might add a little extra if they are going to be lugging a pack around with them. Along with food I might throw in some favorite snacks. Not a lot, but just like humans, dogs (in my opinion) would like to have something to raise their spirits too.

Water – This is an area I disagree with a lot of people on when it comes to packing my bug out bag. I have seen others that plan on packing three days of water in your pack. Three gallons not only weighs a lot but it takes up a ridiculous amount of space. It’s the same for your dog. While they won’t need the same amount of water a human will need for hygiene and cooking they will need to drink a lot to stay hydrated. Rests will need to be planned for everyone and this includes your dog. I would pack a liter of water for the dog (same as a human) and make sure you have a filter in your pack to filter or disinfect water along the way. What if you live in the desert? I wouldn’t really plan on hiking anywhere in that case for the obvious reasons. I know people hike all the time in the deserts, but the scarcity of water would need to be considered. Maybe if your path was along a river it would be completely different.

Health – Dogs are pretty healthy animals provided their age and health has been maintained. If you have an older dog, they may be on medications that need to be packed as well. Along with prescribed medication I would take a simple first aid kit for them. Vigilant Trails makes a simple Pet first aid kit that has all the basics you could need. If you are going to be traveling on rough surfaces, you need to make sure your dog’s paws are healthy because like humans, if the feet go out, they won’t be able to go any further. For small or mild abrasions you can wash the pads gently and apply Neosporin to the wound, lightly wrap with vet wrap or an ace bandage. This will keep Fido immobile most likely so if you plan on going over sharp or rocky surfaces, some dog shoes to protect their feet would be a smart addition.

Leash and Collar – This might seem like a no brainer, but unless you have Astro the super trained dog who will obey your every command the first time with zero mistakes, you will need a leash and collar. For walking outdoors over terrain I would recommend nylon 6 or 10 foot leash instead of a retractable leash. Retractable is fine if you are taking the dog out for their morning business but if they are hiking through the woods, you want something simpler, stronger, less prone to breaking and that is the good old nylon leash. A 10 foot will let the dog walk in front of you a little further, easing fatigue when going over terrain because you won’t be walking them loose leash beside you like Caesar Millan if you are bugging out through the forest. If you are walking down the highway you might though.

Noise Discipline – I wrote about noise discipline for your home in another post, but there may be a reason to apply this to Fido too. We have the rabies tag and the big dog tag with her name on the front but anytime she moves, that tag combination makes noise. If you are trying to be quiet that simple jingling of metal on metal could give you away. Plan to either tape the noisy parts of the collar together so they aren’t lost but don’t make noise. Either that or you can remove them and keep them in the dog bug out bag.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas and I would like to hear yours. What is your plan for bugging out with pets?