About 20 years ago I lived in the Seattle area. I was doing a house training lesson for a couple that owned a French Bulldog. FB's are great little dogs. Well... as we proceeded, I noticed that this dog just wouldn't stop moving around. Zoom here, zoom there, again and again. I asked if that was normal for their dog. They said they had never seen that kind of thing out of her. I stopped the lesson and told them to immediately take their dog to the vet for an exam.
They called me afterwards. Their dog was admitted with an elevated fever and the vet believed the dog had ingested some meth.
How could that have happened? Just before I saw them, the owner had taken their dog for a walk along the Seattle waterfront near the train tracks. This area was a known place for druggies to hang out. The guess was the dog found something with meth on it and ingested it.
Their dog was awake and agitated for nearly 24 hours before it settled down.
This experience, plus some other observations during outdoor lessons, makes me tell all students to be very careful with their dogs at public parks, especially around park benches. There have been numerous times I've spotted needles on the ground around the seating areas, and burn marks on the tables and benches. I've seen people ingest drugs at park benches and go completely Twilight Zone as they wander off talking and arguing with invisible enemies. I've also seen other undesirable items left on the ground, including tossed food or choking hazards that would not be safe for dogs to ingest. So, while it is great to take your dog for an outing at parks, you need to see things from their perspective and watch out for these types of hazards. Especially at parks where you know people might be using those places to get high.
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