Poop Ordinance....I Have Been Warned

 I'm thinking the person who leaves the bags tied up maybe does come back for them later, unless of course you see them sitting around the next day. I used to do that, though not so much anymore, since I'm teaching my new guy that we don't walk unless he's empty. But, we used to go and walk along the main road. The dogs had a tendency of pooping slightly after we passed the trash can in the neighborhood. So, we'd bag it, leave it along the road, and get it on the way home. I also do that now at home. I just leave the bag at the end of my walkway, and bring it up to the trash can when we come back home.

 Usually mine have gone at home before the walk, but sometimes poop happens. I carry big plastic grocery bags to pick up poop in because I want everyone I pass to see it. When I wave to someone, it's with the hand holding the poop bag. I'm one of the only young-ish people in a neighborhood of many retired folks, looking out their windows all day long, keeping their yards perfect, and I have lots of dogs, kids, an unmowed lawn half the time, so I go out of my way to be like, "Look, here's me picking up poop!"..."look, here they are on a leash!"...and I have my kids bring neighbors baked goods too.

Ok, now that we’ve established that I’m a bad dog owner, how  about I give those that are more knowledgeable and better dog owners the opportunity to tell me what I’m doing wrong. 

It’s funny how people one doesn’t know and probably never will can have such an impact on someone’s self esteem.  But, hey, I’ll probably get over it and hopefully learn from it. 

I adopted Nemo 4 years ago as a companion dog.  He’s held up his end of our companion contract wonderfully.  Until I started this post I thought I was doing pretty good on my end…guess not.  

He was 18 months old and I was his 3^rd home.  From the paperwork they gave me I’ve concluded that the back yard breeder kept him for 8 months – probably until she figured out he was going to be way too big for the breed standard.  The people that bought him from the breeder kept him 10 months and then put him with a local rescue group that didn’t know what they had.  They listed him on petfinder.com on Thursday – I adopted him on Friday and have never regretted it for a moment.  I knew what I wanted and it took me 3 years to find him. 

I live in a small house on a small lot 2 blocks from the center of a small town.  Even before I got Nemo I tried to figure out how to fence my yard and have yet to figure out a practical way to do it.  The house is on the corner of two rather busy streets – commuters travel my streets to avoid the stop lights in town so traffic is pretty constant.  That means Nemo is never permitted outside except on a leash.

He was not house trained when I adopted him.  Getting him to pee in my yard was no problem.  Pooping was a whole other matter.  I would take what was done inside outside and put it where I really wanted him to go.  We sometimes would wander around that area for over an hour….No dice.  There’s an empty lot about a block from the house so I started walking him up to the lot.  He would sniff around a bit do the poopie dance, I would scoop and we’d be home in less than 10 minutes.  This is good.  This is what works for him.  Once his diet was established he pooped once in the morning and once in the evening – but not always.  Yippee!  We could establish a routine.  Usually 4 walks a day.  2 big walks and 2 little walks. 

As time passed and he learned where home was we started to wander further out.  Our “quickie” walk is what I call the “church walk”. Across the back yard to the parking lot of the church behind my house, stop eat some grass, over to the end of the block, turn right and go up that block, turn right, to the church at the end of that block, cross the street, down that block to the next corner, turn right again, go half a block, turn left down the alley behind another church, through their parking lot to the street, turn right and walk one block home.  Visit the dumpster in the alley if there’s anything to deposit.  This is the walk we do before bedtime because it is fairly well lit and I feel reasonably safe at 10 or 11 o’clock at night. 

There are few sidewalks on the streets we walk except in the center of town so I’ve always tried to be respectful of people’s yards while trying to stay out of the street to keep from getting hit by a car.  I try to stay well within the area that technically belongs to the town….the area along the street where all the pipes and lines are. Here it’s pretty easy to identify because that’s usually where the flower beds and trees stop and the ditch line begins.  Plus the town has been replacing all of the water lines this winter so everything all over town has either been or is being dug up.  This has added a whole new level of difficulty to navigating the streets. 

There is a very nice park in town that we like to walk to and there is a greenbelt that follows the river that hugs the town.  It’s a nice place to walk except during the hottest months when snakes are an issue.  We can get on the greenbelt in about 5 different places.  The closest entrance is only 2 blocks away by way of the empty lot…but that is not an option any more since there is a house with 3 pit bull mixes that doesn’t always keep the dogs contained.  Unless I have somewhere to be we mostly aim for the park or the greenbelt.  Sometimes he poops before we make it to the intended poop appropriate destination.  I try to keep him as close to the road as possible.  I use a retractable leash that is only fully extended when we are somewhere that I feel safe letting him be that far from me – that is not other people’s yards.  He is not allowed to sniff or mark tires or other things he encounters along the way that don’t belong to him.  I tell him “not yours” and he walks on.  Utility poles, sign posts and trashcans that live at the curb are fair game.  Like I said in my first post I almost always scoop.  The few exceptions have been when I could not find it or because it went somewhere I could not get to….into the river (that happened once) or down between two big rocks that I was NOT going to stick my hand down between.  I try to make the effort to have him poop where I can easily get to it but sometimes he has other ideas. 

Sometimes if dinner is out of the way early and it’s a nice evening my sister, Nemo and I will go for a stroll.  These are usually through the neighborhood to enjoy whatever is in bloom.  Nemo is always on a short leash unless we’ve stopped to talk to someone.  Then he might get more lead if it’s ok with whomever I’m visiting with. 

