Amber's Books for dog owners to be ready

Check out the books on the Book Page 

 

Dog Training Tips and Resources 2023

The Evacuate with Your Dog's Help book explains how-to evacuate with pets. How-to make a bug-out (survival) bag for owners and dogs to carry. Every dog of any age or size can help its family evacuate. Be prepared for disasters with your pets. Learn what to expect at disaster shelters and from pet rescue during disasters. Included is a detailed expanded list of survival items for pets and owners with step-by step instructions to train your dog to carry a saddlebag to hold items to evacuate and "bug-out" with. Plus Pet CPR instructions and how-to calm a frightened pet. How-to find a lost pet. USA Evacuation Law for pets. 

Both of the books are free on Kindle and Audible. These books are used as a worldwide emergency preparedness resource from the author. Paperbacks are discounted to help with cost of publication. 

What is a Family Disaster Dog? It is Your Dog trained to Find and Rescue You!

Let me tell you how easy a pet dog of any age, size or breed can be your very own Search and Rescue Dog!

The Family Disaster Dogs book is full of fun and easy lessons that are tailored for the family to learn rescue skills in the comfort of the home during daily activities. Your pet dog is a Family Disaster Dog! 

Any size dog from the little Chihuahua to the Great Dane can help its owner survive..and they find you every day already when they want to play or eat so why not learn what else they can do to help you !

Take a look at my Amazon Author Page to read or hear previews of all my books. Thank you in advance for sharing the books and leaving a review which helps other dog owners find many helpful resources, including mine, in search engines.

 Stay safe out there this spring and summer!

Enjoy your dogs and do something new with them today! 

Thank you for visiting Family Disaster Dogs 

Be sure to look at the Page menu above, there are several pages to see and at the bottom of this post is a time line with over 250 articles for dog owners.

A Little History of Family Disaster Dogs Training Your Dog to Rescue You

Training Your Dog to Rescue You

 A Little History of Family Disaster Dogs 

10 Year Anniversary

I started this site ten years ago when I began writing the first Family Disaster Dogs book on the night of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami. As I sat under evacuation orders myself on the Oregon coast, I started to write these lessons with my bloodhound Daisy because it dawned on me that in major disasters and sometimes missing person cases, we have to take care of ourselves and loved ones until help arrives which can take days or weeks depending on the situation. 

As I watched the news I realized i wanted to get these valuable dog training lessons out to the public sooner than the time it takes to publish a book so I started this blog which grew into a website as I added more than 220 pages here at Family Disaster Dogs.

I kept the Family Disaster Dogs book, blog and lessons simple so the public would not feel overwhelmed having to know or learn everything Search and Rescue members must learn. Families do not have to learn as much because they are not going out to rescue others, they are learning from me and my books books how to rescue themselves and loved ones with a dog's help. 

As with most things in life, this site has grown to cover more than the Family Disaster Dogs book and lessons ideas I had ten years ago. The children's book teaches children and parents how to use the dog to find mom, dad and the child and the Evacuate with Your Dog's Help book gives everyone a long list of bug-out bag supplies, information on training a dog to help evacuate and what to expect if you have to evacuate. 

In the last ten years we have reached people all over the world and given out many Family Disaster Dog certificates for those who contact us and tell us their journey with us. Dogs of all ages, sizes and breeds are helping their families prepare for the worst.

Over the years, this all led to the newest book, Start Mantrailing, which takes me back to the beginning of my own emergency preparedness training and gives you the opportunity to learn even more about how to train a dog to find a missing person and how to advance into actual Search and Rescue work or the new sport of Mantrailing. 

Yes, now Mantrailing is gaining in popularity as a Sport too. When I started this site ten years ago Mantrailing was seldom heard of outside of K9SAR or Law Enforcement. Dog sport enthusiast  focused on Tracking events not Mantrailing which was exclusively a bloodhound discipline and much different than tracking in many ways. Now all dogs are learning what bloodhounds like my Daisy naturally do.

Mantrailing is becoming more and more common in the public dog world and on social media. With this growth I will be sharing more and more ways to train a dog to find people as well as how to prepare for disasters.

With covid19 hopefully behind us in the near future, next year 2022??? I hope to train more of you and your dogs in this useful natural nose work a dog can do to help us survive as dogs have done for thousands of years. 

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Check out the newest book here on my author page and don't forget a book is a perfect gift for the holidays. My books are Free on Kindle so everyone can read them. If you would like a signed copy let me know by emailing me or contact me on Facebook at the Family Disaster Dog page. 

