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The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Hazards That Nearly Took Our Dogs
Meg shares the terrifying experience of her puppy Muffin accidentally ingesting marijuana at a park and the emergency vet visit that followed, then opens up the conversation to listener stories about scary incidents with their dogs.
• Collar dangers emerge as a common hazard, with multiple stories of dogs choking when collars become caught during play or in crate wires
• Breakaway collars and removing collars during unsupervised time can prevent these dangerous situations
• "He's friendly" dog greetings frequently lead to attacks and injuries, reminding owners that dogs don't need forced friendships
• Gastrointestinal obstructions from toys, leashes, socks and other items cause expensive surgeries and near-death experiences
• Toxic substances like ibuprofen and recreational drugs present serious dangers that many owners don't recognize until too late
• Bloat (stomach torsion) can kill within hours, with one in five German Shepherds experiencing it in their lifetime
• Short-nosed breeds need special supervision during feeding to prevent choking incidents
• Remaining calm during emergencies is crucial for making life-saving decisions
Join our Virtual Shadow Program starting May 26th if you're interested in becoming a dog trainer and learning more about prevention and safety for dogs.
Visit us at Theeverydaytrainer.com
hello, hello, welcome back to the everyday trainer podcast. This week I asked you the question well, not really a question. I said tell me about a time when something scary has happened to your dog or or with your dog that you wish you would have known about before and can share with other owners, because we had something happen to our child this week. So we're gonna read off your responses trigger warning. This is we are talking about like serious things and things happening to dogs. So if you're not in the mood for that probably not the episode for you today. Maybe listen to it another time. But anyways, you know the drill Grab yourself a tasty drink and meet us back here. Hey guys, welcome back. If you are up to date on well, you know my social media, you might have seen that we had a little incident this week with our precious baby, angel Muffin. Muffin is our. How old is she? How old did we figure that out? 16 weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, three and a half months.
Speaker 1:Four months Four. She's four months old and she's just our baby. She's just the most perfect little angel in the whole world. We had her out at a park. Toma was letting her out. She had an accident in her crate.
Speaker 2:So I had her on leash and I don't know, while I was cleaning out the crate. She was on a Flexi and she kind of was at the front of the van for less than a minute. But if the puppy's out of sight, chances are they're up to no good.
Speaker 1:And this is why we always tell you to supervise your puppies 24-7, because if you're not just assume that they're doing something bad or dangerous.
Speaker 2:So this is a story of how almost killed muffin.
Speaker 1:So this is a story of how toma almost killed muffin. Not really, she's okay, thank goodness, but it was very scary. Um, basically, he, you know, grabbed her, put her back into the crate. We drove like 10 minutes down the road which, like thank goodness, we did not go that far. I think it was literally, I think it was 13 minutes, 13 minutes away.
Speaker 1:I pulled up, I opened the side door we were getting ready to you know, walk the dogs, go to a coffee shop and she didn't start barking at me and she always barks at me and so I looked at her and she was laying down and I was like, oh, there's a thousand percent something wrong with you, because you don't lay down Like you you're. She would just pop up and start barking whenever I opened the door. So I opened her crate door and she just like ears go back, is like looking at me, like being really wobbly, and I was like, oh, you ate something. Like you ate something that you're not supposed to. You are not OK. So I grabbed her and I put her on the ground and I was like I think she ate weed just because of how she was acting like she wasn't acting, like she was Dying and in like a lot of pain. She was just like tripping, you know. So I was like, okay, I think she ate weed. Like what, what happened? You know? Like she didn't get into anything with us. Like what happened? And tomo was like, oh, I was cleaning out her crate like I wasn't watching her, and I was like, okay, well, she definitely ate something that she's not supposed to have eaten.
Speaker 1:So I was like, okay, go and get the hydrogen peroxide. That's kind of like our go-to if you have a dog, like it's good to have on deck if you have dogs, because if they ingest something that they're not supposed to like, you want to get them to throw it up as quickly as possible. There are a few nuances with that. You want to make sure that obviously the dog doesn't like choke on the hydrogen peroxide. You want to make sure that you keep them standing up, you know, encourage them to like throw up standing up. Like all you know. That's just kind of my like safety disclaimer with the hydrogen peroxide. But anyways, I was like, go get hydrogen peroxide.
Speaker 1:Toma's running to his van. And while Toma is running to his van, I'm like holding muffin in my arms and she just goes like fully limp, goes like fully limp, and I, there are. There's a moment where you're like okay, yeah, like we need to go to the vet, like right now. When the dog is like fully limp in your arms, I'm like okay, yeah. And so tom was like running to his. Yeah, tom was running to his van and I'm like toma, we need to go, like we need to go now. So I hoppedped in his van. I looked up the nearest like emergency vet. It was literally right down the road, like three minutes away.
Speaker 1:I drove there, I walked in and I was like, hey, we were at a park this morning. We weren't watching her for a sec, she definitely ate something. And they were like, ok, they grabbed her, they took her back, definitely ate something. And they were like, okay, they grabbed her, they took her back. Like it was so fast, they were so fast with it. She was like crying when I was holding her in the car, but she was still very limp, she was just like very wobbly, you know. And so I think if she had eaten something that I had known about, like if she, if I saw her eat a joint, I don't think that I would like be as scared, you know, or if I saw her eat like a gummy, I wouldn't. I would be like, okay, this is what's happening.
Speaker 2:But because it's the fear of the unknown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we, literally I was like okay, like what poisonous things could she have eaten, you know, could she have eaten? So the vet takes her back, they run all the tests. They're like, hey, you know, her pupils are super dilated. All of her blood tests have come back. Her kidney and liver tests are good. We definitely think that she ate some sort of drugs. Drugs, we don't know, like what it is. We're gonna assume weed, just because that's like the most common thing, but we don't know if it has been laced with anything. She's like extremely out of it and I was like okay. So basically they wanted to keep her through the afternoon, um, just to be able to monitor her. That was probably best for us anyways, because we had other dogs that you know we had to take care of, and if we had muffin in our care, we were like watching her 24 7, it would be a lot more difficult and you know, god forbid, anything progresses and you know?
