I came across this article just now on “Berkeleyside” a Northern California news site and felt it’s an important topic to mention particularly when walking dogs offleash. Sadly this story I’m linking didn’t have a positive outcome.
As we all know dog’s are ruled by their noses and often will eat/pick up just about anything. This was the case which just happened in North Berkeley when a rescue pup ( off leash) ate a poisonous mushroom.
@Catgoddess_99 very sad story and also an eye opener for all of us who are sitters (and even pet parents themselves). There are things we tend to forget about when walking our pets and all can use a refresher now and then. Thank you for posting.
It’s definitely good to keep an eye out even with a dog on a leash. A lot of dogs eat poo or almost anything interesting on the ground. My partner once walked a dog that ate a whole corn cob, apparently something potentially very dangerous for a dog. Fortunately the dog was very large and had no problems. We also teach such dogs the “leave it” command if they don’t already know it.
Sometimes here in Mexico people put some kibble out in a park or under a tree or somewhere innocuous and it could be to feed squirrels or birds, or it could be poisoned. Dogs will naturally be interested and we wouldn’t want one of our charges to eat it. We keep a close eye out when a dog shows more interest than usual about a patch of ground and we watch for kibble.
@AnnieNai very good point. We do the same.
I lived in Guatemala winter 2010 in the village of San Marcos La Laguna. I was infuriated when the mayor decied that street dogs were annoying to tourists ( which was not true) and did a mass poisoning while I was there a week shy of when the veterinarian from Guatemala city was coming to neuter and spay dogs.