Preparing and Making a Base Camp

Why we need to Prepare for Super Storms and Make a Base Camp

Sandy is another wake-up call to prepare for the worst.  Although local emergency response teams were on the scene assisting and doing what they could during and after the storm the damages and the number of storm survivors was overwhelming which left many people without help.

The beaches along the shoreline were completely wiped-out and many homes are gone, totally destroyed with everything the survivors owned. People were wearing donated clothing because they could not find their homes or belongings. Many people wandered the streets wondering what to do.

Sandy has raised the need for preparing for survival everywhere. More and more television shows are showing us how to prepare and survive. There are several excellent survival training classes available on and offline which can teach you how to survive a disaster in addition to what you can learn here about training your pet dog to help you.

Every skill you learn, even if it is only one skill from any source, may come in handy one day to help you and your family know what to do so your not left wandering the streets wondering what to do.

How to Prepare for Super Storms

The lessons here can be used to teach the family pet vital skills to use while you are awaiting help to arrive during and after an emergency.

Family Disaster Dog lessons can be taught as part of your daily activity with your dog and family.

For instance, it only takes a few minutes to pack a k9 survival bug-out backpack on your dog before you take your dog with you on a drive in the car. If you do this each time you take your dog then your dog will learn to remind you to get the emergency supplies when you go for a drive. And, having those supplies with you may one day come in handy and save a life because you will have lifesaving necessities with you.

It only takes a few hours a month of training for your family to have a greater chance for survival.

There are many ways you can prepare.

You can prepare by yourself or by forming groups in your neighborhood or in your club and circles of friends. Online social networks and schools are good places to find others who would be interested in learn with you how to prepare for disasters.

You can train as often as you like or groups can meet once a month to train with their dogs as a group. The group can use the lessons here in paper form to hand-out for people to practice at home. Survival and rescue information should be gathered from a number of sources on and offline for educational purposes.

The basic idea is for you, your family or the group to learn how to be self sustaining with  survival and rescue skills.

Another thing you can do to prepare in your own home and on your own time is to pack a 72 hour survival Go-Bag, which is also called a Bug-Out Bag, a Ready Pack or in a dog’s case, a Family Disaster Dog Backpack.

Keep these backpacks near the exit to your home or office and one in the car if you do not take the home go-bag with you each time you leave the house. Many people carry their go-bags everywhere, similar to an over sized purse or book bag.

Also feel free to share the information about Family Disaster Dogs with your friends, family and community. Ask us for Free material for groups, workshops and sharing.

Self Sufficient Means Feeding Yourself. 

Prepare for super storms like Sandy by learning more about food storage. Stock your home and office with at least one week’s supply of food you can eat without cooking. Make sure you can easily open the packages. Include medical supplies and first aid kits. Learn CPR and take first aid classes.

Store an excess of water for cleaning and cooking.  Make sure you have a way to purify the water before cooking or drinking. Find an alternative natural source of water near your home or office, wherever you spend most of the day. You'll feel better knowing you can go get water if the need arose.

Make sure to store your survival food and supplies in an easy to reach location, preferable out of your home but on the property or nearby in a hiding spot you can reach if your home is damaged or you must evacuate.

Speaking of evacuating, if you are told to leave your home or office, where do you plan to go?

Base Camp and Evacuation

It is a good idea to set up a meeting spot up before a situation occurs. Any safe, secure and private location a short walk from home can work as a base camp or meet up spot.

Base Camp can be your home away from home. 

If you live where you can plan a base camp or bug-out location and store supplies at the camp then prepare the camp beforehand by stocking it with supplies. This is where your family will meet if you are separated and without a home.

If you live in the city, you can prepare by finding a clear, comfortable spot in a city park or wooded area near your home. The more private the location is the better. The spot should be big enough to house the people in your group, preferably near a water source but away from danger if possible. Seek high ground if flood is possible, low ground if dangerous winds may prevail without floods.

This public spot will turn into your base camp for evacuation purposes. This spot will not be stocked up with supplies because the supplies will be divided up and stored in easy to carry packs kept with each member of the group or family.

Show everyone the meeting spot and explain you will all meet there in an emergency. Every person can bring supplies to help set-up camp using what they can carry, at the time of evacuation. Each person should bring extra items along with their own Go-Bag and each dog should carries supplies.

