Hurricane peak: September's evacuation rehearsal

Hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and the middle of September is its peak. If a storm is going to send Houston onto the highways this year, this is the month. Every family has a plan for the people. Far fewer have one for the dog, which is the part of the plan that fails in the driveway, when it will not get in the crate and the line of cars is already backing up onto 290. This is the rehearsal our trainers ask every family to run once, this month, in about an hour.

The rehearsal

• Say the crate word. The dog walks into the crate in the house and the door closes. If it takes more than one word, that is step one and the rest waits.
• Carry or walk the crate to the car and load it. The dog stays in it, quiet, while you load a bag beside it.
• Drive twenty minutes. A dog that is fine in the driveway is not always fine on the feeder road.
• Stop at a friend's house, a relative's or a pet friendly hotel lobby, walk the dog on a short leash, set up the place bed in a strange room and hold place for fifteen minutes.
• Drive home, unload, and put the crate back where it lives. Done.

A dog that does all five without drama is ready. A dog that fails one of them has told you exactly what to practice in the two weeks before the next forecast.

The bag

Vaccination records, a week of food in a sealed container, medications, two leashes, a collapsible bowl, the microchip number, a recent photo on your phone and the crate itself, which is both the carrier and the only place a dog can sleep calmly in a hotel room. The bag lives by the door from now until December. Do not pack it the night before; that is when the dog is watching you pack and deciding something is wrong.

What a board and train dog already has

Every dog that comes through the training home learns the crate on cue, the car crate, place in a strange room and a structured walk on a short leash, because those are the foundation of everything else. They are also the evacuation plan. If your dog is with us when a storm comes, our team has its own plan for the dogs in the house, and you will hear from us before you need to ask. The Monday, Wednesday and Friday updates do not stop for weather.

The dog that will not load

A dog that fights the crate is the most common failure in the rehearsal, and it is fixable in two weeks. Feed every meal inside it. Close the door for the meal and open it when the bowl is empty. Add a stuffed toy at nap time with the door closed. Move the crate to the car for a meal. Then a short drive with the meal at the end. By the end of the month the crate word means dinner, and a dog that thinks dinner is coming will load in a hurricane.

After the peak

The season is not over in October; it is quieter. Keep the bag by the door and run the rehearsal again on a Saturday in October, when the first cool front makes it easy. If the dog is the reason the plan fails, a $220 in-home lesson lets our trainer see the driveway, the crate and the car, and set the routine where it will be used. For a dog that has none of it, Gold builds the crate, the car and place from nothing: two weeks, $2,500. Call for the free consultation and we will walk you through the plan.

Written by

Best Dog University Team

Board and train trainers in Cypress, Houston. 16+ years, 900+ dogs. About our team