Speaker 1:yeah, you want to be quick to respond, yeah, we wanted to be quick to respond, so we had her at the vet all day and around four o'clock they called me and they're like hey, she's good to go home. You know, we've been monitoring her. She's getting a little bit better.
Speaker 2:Um you know, she's good.
Speaker 1:If she gets any worse, take her to an emergency vet overnight, because they didn't do that. So when I went to go pick her up she still could not walk and the people at the vet's office like loved her because she was so cuddly, because she was so out of it Like she's never that cuddly.
Speaker 2:It's literally the first time you could like cuddle with her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's never that cuddly. And they were like, oh, muff, and they handed her back to me and they're like, yeah, we like tried to take her for a little walk, but she still can't really walk. Um, she, she got the munchies and ate a whole can of food. I was like okay, and they gave her hydrogen peroxide and then activated charcoal to like absorb anything. So I brought her back home into the van and we just kind of hung out with her that night. She was very much out of it. When we got her back, like her head was like you know, knocking back, like rolling back, but you could still see little moments when she would like come to it and she'd be like, and she would like attack, attack the pillow and like get the zoomies on the bed and we're like, okay, you're, you're gonna be fine. But there was like a moment there when we brought her back and like put her on the bed and her head just like rolled back and her eyes like rolled back in the head.
Speaker 2:We were like, oh god, like I mean I was surprised we got her back. I was like she's I don't know. I was expecting we were gonna pick her up and she was like gonna be fine, and she was still like very much out of it well, it's because they were about to close and they don't have.
Speaker 1:I think that they were fine because they knew that it was like most likely just weed you know, but like we still don't really know how much she ate and she's so little- yeah, I mean they said.
Speaker 2:they said it was a lot right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they said that she threw up a lot and they're like, yeah, it smelled like it and she threw up a bunch of green stuff and I was like OK, so yeah, it was really scary. Like looking back it's like ha ha ha. You know, whatever she got high, it's not really funny, obviously, but you just kind of have to you know she's a small, slap some humor on it to make it not so traumatic, but it was really, really scary.
Speaker 1:And I have to admit I have zoe and lucy have also consumed weed before which. Should I tell that story? I feel like that's kind of a crazy story.
Speaker 2:I mean golden retrievers that are counter surfers, but they were. Well, they got into the trash yeah okay.
Speaker 1:So for my ex's birthday party I did like an edible meal basically, where I made a bunch of weed butter and cooked it into the food and I was missing an ingredient and I was like home alone. And so I was like, whatever, I'm just going to leave Zoe and Lucy out, I'm just running to the store real quick. This was like before dog trainer, before I was a dog trainer and any of those things. I just left Zoe and Lucy out and run to the grocery store down the street real quick, come back. I was probably gone for like 20 minutes and there's trash literally everywhere. Like 20 minutes, and there's trash literally everywhere. And Zoe is a notorious trash diver, like she. Every now and then she gets a wild hair and she's like you know what? Today's the day I'm going to. I'm going to roll through this trash can. So that day she decided to get into the trash, came home, there was literally trash everywhere and I was like, oh my gosh. I did not think about it again, I just picked up the trash, I took a picture, send a picture to my roommates and I was like, oh my gosh, do you see this? And they're like, dang, that's crazy, zoe, whatever. So then I continue cooking and I have Zoe and Lucy outside in the backyard and I have like the sliding door open, so I'm watching them. And I have Zoe and Lucy outside in the backyard and I have like the sliding door open, so I'm watching them and I look out and Zoe's standing and then all of a sudden she just falls straight to the side and I was like oh shoot. So I go out there and she's just laying on her side like fully just like limp. I was like she's dead, like she literally just dropped dead. And then I just see her eyeballs move and look at me and I was like Zoe and like she's just like eyes rolling, like looking at me, and I'm like, ok, you're alive, like you're alive, but you've just like gone, paralyzed, like I don't know, I do not know what is happening. And so I was like, oh my gosh, she got something in the trash I had thrown away like a light bulb earlier, and I was like she has internal bleeding. She ate a light bulb. She's literally dying right now.
Speaker 1:I was home alone. I could not pick up Zoe 75 pound golden retriever by myself, and so I'm like dragging her from the backyard to the front door and I like somehow get her into my car. I'm calling everybody. I'm calling my boyfriend at the time. I'm calling both of my roommates. They were all out playing basketball, just for the record. So like none of them, none of them had their phones on them and I I'm like panicking and so I'm like calling emergency vets it's a Sunday, of course, calling emergency vets, seeing who's open, I'm like freaking out. I'm like leaving voice memos on all of my roommates phones and I'm like Zoe is dying. I'm taking her to the vet Like meet me there.
Speaker 1:You know, I had a bunch of people coming over that night because it was a birthday party. My boyfriend at the time's brother drove in from out of town. He was like at my house and he's like no one's here and I was like, yeah, I'm at the emergency vet, like it's a whole thing. Like it's a whole thing. So I get to the vet, I run in and I'm like, hey, I'm the person that called. Like my dog got something. I don't know what's wrong, so I could not carry her in. The vet had to get one of those like metal rolly carts, rolled it out to my car, like put Zoe on the roller cart and then like rolled her up into the back room and like that was it. I was like oh my gosh, like I literally have no idea what happened. And so then they come out and they're like talking to me and they're like do you know, like what she could have possibly eaten? And I was like no, I threw away a light bulb earlier Like she I'm scared she ate the broken glass Like it was in the trash can. She got into the trash Like not for one second did I think that it would have been the weed? Which the weed was in the trash can, because it was in like a little cheesecloth thing. You know, like I filtered the weed and it was so much like it was so much so it was a little ball in a cheesecloth that I just like threw away in the trash.
Speaker 1:Anyways, I'm not thinking about that at this time, still freaking out Zoe's in the back, and then my boyfriend at the time calls me and he was like don't you think it could be the weed? And I was like oh my God, it is. And so I shamefully walk up to the front counter and I was like I know what it is. And they were like what? And I was like it's weed. And then the girl at the front, literally into the back, she's like it's weed, like screams, and I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm gonna get arrested, like this is the worst. And she was like she's probably, like she's probably gonna be fine, but this is gonna be very, very expensive for you because you're gonna have to take her to an overnight vet, like this is your fault. Like she was like going in on me, which like fair, you know, whatever. And I was like, okay, so what's what's like the risk, like what's gonna happen? And they're like, well, she has to monitor her. And I was like, okay, for what? Like? What it like? What is the medical thing that's gonna happen, you know. And she was like, well, she might just get like stressed. And I was like, okay, well, she might just get stressed. And I was like, okay, well, it's Zoe, I think she'll be fine. So I was like, all right, can I have her back? And they're like, yeah, so they roll her back out.
