Before bringing your dog on a CBMW walk, please consult the programme which will state whether the walk is suitable for a dog to be on the walk. Where dogs are allowed, they are to be on a lead at all times and the owner and dog should walk at the back of the group to cause less problems with other walkers.
Dog owners should be aware that dogs are shot and trapped by hunters, they are also poisoned by fox bait (strychnine). This has been known to be injected into sausages and placed in scrub land and even on tracks in areas where the CBMW walk.
A RECENT EXAMPLE BY A CBMW MEMBER
I know pretty well exactly where she found the poison, and from what she sicked up it included poisoned chorizo. It’s up from Km 7 on the Castell de Castells- Tarbena road. Head north-ish up that good track towards the little airstrip below Cocoll, but before you go all the way, veer off to the right towards the back of Tossal de Vaquero and towards the Carrascal. A little way along there’s a big flat area with 8 or 10 bath tubs – we used to call it the valley of the baths. And there are a few big flat rocks on the far air-strip side where sometimes they put salt down. It’s a sheep and goat place. Co-ordinates: N 38.726475, E -0.143453 . The dog picked up something there; I couldn’t see exactly what, and being very greedy she’d gulped it down in about 3 mouthfuls, not chewing it at all. About half an hour after eating the stuff she collapsed, going all rigid then shaking, blue tongue, eyes not with us – we thought she was dying. But we got her back down and she sicked up twice on the way, and I took her to the vets, but by then she was already improving and able to walk a bit. She was very subdued for a couple of days but I’m happy to say she’s fine again now, though unfortunately still greedy. Not having chewed up the poisoned whatever and then being very sick surely saved her. The vet says salt water is good to make a dog sick, and a lad in the village with lots of dogs says agua oxigenada is even better, and to squirt half a bottle down their throat. Not so sure about that!