What to do with your greyhounds during a tornado alert?

[macoduck]

After giving a Lost Greyhound Emergency talk at Mountain Hounds I was contacted about what to do for your dogs during a tornado.
I'm waiting to hear back from her about the configuration of her house.

What would you do in these instances:
- open floor plan, no hall to hunker down in
- no basement
- have you sheltered in the bathroom or a big closet
- would you crate your dogs, whether in the hallway or a bedroom 

I think her biggest concern is regarding crating vs not crating. Impossible to predict if the crate (wire or plastic) could survive the implant of house debris hitting it, or if the tornado would lift it out of the house.

Would it be better to have the greyhounds on leash? And have the leash clipped on to your waistband? 
 

[Jerilyn]

I have a basement but there was a tornado very close to my house when Lila was elderly and wouldn’t go downstairs. She did not tolerate being picked up and even if she did, carrying her down the stairs would likely have resulted in disaster. I didn’t know what to do and I don’t know what the right thing to do is. But I decided it would be no good if the house was hit and we were both trapped or injured upstairs so I took shelter in the basement. Lila laid down on her bed in my bedroom. I was terrified. Luckily the tornado passed us over.

If I didn’t have a basement or interior hall, I’d go to the bathroom, probably in the tub with the curtain closed. I don’t think I wouldn’t crate a greyhound out of fear of her being trapped in there. I would definitely have her on a leash. I would crate smaller animals whose crate I could carry.

Tornadoes are especially scary since there is usually little to no warning they are coming so it's good to have a plan.

[Time4ANap]

When we lived in IL we did have a basement, but even in the basement we kept Rocket leashed during severe storms or tornado warnings. Usually he could just lay on the futon in the basement but if there was an indication that we needed to hunker down further, we had a bathroom on the interior wall of the basement that was the safe space. This bathroom had shower instead of a tub, so we threw a dog bed into the shower and he would lay in there as long as we stayed in that bathroom.

I usually clipped a NiteIze blinker to his collar (and turned it on)  and made sure that he had his tags on also. In the event that something happened that allowed him to get away, he would be easier to find with the blinker on. At the time we also had the GPS tracking collar so that was usually already on him as well. 

I would not crate unless it is a better safe space for the dog, and the crate is also fairly protected in the same room you are sheltering in. Leaving the dog separated from the humans in that kind of storm is not going to help the dog ride out the storm. 

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Time4ANap

[JenniferS]

We don't usually get tornados here in the northeast, but if we had a warning, I would most likely leash my dog, having a waist attachment ready on me, and babygate us all together in the interior hallway (no basement). Good questions!! 

On a related note, I keep leashes near both exits of my house, as well as the bedroom in case we needed to evacuate out a window. 

[LBass]

No basement here, but our "human" plan in a tornado situation would be to head to the master bathroom--no windows, no external walls, the most internal room in the house.  I'd leash Nate and take him in there with us.  And the cats.

[ramonaghan]

In her younger years, Sweep's instinct during any bad storm was to head to the basement, so that made it pretty easy for us. In the last year as a tripod she would not do stairs willingly, so we harnessed her up and got her down there. No crate. The cats were more challenging, especially as they are mortal enemies.

The first 1.5 years with Sweep, we were in a townhome with a tiny half bath and a tiny laundry room as our only interior room options. Again, no crate, just a leash and her ID collar. 

[Trudy]

Dogs join us in the closet. There are no kennels (or room for kennels for 3 large dogs) in the closet.

[cleptogrey]

On 6/11/2022 at 2:52 PM, Jerilyn said:

I have a basement but there was a tornado very close to my house when Lila was elderly and wouldn’t go downstairs. She did not tolerate being picked up and even if she did, carrying her down the stairs would likely have resulted in disaster. I didn’t know what to do and I don’t know what the right thing to do is. But I decided it would be no good if the house was hit and we were both trapped or injured upstairs so I took shelter in the basement. Lila laid down on her bed in my bedroom. I was terrified. Luckily the tornado passed us over.

If I didn’t have a basement or interior hall, I’d go to the bathroom, probably in the tub with the curtain closed. I don’t think I wouldn’t crate a greyhound out of fear of her being trapped in there. I would definitely have her on a leash. I would crate smaller animals whose crate I could carry.

Tornadoes are especially scary since there is usually little to no warning they are coming so it's good to have a plan.

i was camping in Sheboygan when you had that tornado experience. I asked the camp host what the protocol is, since i come from an area that never get tornados. her advice- the bathroom/bathhouse to be specific since there aren't windows in each stall. fortunately the dogs were boarded. so, i guess the next time  i'm not in my van(limbs thrown on and around the van) i'll go to the bathroom and keep the hounds with me. 

what i ended up doing is after the car was attacked we went to an open area- lots of lightening. but what are the odds of the car getting struck by lightening the same night a limb fell on it? it was raining too hard to even get to the bath house! we dodged branches on the way to an unwooded area.

[Jerilyn]

20 hours ago, cleptogrey said:

i was camping in Sheboygan when you had that tornado experience. I asked the camp host what the protocol is, since i come from an area that never get tornados. her advice- the bathroom/bathhouse to be specific since there aren't windows in each stall. fortunately the dogs were boarded. so, i guess the next time  i'm not in my van(limbs thrown on and around the van) i'll go to the bathroom and keep the hounds with me. 

what i ended up doing is after the car was attacked we went to an open area- lots of lightening. but what are the odds of the car getting struck by lightening the same night a limb fell on it? it was raining too hard to even get to the bath house! we dodged branches on the way to an unwooded area.

Oh, that was a wild night!  I'm glad you came out OK. Wiki and I did get to practice our tornado protocol and she did great. The basement is a forbidden playground for her so she went down willingly but it seemed like she could tell there was something unusual and worrisome going on.  I had a large branch hanging off my powerline (power didn't go out and my neighbor got it off the next day) and now my doorbell plays Jingle Bells.