Speaker 1:At that time everybody's at the vet's office my boyfriend at the time was there and Daniel, I'm pretty sure, had just gotten there, so they helped me load her up into the car we're driving back and I was like, oh my god, like that's crazy. Zoe was like clearly high, you know, like she was not dying, she was just very high. But she was like kind of vibing, like she was super chill about it. She was just like laying in the back, like leaning on us, you know, and I was like okay, you're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay. So we get back to the house and I just like put zoe in my bed and she just like falls asleep and we're like watching her.
Speaker 1:Everybody comes over to my house for the party. Zoe is feeling a little bit better, so she's like walking around, she's like leaning up against everybody, like everybody's giving her pets. It's literally like she's having the best time Then and then we're all standing in the backyard and who's the next one to drop? Lucy, lucy drops. Literally. Like four hours later she like falls to the side and I was like, oh my God, and I walk over there. And same exact thing. She's completely laying on her side and just watching us. She's just watching all of us and I was like, oh my gosh, I got you too.
Speaker 2:Another one, another one, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we did the same thing, watching all of us, and I was like, oh my gosh, I got you too. Another one, another one, yeah, um. So we did the same thing. It was like so pitiful. We just had like the room of two high dogs and they're just like laying in my bed and everybody would come in and like give her, give them affection, and be like, oh guys, it's okay. Lucy did not like it as much because she's just kind of like more high, strong, you know. So she was like what the heck is going on? This is literally the worst thing ever. But yeah, they were fine the next day and it was slightly traumatizing.
Speaker 2:For sure.
Speaker 1:I think the moral of the story of everything is just always crate your dogs if you're not supervising them. You know Because Zoe and Lucy were adults. This was like college, so like Lucy was still pretty young.
Speaker 2:But still more weight to them than Muffin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, muffin was really scary, but that's the thing too is like I had had that experience with Zoe and Lucy and like it was it was clear that they were still like, okay, but with Muffin, like I did not feel that way. You know, it was just like a moment where I'm holding her and she just like, and I was like, oh my god, like yeah, even like her gums were like kind of pale and yeah dry yeah so anyways oh my goodness so yeah that's what leads up to this.
Speaker 1:So the prompt is tell me about a time when something scary has happened to your dog or with your dog that you wish you would have known about before and can share with other owners. I got 56 responses on this form, which is absolutely crazy. I have a few that I know I for sure want to read off. A lot of them are like recurring. You know it's a lot of the same things. So I tried to pick a story and a couple story for like each topic, just because there were so many things. But if we have time we will read as many as we can. But with all of that being said, like this stuff is, you know, like scary, like it's literally scary.
Speaker 1:The reason why I wanted to make this episode is because Shit happens. Shit happens and as a dog trainer, I know that I am so paranoid. I definitely have OCD with the dogs and overthinking situations. I will run myself through a million situations of anything that could possibly happen. I'm so paranoid. I've just heard horror stories. I've had like everything that could possibly happen to me, you know, in taking care of other people's dogs or hearing from our owners.
Speaker 1:Like stuff happens all the time, and I think that just kind of is a risk you take with live animals. Dogs are live animals. Shit is going to happen. We can't always control them, but ultimately that's why dog trainers preach so much about being careful and constantly supervising your dog. It's because we are just inundated with these kind of horror stories of things that could possibly happen to your dog. So we're going to get into it, but my disclaimer is that, like, some of this stuff is pretty heavy and some of it leads to a death of dogs. So if you're not down for that in this episode, now is your chance, all right but I mean, I think it's also like very educational and like oh, yeah, for sure, like I'm not doing this to just be like here's all these like horrible trauma, traumatic things.
Speaker 1:You know it's like, hey, these are things that like have happened to other dogs and owners before and people obviously want to share this. You know, like I want to scream from the rooftops like, hey, public parks probably gonna have some things that are on the ground that your dog is not safe to eat. You know, and that's what's also crazy too is, I feel, like something that I get a lot is oh, we're living in vans. Do you ever feel unsafe? Like I would never go out into the woods, like that's so crazy. You know, everything bad that happens happens in a city like cities are so dangerous. I never feel as paranoid as I do with the dogs out in nature like I do in the city, and some of these are nature things, but man, I don know, it's like rat poison and ibuprofen and I'm like reading through all of these things and I'm like, god, this is so crazy. So, anyways, I titled some of these.
Speaker 1:This section is collar danger, which is something that I am paranoid about. It has never happened to me, but I saw a TikTok about this, so I'm going to go and read this off. So created my dog with this flat collar on and the name tag got stuck between the wires and he started panicking and flipped around so much the collar got twisted and he went unconscious, choking himself out. Luckily I had trauma shears to cut it off Damn yeah, himself out luckily I had trauma shears to cut it off damn yeah. So I am so paranoid about collars in crates, especially wire crates. For this reason I have, luckily, knock on wood, never had that happen to me. But something that we had in the dog house was breakaway collars. So all of the dogs got breakaway collars that had air tags on them, and that was because I would take off any of the other collars of the dogs that would stay with us because I was paranoid about this. I like, oh my gosh, that is so horrible, you know yeah and it's often when you're not there when you're not
Speaker 2:like supervising your dog good thing she was home yeah, exactly so we have a couple of these.
Speaker 1:Another flat collar incident I was letting my dog's rough house and one's collar got stuck between the teeth of the other dog like floss and they both started panicking. Easily could have turned into a fight if one dog thought the other one was causing the issue. Luckily the flat had a clasp so I could free one dog while I tried getting the collar out of the dog's teeth. All my flats have clasps now so I can easily remove them, no matter the situation. Yeah, woo, all my flats have clasps now so I can easily remove them, no matter the situation.
