Glen...there is an article in Bull Seismological Society America about the animal precursors for the 1975 earthquake in China. I think it was snakes that crawled half way out of their holes and then half froze.This article had a picture of rats crawling on electric or phone wires. But, when I lived in New Orleans, I saw a rat crossing the street on the wires...no quake. But, John V. managed to not mention this prediction...which saved a lot of lives. So what if they missed the big one the next year...that does not mean that this sort of prediction is impossible.
As for Petra's story about Hector mine...sounded kind of like the dogs were feeling the P-waves...which arrive first...and at that distance, by a lot (tens of seconds), and the person felt the much stronger motion from the S waves...

There was a presentation at the SCEC meeting about intelligent buildings..in Japan...that can be stiffened when a large earthquake is detected...so that it can resist the S waves when they arrive. The person was talking about this for L.A. There would be quite a long warning if, for example, the San Andreas started rupturing near Salton Sea and broke towards the NW. You might have a couple of minutes before the strong ground motion arrived.
Chris