Why can’t dogs be trained not to stop and shit in the middle of the pavement?

Of course they can be trained. Its the lazy moron owners that are the problem.

Yes I really don't see the problem here.

I had 3 dogs in my life and none of them has ever been comfortable pooping in the middle of the pavement.
My current dog acts like he poos once every 12 years, it has to be the perfect spot, and the quest to find it can last forever, but it's never in the middle of the pavement, generally on grass.

My dogs both ask to go outdoors to vomit. I can't take any credit for that, they taught themselves.

My friend trained guide dog puppies. They teach them from day 1 which is 8 weeks old. They take them out often to the same place in the garden and then say a word which they then associate with toileting. I think it is busy busy. They associate this location is where they toilet.

They also use the same command words for all actions such as lying down or getting down, different words and leaving and dropping so all guide dogs are taught the same.

They attend puppy training classes so they are taught to not pick up the toys or scavenge food as they are working. I agree with @GucciBear it is the owners who are mostly at fault. I also see dogs pulling their owners, guide dogs are taught not to do it, usually with different leads/harnesses and patience.

My dog walked to heel when we were walking along a road. When not near a road, dogs should be free to explore. If they have good recall, then it is not a problem.

Where I live dogs poo on grass almost all the time.
We must have more grass here.

They Can easily. The problem lies with unintelligent owners. Every day I see dogs not walking to heel but yards in front of The human. So many errors. I think that people should be trained before being allowed to have a dog.

Have to disagree there too.

There has been an absolute explosion of dog ownership where we live in recent years and we see a dog shitting at least a few times a week (I know as my child with SEN likes to announce it!!).

These owners do always clean up but I just wish they'd been able to move the dog kerbside.

My dickhead dog loves to poo on tarmac. So I take him to side roads so he doesn’t get flattened. He has a few favourite cul de sacs.

I pick it up though and he has a good diet so there is nothing left on the pavement/road.

Think OP has done a dump and run away 😆

It is pretty unnatural for a dog to just poo in the middle of the pavement. Mine have always sought to tuck themselves well away into undergrowth. (This doesn't necessarily mean that it is an ok place for the poo to be left and not picked up, of course)

Once they become very elderly, dogs do become more prone to pooing mid-pavement. Sometimes it is because arthritic tenderness makes squatting uncomfortable, so they leave it to the last minute when it is too late to fuss about position. Other times, perhaps old age simply reduces bowel control.

When dogs that aren't elderly or unwell do it, I feel rather sorry for them as I imagine it indicates that their owners have never given the opportunity and freedom to engage in more natural toileting habits

I didn't mean it's rare to see dog poo in the street. Although I don't see it that often on streets and I do spend quite a bit of time in London.

I meant it's rare to see a dog pooing in the street. Mostly they poo on grass.

I was sitting in a cafe once and they had tables outside and as it was a sunny day people were sitting there having lunch. A huge dog stopped about 3ft from people eating their lunch and had a huge shit. The owner did clean it up but honestly I couldn’t have carried on eating if I was sitting there. I was inside and it still put me off!

I see you have cat experience 😆

I agree, @DeathBanana , in fact after reading some of these threads I sometimes think there must be criminal gangs of dogs paid to follow MNers into cafes to slobber over them, and then even more dogs paid to lavishly ‘shit and run’ in the middle of pavements in front of other MNers.

A paradox indeed.

In London it's rare to not see multiple piles of dog shit in the street.

Naice road, naice borough etc but dog shit on literally every pavement we use.

Those who clean up don't tend to clean up the actual shit smear so you have the delight of stepping in less shit.

If dogs can so easily be trained then owners need to fucking train them.

What I want to know is how come you can toilet train an animal to shit outdoors, but if they need to vomit, they just do it wherever, or start dramatically heaving so you have to chase them out

My dog is not a MN dog. She only poos twice a day. She’s regular and predictable. I don’t think she’s that unusual. It’s one of those MN paradoxes that dogs are often observed walking about shitting copiously and indiscriminately yet no dog I’ve ever had or known has done that. See also slobber.

My dog is 10 years old and has never once pooed on a pavement, she just wouldn’t choose to. But she never just has a lead walk, I always take her to somewhere she can be off lead.

I wish someone would train the ones that poo all over the pavement on the walk to our primary school. Not just one pile, but multiple, so you can barely avoid it unless you walk on the road.

This. Unfortunately my young dog did this today. I am a responsible owner though and I picked it up. She doesn’t usually do this

I always picked up after my dog, so it is not really a problem. The real problem is irresponsible people who don't pick it up.
My dog was housetrained, but I am not really sure how I could have trained her not to poo on a pavement. If she needed to go, she needed to go. Especially when some of our walks were along a pavement before we got to the park. She would often poo after a run about . A bit of exercise tends to get dog's bowels moving. She did mostly poo on grass though.

It's a rare thing to see a dog poo in the street.

The vast majority of dogs the vast majority of time go on grass at home or on a walk.

Some dogs are just annoying like that. They don’t want to stop walking so they try to hold it as long as possible and then essentially have an accident on the pavement while walking.