To have a mini rant about dog mess on pavements...

[Molehillmountain]

Before I spend the next ten minutes cleaning it off my pushchair wheels? Grr!

A few points. Councils can use a variety of staff to issue Dog Fouling Notices not just dog wardens - so litter wardens, environmental enforcement staff, park attendants etc can all be suitably named, along with PCSOs. Councils can also impose Dog Control Orders that ban dogs from particularly poo strewn areas and many councils have used them to ban dogs from war memorials, allotments, graveyards, play areas and other sensitive areas. Councils will only enforce this if people complain - so for everyone here asking what to do, bombard your local Cllr with complaints - make it clear it isn't acceptable. Also complain to street cleaning department -dog fouling is classed as litter and your council has a legal duty to return residential streets and other areas to a statutory standard of cleanliness within an agreed timeframe. Dog poo can be placed in any bin, not just special poo bins. And signs up don't work - dogs can't read, responsible owners already do it, and irresponsible owners are not swayed by signs. They ARE swayed by peer pressure from other dog owners and the perception that dog fouling will be punished - failure to enforce allows problem to continue. Also bring up dog fouling at local PACT meetings - like graffiti, it can blight neighbourhoods - again, if it is logged as problem, police and Council will be forced to act.

And poisoning other people's dogs is a vile suggestion, JosieZ.

For some reason horse poo isn't as awful as dog poo, froggy. Possibly because it's all grassy and agricultural-ly, rather than, well...dog shitty.

Where do you all live that dog poo is such a problem? I live in a rural town with a large dog population and very, very rarely see any on pavements. The odd one I do see is always on the same stretch and clearly made by the same dog, I will merrily throttle the owner if I can work out who it is.

Some smartass stuck a sprig of holly in it last time.

Aries, sticks to your shoes pretty much the same though!

I HATE it and I am a dog owner. The only thing I hate more is people who take there poop bags, pick up the poop and then throw it in the tree/hedge etc. We regularly take our pooch up to a forest walk where there are plenty of bins to put bags in so why oh why oh why pick up poo if you are just going to throw the plastic bag full of it on the floor! .....rant over ;)

I was taking my DCs to the beach at Berwick-on-Tweed a couple of years back.
Very steep, very narrow path .
2 youngish boys allowed their large dog to crap on the footpath (it would have been easy for it to go in the grass at the side)

I asked them if they were going to pick it up?
Their reply: "It's not my dog!"

Oh,well that's alright then

I was out for a walk with the DDs a few months ago when I saw a woman walking her dog. She picked up every bit of dog poo the saw along the way. I thanked her for that, she said she hated that a few owners didn't pick up and gave all dogs and owners a bad name.

I hate it. I am on a on a one woman mission to get the problem sorted in my village. It is a nightmare. I can understand why so many parents drive their children to school even though they only live a few feet away. I have thought about downloading dog fouling posters and attaching them to my pushchair. I have already contacted the council and dog warden. They told me I need to let them know who the offender is. Perhaps I need to go undercover.

As a responsible dog owner I once emptied a packet of quavers out into the bottom of my trolley and used baby wipes and a bloody stick to get my dogs poo into the bag! I had run out of bags (stash in zipped compartment of
Pram had run dry!!). I have also knocked on people's doors and asked for a carrier bag if I have needed to. I could never ever leave dog poo. I am sure it is only the minority that give us dog owners a bad name.

I reported the 'poo tree' a few weeks before Christmas and it has obviuosly cleared during the Christmas break... one bag was starting to split and was literally only just above my head as I cycled.

I was sooo tempted to hang a sign from the tree along the lines of 'leaves on trees not poo'

My solution is radical, but I would suggest that repeat offenders have to eat the shit their dogs leave behind. Bet they'd only do it once

Take a photo of the offenders with a phone, we mostly all have those these days. And send to Council. Maybe do a name and shame poster event round the neighbourhood and local shops.

I'm new to Mumsnet but have been looking through threads on topics I feel strongly about. This is definitely one. My hubby took the kids out a few years back - one in a back-pack, one in a papoose and one in each hand (very noble). The one in the back-pack was let loose for a runaround and was then put back in the back-pack. Hubby smellt a whiff but didn't realise until he got home that his coat was covered in s**t from back-pack's wellies and consequently it had spread all over the place.

Hubby is a poet and songwriter and ended up writing a song about it. He visits schools all over the country teaching them to write and perform and kids seem to love singing along and saying "YUK" to it. (None of his other stuff is on this topic BTW!!!!!).

You see so many campaigns trying a different tack yet the problem remains but I wonder if the use of song, humour and disgust would work...