Be sure to like, share and follow me on social media to help find missing persons and prepare for what I hope none of us ever have to endure..a disaster or a missing loved one.

I'm not only an author

Family Disaster Dogs is not only a book and site,, its a passion I share with you the knowledge I have gained.

a few of my dogs

I'm not one to brag, I'm more a teacher who wants readers to rest assured that this site is based on my own actual experience and not a copy of something off the internet lol ...experience I do have... 

I've been dedicated to dogs my whole life, and teaching people how to live happily with their pets since my first job in a large show and boarding kennel as a teenager. I went on to be a professional dog trainer and also a professional all breed pet and show groomer. I've owned award winning pet spas and worked with the best in the dog world. I spent over ten years volunteering in search and rescue. 15 years breeding working Bloodhounds, 30 years of German Shepherds and 10 years of rescuing as well as breeding registered Pit Bulls. I was rescuing dogs before rescuing was cool! haha I have worked at several veterinary clinics as well. 

I have personally handled thousands of dogs and cats in my long dog career, as well as owned 100's myself over the years. 

That's about it for me, how about you? Leave me comment below and tell us about your journey with dogs. 

Training my dog to find a person

At my pet spa

What is Mantrailing ? Where Man-Trailing Gets Its Name

 What is Mantrailing?

Me and Washee Mantrailing

Mantrailing is not a new way to train dogs, this way of finding people with dogs has been used by bloodhound owners for hundreds of years. Mantrailing is using a dog’s natural ability to follow cold aged trails to find a specific person who is hidden or missing.  

This method of finding people with a dog is quickly becoming a fun way to exercise reactive and high energy pet dogs that need more to do. Similar to hide and seek with a dog, owners of all breeds of dogs are learning how exciting this type of dog work is to participate in for fun and sport. 

Mantrailing is best known as a type of K9 Search and Rescue specialty in which the dog discriminates one person’s scent from all other person’s scent to locate the one particular person. Mantrailing is used by search and rescue dog teams or police to find missing persons and criminals. A few prisons today continue to use this type of trained dog and long ago plantations used mantrailing hounds to hunt down runaways.

Me and Washee Mantrailing

We found him.. look at my dog smile when she finds the boy! 

Dogs really love to find people!

Where Mantrailing got its Name

“Mantrailing” gets its name from bloodhounds. Many people believe the breed was named bloodhound because the dogs track blood trails which is not true. 

The dogs do not follow the person’s blood trail. 

The dogs follow the scent particles left by a person, sometimes many days, weeks and years later. 

The breed is named a bloodhound because this is the first dog breed to have a written recorded pedigree of its bloodline hundreds of years ago. They are the first “pure blood-ed -hound” or bloodhound. 

Bloodhound handlers long ago gave this type of scent work the name “Mantrailing” because the bloodhound is the trailing dog that hunts people.

My bloodhounds taught me how to Mantrail and now all dog breeds are learning how to do what bloodhounds do naturally. 

Family Disaster Dogs use Mantrailing to find missing and trapped family members after disasters. Any dog can learn to help its family in some way with the Family Disaster Dogs book.

Anyone who wants to train a dog to find people for Sport and Work can learn step by step with my new book "Start Mantrailing" 

Their legacy lives on in my books and this site

Wrinkledpups Daisy Mayham 

Me and Rea Valley's Incredible Sue 

Blue Boy Homer

Wrinkledpups Sambo

Went to Work in CA and GA

Me and George he went to Texas

Pups went to SAR homes in several states, Canada and So. America

Happy New Years 2020 from Family Disaster Dogs

credit source

To the World From 

Family Disaster Dogs

My Puppy Can Find Me

Thank you to all the dogs and hoomans 

who have joined us this year learning how to find family and help in emergencies!

You are what makes Family Disaster Dogs

author Amber Higgins

Thank you for all the support in 2019 !

Thank you for following, sharing and reading my books and articles at Family Disaster Dogs

Here we go into the roaring 2020's

Follow that dog!

Go Dogs!!

Merry Christmas to Everyone and Dog in the World

Merry Christmas !! 

2019

copyright 2019

Author Amber Higgins 

with Katskin Irish Water Spaniels

Oregon coast 2019

My Puppy Can Find Me-children's book

This children's picture book is the most important lesson every child with a dog should learn to avoid every parent’s worst nightmare.

“What to do if your child is missing."

As of Jan 2021 this book is only available from the author via the contact page above.

By reading "My Puppy Can Find Me" picture book with your children the whole family will learn what to do if they are ever separated or missing, and how the family dog can be of assistance during emergencies.