When the call comes to evacuate, everybody will know where to go and what to bring which will give them a sense of security. Even if a person is not able to carry much, they can do a part to help get a base camp location set up and comfortable.

Your group will stay at this location until rescuers or outside aid from the police, fire department and rescue teams reaches you.

In most disasters you will be cut off from outside aid for hours to days.

Be prepared to be out of electric, heat and water for many days by learning how to use alternative energy methods for cooking and heating. Make sure the methods are safe for indoor use.

Teach your pets and children what to do if they are separated from you. They should learn how to go to the meeting place on their own, how to stay warm and how to remain in one spot when people are looking for them. Teach your children to Hug-a-Tree.

In the event of an emergency or disaster you are advised to prepare and move to a location away from your home for your safety because of the possible dangers and damages to collapsing structures, also the loss of power lines can cause fires and natural gas leaks can cause explosions.

Disasters occur very quickly and in minutes devastation can surround you. Dealing with this fact can be overwhelming to even the strongest individual. Evacuating to a safe spot beforehand can save a person from some of the trauma and emotional impact of being left without knowing what to do or where to go when all is lost.

Survivalist and Rescuers agree the safer and more comfortable option in a disaster is to move or evacuate to a comfortable camp spot where you can wait it out with friends and family instead of overburdening the resources that are overwhelmed during these events.

Churches, hospitals and shelters are full and short on supplies because so few people are prepared to become self-reliant and tend to themselves in these situations. Churches and shelters are there for us yet outside aid is usually cut- off due to roadway damages creating a lack of resources.

The more self-reliant we are then the less of a burden we are. This makes us more able to survive ourselves and gives the way to those who need more help.



Base camps plans can be comforting.  It’s a nice feeling knowing you have someplace to go. Camps can be made quite comfortable and much more like home then a shelter or church hall.

Everybody can have a few personal items at camp or have a few personal items ready to go to camp to decorate with. A special picture or blanket will be a great comfort to you when the city is dark.

If you are caught off guard and without any help or supplies during a disaster, remember every town or city has a park or wooded area where a base camp can be chosen. During a disaster you will be able to camp just about any place you find that feels safe away from damaged structures. Go find a spot as far away as you can walk, make the best camp you can from what you find along the way, then stay put and survive.

If you know what to do then you can Do IT!

Instead of standing there wondering what to do.

Why suffer when you can go camping instead?

Be prepared, be safe and be there tomorrow.

Family Disaster Dog Example

Family Disaster Dog Example

Family Disaster Dogs are everywhere. They are common in homes worldwide in numbers to high to count. These dogs are right under our feet and often found sleeping beside the bed or under the covers. If we look around any public place there is bound to be a family disaster dog nearby, ready to act at a moment's notice to save somebody's life.

These dog's are easy to spot because they are ordinary dogs relaxing with their families, undercover or out of a hero's costume. They wait.

Like Duke in the video link below who without any formal disaster or rescue dog training jumped into action and saved a baby's life.

WFSB Channel 3

And, Boone who jumped in front of a rattlesnake to save a boy.

Then there was a born hero in a newly adopted Chihuahua puppy who saved its new family from a fire that destroyed their mobile home. As smoke and flames spread through the residential trailer, the agitated puppy barked and growled persistently until it woke the home’s owner. When she realized the building was burning she was able to wake her children and two house guests and escort them safely outside.

This story has a sad ending because when the woman returned to grab her puppy it refused to come out from under the bed, where it had been hiding. She was unable to catch it, and was forced to retreat from the home as the fire spread. Several occupants of the residence made attempts to rescue the puppy, but had to flee due to thick, choking smoke.

Tragically, the young dog died in the same fire it had saved its family from. 

You can read the story here

There is another example of a great dog in action, this family credits their dog with saving their lives and sounding the alarm after a carbon monoxide detector goes off in their home.

.Have No Fear ~ A Dog's Nearby!

Wind and Scent Behavior

Wind and Scent Behavior

The wind plays an important part in looking for lost loved one with your family dog. 

Every dog already knows how to work the wind and how to use the wind to the advantage when they look for members of their family. 

It's up to us to learn how to read our dog during windy or calm conditions in order to know what our dog's are telling us during a search.  

Handlers often make the mistake of "thinking" the dog has lost the scent when the dog is only working the wind. 

Each time you start to work your dog on a scent and as you enter the location of the search scene,  "feel" the wind and how the breeze drifts to settle on surfaces around you.  Feel the air around you and your dog,  feel the dew, the warmth of the sun and wind on the breeze.

