Many of us are quite comfortable leaving a dog at home alone because we never really think about unexpected disasters. But there’s no harm in being prepared! Disasters can strike at any time without much notice at all, and when you’re not home to properly care for your dog during a storm, panic, worry, and guilt only makes things worse when it’s all over. Here are some tips to reduce a detrimental outcome.

1. Fill your dog’s food and water bowl before you leave. If you plan on being gone over a course of a few days and leaving a dog at home, go ahead and leave the toilet seat up so that the dog has access to additional water. That may sound controversial, but dogs drinks water out of the toilet all the time whether you’re aware of it or not. (What do you think she’s doing at three a.m. in the morning??) Just be careful not to use dangerous cleaners like bleach or dump dangerous chemicals into the toilet like antifreeze.
2. Some people who live in disaster prone areas, buy a timed feeder. Timed feeders dispense pre-determined portions of food into a container that a dog can access at specific times. They not only feed “home-alone” canines, they also restrict the amount of food that a dog can eat each day, so you don’t have to worry about running out of kibbles. This way your dog can be properly fed for several days, should you be gone.
3. Give a close friend or relative the key to your home. Ask this person to regularly check on your dog. Someone must be available to retrieve the dog in the event of an earthquake, flood, tornado, or fire. The worse thing you could ever do is entrust a dog to protect himself from natural disasters because truth be told, they’re not very good at it. Dogs will run into flames for example. They’ll attempt to swim through flooding waters, and if they do manage to escape harm, they’ll run right into traffic probably in an attempt to find you!