We got our first Golden, Geordi, when my husband was stationed in Mississippi for a few months with the Air Force. We were fortunate to have an apartment complex that allowed dogs.
There was no yard so Geordi and I would go for several walks each day. One of those days we were a couple blocks from the apartments when he stopped to sniff around in the deep grass.
He seemed unusually preoccupied, so I went over to look more closely. Saw a little dirt that I went to dust off his head and realized it was not dirt but Fire Ants!
As he was still a small puppy I picked him up - careful to hold him arms length - and ran all the way back to the apartment. Not sure what to do, I immediately put him into a tub of water to rinse away/kill the ants. It worked, but as I gathered him into a towel on my lap, the poor thing was just shivering.
Such an adventure was followed by a nap as only a puppy can nap.