Learn the heimlich for dogs!

[Karen C]

I have an 8 month old doodle, Eli whom I adore. I also have two other dogs, an 11 1/2 year old Yorkshire terrier and a 8 year old Yorkiepoo who are also the loves of my life. Last night my 8 pound yorkiepoo choked on a treat and we almost lost him. Thank goodness for Google! We looked up how to perform the heimlich on dogs. After about 8-10 minutes we were able to dislodge the treat that he had bitten off more than he needed to and swallowed before chewing it up. It was a very traumatic experience to say the least. I've heard of people doing the heimlich and CPR on dogs but never thought to learn myself in the case of an emergency. With our new 8 month doodle who loves to eat any and everything I am super glad to now know what to do if necessary. I pray I never need to use it again. We are very careful with Eli but you know your doodles, they are fast at grabbing and eating things. This was a treat my yorkiepoo had eaten tons of times over his 8 years also. It was just a freak incident. So please do yourself a favor and learn this technique. It could save your furbabies life like it did mine.

[Karen C]

http://www.petmd.com/dog/emergency/common-emergencies/e_dg_choking
There are so many sites that teach this but this happens to be the first one in the heat of the choking moment we saw. Even though our dog is only 10 pounds which would put him in the small dog category we used the large dog style with him against our chest pushing in and up on his rib cage/sternum area because he is currently being treated for a back problem with two vertebrae issues and therefore, couldn't be held upside down or swayed.