Why You Should Take Pet First Aid and CPR Classes.

The Majority of Pet owners and pet professionals don’t have access to a Vet 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Also, not every pet emergency can be prevented or requires a vet office visit. So what do you do when an injury or illness happens and before you can speak with your Vet? You Perform Pet First Aid or CPR.

Pet First Aid and CPR are the skills you use to begin initial treatment of your sick or injured dog or cat. These skills are designed to help you quickly identify and attempt to correct a life threatening situation with your pet. You are acting as the “Paramedic” for your pet, until you can contact your vet and determine if they need to be seen at their office for further care. Taking a Pet First Aid and CPR course, will teach you the first aid skills specific to dogs and cats.

I’ve never heard of Pet First Aid and CPR before, tell me more about it.

After spending 20 years in the fire department as a Firefighter / Paramedic, I had never thought about pet first aid and CPR either. Yes, we had oxygen masks on our Engines and Ambulances. Yes, we did try to ‘revive” some pets we pulled form fires and were successful, but it never dawned on me that we could actually be trained in it. We just did what we did based on our human training.

I became aware of Pet First Aid and CPR while I was teaching community emergency preparedness classes, but when I asked about becoming an instructor was told that the company had stopped teaching new instructors. It wasn’t until after my wife finished her training as a dog trainer and I was doing research for our new business that I came across a few courses offering Pet First AID and CPR. I was like WOW, this really is a thing.

What Is Pet First Aid?

Pet first Aid is the set of skills used to take care of your dog or cat during and immediately after an emergency. Pet first aid teaches you how to provide the initial care and treatment to a sick or injured dog or cat, until you can get to a Vet. These skills do not replace the extensive competent care provided by your vet, these are only the tools used to help you get your pet to the vet alive.

What do you learn in a Pet First Aid class?

A Pet first aid course will teach you quite a few skills, and some of those skills are:

How to identify a sick / injured pet.
How to treat a choking dog or cat
How to do CPR on a dog or cat
How to stop bleeding
How to prevent heat stroke
How to splint an injured extremity
How to treat a sting or bite.

These are just a few of the skills you should learn. There are many more skills that will be taught in your class.

Where can I find a Pet First Aid course to take?

I took my original pet first aid course through PetTech after finding the company online. Pet Tech has a listing of all the classes currently available across the U.S. listed on its website being taught by PetTech certified instructors. The Pet Tech company prides itself on providing the most hands on practice to its students, so they feel comfortable doing the skills when they leave the class.

That would be a good place to start your search. You can also do a general online search or you can ask your vet if they know of a course being offered locally. You need to look through the courses offer and find a comprehensive course with hands on practice.

I am a certified Pet First Aid and CPR instructor through PetTech, so if you are in the Spokane, Washington or Coeur d’Alene, Idaho area, we offer classes regularly at our training facility.

Why attend a Pet First Aid Class in person

Finding a comprehensive course with lots of hands on practice is important. Why hands on practice, because anyone can watch an online video and think they can do it. It’s the repetitive hands-on practice that solidifies the techniques in your brain and builds muscle memory that enables you to go on ‘auto-pilot’ when your pet needs you.

Providing care to your own pet is the most nerve racking experiences there is. Being able to do the skills and ask questions while working through different scenarios, helps make you fully prepared to provide the skills when it counts in the real world.

What do I do after I take the class

Just like with anything that is new to you, reviewing the material and doing a quick skills practice session helps you remember what you learned. It’s as simple as looking over a single skill once a month.

You should also get a pet first aid kit together and keep it available. We have a couple different Pet first aid kits for sale in our online store here, if you don’t want to put one together. These kits designed for all types of pet people from the the pet parent who just goes around the block, the family who takes their dogs on their summer camping adventures and all the way to kits for Pet businesses.

Do I need to take the Pet First Aid class Again

Yes, every 2 years you should retake the class, simply because skills and protocols may change. Just like with human medicine, as the science around illness and injury advances, so do treatments. Staying up to date with the latest and greatest information is key to keeping your pet safe.

For pet professionals like: dog trainers, groomers, pet sitters, doggy day care workers and others, your employer may require a current Pet First Aid / CPR certificate and they are usually good for 2 years.

Pet first aid and CPR classes provide so much information in helping keep your pet safe. However, if an emergency was to strike, being prepared to provide immediate care can make all the difference.

What equipment is in a Pet first aid kit?

Pet First Aid kits contain items like a muzzle, gauze, non stick pads, self adhesive wraps and other first aid items geared for pet care. They come in many sizes from the basic pack to large pet business kits.

You can download a suggested first aid kit list from our web site or you can purchase one of our already made kits.

Visit us at The Pet Safety Pro for more information on pet safety or to sign up for a first aid / CPR class.

Why You Should Take A Pet First Aid And CPR Course