Speaker 1:Similar story my two goldies were play wrestling really gently as they always do, and the younger one kind of rolled and had the other goldie's collar in her mouth as she flipped there was blood everywhere as it was wrapped around her jaw. Meanwhile it was completely choking out. My older girl, my daughter, ran and got a neighbor while I had to try and hold my older Goldie up so she didn't die. She went unconscious but thankfully neighbor managed to get scissors in between and cut the collar. The younger Goldie, who was obviously in extreme pain from the collar wrapped tight around the jaw, was screaming and trying to get away so scary, and the reason I won't leave collars on my dogs unsupervised.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you want to have a collar on for the name tag, but that's the caveat for sure.
Speaker 1:No, I don't like. I like my dogs naked.
Speaker 1:I don't really like them to have collars yeah, especially when they're playing for their dogs yeah, no, that's something that we would always do is, if the dogs were out, we would take the collars off of them especially or have the breakaway collars on their. Breakaway collars are just collars that easily pull off, so it's not like a collar that you can put a leash on, because it would. It would pull off like immediately, but it's a good collar to have like a name tag on. Okay, when I worked at a doggy daycare years ago, we had a dog get their jaw stuck in their dog's collar and it was very traumatic. They somehow got their mouth caught right where the clip was, so I could not just unclip it. Both dogs were barrel, rolling and freaking out, which tightened the collar. The dog who was wearing the collar practically passed out from lack of oxygen, took a minute or so, but I was finally able to hold them down while somebody else cut the collar off. Ever since then, I do not keep collars on my dogs unless we are out and about and I never leave collars on dogs unsupervised, just in case. There you go. That's your reminder have a naked dog.
Speaker 1:Not so friendly encounter. My dog was playing in the park and my neighbor had his dog. He suggested we let them meet and I said okay. He said his dog was better off-leash. My dog was off-leash and he unclipped his dog. She ran straight for mine and grabbed her hip and or hip slash butt. My dog screamed and came running for me. The dog grabbed mine again and had her teeth around my dog's head and shook her. We got them apart. My dog had punctured bites by her ear and a one inch hole in her thigh. Always advocate for your dog. Skip the greetings unless it's a dog and owner you know and trust he's friendly, he's friendly.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yeah, like it's not worth it it's so annoying because I was talking I was talking to tori the other day about this. She has a neighbor who just adopted a dog and she's like how should they intro them? And I was like she shouldn't, she shouldn't have gotten another adult dog. It's just not going to work Like I don't know. I feel like I sound so cynical with things, but it's because of stuff like this. You know like, when people are like well, how do I? You know like I want my dog to have friends, and I'm like why?
Speaker 2:And obviously like breed dependent.
Speaker 1:Right, but this was like two large breeds that aren't ideal yeah, well, I don't know about this story, but my advice my advice to tori was like kind of cynical, but it just brought this up of like you know, dog trainers are always like your dogs don't need friends, like stop trying to make your dog have friends. It just leads to stuff like this I have, I love you all. I have zero trust in the population's ability to handle their dogs like I. You know, sometimes you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that person did that and I'm like I can I the the expectations are so, so low. The ball, the bar I said ball, the bar is on the ground. I have zero expectations, zero trust in literally anybody Like we were talking about.
Speaker 1:If we were to do a camping trip, I'm like I would have to have complete control because there would be a situation where somebody is like my dog, my dog is really good and they're just not, and like the dogs get into a fight or the dogs bite something or like something happens, because that's just in my mind how it always goes. You know, so your dog just doesn't need to have friends. You know, I know it's really, really hard, but you are your dog's friend. Like you play with your dog, you do things with your dog. Don't try to force doggy friendships. You can't trust people who say that their dogs are friendly no no right toma, he has a super friendly.
Speaker 1:He has a super. His dogs are super friendly. No, they're not, that's okay. Though I got a, though I got a lot of those, I got a lot of. My dogs are friendly or like oh, I trusted the dog park and that was such a dumb decision. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I don't know, maybe this should have been common sense, but our dog got attacked by one of his quote dog friends when we had to get him into surgery and we had to.
Speaker 1:What I cannot read by one of his dog's friends and when we had to get him into surgery to fix him up, I was not prepared to sign a dnr or to even be asked that question before they took him into surgery. One of those moments where you're like holy shit, what did I do to my dog? Or like, is this even? Or like, is this even real life? Yeah yeah, we've had instances of dog fights before dogs getting bit Toma's dogs got into it. We've had a client dog get bit in the paw by another dog. Luckily he was fine. He was super chill, but he did have his paw cut open pretty deep Needed stitches, yeah, yeah needed stitches, so we had to take him in.
Speaker 1:It's just, dogs are dogs are intense, and I feel like we don't give them enough credit for that. We got a bunch of predators running around and we want them to be friends and I just think that that is so crazy yeah you know another common thing that I got bees bees, yeah, dogs eating bees going into anaphylactic shock, getting stung, yeah.
Speaker 1:So my golden was bit or stung by something a few weeks ago we still have no idea what and we woke up to him scrapped. I I cannot read today what did I say earlier. I said flower instead of flashlight. I was like will you turn? Will you turn your flower on? I was like what.
Speaker 2:You repeated it a second time too, flower, I just rolled with it, my brain.
Speaker 1:My brain was like mixing up what a flashlight and a flower, like I was like looking at the flashlight and I was like flower, like no, that's like yeah, oh my gosh, I lost my mind. Okay, anyways, focus b got your nose. My golden was bit or stung by something a few weeks ago we still have no idea what and we woke up to him scratching a bit but didn't think much of it until it was time to get out of bed and saw his face. His snout was swollen to double the size. He looked like a cartoon character, which in hindsight is a bit funny, but in the moment I was terrified. He was going to stop breathing because it was so swollen. We took him to the vet for an allergy shot immediately and was able to monitor and give him Benadryl the rest of the day. Later we found the red whelp on his skin and his itching and swelling calmed down after about a day.
Speaker 2:That's another thing that we should probably have on deck is Benadryl, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just good for allergic reactions.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've never had that. I've never had any dogs get stung by something and like, have an allergic reaction and things swell up. I feel like I need to keep knocking on wood every time. I, like you know, say that or read these out loud.
