I’d choose a dog (most probably a German shepherd or a Belgian malinois) to do security around the cabin.
Befriend a wolf somehow and it’d do patrols outside the woodlands of any dangers and alert if needed. It can then communicate with the dog of any dangers ahead.
An eagle, to do aerial patrols around or beyond the woods like a scout.
Mini-sheep for wool. Also humans who are smarter and more skilled than me in some special proficiencies please!
one thousand crows
Not a bad shout, I love crows,they’re smart too.
Other humans.
Seriously, we are a social animal for a reason. We have always existed in packs and are actually shit at surviving alone. We can do it for short stints and even some longer periods, but the work involved in gathering food and water, preparing meals, maintaining shelter, clothes, tools and everything else is immense. And then there is the whole issue of defense. We have archeological evidence of violent death going well back into the paleolithic era. You’re going to face packs of other people who want your stuff. No matter how good you think you are, you’re going to get overrun if you are alone. Your best defense is your own tribe.So ya, if I’m alone in the woods when a nuclear apocalypse happens, I’m going to do my level best to find and integrate into some sort of larger social structure while there are hopefully enough not terrible people around to be able to survive the attempt.
T rex. Koala for levity.
I don’t know how to tell you this, but the lead singer of T Rex died in '77. Not sure how they would have helped either, the living members have to be pretty old these days.
Everyone keeps saying dogs. I hard disagree. Almost all dogs bark without needing to, giving positions away or false positives of foe, even well trained dogs are better but not so much so. They seem to be more resource drain than value.
I think goat, sheep, cow, horse, chickens, rabbits, donkeys maybe better than horses, camels maybe meh, are far superior for activities of all types like food generation, feed for live stock, produce, input vs output, compost, pelts/furs, usable materials to craft and build. Hunting and fishing are not novel concepts in which dogs excel paired with humans. Their main advantage is long running distance able to outwind deer and other species. Dogs are a high responsibility animal.
Hell a well trained larger cat species would be far hunting superior. Even a hawk, or any larger bird would be better than a dog. I suppose it depends on environment and conditions. Crows are good group workers.
I feel like you’re severely underestimating how much and how many ways dogs can be useful dogs can be useful in hunting.
Sure, they can give chase as persistence hunters, like you said
But they’re also useful for tracking, let’s say you shoot a deer, and unfortunately it’s not a clean kill, and it runs off into the woods. You might spend hours, even days trying to find that deer, following tracks and blood trails that may stop in places and be impossible for a human to pick back up, but a scent hound can follow that trail, saving a lot of time and energy .
Or of course just sniffing out an animal in the first place.
They can be retrievers, if you shoot a duck over the water, you now need to find a way to retrieve it from the pond. If you don’t have a boat, that basically leaves swimming out there, and if the weather is cold, that puts you at risk of hypothermia. Many retriever breeds are much better suited to cold water than we are and could swim out to retrieve them with no problem. Or if you shoot something in dense brush they may be better able to retrieve it than you would without having to bushwhack your way to where it went down.
Breeds like beagles are incredibly effective for small game, they can flush them out of hiding spots for their human to shoot, or to tree game
And dogs can be used to great effect driving deer, flushing them and chasing them towards the hunters. This was actually so effective that some places have laws on the books that you can’t use dogs to hunt deer because back in the days when commercial hunting was more of a thing, it drove some deer populations to near extinction.
For some dangerous game like boar and feral swine, their role might be more to catch and hold the animal for the hunter to dispatch safely.
And that’s not to mention the value they can have for herding and guarding livestock, especially if you’re otherwise trying to go it alone or with only a small group of people, because you’re likely going to have other tasks to see to besides just constantly watching over them. To some extent, donkeys can fill a livestock guardian role, but if you need to round up a flock of sheep, they’re not going to be much help with that.
In any of those cases, they’re not necessarily generating value on their own, but they can significantly improve how productive you can be with minimal effort on your part.
