Dog Behavior Blog

Dog Saves Person and Animals In Shelter Fire

Early in the morning, shortly after midnight on March 20, 2010, a dryer caught on fire at the Berkeley-East Bay-Humane Society (in the San Francisco area).  The flames spread quickly. In an apartment above the shelter, a woman was sleeping with her Pitbull-Boxer mix, Baby.  She did not hear the smoke alarms. No one knew that the fire had started and was rapidly expanding. Baby, however, knew that something was wrong, and jumped on the sleeping woman, waking her and allowing her to escape with Baby.

Ultimately, 15 cats died at the shelter.  They had been put in a wing that was close the dryer because they were ready for adoption, and they suffered the initial brunt of the fire. But because of Baby’s quick response, shelter employees and volunteers flooded to the area along with the fire department and managed to save 25 dogs and cats. The animals that were saved were behind a closed door away from the flames, and the door retarded the smoke and the fire long enough for the animals to be rescued.

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Both the shelter and the apartment were completely gutted. All of the animals were rushed to other shelters, to the offices of nearby vets, and to foster homes.  The Bay-Area community pitched in, providing volunteers and donations. Now the shelter is looking for a temporary home while its gutted offices and facilities are being rebuilt. This is not an easy task.  They are continuing their efforts to save some 800 animals a year from being euthanized, and at the same time are trying to raise around $1 million to repair the shelter.

But the hero of the day was Baby. Without Baby’s quick response, both Baby and Baby’s person would have died, along with all of the other dogs and cats.

For those of you who have been reading these blog posts regularly, you will remember that a regular commentator on this blog is Nancy Frensley, who is in charge of the training programs at the East Bay-Berkeley Humane Society.  Fortunately, the training facility was not affected by the fire, and the shelter continues its service of helping people work with their animals.

If you would like to help the shelter, please see their website at http://www.berkeleyhumane.org.

--Con Slobodchikoff

Canine Car Safety

Yesterday, I was driving on a major road with a speed limit of 45 mph when a truck turned onto the road right in front of the car ahead of me. The car that was cut off stopped very fast with a little bit of a squeal and just managed to avoid hitting the truck. These little near misses are a part of every driver’s life from time to time, but what caught my attention in this close call was that the car that skidded to a halt in front of me had an unrestrained dog in the back seat. Even from behind, I could see the dog move awkwardly and smack the front seat. It was lucky that the dog was not in the front seat or he might have gone through the windshield.

We’ve come a long way towards safer car travel for our dogs, though based on what I saw yesterday, many people are not taking advantage of the opportunities out there. There are many ways to keep our dogs safe when they are in the car with us.

One of the easiest ways to keep dogs safe is to have the dog in a crate when traveling by car. In the event of an accident, or even a very sudden stop, the dog cannot go flying through the window. If the crate is wedged between the back seat and the front seat, the crate prevents much movement at all for the dog and crate, which can prevent injuries. A bonus of having a dog in a crate is that many dogs will relax, lie down, or even sleep during car rides.

There are other options besides being restrained in a crate for keeping dogs from becoming projectile missiles when things don’t go right on the roads. There are dog seat belts that attached a dog by a harness to the car’s regular belts. Dogs can be also be in the back area of station wagons and SUVs and separated from the rest of the car’s interior by a gate. (I hardly see a Subaru in my town without one of these gates. They are very popular with the outdoor set—the Subaru and the dog gate.)

Even without using a restraint for your dog, you can make choices that help keep him safer. The back seat is better than the front seat for several reasons. First, the risk of injury in an accident is higher in the front seat. If a dog is in the back part of the car, then the front seat provides some protection, although minimal, in the event of a collision or a sudden stop. Also, in the front seat, there is a chance that the dog can impair your driving, especially if he’s in your lap or on the floor by your feet and the pedals, which is never a good place for a dog in a moving vehicle. (It sounds obvious not to have your dog on the floor of the driver’s side while the car is moving, but I know of several cases of serious injuries to dogs and people because of dogs being there.)

And though I know many people may disagree, I recommend against having dogs in a truck bed. Dogs can easily get tossed from the back of a truck, and this is the most dangerous if they are on a leash at the time because then they run the risk of being out of the truck but still attached to it.

Consider what type of precautions are best for you and your dog, and do what you can to keep him safe!

 --Karen London