This is what your dog feels and relies on. You must learn to be aware of the natural earth cycles that will affect your dog or you can not make critical judgment calls about your dog’s actions.

This awareness is part of assessing the scene for a K9 handler and dog, to make sure you are aware of everything before you venture into the unknown. Emergency response crews are taught to "assess the incident" before they go into action. This is part of planning that each rescuer should learn that will be included in later assessment and record keeping lessons.

For now, it is important for you to learn how the wind feels and which way the wind is blowing from and to where does the wind go. Learning to feel the way the breeze moves to settle in each and every crack on every surface around you lets you know which way the scent will be coming from and which way you should go.

Stand for a moment before you start your dog working on a trail. Look for any water surface to see if there is movement on the water from the wind. Look for any type of flags, tree branches and your hair or your dog’s hair can become a flag that dances on the movement of the air and take a moment to imagine the scent particles drifting on the wind. 

See where the leaves settle or a piece of litter rolling across the pavement lands. This is the wind in action carrying the scent you seek along its way. See where the scent will settle around you and your dog, feel the direction of the wind blowing from one direction and how fast or gentle she blows.

As you work with your dog understand the scent will travel on the wind and so might your dog’s nose work in following where the scent particles go. Never scold your dog for going off a trail or course because you really do not know if the scent is there or not, do you? 

The dog is always right on a search because we really cannot smell the scent they can smell and follow. We must learn to read the dog who knows what the scent is.

Always remember to trust your dog to follow the scent where the wind takes the particles.

Your dog will naturally work the wind if given the opportunity to do so because the wind will guide your dog to where the scent is originating from. Scent moves in a cone from the object it is originating from. 

As the scent moves away from the source the particles spread out forming the larger end of the cone as illustrated below.

Once you learn to feel the wind and know which direction the breeze will carry the particles you will know to face your dog in the direction of the wind to start the search. Then your dog has the advantage on the trail; and a good starting place.

Learn to pay attention to obstacles that may cause the wind to shift or move in another direction in order to read your dog better.

If your dog suddenly changes direction for no apparent reason and the subject did not or could not go there then there is a good chance the wind moved the scent to the lay where it has. Your dog will work the puzzle out, if given the time and opportunity.

For instance if a lost person jumped up on a landscape wall to a grassy area 3 feet higher and traveled along the wall instead of away from the wall. The scent particles will fall on the lower and upper surface, on the top of the wall and along the bottom.

A dog is most likely to travel and follow the person’s scent along the bottom of the wall without jumping up to the top of the wall like the person did. This is easier for the dog then jumping up. 

When the dog comes to the scent cloud at the wall  not where the person went. The dog will turn and follow the direction the scent is coming from. The dog can follow the scent from either the top of the wall or the bottom with the same ease.

When the person moves away from the wall across the grass the person's scent will follow and so will the dog by jumping up onto the upper level as the scent moves away the dog will follow.

The wind is one of the strongest forces on earth and the plays many roles in how scent is spread for a dog to find.

Another example of how the wind can play on scent is in an open area of a power line cutout of a forest or a sudden opening in a brush covered lot. High grass and other types of crop fields with a sudden open path or road way will make a tunnel effect on the scent trail because the wind or air will move up this tunnel opening to push or pull the scent in one direction or the other. 

If you look around you can see many places that make a tunnel effect on a surface which the wind can travel through.

Underpasses on highways and alleyways between buildings will all make a place for the wind or air to come through to move the scent off the person’s actual path. If you are trailing with your dog and cross a clear cut area in a forest or alleyway in a city your dog may turn into or away from the area when following the scent particle currents on the air.

Follow your dog and they will work the wind and air through the puzzle. Your dog may momentarily be off of the person’s actual foot path by following the scent on the breeze, the dog should be allowed to work this out without interference from their handler even when the handler does not understand why the dog is acting like they are not tracking.

Your dog may stop and look around as they smell the air and see where to go. Give the dog a chance to do as you ask. The wind’s effect on the scent can make a dog hard to read and confuse the handler who can then confuse the dog.

Anytime your dog stops following a scent they are working out a scent puzzle and should be allowed time to work this through without us telling them what to do because they are busy doing what we ask. If the dog stops to think or react we should not interfere. Some reactions take time.

