I live in a small city - ALWAYS pick up after our dog and am forever annoyed by those who don't (and there are a lot of dogs in this town!). PEOPLE have to walk in all the same places that the dog's walk in this town - why would you subject an entire population, including yourself, to a minefield of excrement? It's not restricted to people's front yards either - can't tell you how many times I've passed a pile of poop in the MIDDLE OF THE SIDEWALK!! How could ANYONE watch their dog do this, in public, and walk away without cleaning it up???!! I know, it must happen all the time in places like Manhatten too, but dang, how hard is it to carry a bag, or at least FIND one, and make a trip to the trash can?

Winter is the worst - it's like people expect all the poo to somehow be absorbed by the snow, or maybe melt with it in spring. WRONG! Dog poop and sidewalk snow make a rather nasty concoction, and YES, it's STILL THERE when the snow melts...

We also have a great park that's wooded and is a perfect "natural toilet" for the dogs, as long as they hike off the trails to do it... but again, in winter, when the snow is deep enough off trail that the dog's won't venture out - nearly NO ONE picks up. This last winter (BIG snow), it got so bad that the entire trail system was one big smear of a "poo chute" and we just couldn't bear walking it after a while.

The worst are the people who, by some bizarre logic, actually collect their dog's deposits in the park and leave the full, tied-off BAG beside the trail!! Not only does no one else want to touch THAT after a few rains and a bit of trampling, but the poo can't even completely dissolve into the ground, it's just disgusting... I don't understand some people.

Sorry for the tyrade...
~Natalya

Natalya, that's funny about the bags of poop on the trail - people just leave them there? I mean, maybe I could understand if they came back for them at the end of their walk...but leave them? Wow.

I pick up poop for about 6 dogs - only 2 of which are mine. It doesn't bother me while I'm doing it but I hate when I catch people not picking up. There's a construction site behind us right now (building a bike path) and it's also currently serving as a giant toilet because most of us don't have backyards (just a parking spot). Ugh. The other day a woman was watching me take my dogs out, and as I bent over to pick up she came running out yelling "Hey! Hey you!" and I was terrified (not a great neighbourhood), but as she got closer, she was out of breath and just kept saying "Thank you, thank you so much, thank you!" It was weird!

I don't mind if dogs use my lawn, as long as it gets cleaned up. Then again, I'm not much of a "lawn pride" person. probably a result of the leftover resent from my childhood when my parents forced me to take the dogs 20 minutes away to potty so that there weren't any spots on our front lawn.

Kind of makes you think the "anti-poo movement" could use some help, say by...promoting raw feeding??!!

I can see it: armies of raw feeders armed with ziploc bags and waving turkey necks over their heads chanting " NO MORE POO" going door-to-door winning over the hearts and minds of friends and neighbors....

A catchy phrase like "From dog to dust in 3 days"

This could solve the problem!

 Quote: sarah_morris

Kind of makes you think the "anti-poo movement" could use some help, say by...promoting raw feeding??!!

Great suggestion Sarah!!

I have to say, cleaning up after MY dog (raw fed) is a heck of a lot easier and cleaner than what comes out the back ends of most dogs in town... Not that it should be an excuse for negligent poop scooping, but the piles the bigger dogs leave around are sort of astounding (probably those fed the cheapest kibble) - makes you wonder if those dogs are absorbing ANYTHING from their meals!

Heather - I've had similar "thanks" from people who notice me picking up sometimes. I always take it graciously, but I feel like saying, "well of COURSE I'm picking up after my dog - what did you think I was going to do - leave a pile of dog crap on your lawn??? (substitute any number of locations...)"

~Natalya

~Natalya

I never leave the house with my dog Nickie without putting on my "belly bag" which contains two plastic bags and 4 folded up paper towels (along with cell phone, house keys, I.D., treats, etc.)

I'm not as lucky as most of you have indicated. Nickie will usually poop in our backyard but when I walk him, he almost always has to do a second or third poop (guess he needs the stimulation of walking to take care of all of it). I usually am able to pull him off the sidewalk to the street when he starts to "circle" and then clean it up from there. Only takes a few seconds.

When I see where another dog has deposited his mess on the sidewalk, I just assume that this was a dog who was "off leash". Most people that I see walking their dogs around my area carry some type of cleanup bag with them.

My pet peeve is our neighbor who has 4 cats who do not "potty" in her flower beds, instead come over to my front yard and do it there . . . but that is a whole other story.

I had forgotten a bag once, but I waited on the trail until someone had come by. Luckily, the first person I asked had an extra.

This was at a dog park < SHAME, I know. >, but I kept my pup on leash and at my side.

She hasn't been too big on doing her business while on walks, but we haven't taken too long of a walk much. I finally took her around the whole block yesterday before her class, and she pooped out < no pun intended. > before her puppy class ended last night.

At least I knew she would have a good night's sleep.

But she's designated her own spots in the yard for her business, and I go clean it up every week.

Yeah, cats are a whole other ball game. Gardening with loose cats around is a total drag. No sooner dig up the soil, plant something, then cats dig up the plant in order to do their thing. Dead plants, loss of money, waste of work. Worse thing about cats is they go anywhere, including backyards.

Having a dog helps to deter the cats from the backyard.

I don't like dogs peeing on my lawn either. I spend a lot of time and money in keeping my front lawn looking nice and I don't appreciate people letting their dogs relieve themselves on my lawn. I can't count the number of times I've had to reseed and refertilize my lawn because of pee burns in my lawn. Plus, when one dog marks, i've found that all the other dogs that walk by try to outdo the previous dog. I sit on my front porch and read sometimes- people walking their dogs can't see me and I've counted 6 people letting their dogs relieve themselves on my lawn in a 2 hour period. I also have a neighbor with an outdoor cat that likes to use my yard as his personal litter box. I've setup a sprinkler with a sensor on it and when the cat passes in front of the sensor, it turns the sprinkler on. No more cat poop problems.

We also have a town law against not cleaning up. $150 fine if you get caught.

I was just on a walk today and saw a fellow with a labrador while walking down the street. He stood there saying "Hurry Up" while the dog pooped on my neighbors driveway. Then, instead of picking it up, he kicked it into my neighbors lawn and took off. Left my neighbor a big smear on his driveway and a pile on his lawn.

Some people...

Wow what a shame. I remember, once I was walking my dog and she had to poop on the sidewalk in the park. I didn't have any bags with me & there were none in the park. I had to run about 2 miles (roundtrip) to go home & get a bag to clean it up.