AIBU to think you only need to pick up dog poo....

[AnnieLobeseder]

... where there is less than a one in a million chance of someone actually stepping in it?

I know I'm probably opening myself up to a flaming here but.....

I have taken great pains to train my dogs to poop way off the beaten track, under bushes etc etc. Plastic bags are an environmental hazard, as is incinerating dog waste. Dog waste itself is a natural biodegradable product, and in only a problem if it gets stepped in. So while I pick up and dispose of my dogs' droppings if they go near paths, on greens or anywhere else I think there's a chance someone will step in it, I don't if I consider where they go to be 'safe'.

Today, Large Dog was doing her thing on an overgrown bit of grass, past which was a ditch and a fence, a good 1.5m from the footpath. This was not a bit of ground that I would expect anyone ever to be walking on. So I didn't pick it up.

A lady driving past stopped and gave me a bollocking for not picking it up, and shot back a sarcastic "Oh really?" when I said plastic bags aren't environmentally friendly and no-one was likely to step in it. Um, yes, really.

So, AIBU to not pick up dog poop in pedestrian-unlikely places?

I saw a white dog shit the other day. I tried to take a picture of it but too many people were watching me. :(

The stick and flick (or Poo Croquet as I think of it) means that the poo is in the undergrowth, where someone is unlikely to walk on it though... which is kind of what the OP is saying at the beginning

Alright OP. Lets all start pissing and shitting in incospicuous places, because using a toilet is wasting water and it pollutes seas and rivers.

YABU. Very.

I may be a bit sensitive on this subject though as I rolled through a massive pile of it upon picking the children up from school (seriously - who lets their dog shit outside a primary school and doesn't pick it up?!) which was then transferred to the rain cover as I had pulled it down. I was Not Amused.

Actually, I'm not being sensitive. It's fucking vile whichever way you look at it.

I think YANBU if it really was off the beaten track. If it's somewhere a lot of people walk then even 1.5m from the footpath wouldn't be.

Our local playing field has been better since they got really strict about dogs, and I have never seen foxes there, but I once saw a weasel and her babies. I wonder if weasel poo is toxic.

YABU - dog shit is the most disgusting thing in the world. Use biodegradable bags, or take it home loose in a bag and bury it in your own garden.

People like you make me hate dogs.

beau "I rolled through a massive pile of it upon picking the children up from school"

Why were you doing roly polies outside a school?

I'd pick up fifty dog shits for a million pounds!

God, you dirty disgusting person! What a filthy, selfish way of thinking.
How about I come and take a shit on your windowsill, coz you don't walk there do you?

Paula say what you mean now, don't hold back.

Bloody hell.

Picking up poo in the countryside away from paths is idiotic and unnecessary.

Animal poo is to be expected in the countryside, we train children to avoid cow pats, horse poo, fox poo and of course dog poo.

YABU. We have a lovely woodland walk near our house. Special bins at either end, ds fell over in the long grass and put his hand straight in a big pile of s&*t. Lovely.

Fakebook - if I could teach my dogs to shit in the toilet I would. But since my family are all toilet trained, we'll keep going indoors, thanks.

Paula - may I suggest a glass of wine?

Shall I re-iterate that I don't let my dogs shit on paths. Or on fields, or near schools, or on the village green, or on people's driveways (or windowsills).

Baffled as to why some people think leaving a bit of poo in the woods is the akin to child sacrifice.

You can only avoid dog poo if you walk with your eyes downcast, scanning the immediate horizon for booby traps. What toddler does that?
It's a pain in the arse having to do a mine sweep in front of you every time you leave the house.

"Baffled as to why some people think leaving a bit of poo in the woods is the akin to child sacrifice"

Annie, you're a dog owner mate. Loads of dog owners have a laissez faire attitude to dog shit. You don't find many non-dog people that don't mind random dogshits dotted around the countryside. I suppose it's easier to not mind dog shit when the alternative is having to pick it up.

When you own a dog, YOU PICK UP. ALWAYS.

You don't dither about, deciding on a sliding scale of suburbia that the presence of street lights and the proximity to a yoga class gives you a pass. You PICK UP. EVERY FUCKING TIME.

And you worm regularly.

And spare me the environmental handwringing. If you were really green you wouldn't have a dog. Responsible owners PICK UP THEIR SHIT. There, is that clear?

Owners like you are the ones who give the rest of us a bad name and lead to dogs getting banned from places.

Oh my God. You are being so unreasonable.
In my opinion people who are not prepared to pick up dog poo should not be allowed to have a dog.
What if we all allowed our toddlers and young children to do huge poos in the bushes???

I love dogs but my life would be so much nicer if I didn't have to worry about stepping into dog poo.
There are countries where people actually do the right thing and guess what - it's clean and you don't have to watch every step!!!

What about the stick & flick guidelines then? If your in a suitably remote area and that's the advice why are people getting so het up?

I'm trusting Annie isn't referring to parks etc but countryside and undergrowth.

That's the key difference.

Surely the owners who give the other owners a bad name are the ones who let their dogs crap right on the footpath, or on people's front gardens, or on the playing field, or in front of the school. God knows there are enough of those around still.
It seems to me that some of the posters on this thread are taking their anger against those people out on the OP.

(And I say that as someone who has never had a dog, has no intention of getting a dog, gets pissed off like everyone else by dog poo on pavements. We regularly go for walks where there is sheep poo, cow poo, duck poo, deer poo... it's the way the countryside is.)

I understand what you are saying OP . I do everything in my power to pick up my dogs poo , i once forgot poo bags and ended up gaurding the pile till some other kindly bag carrying dog walker came by.
There is one walk i go on down a deep ravine , where occasionally my dog (crossed with a mountain goat) will scurry up the sides and decide to poo . I would go after him to pick it up , if it didnt mean risking life and limb to do so , and if i an cannot get up there , then no child is going to and even if they managed it , dog poo would be the least of their worries

Ahhhh I so nearly flamed someone in person for this sort of thing. I was talking about quite wanting a puppy except that I don't like picking up dog poo (which is OBVIOUSLY an essential for a responsible dog owner) when another mum from the school that I don't know well grinned and said "oh well you just take it where no-one is watching."

I smiled and thought "ARRRRRRGH. YOU are my PET. HATE. and the BANE of MY LIFE."

Seriously, you have a dog, you pick up after it. And yes, a toddler will go all sorts of places an adult won't - like under bushes and through long grass and so on.

Yes I think some of you are getting the wrong end of the poo stick to be honest.

If its really genuinely a place no toddler is likely to go to then I don't see the harm.

And it's the bloody GUIDELINES some places too.

And I don't even like dogs, big spitty things.

Yabu.

As to 'off the beaten track' I understood Guide dogs were trained to step off kerbs and poop on the highway.

That may well be the primary school poop.

Why not take your dogs crap home in re-useable container and flush it down the loo when you next use it?

Or let you dog crap in your own garden or don't have a dog if the disposal of it's crap bothers you.