Speaker 2:That happened to Clayton's puppy like two weeks ago.
Speaker 1:What he got stung.
Speaker 2:I don't know what happened. I just saw a story and his whole face was super swollen.
Speaker 1:I didn't see that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty bad.
Speaker 1:Okay, this next one I titled bad trip. It's funny because these are anonymous and some, some of you are writing as if I know who you are, but anyways, this person said this has to be anonymous, lol. But but same night Muffin ate drugs. My cattle dog ate an unopened bar of four gram psilocybin chocolate, aka magic mushrooms. 1.8 ounces of chocolate, four grams of mushrooms. She jumped on top of two crates to get it and it had been there for months.
Speaker 1:I had no idea what suddenly piqued her interest. Poison control said monitor for extreme agitation or extreme lethargy, and that was it. The chocolate part of it was basically a non-issue which I kind of already knew, but it was like a whole Hershey bar size for a 25 pound dog and it was drugs. That bitch gives me such a run for my money as a trainer. So I learned as long as they're not lethargic or agitated, you just let them ride the trip out. Apparently never had that happen before, but very similar to weed in that you just gotta yeah, I guess there's not much you can do let them roll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, also with the chocolate. Zoe has eaten so much chocolate. Zoe has eaten an insane amount of chocolate like she ate an entire bag of like dark chocolate chocolate chips. And I called poison control which, if you don't know, poison control is literally the best. Like they. You have to pay for the call, but a thousand percent worth it. So I called poison control and I was like hell, my dog just ate a entire bag, like a big bag, of chocolate chips, dark chocolate chocolate chips. And they're like all right, how much does your dog weigh? And I like told them they're like, and how many you know ounces was the bag? And I told them and they're like oh, yeah, she'll be fine. She has to eat like three pounds of chocolate before it becomes poisonous.
Speaker 2:And I was like oh, it's like yeah, it's poisonous, but the ratio just doesn't make sense, yeah but I think, like for small dogs, it's obviously different, yes, you know.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I was like, oh okay, and she was totally fine, like she didn't even have diarrhea, she, just that's one thing I feel like like as a society, like we overhyped how dangerous like chocolate is for for dogs for the most part, I mean obviously like it still is dangerous, but yeah something that I know is very dangerous is xylitol, like in in gum, the sweetener in gum.
Speaker 1:We also have like xylitol toothpaste, which I don't think is like a good type of toothpaste, but, um, that's, it always sketches me out. I'm like yeah yeah, cause it's not. It's like super dangerous to dogs. I don't really know.
Speaker 2:We didn't have any stories of that but I know that, like we'll have to look into that gum, like when I became a dog trainer.
Speaker 1:I liked no gum, no gum. Not Became a dog trainer, I liked no gum, no gum, not worth it. Zoe's really bad at like eating things. Actually Like, if there's.
Speaker 2:One flaw that the goldens have.
Speaker 1:If there's like anything bad that Zoe does, it's like she eats everything Butter off the counter. She loves a good stick of butter.
Speaker 2:They sure do.
Speaker 1:One time my dad was watching her and she ate like jalapenos and sausage off the counter, like cheese jalapenos. That was Zoe. Yeah, she ate like a whole chocolate cake one time. Anytime I would leave food in the front of my van, zoe would always eat it. I would like come back to her, like drinking coffee Always drinks the coffee so bad, oh my gosh, yeah, okay, anyways, fox tales yeah, it's kind of funny because we also we are learning about fox tales yeah, I feel like everyone in california has been big on well, they're kind of everywhere educating it.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, it's the first I hear of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've never come across a foxtail. Well, I mean I probably have, but I didn't really know until being here. So foxtails are little plants that I mean. What is it Like a grass? It's like the grass seed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess it's only dangerous in a specific season.
Speaker 1:When the grass is dry. Correct, yes, so the grass seeds are like super pointy, they're like little spears and they have like these barbs so that it can only go one direction and basically they'll like embed themselves in their it, kind of like sounds like porcupine quills like that.
Speaker 2:They keep going deeper and deeper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's like super super small, yeah, but they'll get in between their toes and in their airways, and even their lungs. So February 2025, my search and rescue canine, zuko, inhaled a fox tail and it embedded itself in his lung, causing a serious infection. One week after having that part of the lung surgically removed, his opposite lung torced and he almost died. Thankfully, with a second lung surgery, the twisted lung was removed just in the nick of time. Twenty five thousand dollars in veterinary expenses. My biggest takeaway is that I should have had pet insurance for him Twenty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1:Biggest takeaway is that I should have had pet insurance for him $25,000. Ka-ching, yeah, I mean Muffin's Day was $1,000. Okay, next one A big fall. I was walking my two Labradors in a grassy area that butted up to a retaining wall. It was a nice park area in a grassy area that butted up to a retaining wall. It was a nice park area. On the other side of the retaining wall, about 15 feet down, was gravel and train tracks.
Speaker 1:My black lab decided he needed to take a number two and kind of pulled over towards the retaining wall. He did his business and I handed the poop bag to my husband and we hung out in the grassy area near the retaining wall while we waited for my husband to come back to us. While waiting, I peeked over the wall because I didn't know what was on the other side. Our black lab, while I was looking over the retaining wall, decided he needed to look too. He jumped up on the ledge of the wall and immediately fell over. Since he was on leash, I was able to slow his fall a tiny bit, but ultimately had to drop him. He landed on his side of the gravel but still probably fell 10 feet.
Speaker 1:As I was yelling for help and looking over the wall, my other Labrador, who was also on leash, took a running start and leapt over the wall and fell 15 feet to the gravel as well. I could not stop his fall, unfortunately, feet to the gravel as well. I could not stop his fall. Unfortunately, he completely shattered his left leg and had to have a pancarpal anthrodesis surgery with a permanent rod placed ten thousand dollars and nine months later he was able to get back to normal activities. It was such a freak accident and so scary Shit. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, I read that and I was like, oh my gosh. But honestly, lab behavior, that's something Lucy would do. That's like oh my gosh. She jumped off the cliff in Santa Cruz.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to go in the water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to go in the water, like I mean minimum, minimum 15 feet, probably 20 feet. But we were in Santa Cruz and it was like I think it was like super early morning, they have like off leash hours and I let her out and I thought that I I don't. The nowhere in my mind was I was like this dog is gonna leap from this cliff and jump into the ocean. And she just kind of like took off and like it was a little hill and I'm like calling her and she's not coming back. So me and zoe walk over there and I was like she's gone, like she literally jumped into the ocean and I looked down and she's just like swimming back to shore. I'm like, oh my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, both of your dogs jumping off a retaining wall.
