Am I being 'disgusting' for letting my dog pee and poo out of my garden?

[LST]

As, according to a woman I've just past on my wall with my dog I am

He wee'd up a lamp post and pooed on the grass, but I did pick it up!! She tutted me and told me he should be better trained?

Just thought I'd give it to mn! AIBD??

[WatchingSeaMonkeys]

Do you think a dog's feelings are more important than a human child's?

Well, does your child care that my dog may have poo'd on a piece of grass a week ago? Really, Honestly? Nope, thought not....

A Human Child wouldn't give a shit (sorry ).

I do think that my dogs natural behaviour (that I clear up) is more important than your prissy feelings.

So please forgive me if I keep on letting him wee & poo outside of my garden. Maybe if you focussed on the people who don't clear up after their pets you'd get a bit more sympathy.

As it stands I shall continue to show this thread to my mates & hooting with laughter....

[LST]

Ahh that's where you are mistaken. A pass time of the dcs and me is to see who can find the most dog shit to stand in, in under a minute!

[MyFairyKing]

LST I dislike bad dog owners too and I would never defend them. It drives me mad when they leave their dog crap in the grass that my dog plays in. It's really hard to get poo cleaned off his fluffy paws! Sometimes I think the anti dog brigade forget that dog owners don't like seeing dog crap either.

[mollypup]

evalyn just because something is 'owned' does that then render it incapable of any natural instinct? A dog may be trained to go outside but it is completely unnecessary to contain it in one specific place. Cats have owners, but are considered free roaming in the eyes of the law i.e. doesn't really have an owner and therefore cannot be held accountable for the instinctual need to kill a bird despite devouring a tin of whiskas not long before. Do you really have nothing to worry about other than the miniscule risk of you or your darling children contracting some unthinkable disease? The need for you to be so highly strung must have such a negative impact on your life, it's quite saddening really.

[LST]

I hate irresponsible dog owners too. One has just let it's fucking dog chase and rip at my dogs leg. They are bastards

[MyFairyKing]

My dog cannot feel embarrassment or shame. That's humans projecting onto animals. There is no proof of this level of cognition in animals.

This thread is hilarious though. Only on MN do so many anti-dog people live in places where there is barely any grass yet as it's covered in dog/cat poo. Conversely, on MN, dog owners recognise that there are some really skanky places with lots of dog poo from selfish dog owners. Newsflash: we don't like it either. Exaggerating rarely wins you an argument.

[rocketjam]

Well... it depends where it is, there is this women who always walk her massive dog on the path next to our primary school and lets her dog wee on the gate to the school, next to where the children go in he playground. I don't like the idea of children walking in puddles of dog wee before going in their classrooms. If the woman had a bit more common sense, she could encourage her dog to wee on the other side of the path, on the grass area, maybe? Or is that too much to ask you think?

Anyway, I don't generally see a problem with what the OP is saying, as long as you pick up the poop. And take the bag with you - not leave it there like some eejuts often do, and don't think about putting it in my wheely bin either!

Also, could dog walkers stop taking their dogs in cemeteries and church grounds. I find it absolutely disgusting when I go and visit where my friend's ashes have been scattered, behind a beautiful church in London, and see dog walkers let their wee and pop on gravestones.

[zeezeek]

evalyn

Woah.

The impossible has happened.

I am speechless in the face of such "logic"

[Canidae]

A farmer moved her sheep to another field last week, they had to go past my house and along a lane to get there. Sheep poo everywhere. It is also two minutes from a school.

All those children stepping, hopping and cartwheeling through sheep poo.

My own dog likes to wee on horse poo. I guess that is doubly disgusting.

[Downtheroadfirstonleft]

I give my dogs plenty of opportunity to go, in our garden, before I walk them. There is the odd wee or poo out (I bag the poo, leave the wee), but I try to minimise it. Why should people have to walk/ wheel over preventable wee or poo??

[evalyn]

MyFairyKing, of course your dog has feelings! What strange things people say in an argument! Does it not feel pain, for instance?

My computer, Winchester Cathedral ... such things don't have feelings. With some animals it might be debatable (crabs? mosquitos?), but all mammals have feelings. Instincts, yes. Feelings too.

(And thanks again for keeping all your dog's shit in your own garden. You're a star, MyFairyKing, a star! Others take note.)

[Sapat]

I think dogs in towns are revolting and I would expect dog owners to train their dogs to do it in their garden, not in public spaces if possible. I don't have a garage, pushchair lives in the house, I think it is gross that dogs wee all over the pavements. I constantly have to tell kids not to walk in grass when out because of dog poo. It is utterly gross. I love cats (and don't have one) but I get really pissed off that my garden is constantly used by neighbours' cats. Yes cows poo, but it is on private land.

[Ilovexmastime]

Of course YANBU! This woman was obviously not the sharpest tool in the box, or maybe she was just in the mood for winding someone up that day?

[MyFairyKing]

My dog doesn't have feelings, he is an animal, with animal instincts.

[scandip]

Quite often mine won't go until we're out having a walk. I pick it up. I don't see the problem.

[evalyn]

SignYourName:
"It is illegal for a human being to defecate or urinate in public."

-- Not if said human being is aged two (say).

It might be that a two-year-old's parents were held to be acting in a disgusting manner if they habitually allowed said small human being to defecate or urinate in public, however.

(But do you really think that nothing legal can be unreasonable, as your post implies? Really?)

[HoneyDragon]

What about about potty training and wee in the supermarket or a stray poo in the ball pit that other children could cartwheel in?