I’ve never tried to be showy about scooping.  I almost always have on some sort of jacket that has pockets and the poop bag goes in the pocket until we make it to a trash can or dumpster.  He’s a small dog – it’s not that big and it’s in paper towels inside a zippy sandwich bag.  When I pass the trash can it goes in – no big deal. 

I guess I need to add this disclaimer - I am legally blind – no vision in my right eye, 20/300 corrected in the left eye and have almost no depth perception.  I do not drive so driving to the park then going for a walk on the greenbelt is not an option.  We walk or we don’t go. 

With all of that said, what would those of you that know more about being a good dog owner  suggest I do differently to become  a more acceptable dog owner and citizen? 

cakana

We make our dogs poop and/or pee before we take them for a walk.

Not all of us are lucky enough to have a yard.

And bah...sterlingfan40...you're not a bad owner at ALL.

sterlingfan40, you are not a bad dog owner!  Poo to that idea. lol  Keep on doing what you are doing.  I'm sure if you could teach Nemo to poop in your yard before your walks, it would make life much easier for you and less stressful as far as worrying about the person accusing you of not scooping.   My dog Rex won't poop on a walk unless he absolutely can't hold it anymore.   The other two poo at least once and I pick up even though we don't walk in a neighborhood, it still prevents me from stepping in it the next day. :(  When we used to walk in our subdivision I picked up but there are so many stray/loose dogs pooing and peeing all over the place it always seemed somewhat ludicrous.  It does bother me when I see someone allowing their dog to go up onto someone's lawn to do their business.  I don't let my own dogs eliminate in our front yard, why should someone else be allowed?  I used to make my dogs heel close until we got to the first vacant lot on our street and then the pooping could begin. :)

Nemo, is sure a cutie!  I love Pap's and secretly plan to own one someday but don't tell my DH. lol 

crysania

cakana

We make our dogs poop and/or pee before we take them for a walk.

 

 

Not all of us are lucky enough to have a yard.

My vent was regarding the people in my neighborhood and everyone has a yard.

If you don't have a yard, then of course you'd have to take your dog somewhere to do it's business. I just don't think that somewhere should ever be someone's yard. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems that there are always common type areas to use. I couldn't care less about seeing someone poop and scoop in a common area, as long as that common area isn't one where children play or that type of thing.

 There's no common area where I live.  I live in a city neighborhood.  The little area behind my house that MIGHT have been a teeny tiny yard is taken up with a gigantic handicap ramp (we rent a place that must have once been owned by someone who required the ramp) and the front is pretty much sidewalk.  Most folks around here have at least a small yard, but a few of us aren't quite that lucky.

 Usually she goes in the area near the sidewalk and I clean it up.  It's the best I can do.  And frankly, it's better than most folks who just simply leave it there.

 To the op, I think you're doing fine. If it were me, since you've been warned, I'd make a bit of a show about picking up the poop and carrying the bag so everyone can see, but that's just me.

I never used to worry about my dogs going in peoples yards so long as I picked it up, and honestly most people in my neighborhood do let their dogs go on walks and do pick it up...doesn't bother me at all personally...but since joining a couple of dog forums I've heard people mention that it bothers them, so I try to get mine to go beforehand...not always possible, but all anyone can do is try. I would also personally rather see dogs going on grass than on a sidewalk...that grosses me out for some reason...dunno why.

I can honestly say where I lived, almost nobody had a 'common place' or yard to take their dogs. When I stepped out of my door, I stepped off my doorstep onto the sidewalk, which is of course about 3 feet wide and then lowers to the road. Many people have no options to even find grassy areas. Sure, if one walked for 5 blocks they'd find a small park, but if the dog needs to go first thing in the morning, you aren't likely to make it 5 blocks first!

Sometimes you have no choice. Some places have no sidewalks, and you either have yard or street. And, on the offchance my dog needs to use the bathroom, I know I'm going to choose the edge of the yard and not the road! It doesn't matter if I've peed/pooed the guys before I leave, often exercise itself loosens things up and makes dogs need to go to the bathroom, so you pick the safest area for the dog to go, and clean up afterwards if possible. I don't know about others, but I'd also rather have dogs pee on the grass off the edge of the sidewalk than all over the sidewalk I'm about to walk on in flip-flops!

Kim_MacMillan

I'd also rather have dogs pee on the grass off the edge of the sidewalk than all over the sidewalk I'm about to walk on in flip-flops!

Yeah, me too, lol!  My neighborhood doesn't even have sidewalks, so for us, it's either in the street (where kids play...) or on the edge of someone's yard.  I honestly don't ever get too concerned about it.  Having two male dogs, 99% of the time they will find a bush to pee on.  And poop, well, I carry poop bags always.  I, too, have handed out a few to others who don't seem to care about scooping up after their dogs.  And, of course, my dogs tend to associate pooping with the smell of grass, so if they poop on a walk, it's gonna be at the edge of someone's yard.  If someone ever complained to me about it, even though I always pick up, I'd avoid their yard.  But to get technical about it, in my county, the first 6 feet or so of everyone's yard is technically county property, so it's really not their property.  But I would respect their wishes should anyone say anything.

There is this one yard on our walk path that seems to be the community toilet, for lack of a better term.  There are never fewer than 6 or 7 piles in their yard every single time we pass it.  I avoid that yard at all costs.  Since the homeowners aren't too concerned about keeping it clean, and, apparently, a lot of dogs are attracted to it, there is no way I'm letting my boys anywhere near it, just out of health concerns.