Children will learn valuable lessons by doing these fun exercises that reinforce and teach the pet dog and family to work together during crisis situations to overcome fear and survive.

The whole family learns how to use the family dog to the full advantage regardless of the age, size or breed of the dog.

As a family member and part of the pack your dog always knows where each member of the pack is at, this is natural for the dog to know and we as dog owners only need to learn how to take advantage of this natural instinct our dogs possess.

This children's picture book shows the whole family, young and old, how to use the average family pet as your own hero dog and search dog.

"My Puppy Can Find Me" ebook and picture book is based on the original "Family Disaster Dogs" book (available on Amazon) by former Search Dog trainer and Bloodhound breeder Amber Higgins in the USA.

With artwork and illustrations from U.K. Dog Cartoonist Helen "Scotty" King.

The valuable lessons you and your children can learn are:

1. Young children learn how to tell the family dog to "go find parents"

2. Children learn to wait in one place and play a game until adults find them (we cannot find a missing child if they keep moving away from the searchers, its best to teach children to sit and wait)

3. Parents and older children learn how to tell the dog to go for help and find missing loved ones.

4. Parents learn to ask the dog to find anybody

5. Any age or size dog learns to go to family members or friends upon command like police and military dogs do.

This skill can be used for carrying objects to a person or as a messenger dog.

6. Any dog learns to show you how they can track a missing human pack member and find loved ones with these easy fun game like lessons.

This book is for children 3 and up!

This child version of the Family Disaster Dog book has easy to read familiar words and fun illustrations for your child to learn as they read.

A note from the author
I want to help dog owners and friends of dog families avoid every parent’s worst nightmare. What to do if your child is missing.

Our dogs know where we are every moment and when we leave the house they long to follow us. Our dogs do find us when we open the door. Our dogs can find whoever has left the house, yard or pack, if we dog owners know how to ask. Let us show you how to ask any dog to help you.

The more we share this valuable information, the more children and missing persons we all will help. Thank you in advance for reviewing, liking and sharing so others can learn too ! Amber

Visit the sit to teach your dogs to rescue your family, Family Disaster Dogs

Family Disaster Dogs at the Coos Bay OR Library Author Panel Event

Come meet me in Coos Bay Oregon and talk dogs!

Learn about evacuating with pets in earthquakes and wildfires!

Get a signed copy of my books

Learn how your dog can rescue you and help you evacuate or find missing family. member that wander away.  

Meet a great selection of authors on the wonderful Oregon coast!

Keep Your Companion Content

Flickr

Having a dog is a wonderful gift that everyone deserves to experience. They give us so much and have a huge positive impact on our lives. There are many reasons as to why you should get one, so if you haven't already - what are you waiting for?

They say that a dog is a man's best friend, and it really is just that. They provide you with so much endless love that you don't even have to do anything to receive it. They give and give because it's what they do best, and yet they don't expect anything else from you in return. Some people even say that dogs are better than humans because they don't have the ability to lie - they're one - if not the only - most loyal creature on the planet.

So as you can see they give us all we could ever have asked for, so what can we do for them in return?

Keep them healthy

This is all down to the foods that you give them. Bear in mind that if you accidently leave a table full of food out with your dog in the room - they will consume as much as they possibly can. So what you give them is very important. The food that they have is one thing, but you can also ensure that they are getting all the right nutrients that they need with extra supplements. If you're not sure what these may be, you can have a look online and find things like the best fish oil for dogs, as this gives them the essential fatty acids that improve so many things from their neurological health to their cardiovascular health.

Keep them fit

It is your responsibility to make sure that they are getting all the exercise they need. Sure, if you have your own garden then they can play outside, but that doesn't mean that you don't have to take them for walks. You still need to do this around three times every day to keep them mobile and healthy. Plus they'll thank you for this outing. Dogs aren't meant to be kept locked away inside four walls - they're an animal. They need to go out and see new things and smell new scents and explore! That's what they crave, to go out and socialise with other dogs from the park. Just like a human, if they don't get that then they are prone to becoming depressed and miserable.


Keep them loved

This shouldn't come hard to you, because that's part of what owning a dog is filled with - love. It doesn't take much for you to show them your love. It can be with your voice, your touch, and even the look you have in your eyes. You wouldn't believe how intelligent dogs are - they have a sixth sense, and the ability to read a humans body language is extraordinary. So they know how you feel, they can pick up on it. The action of petting your dog is a magical connection that not only feels lovely for them, but it also relaxes their muscles and relieves any stress they may be feeling.