Speaker 2:One following the other, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's crazy off a retaining wall, one following the other. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy. That's why, when we look over the like beach ledge, I always will like grab the dogs, because I just know short.
Speaker 2:I just know that they're, there's like a viral video of a female police officer. She lets her malinois out, like at a traffic stop, and the dog jumps over. But it's like a bridge, like if she wouldn't have like caught the dog, like would have been death for sure, but she like hoisted him back up like this oh my god, I hear that stuff all the time like who?
Speaker 2:somebody that we were talking to said their mal like jumped off a roof I mean we had one of the detection dogs jump between um the escalators at the airport and like oh my gosh yeah a whole story actually crazy.
Speaker 1:All right, next one no rope toys. My dog ate something stringy and had to have emergency surgery and thankfully came out alive after a very difficult recovery Still unsure what it was. I'm a dog trainer with dogs who board and train at my home, so I keep my home extremely dog proof. I recommend no rope toys or the like to all of my clients now.
Speaker 2:Fair enough.
Speaker 1:This is another one that I just got so many of, so many obstructions, so many. My dog needed emergency surgery. My dog swallowed a toy, like so many of those, and we've actually had that happen. My old roommate, daniel, one of my good friends, his daughter Addie, his dog Addie she literally almost died and it was like such a traumatizing experience. But she was sick for a really long time and no vet could figure out what was wrong with her. So basically she just like stopped eating and we didn't really know why she was just not eating her food. She kept like throwing up bile. We're like okay, something has to be wrong with her. Took her to the vet. They gave us like every different type of thing that it could be. At one point they like, oh, she has addison's disease, like all of this stuff. They were running, all of these tests.
Speaker 1:This went on for literally like a month and then, you know, like a week would go by. She's not eating her food. So daniel would take her to the vet and they would like put her on like I don't. I don't know how they would feed her, but they would like give her nutrients somehow through like ivy or something, give her liquids. She would get a little bit better and then she would get sick again. She wasn't like eating any of her food, and so he was just taking her back to the vet like every week and was like we have to figure, like I'm literally watching my dog die and they're like we don't figure, like I'm literally watching my dog die and they're like we don't think it's an obstruction. They did x-rays. They're like, no, we can't really figure out anything. And this was when I was like getting more into dog training and I was like, daniel, this is an obstruction like she keeps throwing up like that this is what it has to be it has to be that.
Speaker 1:So eventually he takes her to the vet and he was like you have to do something, like you need to open my dog up, like, just find, find something you know. And they're like, okay, well, you know, we can do an exploratory surgery and see if there's anything in there. And they opened her up and she had a cat toy lodged in her intestines, just one of those little little mouse toys. And I think she had gotten out and went into the neighbor's garage for like two minutes one day and came back and she had a cat toy wedged inside her. It was so traumatizing for all of us, like we were literally watching addy die she that's why she's gray, like she went through it yeah, she went through it.
Speaker 1:She's aged. Yeah, she went through it during that time. But now that I know, I know immediately when a dog has an obstruction, yeah, like immediately. I'm like, oh, that is what is happening. You know we had another dog that the dog came to me with a leash in him. Yes, I think I don't actually. Oh, yeah, that's right. So Kayla had him, kayla had him. Kayla is my stepsister, kayla. I gave her this dog. One of the owners had to rehome their dog, so I she had the dog.
Speaker 1:He got like extremely sick and was like throwing up everywhere and she was like, uh, he like I don't know what's wrong with him. And I was like, oh my gosh, like what the heck. So I drove to Tampa to go pick him up and I was like I'm going to watch him. If he doesn't get better, I'm going to take him to the vet. So I took him. He was fine, he wasn't really eating his food, but he wasn't like acting sick at all and I was like, okay, we're going to just kind of see if something passes.
Speaker 1:And he ended up pooping out like an entire leash, like a super long leash, and I was like, oh my God, god, you know. But when he was throwing up and like not eating his food, I was like he definitely has an obstruction and so I was just kind of like, if it, I would like to avoid this very expensive obstruction surgery that's literally like ten thousand dollars. So we're gonna just monitor, we're gonna just monitor you. And it was like two days and he pooped it out. And I saw him pooping a leash out and I went and I had to step on it and then he like ran away and it like came out and I was like, oh, my god, this is so gross. But yeah, he's living life and thriving, thriving right now. Um, yeah, so no rope toys, don't leave leashes in the crate. Yeah, just obstruction city, not a good idea.
Speaker 2:Socks Anything. Dogs eat Socks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. My Frenchie had a choking episode when eating freeze-dried food. I soaked it in hot water and broke it up in pieces, but it still turned out to be an issue for her. She literally started turning blue and I had to gag her to get it out. Thank god she was okay, but it was so scary.
Speaker 1:So, especially for people with I cannot say this word breakies short nose dogs short nose dogs supervise their meal times and know how to do cpr and help them if they choke. I think a big lesson most owners need to learn is to stay calm and level-headed when shit hits the fan. Obviously, easier said than done, but panicking and freaking out is not going to help your dog. Act how you'd like an EMT to act like a calm leader that will keep you safe. This can apply to medical stuff or scuffles. I like that. I like that little addition there. Yeah, I have seen. Well, I mean, we watched our friend's dog and she has to be fed, you know, a couple pieces of food at the time at a time, because she will choke on her food and they've had to do cpr on her before yeah, it's scary like literally the doggy heimlich more than once yeah, so just also that's another thing too is like if your dog has ever a little bit choked, like, always supervise them during mealtimes, especially the frenchies.
Speaker 1:Frenchies are tough. Frenchies are literally the most fragile beings I've ever come to know yeah when we have the frenchies in our care. I am so paranoid like they stress me out so much it's crazy, crazy, especially in the Florida heat. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:They'll just, they'll just keep running around, they just collapse.
