Benadryl is often used for dogs, esp to treat allergies (I’ve used it, in fact it was especially helpful after snakebite). It might be likely to make a show dog sleepy and not show well. Not sure what the other drug would do.
I saw this article previously (not here) and some things in the article sounded like this guy may or may not have done what he’s accused of. You have to remember, show people can act like kids, accusing each other of all sorts of things. I don’t know what the history with these people is, but it’s possible that there is a history of things, and who knows the background. I wouldn’t be too quick to believe either one of them.
And the dog could have easily gotten the drugs off the floor or anywhere on the show grounds. They could have fallen out of someone’s pocket or purse, etc. I’ve had my dogs suck up the oddest things (and if you have dogs you know exactly what I mean!).
This dog was very lucky. I have a friend who recently lost a young dog to poisoning with warfarin. The ONLY place the dog could have gotten it was at a dog show where she had taken it.
She’s been showing dogs for well over 40 years and is devastated.
There’s a special place in hell for those who do this sort of thing.