<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dr. Toccoa Wolf teaches a class on pet first aid for the Alaska Fire Conference 2025 (KCAW/Cotter)</figcaption></figure>



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The air is tense as a nurse steadily performs CPR on a patient in need. Another nurse stands nearby, ready to trade off and continue compressions if the first nurse gets too tired. Hovering behind them, two more medical professionals are ready to assist in anything from keeping time, to shoving an oxygen tube down the patient’s throat. 

But these first responders are not saving the life of any ordinary individual, but rather, man’s favorite four-legged friend. That is, they would be if the dog was alive. 

‘So I’ve got a video here about just, we’re using a stuffed animal. We don’t want this to be a traumatic class,” Dr. Toccoa Wolf says. Wolf is a veterinarian and owner of Sitka Animal Hospital. She is showing a room full of amused firefighters from across Alaska a video demonstrating how to perform CPR on pets and to recognize whether an animal is struggling to breathe and needs it. The recipient is a cuddly, life-sized stuffed retriever with brown curly fur.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A video demonstrating how to give a dog CPR shows a stuffed dog with an oxygen tube down its throat and about to receive a shock by nurses (KCAW/Cotter)</figcaption></figure>

Having worked in Sitka for over six years, Wolf has cared for many local firefighters’ pets. So when one of her clients reached out to her about teaching a pet first aid workshop for the Alaska Fire Conference in Sitka this October, she jumped on the chance. And so did the firefighters- Wolf’s class at the conference booked up quickly, so she had to host a second one. Wolf says it is crucial for Alaskan firefighters, many of which serve rural communities, to be ready to provide immediate medical care to pets in need. 

“And so the luxury of having that in the lower 48 is that’s often not far most of the time,” says Wolf. “They can get to an ER vet and they have access to immediate care. But here, especially in rural Alaska, that’s not always a luxury. So I think it’s especially important for us to have the first responders knowing how to do initial, supportive and non-invasive stabilization.”

It turns out, CPR doesn’t vary that much, creature to creature. But some adaptations are required, particularly for America’s most popular pet: the “squishy-faced” french bulldog.

“They are at such high risk if there’s an incident like their threshold for you know, any disruption to their heat regulation or their air regulation is so small,” Wolf says to the training participants. “So when you deliver oxygen to them, that’s when it becomes a little bit different…what you want to do is maybe forget the mask and actually try to get a way to get oxygen past the airway.”

Fortunately, a key lesson of Wolf’s training is that firefighters pretty much already have the skills needed to provide first aid to furry companions, they just need the training and the equipment. Firefighters who took her class walked away with free goody bags with animal oxygen masks and breathing tubes to bring back to their respective communities. Wolf encouraged the firefighters to reach out to medical professionals in their area to establish safety protocols when rescuing animals in need. 

“Collaboration amongst all medical professionals with first response is a really big part of emergency management,” says Wolf. “And sometimes we don’t always think about the veterinarian as part of our emergency management team. But as we can see, it is a huge part of emergency management.”

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Firefighters all across Alaska watch a video demonstrating how to deliver CPR to dogs (KCAW/Cotter)</figcaption></figure>

Wolf’s training ended up being timely– it came just about a week before Typhoon Halong hit Western Alaska, displacing over a thousand people. Amidst the evacuation efforts of those from impacted villages, some residents were separated from their pets.  A representative from the nonprofit Bethel Friends of Canines said that as of October 20, the organization helped rescue 107 dogs across Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, the hardest hit villages by the typhoon, and has already reunited many of them with their families.

For Wolf, the recent typhoon reinforces the need for these trainings. Throughout her decade of experience as a vet, Wolf has worked extensively on various humanitarian relief efforts with the U.S. military, and has seen firsthand how important it is to have emergency responders who recognize the strong bond between humans and their pets.  

“And if you talk to people that have been through traumas or disasters… people wanted to know, where’s my pet? What happened to my pet? What happened to my livestock?,” says Wolf. “And most of the time, it’s the first question that they ask. And so that being able to help facilitate the first responders, being able to help the rest of the family and the family pets has always been important to me.”

Wolf hopes that with continued education and resources, first responders throughout Alaska will be even more prepared to rescue family members, two-and four-legged alike. 

To learn more about how to bring pet CPR training to your own community, you can contact Dr. Wolf at twolf@sitka.vet