Speaker 1:You know, like you just you really have to watch them. We're like constantly like dunking them in water and, like you know, keep them, keep them cool. Like, oh my gosh, they, they really stress me out. Yeah, Gosh, they really stress me out. Yeah. And yeah, I love the bit about staying calm. I think that's super important. I think that's something that I'm really good at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you really are.
Speaker 1:You know, and in emergency moments I definitely am not the person that's like freaking out. I'm like, okay, we got to do something. You know you kind of got to like put your emotions aside. I'm like, okay, we got to do something. You know, you kind of got to like put your emotions aside for stuff like that. Next one ibuprofen.
Speaker 1:I had no idea how toxic this actually was until my incident with my first dog. My first dog was about a year and a half old. I was outside doing lawn work and my dog was inside. She was never one to get into anything, so she was allowed to be inside uncrated, but obviously we should have her crated still, I guess. After being outside for maybe less than an hour, my dog had found a bottle of ibuprofen that was probably on our bedside table and chewed open the top and ate an unknown amount of ibuprofen that was probably on our bedside table and chewed open the top and ate an unknown amount of ibuprofen. We did give her peroxide and had her throw up ASAP and took her to the emergency vet. By that evening she was in kidney failure. They ended up keeping her for four days in heavy fluids and sent her home. Luckily, because she was so young. She did bounce back and after about two weeks she was my dog again. She never really gained the same confidence back after that, though, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Had I known how toxic ibuprofen was for dogs, I would have never left it on my table where she could have reached it. I feel it's a pretty common spot to keep that, and most people like me are unaware of how toxic it is to dogs. Actually, this is my first vet experience with zoe. She was baby. I had just gotten her and this was at my house in lee summit in kansas city and there was ibuprofen out. I walked away. I heard the rattle of the bottle. I came back over. The bottle had been opened. There was ibuprofen on the ground, but I wasn't sure if she had eaten any, and because I knew how toxic it was, I was like, because I knew how toxic it was, I was like nope, can't risk it. So brought puppy Zoe to the vet. They gave her hydrogen peroxide, got her the throw up. He was like she hasn't thrown up any. I don't think that she's eaten any, like she's fine. We couldn't find any in her food. We dug through all of her vomit. She's good, you know. But it was very scary because ibuprofen is super, super toxic to dogs, so especially puppies.
Speaker 1:Make sure that things like that are not accessible and, honestly, if you have a puppy or young dog, these should be crated. I know that they're good 99% of the time, but it only takes one time for something like this to happen, and I actually, you know, within the past year, lost a client dog due to something similar. I think it was like sleeping pills the dog had gotten into pills, ate them and unfortunately passed away, and it was really, really sad. It was a puppy that I had trained in Florida and I just hate getting text messages like that and sometimes I feel like I'm the bearer of bad news and no one wants to listen to me. No one wants to. They feel bad for creating their dogs, but I'm like, what is the alternative? Like it is just, it's not worth the risk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, custom experience.
Speaker 1:You know it's not worth the risk. It never is. You know it's not worth the risk, it never is. This next one is another one that I got quite a lot, which is bloat. Um, the last time I spoke about this on either the podcast or social media, I got a lot of people who were like, oh my gosh, I didn't know that I'm not supposed to let my dog, like, run around after they eat. So this is kind of. This is why. So our dogs can't get bloat, which is basically where their stomach flips. It's very common in like barrel, like deep chest chested dogs like Dobermans and Great Danes and German Shepherds, okay, bloat.
Speaker 1:We saved her, thankfully, because I knew the signs. I just didn't think it would happen so fast. She drank water and wasn't even running around or anything, and randomly she started to drive heave. Drank water and wasn't even running around or anything, and randomly she started to drive heave. I thought she was hungry, so I gave her some food, but she didn't want to eat Not normal for her. I thought she wants to potty but she forced herself only to poop a little bit, probably because of the gas. Then she just lied down on the dirt, which is so out of character for her. That's when I truly freaked out and thought it's bloat. Thankfully she could still walk, because I simply don't have enough strength to carry her by myself.
Speaker 1:I called the urgent vet and asked them if they can take her in immediately and have space for operation. My suspension turned out to be true. My suspicion turned out to be true, and the vet was amazed by how quickly I was able to bring her in. From the time of first symptoms to operation, everything happened in less than an hour. If I had waited just an hour longer she would have been gone now. She had made a full recovery like that never happened. I knew blow is deadly. I just didn't know how statistically likely it would happen to a GSD. One in five will get it in their lifetime.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I didn't know that until I read this Crazy Bloat is one of those things that I am also very paranoid about, which is why I'm so big on creating your dog. Whenever you give them a bunch of water or a meal, like you have to wait until they're not like breathing super heavy. But even if the dogs are hot, you know, and they're like panting a whole bunch, I'm not going to give them like a giant bowl of water like they have post exercise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I always feed and water in the crates once the dogs are more relaxed. That is like my biggest fear, because they're. You have to be quick with it. You know, and like god forbid, we'd be out in the woods and like something happened like that Knock on wood, knock on wood for everything, every step.
Speaker 1:All right. Another obstruction my dog at six months had a bowel obstruction. Being a male, he was acting so normal while on the brink of death and I only noticed he was sick just before it was too late. Two days in and out of vets and a huge surgery that nearly killed him. Later. We thank our lucky stars we still have our boy with us. He ate a foam ring toy that fit in his large intestines but perfectly blocked his small intestines like a cork. Ugh Crazy.
Speaker 1:blocked his small intestines like a cork oh crazy these dogs, these dogs, the obstruction surgery is not a fun one. Avoid that at all costs. One time then this was not that long ago, maybe, like two years ago hunter, one of my previous trainers we were at the house and Hunter was like laying on the couch with Lucy and Lucy like brought her a sock, she like found a sock and she's like like bringing it over to Hunter and Hunter sitting on the couch with her. And then she looks down at Lucy and she looks back up at me and she's like Meg, the sock is gone. And I was like what do you mean? The sock is gone. She's like I think mean the sock is gone. She's like I think Lucy ate the sock.
