Squirrel Poison kills dogs in Chicago

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I was just reading an article online about 3 dogs that have died after ingesting squirrel poison while out on a walk in the Chicago area.  The article says that squirrel poison is very similar to rat poison but that it has more food ingredients that would make it even more appealing to dogs.  The poison acts by causing the animal to have internal bleeding and bleed to death. 

 

When we go out for a walk I am always scanning the area for children out playing (my 2 dood are a bit nervous when kids go racing past on bikes), loose dogs, and dogs being walked on those retractable leashes by owners who aren’t paying a bit of attention.  Looks like I’ll have to keep an eye on the ground now too.  I am always amazed at how quickly dogs can snatch up random things that are lying on the ground when you aren’t paying attention. 

 

http://beta.local.yahoo.com/news-pet-owners-worried-squirrel-poison...

[L.M.]

We had a random man try to give our dogs treats from his pocket one day in the park....I told him thank you but no...and he actually tried to continue to give it to them!! I actually had to pull them away from him to prevent them from taking the treats.....maybe I was being paranoid too, but you just never know!  And my mom always told me not to take food from strangers...lol  ;)  

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

I try to keep treats with me when we are out in public and that way if people want to give my guys treats, I can let them give out some of my treats so I then know what they are getting.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good idea.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I've heard of that happening to other people, too. Disgruntled neighbors, that kind of thing.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Ok great. Something else to worry about for buying a house. Here I am annoyed at all the crap people leave along our walking path (twice now I've had to pry chicken bones out of Winnie's mouth thanks to some idiot). The idiot of someone purposefully poinsoning my doodles is too much for me to even think about. I better make sure I have doodle friendly neighbours before I buy a house.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

So sad, Myla is too quick when she sees something before us. Thanks for posting

[Christine & Camus]

I'm trying to understand why the product even exists!  Why kill squirrels?  Why use such an inhumane process at all! 

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

This is really scary.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is a man who lives in my apartment building who feeds the squirrels. When Sophie was a puppy she kept trying to get the shells that were left behind. They were everywhere on the property and it was a pain keeping her away from them. I had to complain to management to get him to stop because she got a hold of one once and I thought she was going to choke on it.

I think it is super important to be vigilant about what your doodles are getting into on the ground and not letting them take anything in their mouths. You can't control what other people do and you never know what might happen. It's unfortunate that people can't think through the potential unintended consequences of their actions, but that's just how it is. It's up to us to keep our doodles safe.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Good points, Sherri. Training helps a lot with this. The "leave it" and "drop it" commands are important, but even more important is proper leash walking with heads up. If they can't lower their heads to sniff the ground, they can't pick something up off the ground either. It will also help keep them from getting certain diseases and parasites, too.

[F, Calla & Luca]

All true but most of the pleasure in a walk are all those good smells. I don't think we could ever do this.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Hard to do with a dog whose nose is 8 inches off the ground to begin with too ;)  It's hard to keep a smaller dog from sniffing things because their nose is already so close.

I keep Luna's head up most of the time and give her "go sniff" breaks where she's allowed to sniff.  This way I can be (mostly) sure that she isn't getting into things as we walk.

Still a work in progress since she's still young, but most of the time she ignores things now.  I don't think she could resist something that has a strong, pleasant odor though.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I know what you mean. I never said it was easy. I'm certainly not that great at it, or else Winnie would have never gotten near those chicken bones. Basically, if I see them getting a little too vigorous and excited about sniffing something I figure that is my cue. I tell them to leave it, and tug them away. Winston can be pretty stuborn about this, but he's getting it.