Disappointing dog poo behaviour but what is the norm now?

[tkdrift]

I'm not long back from a dog walk with a good friend of mine who I haven't seen in some time. She has acquired a dog in the intervening period but is an experienced dog owner. We walked through woodland, her dog pooped next to the path and she kicked it into the undergrowth.

I did 😮face and she shrugged and said "It'll break down". This is now the fourth person I've walked with in recent months whose dog has pooped somewhere and rather than pick it up they've either kicked it to the side (bleurgh) or covered it up with leaves etc.

These are otherwise genuinely decent, sensible people whose judgment in most other areas I trust and respect.

What am I missing? Is this how many dog owners feel? For context I have a dog and unless she has pooped in a part of the undergrowth that I can't get to (rare - she's a public pooper) I will always pick it up. Always. Woodland or not.

I've challenged my friends gently by saying "But there are so many dogs and there's so much poo." but they just don't seem to get it. Children love to run around in woodland and often don't stick to the paths. But if everyone with a dog not only left it there but then went on to hide it... Ugh...

I don't know. I was really disappointed. But as I said it's happened a few times now. Is this generally what dog owners do these days? How are people justifying it to themselves?

cows are herbivores….their shit is much likely to cause disease than omnivores such as dogs. Horses are also herbivores that’s why we use their shit to fertilize plants….you don’t see any one using dog shit on their cabbages!

What it boils down to is….if you have a dog take its shit home with you. Don’t put it in hedge rows, don’t bury it in leaves, don’t even put it in a dog shit bin for someone else to come and empty. Take it home & put it in your own bin.

In this town we're instructed to put it in public litter bins and never to put in our domestic waste.

Stick it and flick it at the bloody dirty dog owners who are doing this!

Do dog owners realise it takes at least two months for dog poo to degrade, and can be up to a year? That's a LOT of accumulated poo sitting around for a long time.

Bag it and bin it!

https://masterscoopers.com/blog/2021/06/how-long-does-it-take-for-poop-to-decompose/

This

On Dartmoor there's signs saying don't pick up your dogs poo

It's basically because bags take longer to break down and it costs a lot to empty bins

That's not what it says on Dartmoor National Park's website: "Pick up the poo. Always clear up after your dog. If there isn't a bin nearby, take your poo bags home with you when you leave. Our visitor centres sell special odour-proof and leakproof containers for clean and dirty dog poo bags."
https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/enjoy-dartmoor/planning-your-visit/visiting-with-your-dog

Certainly where I live there are posters that say the same. Advice is to flick into undergrowth rather than using plastic bags. Sadly my dog will only poo in my garden so I have to pick up with bags and bin them.

Any excuse not to pick it up. Dog owners are a mucky and lazy bunch.

If the undergrowth is genuinely the deep undergrowth where no-one is ever likely to be ealko g or if it’s tricky to get to eg down a steep bank then I would leave it, otherwise I always, always pick it up - sticking and flicking it only moves it a few feet at most and there’s a chance of a child walking in it or another dog rolling in it. People who routinely don’t pick it up deserve to spend eternity in hell in a pile of the stuff.

We live rurally and have an amazing network of footpaths just a few steps outside the back door. But they're getting harder and harder to use because of people who don't pick their dogs poo up. I'm sick of even attempting it with the grandkids because one of them will always find some to step in.

I've got 2 spaniels and pick up their poo without fail unless I can't physically get to it. This village has been ruined by the lockdown dog owners brigade who can't be bothered to clean up after their dogs or train them.

Very interesting point from the New Forest website, and I guess underlines what many on this thread have been trying to explain:

Unfortunately, we know that in the New Forest, many dog walkers are more likely to “stick & flick” dog poo into the bushes, or even simply leave it, without realising just how harmful this can be to wildlife and livestock – after all, dog poo is natural isn’t it? Actually, yes – and no.

Yes, it is natural, but no, it is not natural to the New Forest.

Of course, nobody picks up after all the New Forest ponies, cows and wildlife, but one of the big differences is that those animals are recycling the nutrients that they have taken from the Forest as they feed and are simply putting it back, whereas the nutrients in a dogs food are adding nutrients from excreted dog food to the New Forest soil. If you are a gardener that probably sounds like a very positive thing, because that’s what gardeners do to grow bigger and better flowers and food, but the very special, many of them rare, plants of the New Forest have evolved to grow in its nutrient-poor soils and cannot survive when their habitat has nutrients added to it in the form of dog waste. The waste of our carnivorous pets is also very different to that of the herbivorous pony and cows: as one responsible dog walker I was speaking with remarked recently, “I wouldn’t put dog poo on my roses, so why would I leave it out here on the heather?”!

Dog poo may also harbour viruses, bacteria and parasites which can affect other dogs, grazing animals and people, even after the waste has decomposed and is no longer visible. All of these are unpleasant and some, although very rare, are extremely serious, and can, for example, lead to blindness in people, or deaths or loss of unborn young in other dogs or grazing animals like cattle.

https://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/blog/walking-in-the-new-forest-with-your-dog/

Stick and flick is recommended by The Forestry Commission in certain circumstances.

barkingbags.co.uk/blogs/news/essential-things-you-need-to-know-about-dog-poo-and-what-to-do-with-it#:~:text=In%20the%20countryside%2C%20and%20where,up%20and%20take%20it%20away.

They don’t anymore. They’ve realised this is not good and changed their advice.

https://www.forestryengland.uk/dog-code

and they changed their name in 2019.

No you are normal, I pick it up from everywhere (even though my dog loves to poo in awkward places) and so do all my dog walking friends. It does not "just break down" it contains bacteria that shouldn't be allowed to get into the soil and water cycle. People are disgusting!

I definitely wouldn't 'cover up' dog poo - that seems to me an acknowledgement that you shouldn't be leaving it! I have occasionally left poo, if in a completely inaccessible place, but I'm talking about 10 feet into brambles. Similarly, I might flick it off a path into a bush, somewhere very remote, but not in an area frequented by lots of people/dogs. I also make a point of bagging and binning in areas with farm animals because of the dangers from dog poo to those animals.

But it's not really about that. What if a child stands in it kneels down in it?

If you have a dog you should bag it and bin it, even if that means carrying it miles first. I live rurally and loads of people think it’s fine to leave it on the grass verges along the road. Lovely when you have to step onto them to let a car pass and you, your child, or dog step in another dogs poo.

In the woods children play off the paths, building dens etc. I hope my daughter never picks up a stick someone has used to flick dog shit with.

In fields it is a health hazard. A local National Trust for Scotland property had to discard an entire harvest of hay a couple of years ago because so many people had left dog dirt in it and it could have harmed the animals eating it. I really feel for the people who had to harvest it.

There are signs up in my local wooded area telling you to 'flick not pick'.

That’s kind!

Absolutely the right thing to do, so long as it is undergrowth and not a footpath through the woods / field etc. It biodegrades nicely in nature. If bagged and binned, it doesn't and also someone has to pay for its disposal (council / landowner of where you're walking the pooch). DH works for the National Trust - they actively promote 'stick and flick' off the main thoroughfares. It costs them a fortune to dispose of doggy do each year and the plastic dog poo bags aren't great for the environment (even the biodegradable ones aren't as good as they seem).

Definitely wouldn’t leave on a footpath even in woods. Not somewhere someone is likely to walk.

This is antisocial behaviour

You have an interesting idea of what is anti social behaviour. I am sure the local council would be keen to investigate dog poo left in a ditch where no one can see it in an inaccessible area 🙄