Speaker 1:And I was like Lucy didn't eat the sock, like she's never eaten a sock, like what are you talking about? She's like the sock is gone. And I was like no, check under the couch, like check in the cushions, like she didn't eat a sock. And she was like no, I I think she ate the sock. And I was like no, no way. Like what do I do? Like can I give her hydrogen peroxide? And she was like yeah, so Hunter gave her hydrogen peroxide and she threw up the sock and I was like oh my God, you know.
Speaker 2:They keep you on your toes. What?
Speaker 1:Crazy. Okay, these next one. These are interesting. So this is on the topic of ticks. Took my dog to a forest preserve for some good sniffs and bonding time. We walked on a grass trail for 30 minutes. I was loading her up in the car when I noticed a tick, then another, then another. It was an infestation. I couldn't deal with them all in the parking lot so I panic, drove home. I spent five hours pulling so many ticks off of her just 30 minutes on a trail, plus a few on me. I wish I would have been more vigilant and chose a different activity for us during this time of year. I will still never forget. Plus, I've now learned there are tools to remove ticks and I will now keep on me tools to remove ticks and I will now keep on me. She is on preventative medications, but I still did not want any ticks on her and did my best to remove every last one. I think this is another thing in california that we have to be worried about I got a little tick thing.
Speaker 2:I have a tick remover too.
Speaker 1:But every time we go somewhere, somebody's like how are the ticks? And I'm like oh hey, I guess we're going in like forests we're not really grow like I mean there's ticks in forests, but I know, but it's not like it's different.
Speaker 2:You know, it's yeah like, it's like grass yeah, yeah, yeah, because basically ticks, they don't like jump, like you have to brush up against the foliage for it to like transfer.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, we haven't had issues with ticks yet, but in my episode with wesley he talked to or did he talk about that in that episode? I know he maybe he would just told me separately, but he went to, I think, washington and he was like I do not like washington and I was like why? And he was like the ticks, like I, I'm never doing that again. And I was like what do you mean? And he was like I took asher out and she came back with like hundreds of ticks and I was covered in like hundreds of ticks and had to like sit there and comb over her for like hours to get all the ticks out.
Speaker 2:And I was like what it's the worst with a black dog.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, horrible. Yeah, so this is on the flip side of that which I thought was very interesting, so I kind of put the two together. So mine this is the next story Mine is vet and health related. I wish I would have known more about flea tick and heartworm meds before putting my dog on them when I first adopted her In parentheses, not trying to fearmonger but just share my experience.
Speaker 1:Every month when I gave them to her she would have digestive issues, but I just trusted the vet and thought it was normal. Where we live in Canada there's several months where it's way too cold for ticks or mosquitoes. I didn't give her. Give it to her over that winter and she got completely better, started again in the spring and she got so sick it was awful and it took weeks for her to recover, turns out. No, it's not normal for your dog to have diarrhea and vomit for a couple of days every month. My lesson was to do more research on alternative prevention and maybe don't give your dog an insecticide every month and expect there to not be any consequences, either with health or behavior yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:The other thing too is like I don't even find like it works that great like I would.
Speaker 1:I was in canada I would use like adventix and like my dog would still get ticks yeah, well, those are interesting because I'm pretty sure that the tick has to like bite your dog, right oh for it to like like. It's not like a deterrent, it's just like if it like it kills the bug, if it bites your dog potentially, I don't know I don't know, I can't really speak on that too much.
Speaker 1:I personally do not give my dogs traditional. Well, I mean, I don't know what traditional would be, but I don't give my dogs flea and tick preventative. I did with Zoe, for I don't know, the first six years of her life, and then I started doing research on it and I was like, huh, we really are just putting pesticides on our dog and it's crazy that it lasts so long and that kills anything that bites them. I was like that doesn't seem like the best that doesn't seem like the best.
Speaker 1:I don't think I'm gonna do that, so we just have, like a spray. I have a spray that we could spray on the dogs before, do we? Not all the time not all the time, but I don't know we're not really going in like.
Speaker 2:I mean we haven't like had any ticks since being. I haven't had a single like tick on my dog since being in the states. But I mean I in like eastern east coast canada is like the highest tick population in all of canada, so maybe it's like a clash for me lucy has gotten a tick before remember yeah, yeah yeah but like I don't know, one one tick blue moon like.
Speaker 2:There's this one property that I used to rent. It was crazy. Every time Walter would go out I'd have to comb him and like there'd always be ticks.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, but see, I just would not go there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's where I lived, right, I didn't know when I started renting the place, but literally the landlord at the time told me he wanted to sell his house, just because, like the tick problem oh my god yeah, so bad that's crazy.
Speaker 1:No, I would not do that. So, okay, I think I'm gonna end it there. There are a few more, but they're kind of like dark and I don't really want to end on a bad note like let's just end with the little bugs just the little bugs. It's already been such a stressful week. You know what I'm saying so we'll try to keep it as light as possible all in all glad muffins okay oh, so glad that little muffin is okay. I don't know what I would do. You're very lucky I am you're so lucky.
Speaker 1:Anyways, I hope a thankless job I hope this episode can save some dogs lives, save you an unwanted vet appointment yeah, and at the bare minimum.
Speaker 2:Just like you know, provided some education, maybe even just about maybe listen to your dog trainers. Yeah, there's a reason why you should have your dog on a leash.
Speaker 1:This is why you should create them. No, some of these are pretty unavoidable and, honestly, it's just kind of like part of life, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, shit's going to happen.
Speaker 1:You can't live in fear. Things are going to happen, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, live in fear. Things are going to happen, you know. I mean, I guess the the most educational one we had was just about blow. You know, maybe don't give your dog water right after exercise, or you know yeah, I just give them a little bit of water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, all right, y'all, we'll end it there. Little housekeeping thing. Virtual shadow program starts on mayth, so if you want to be a dog trainer, come and join the community. We would love to have you. We also kind of talk about a lot of stuff like this, of like what you need to know as a trainer, and prevention and you know. All the things that you don't know are things until it happens to you, you know. So it's cool to have like a nice little community of people that you can talk about that stuff with. Oh, my little clappy thing is going off. All right, guys, thank you so much for being here. We'll see you next week.