As for barking, that’s a mixed bag. Yes, if you’re trying to avoid detection, it can be a detriment. But in other cases it can be a deterrent, making intruders and predators wary of intruding into your territory knowing that there’s a dog around, and it can give you an alert when there is an intruder.
And in some cases and environments, they can be useful as small draft animals, dogs can pull small carts and of course sleds.
Not every dog can fill every role of course (although some can certainly fill multiple roles) and they may not make sense for every scenario, but I think they’re worth a lot more consideration than you’re giving them.
You got fair points and I wouldn’t try to dismiss them. I’ve trained dogs for hunting, tracking rabbits, coyotes, small game racoons where beagles will tree them or run rabbits to hunt, and of course obedience for normal people. Large to small breeds even Chihuahua mixes not all breeds of course and some are far better than worse basically any poodle variety but I say that to show my experience.
Beagles, heelers, shepherds, mutts, huskies, etc etc. Basically the useful breeds are like kids in responsibility high energy and can be total characters. Environmental/situational conditions dependant herd based dogs would be good, large framed dogs and the like as you mentioned.
I just feel the resource drain and output isn’t up to par with input, responsibility for what you get as they age and the level of care needed. A lot of survival is quiet survival outdoors or indoors. Where dogs are clumsy and noisy. There are exceptions of course. I do believe their ranked high just not number one. My best guess is most people are basing this on social and mental health. Which absolutely matter but you can still be in a shit mood and need to eat and get stuff done. I’d honestly like to reassess my animal picking and add monkey, chimpanzees as number one. They learn sign language, can use tools, understand time/scheduling. Similar diet, nutrition, health compatibility. That’d be my number one. Chimps assuming personality wasn’t a schizophrenic.
One word: owlbears.
Chester
A dog is a great choice, but I’d get some kind of mutt. Some Labrador, German Shepherd and grizzly bear mixed in for flavour.
Dogs are always the best choice.
grizzly bear mixed in for flavour.
That must have been one brave dog to mount a grizzly.
Realistically, what you need is dogs, plural. There’s a reason almost every culture in the world has a history with them.
And a pack of them, breeding as you go, is going to be the best way to keep surviving because they can be trained to be guards, alarms, hunters, fighters, hot water bottles, and they can be food in a real emergency. That last one sucks to think about, but sacrificing one or two so that you and the pack can keep alive is just what you have to do.
Don’t get hung up by thinking a given breed is ideal, because it won’t be generalist enough. You just get medium size and large-ish dogs, and train the succeeding generations as best fits their abilities rather than trying to breed for specific jobs.
Dogs are also imminently personable. You’ll be alone, or not able to trust other humans. Having animals that can fulfill our social needs is vital, and dogs are our best option for that long term, in a survival situation.
Now, if the apocalypse is a bit less dangerous daily, keeping a population of chickens, and goats is a good idea. They’ll serve as alarms easily, and can be food or food producers. They’re both easy to tame as well, if you start young.
The drawback to a pack of dogs is the food consumption. In a nuclear apocalypse rationing is going to be difficult already, maintaining stores of kibble or other dogfeed for a whole pack would be a real burden.
If its not nuclear then I guess there’s enough protein to go around.Id probably try to keep some horses too, if food and drink isn’t a worry. Maybe goats too, but now we’re going into animal husbandry
A few friendly-to-me death claws, no question.
chickens and ducks
Definitely a couple of humans.
sheep, goats, dogs
I’ve got my heeler, and I’d probably grab a few more dogs from the shelter I work at. Then I’d do some Disney princess shit and try befriend all the local animals around my cabin
I’d go for the best dog there is, the Azores Cattle Dog.
Well rounded for guard work, defense, herding and hunting, both on sight and track by scent. Loyal to the death and relentless fighters when push comes to shove. Love the outdoors but will gladly take a comfy spot inside.
I’d also work on taming birds. Corvids, if available, but any song bird is a good investment. Song birds going silent is a good warning sign something is wrong nearby.
If boars are available, having them patrol around my perimeter would be a plus. The animals are fiercely territorial and will attack if cornered or feeling threatened.
