Northeastern University holds courses for animal lovers who want to be prepared if their dogs and cats are choking, unconscious or otherwise unable to breathe.
For the most part, this seminar space in the Curry Student Center on the Boston campus looks the same as other rooms holding sessions for Northeastern University’s Emergency Preparedness Day. Free coffee and doughnuts are out, a slide deck is queued up, dotted with vital pointers; an ample crowd of students, faculty and staff members settle in, ready to learn how to save lives.
There’s one difference: the giant, reusable shopping bags full of roughly life-sized dog and cat plushies lined up at the front of the room. The assembled group is full of animal lovers, here to learn how to do CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on their pets. Led by Northeastern University Police Officer Anika Crutchfield with support from Officers Rachel Joliffe and Armando Soto (the handlers for campus dogs Cooper and Ryder), the session covers the procedure for cats and dogs of all breeds, body shapes and sizes.
And like any CPR course, there’s hands-on practice. That’s where the plushies come in.
“We’re going to talk about ways to keep your furry babies safe,” Crutchfield says in her introduction. “I have a furry baby at home. Nobody can tell me he’s not my son. Somehow, I did carry him for nine months,” she jokes, setting the tone for an hour that’s as giggle-inducing as it is valuable and serious. “If anything happened to him, I’d be beside myself. I’m sure we all feel the same way.”
Pets are like babies in more literal ways, too, Crutchfield adds. They put everything in their mouths and are largely oblivious to potential dangers around them, from poisonous mushrooms to electric fences. They can be vulnerable to virtually any injury a human can, including head trauma and seizures.
As such, the basic tenets for administering CPR are largely the same; the differences come down to anatomical adjustments, like hand placement and force of the chest compressions. Additionally, CPR and other safety interventions on animals can pose different dangers for their rescuers, since animals will have no idea what’s happening and be more likely to lash out.
“They may be a little snippy towards you,” Crutchfield says. “Don’t take it personally.”
CPR for animals is new, relative to its counterpart for humans. Human CPR traces its roots to 18th-century Europe, with similar techniques used as far back as ancient Greece. The veterinary community first coalesced around protocols for dogs and cats in clinical research in 2012; the first sets of official guidelines were published in 2014.
The Northeastern Police Department began offering pet CPR courses in 2021, the same year it brought on Cooper. Outside of private organizations and training for emergency workers, military and professionals like veterinarians, classes are still relatively rare.
“In terms of one available to the common community, I don’t know of any [others],” says Joe Corbett, a member of NUPD’s community engagement unit and campus dog Sarge’s handler. The department also offers daylong sessions that combine CPR, pet wellness and first aid training, covering things like general health and how to treat injuries. More will be scheduled on and around the Boston campus throughout the spring and summer on the Safety Training section of the department’s website.
In the first portion of the session, Crutchfield took the group through a CPR scenario. Before putting hands on an animal, she notes, it’s important to make sure the scene is safe and that the animal is, indeed, unconscious by clapping and yelling. From there, she takes a stuffed dog and clears its airway, sweeping a finger into the throat and making sure there’s no obstruction.
She goes through checking a pulse (on the abdomen below the back thigh in dogs and cats); rescue breathing, which involves covering the entire nose and mouth; positioning and chest compressions. The methods for the latter vary according to size and breed: most bigger dogs should lie on their sides during chest compressions, but barrel-chested breeds like bulldogs fare better on their backs. Starting CPR takes 30 chest compressions, followed by two quick rescue breaths.
Pet CPR instructions
A step-by-step guide to administering CPR to a dog or cat
For cats and the smallest dog breeds, the process looks a lot like it does for human infants. Chest compressions are administered with fingers instead of a person’s full weight and hands. As with humans, the goal is 100 to 120 chest compressions per minute — the same tempo as the song “Stayin’ Alive.”
Next, it’s practice time.
As campus dogs Cooper and Ryder roam the space, the group takes turns going through the lifesaving steps on the row of dog dummies (and a few stuffed cats), as the officers offer reminders and corrections. Even on a toy, in a fully pretend scenario, the pressure is high — did you remember to clear the airway? Are you putting your full weight into compressions?
The real dogs do their part to ease some of that anxiety, nosing into practice sessions and flopping down next to people kneeling on the floor. At one point Sarge comes into the room from another session and promptly steals a stuffed cat.
It’s a decent approximation of the potential real-life conditions for a CPR emergency, which could happen at a dog park or around other animals in the house. That practice, in imperfect circumstances, is key to feeling confident enough to act when the occasion calls for it.
“The biggest mission for our unit is preparedness,” Corbett says. “If my dog gets sick or starts choking on a ball, what’s my plan? With training [people] are able to react quicker, as opposed to, ‘oh God, I don’t know what to do.’”