Bailey’s Foxtail Tale

I’ve always heard from other pet professionals that foxtails are dangerous, but I’d never had to deal with them myself. None of my dogs—or any of my clients’ dogs—had ever been injured by them. I wasn’t sure if I’d just been lucky or if I’d been unknowingly avoiding them.

pictured: a field of drying foxtails

That changed during a walking lesson with a young dog, about six months old. The dog’s owner and I were out together when the puppy grabbed a big foxtail in his mouth. I thought, Oh my gosh, that’s dangerous—we can’t let him swallow it! I pulled it out of his mouth and tried tossing it into the wind, but the puppy chased after it. That wasn’t working, so I stuck it in my back pocket for the moment.

I wasn’t wearing heavy jeans—just lightweight hiking pants that move with you. Almost immediately, I felt the foxtail poking through the fabric. It literally started working its way through the pocket and into my skin. Within 20 minutes it hurt, and I could feel it digging in. I didn’t realize how serious it could get, so I tried to ignore it until the lesson ended.

By the time we finished—about 20 minutes later—it was really uncomfortable. Obviously, I couldn’t take my pants off in a parking lot to remove it, so I just got in the car and drove home. Sitting on it made it worse and worse. When I finally got home and took off my pants, I used tweezers to pull it out. Luckily, there was no lasting damage.

But I learned that day how dangerous foxtails truly are. Don’t put them in your back pocket—or any pocket. Don’t let your dog grab them. If you see foxtails on a walk, avoid them. They’re no joke.