Go easy on how much encouragement you give a dog who is actively working scent or they will feel interrupted. Some dogs do not like to be bothered when they are working and speaking to them can break the focus they have on the scent or job. Other dogs enjoy the companionship and want us to be part of the job. Each dog is an individual who we have to learn how to read.

Each time you start to work your dog on scent work, also called nose work, you should test the direction of the wind and feel how strong the wind is blowing.  

A mild breeze blowing the scent to your dog can have a great advantage on a trail while a day with no wind might make your dog work harder finding scent which is laying still. A day that is dry, hot and still with no breeze at all is the hardest for your dog to work a scent.

The trick for wetting your finger then watching to which side dries first does work for determining the wind direction and you can look around for items blowing in the wind, chimney smoke is a good indicator during winter months. Cigarette smoke and campfire smoke are good to watch and learn how the wind will move the scent on the air.

One important point to always keep in mind is that there is a layer of air at the surface of the earth where our feet land that is not moved or affected by upper wind movement. This layer of air can be worked by a dog in the worst of weather conditions.

This layer of air is between 2 and 4 inches from the ground and a dog who is tracking as close to the ground as they can get their nose is working this scent layer.

Bloodhounds and other hounds are notorious for finding their man because they know where to put their nose and their ears are long to stir up the air uncovering the scent in this bottom layer of surface air.

During the late afternoon and night hours of a day, the expansion or exhale of the earth cycle and moisture from overnight expands and wets this surface air which drifts up during the process making the scent easier for a dog to follow.

Sue working a Scent Cone

Click here for a good article about scent from the CIA

From Your Dog

My Willie G Dawg

From your dog;

The years go so very fast and before you know it that romping pup is old and grey muzzled and they have sat by our sides while we read, watch TV, and work on our computers. Every so often they come and lay their heads in our laps, toss our elbow with their muzzle or gaze into our eyes and wait for us to notice them. Take a moment now to commune.

"I am your dog, and I have a little something I'd like to whisper in your ear. I know that you humans lead busy lives. Some have to work, some have children to raise. It always seems like you are running here and running there, often much too fast, often never noticing the truly grand things in life.

Look down at me now, while you sit there at your computer. See the way my dark brown eyes look at yours? They are slightly cloudy now. That comes with age. The gray hairs are beginning to ring my soft muzzle. You smile at me; I see love in your eyes. What do you see in mine? Do you see a spirit? A soul inside, who loves you as no other could in the world? A spirit that would forgive all trespasses of prior wrong doing for just a simple moment of your time? That is all I ask. To slow down, if even for a few minutes, to be with me.

So many times you have been saddened by the words you read on that screen, of others of my kind, passing. Sometimes we die young and oh so quickly, sometimes so suddenly it wrenches your heart out of your throat. Sometimes, we age so slowly before your eyes that you may not even seem to know until the very end, when we look at you with grizzled muzzles and cataract clouded eyes. Still the love is always there, even when we must take that long sleep, to run free in a distant land. I may not be here tomorrow; I may not be here next week. Someday you will shed the water from your eyes, that humans have when deep grief fills their souls, and you will be angry at yourself that you did not have just "one more day" with me. Because I love you so, your sorrow touches my spirit and grieves me.

Wrinkledpups Daisy Mayham 

We have NOW, together. So come, sit down here next to me on the floor, and look deep into my eyes. What do you see? If you look hard and deep enough we will talk, you and I, heart to heart. Come to me not as "alpha" or as "trainer" or even "Mom or Dad," come to me as a living soul and stroke my fur and let us look deep into one another's eyes and talk. I may tell you something about the fun of chasing a tennis ball, or I may tell you something profound about myself, or even life in general.

You decided to have me in your life because you wanted a soul to share such things with. Someone very different from you, and here I am. I am a dog, but I am alive. I feel emotion, I feel physical senses, and I can revel in the differences of our spirits and souls. I do not think of you as a "Dog on two feet" -- I know what you are and who you are. You are human, in all your quirkiness, and I love you still.

Now, come sit with me, on the floor. Enter my world, and let time slow down if only for 15 minutes. Look deep into my eyes, and whisper into my ears. Speak with your heart, with your joy, and I will know your true self. We may not have tomorrow, but we do have today, and life is oh so very short. So please -- come sit with me now and let us share these precious moments we have together.

Love, on behalf of canines everywhere.

Your Dog."-Author Unknown-

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