What about elimination communication that child owners choose to practise without regards for others?

[Staywithme]

I know people will scream and laugh at the suggestion,

Yes, indeed, you're right. That's hilarious.

[evalyn]

MyFairyKing, heartfelt thanks for keeping your dog shit in your own garden! If everyone did that, I'd probably accept the occasional pee-up-a-lamppost as a quid pro quo. What chance? Anyone else?

Your question about 'how' to stop a dog you own doing its business where you don't want it: Think of our small children. My own children, the people I love most (sorry, DP!) in the world, I made them wear horrible uncomfortable smelly wet/shitty things - nappies - out of concern for others' sensibilities about their pee and poo. If we do that to our children, why not to our (your) pets?

I know people will scream and laugh at the suggestion, but really, why not? Do you think a dog's feelings are more important than a human child's? I guess some people think that. Me, I think that's just crazy.

The long and the short is: we organise our lives and those of our children to avoid their pee and poo getting everywhere despite the feelings of the children themselves ... Why not organise things in a similar way with regard to pets? (You, fairyking, manage it with poo. Hooray! Come on the rest of you lot! And get thinking about the wee problem!) Is it that hard?

I know the answer, really. To some of you, your pets are more important than your children. To others of you, you think that's not the case but your actions prove otherwise. As I said earlier in the thread, weird.

Threads such as this won't change minds or behaviour much, sadly. But I hope it brings home to some of you dog owners just how weird and inconsistent your ideas are.

(Of course there's none so blind as them that won't see, as my old mum used to say.)

[SignYourName]

It is illegal for a human being to defecate or urinate in public.
It is illegal for a dog owner to fail to pick up their dog's faeces from public places.

There is no legal responsibility on a dog owner to prevent their dog from urinating in public.
There is no legal responsibility on a dog owner to clean up after their dog if it urinates in public.
There is no legal responsibility on a cat owner to prevent their cat from roaming.
There is no legal responsibility on a cat owner to clean up after their cat if it defecates or urinates in public or on someone else's property.

The OP complied with the law as it stands. The person who approached her and took issue with her was unreasonable.

Fairly easy to understand, hein?

[plinkyplonks]

YANBU - as long as you cleaned up after the dog, I don't see the problem.

[MyFairyKing]

My dog only poos in our garden but he pees up lampposts. I don't let him near people's walls or front garden because that's their property. How do you propose I stop him pissing on public grass or on a lamppost? A nappy?! Banning dogs from the streets won't work, how the heck do I get him to this lovely dedicated dog park (who's going to fund that by the way??) if he can't walk along to the streets to get to it? I don't think you've thought this through at all.

Also talking of strawmen you cannot compare humans (with consciousness, morals and cognition and who are subject to the laws of the land) to animals who do not realise it's unacceptable to pee in public. I'm sure you're going to tell me that the human should stop them but I refer you back to my above questions, how?! Apart from banning dogs which is clearly what you want and if you're an animal lover, why dogs? Most of us are respectful and decent owners. Anyway, so, if you let your child crap in public, it's not quite the same. Good try though!

[evalyn]

zeezeek: ''what do you do about bird shit then?'

zeek, and all the rest of you who take this line, you misunderstand the issue. It seems so obvious I initially thought it was deliberate, but I'm thinking maybe not. The comparison is not between dogs-and-their-owners and other wild creatures. Birds who shit on my garden (yes, and windows) don't have owners. You need to get the right comparison class.

Look. If you brought a bird along on a lead and tethered it to my hedge then watched it shit on my drive it would be disgusting. Likewise if you brought your pet rat and watched as it pissed on my doorstep. Disgusting. Not that the bird or the rat did what comes naturally to all mammals and birds, but that these animals are owned and their owners get them to defecate where they do.

If I bring one of my dgc and allow him/her to toddle over to your drive and do a dump on it, it would be disgusting. No? That being true doesn't entail that birds need nappies, does it? Huh? Your argument is the scrawniest straw man I've come across in ages.

I live close enough to the country to have lots of wild life around. I enjoy seeing baby foxes in my garden; I put food out for birds (and try to chase cats away when they come predating - cats have owners, see, they're not part of the natural world in that sense -- it's unfair, dammit, that people keep pets that kill bullfinches and blue tits for fun after they're given food to eat!).

I wage war on squirrels, whilst enjoying the battle and that they're there, clever little creatures they are. (See the difference with cats? Hein?) I like seeing and hearing the frogs around my little wild pond, and waiting of an evening to see the vole make its way along the side of the river nearby. There's a pair of sparrow-hawks nest in the copse over the way; we only get to see them in autumn, really. All of these animals and birds evacuate waste, just like we human animals do.

None of these animals is brought round by a self-styled 'owner' who takes offence when I shoo them away. It would be disgusting if someone brought one of them along tied to a bit of string or whatever, and watched insouciantly as it shit on the verge or pissed up the lamppost. Disgusting. Same with dogs-and-their-owners. Disgusting.

[UncleT]

She's an idiot to criticise you if you cleared it up. Ridiculous.

[Tadla]

evalyn fair enuff - there are too many nasty dog owners who just dont give a sht where there dog has sht.

Picking it up is 100x better than letting it lie there to be stood in or wheeled through.

i also find wild animals poo much more tolerable than dogs/cats because its you know, wild (!) and there is nothing you can do about it whereas dog owners choose to care for an animal to should be responsible for cleaning up the crap.

oh and insancerre, dont be nasty.