When your second option is giving a bulldog CPR, you really want the first option to work.
Thanks to a quick-thinking 111 operator yesterday morning, it did.
A Kaikohe man was talked through life-saving manoeuvres to clear his bulldog's airways after the pooch choked on a morning bowl of rice.
The man rang 111 after the choking dog stopped breathing.
Staff at the Fire Service's Northern Communication Centre searched the internet for the way to do a Heimlich manoeuvre on a dog.
Senior communicator Belinda Leary said she answered the 7.45am call after the man asked if the service "handled animals that are sick".
Leary said she first suggested the man hold the dog upside down. When that didn't work, she did a Google search for "what to do if dog is choking". The first site had instructions which she relayed to the owner.
Leary, who has a labrador, says she told Ruka to treat the dog like a child.
"I told him to put his arms around the dog's chest and make a fist between the ribs and lower tummy. Then give a sharp jerk in - and it pushed the rice out."
Leary said the man was "reluctant to do it too hard because the dog was so old but it ended up working after a few tries".
"I was ready to talk through resuscitation if I had to."
She said colleagues called the Kaikohe vet but Google was quicker.
"[The owner] was very panicky and upset because ... he'd had him for some time," says Leary.
Kaikohe vet Winona Kay called the man as soon as the Fire Service staff called her but the dog was fine. "I tried to get them into the clinic to do a check-up but the dog was fine."
The man told Fire Service staff the dog was "A-OK and had a big lie-down and a large bowl of milk".
