Gus and the Great BC Shake-out

[Islander]

Gus and I just participated in a major province-wide earthquake drill. When the time came, I followed the "Drop, cover and hold on" procedure - I was under my very solid dining room table, trying to protect my neck and head and calling to Gus at the same time. He was risking his life by running around the living room wondering what kind of crazy new game mom was playing. After the "shaking" stopped, I was able to leash him quickly and get outside with our "grab and go" kit (contains supplies for both of us for 3 days) and met up with other people from my housing co-op at our designated muster station. All went well but I need to grab him before I go under the table. People have suggested that in a real quake he might feel anxious just before it happens and seek human comfort (Gus?????) or freeze when it starts to shake so that I can grab him.

Anyone have any experience with dogs & earthquakes?

[finncaraid]

Hopefully a real one would make Gus realize it wasn't a great new game! We had an earthquake in August: not big by other area standards but in this part of the world (East Coast, US), earthquakes are very rare. And on the few occasions we've had one, if you didn't pay attention, you'd miss it. In August when we had our experience we were at our beach house on the Atlantic. It was a beautiful day, had been on the beach all day & we were getting a late lunch ready. I was sitting on a stool at the counter & the stool started moving. I assumed it was Finn trying to get me to put him on the adjoining stool. I was busy looking at a magazine, not paying attention to where he was & just said stop. A few seconds later, it started again. Starting to get annoyed with him, I looked down to see what he wanted: he wasn't there. I looked around & he was laying across the room. At the same time, the windows started shaking, the pictures on the wall were moving, the stuff in the cabinets was rattling. It hit me it was a quake. Grabbed Finn & told my husband we had to get outside: nothing on this coast is quake proof. Naturally, DH just had to ask what difference that would make. After the shaking stopped, my first response was to ask Finn what was wrong with him, I thought dogs could sense these kinds of things. Finn told me you can't always believe what you hear He then said " I gotta be the watch dog for bad guys, I gotta keep all varmints away from the house, I gotta be the greeter when friends come over & I gotta be your handsome chappy. All this for 2 plates of crummy dog food a day. Geesh, lady, get a clue. A big ferocious guy like me can only do so much." That's the Cairn attitude for ya!