Dog first aid course empowering pet owners during ongoing N.W.T. vet shortage

On Saturday in Yellowknife, seven people sat at tables covered in gauze, bandages and extra-large stuffed dogs to learn canine first aid.

For participants like Lauren Hogan it is helping fill a gap left by the lack of after-hours veterinary care clinics in Yellowknife. The Northwest Territories has been facing veterinary shortages for years.

"There's been a couple of times in the past where my dog has had stomach issues and I just haven't known what the situation was. That's been a concern," Hogan said.

"If I don't know what's happening with my dog, or I don't know [if] it's time to escalate, this is kind of helping me fill that gap."

The course covered everything from seizures to CPR, pausing frequently so participants could ask questions.

It was taught by instructor Jessica Morris, with the assistance of her two dogs, Sadie and Magnus, who helped demonstrate the manoeuvres.

The one-day canine first aid course was organized by the Yellowknife branch of Arctic Response Canada, based on a curriculum designed by non-profit organization Canine Health Canada. It's the third time the course has been offered since September.

Morris also said she hopes that courses like canine first aid can help ease the pressure on veterinary care providers in the territory, and give pet owners some peace of mind.

Morris said that so far, she has only taught a couple of courses since she became certified last year, but she is hoping to start teaching more frequently.

In an interview with CBC News, she shared canine first aid basics for those unable to attend the course.

This Q&A has been edited for clarity and length. 

What are the major differences between first aid for dogs and first aid for humans?

One of the big things is, dogs don't really understand that you're trying to help them. So a lot of it is trying to calm them and contain them. Dogs can become aggressive unknowingly. If they're they're surprised, if they're in pain, they might react differently.  

With a human, you can often talk to them and calm them down that way. Dogs aren't going to understand why you're wrapping their legs, so it is more difficult that way.

And just lots of extra limbs. They've got that tail.

Can you give a quick rundown of how to do CPR on dogs?

CPR for dogs is actually fairly similar to CPR for humans. The biggest thing people wonder is how to give them the breaths that go with the compressions.

What you do is, you close their mouth with your hands, and you're going to breathe in through their nose, and that's how you're going to give them their breaths. You're going to lie them on their sides and then you're going to give them compressions and then breathe through the nose.

How about if your dog is choking?

There's a couple different ways. 

You can do the abdominal thrusts, just like you would do for humans. 

But there's actually also another one, which if it is like a Kong Toy or a ball and you can actively see in the throat, you can actually lie them on their back and push out the item from the outside using the XT method — which is the external method.

And if your dog has a wound or a broken limb, what should you do?

If it is a puncture wound, stabilize the item, bandage around it to keep it from moving. 

If it is a cut, or anything like that, that's actively bleeding, [we show participants] how to put the gauze on, how to wrap it up to stabilize that. 

If it's a break, stabilize the break and bandage it so that it won't be moving. This is to not put any more pain and pressure on the animal that's already suffering.

And are there any special dogs in your life that caused you to get this training and now become an instructor? 

I actively became an instructor because my big dog, Magnus, is very accident prone.

Kind of everything that we talk about, I can relate back to him somehow.

He has caused me lots of headaches and heartaches in the past. So being able to know the stuff, and being able to help him, and ease his pain as part of my just regular life has been really nice and helpful.