Learn CPR, for Fido's sake

The evening last month that Barbara Sawtell-Taylor's white shih tzu poodle Lucky choked on a spare rib bone was so traumatic that she decided it was time to take her dog's life into her own hands. "It was horrible," said Sawtell-Taylor, 45, a resident of Cambridge. "I never want to see that again."

Instead of taking Lucky across the street to the Fire Department for help, which she did once when she thought he was having a seizure, Sawtell-Taylor dislodged the bone from the dog's throat, took him to the veterinarian, then called her friend Maureen Munro .

"She was frantic and wanted to have another woman to talk to," said Munro, 57, who has two yorkies, two silky terriers, one Chinese crested hairless, and one Chihuahua.

The day after the choking episode, Munro set out on an Internet search to help Sawtell-Taylor should a bone ever get stuck in Lucky again. That's when she discovered the pet first aid course offered by the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay.

According to spokeswoman Amelia Aubourg, the Red Cross began offering pet first aid courses at a Los Angeles chapter. Now the certification is offered at 239 chapters in 45 states and has been offered in Massachusetts since 2000, she said.

The two friends signed up for the most recent class, held May 19 at the Red Cross chapter headquarters in Cambridge. The course costs $60, lasts about four hours, and is not unlike first aid classes for infants or adults, with, of course, a few obvious exceptions.

The CPR training mannequins, for example, are not in the form of humans but, instead, stuffed dogs and cats. Students are repeatedly reminded not to call 911 for a pet emergency because, under most circumstances, paramedics do not respond to choking dogs or unconscious cats.

"The purpose of this course is to provide temporary and immediate care until you can get to advanced veterinary care," said Alice Wadley, 42, a Red Cross-certified pet first aid instructor.

Students learn how to treat various ailments, including minor ones like bee stings, nosebleeds, and pulled muscles. They also learn how to perform the Heimlich maneuver on choking pets and how to give mouth-to-mouth, or, rather, mouth-to-snout resuscitation, which students practice on dog and cat dummies by blowing through a plastic tube.

Christopher D'Anna of Wareham enrolled in the class. "I am starting up a bed-and-breakfast for pets" whose owners need a pet-sitter, said D'Anna, 34. "I thought it was important to know."

At the end of the course, students leave with a small pet first aid certificate, plus the confidence that they might have a shot at saving an animal's life.