Aibu to have not picked up my dogs poo?

[greenteaplease]

Today I took my dog out for a walk on the beach, it's a lovely beach and majority of owners including myself pick up their dogs mess.

My dog loves to run out far and swim in the sea, she was ahead of me but in the distance I could see she was crouching down to go to the toilet. I hurried up to catch her however by the time I had got there I realised she had gone to the toilet at the edge of the sea and it was being washed away. I had a look to see if there was anything there but nothing was left.

A man with three large dogs approached me telling me 'your dog has just done a massive shit aren't you going to clean it?!'. I responded that I would have however it's been washed away. He pointed to something floating which wasn't a dog poo and said I should go in and get it.

Aibu to have not gone in? He spoke to me in a really threatening manner and said that it's people like you that make the world a disgusting place. I now don't want to go to the beach for a while as I've seen him there before and he speaks to a lot of other dog walkers, it was very intimidating as there wasn't many around that end of the beach and he was raising his voice and swearing.

I definitely typed wee Ariadne.

I'm sure the other has happened but not deliberately!

I was sitting on an Anglesey beach a few years ago when DD was little. I was idly digging at the sand with my feet, and dug up a human turd.

Now that was grim.

Well my dog does not have a poo routine but then he is not a robot. He may do 1 poo or he may do 3 or 4.

Why should dogs stay on lead on a beach? They like to run. In the summer lots of beaches ban dogs because of owners not picking up. Ok though for people to leave loads of litter plus dirty nappies

What a load of dog hating twats. People don't want dogs running in psrks or on besches. Where should they run then? Maybe only peoplr with acres of land should have dogs? My dog has brilliant recall but if I take him to a beach he wants to run not stick next to me. He runs fast thats what dogs do. As for people saying they shouldn't even wee on a besch get real.. i have seen children pee onthe beach even occasionally poo but of course thats fine. How about keeping them under control?

I have a dog but beaches are for families and s lot of little children are scared of them. Also dog owners don't clear up after them like the OP. Still think she's unreasonable I always pick up after mine and a friend of mine when out of bags waited by the poi until another dig walker came past to give her a bag. It's what responsible owner dies. Dog poo can cause blindness.

Loopy, he pooped 'at the edge of the sea' or right at the shore. If he had been on the leash the OP could have kept him in an area unaffected by water/little waves where picking it up would have been easy.

This wasn't the local dedicated dog beach. It is used by people for recreation too, so dog owners have to balance the need to exercise their pet against the rightful expectation of people that their children won't be playing or paddling in dog poo.

greenteaplease (First of all, sorry - I have been calling a she a he)..
'Distance' may well be subjective, but you said it took a while to get to her even though you hurried ('I hurried...but by the time I got there' implies you had a bit of ground to cover), so either you are very slow or the sand was hard to hurry on, or she was quite a bit off. Plus, you had not realised exactly where she was pooping when you first noticed what she was doing ('by the time I had got there I realised she had gone to the toilet at the edge of the sea').

Instead of pooping, it could have been some family's picnic your dog was engaged with or she might have found and eaten something that would have made her ill. I suspect you would have been too far off to prevent either of these things happening.

Other posters have quite rightly pointed out that a lot of horrible garbage is left on beaches, and some very unsavoury stuff washes ashore too, like used tampons, wipes, runoff including solid runoff from industry and farming, and there have also been incidents involving medical waste washing ashore. If your dog is too far off for you to realise exactly where she is pooping, then she is too far off for you to know what exactly she may be sniffing or licking or attempting to eat.

If you wouldn't let your dog run free on a rubbish tip then don't let her off on the beach.

Animals have been pooing where they like forever. Like most undesirable events it's only really a problem because humans are now in their way.

Letting the dog get so far ahead to shit in the sea is bloody vile. I hate dogs on beaches

beaches are for families

Oh no they're bloody not. They're for sealife, first and foremost. Humans don't own the planet. We share it.

One solitary dog poo won't endanger sea life. One solitary bit of human litter will.

Wouldn't surprise me if plenty of grim humans shit in the sea too, so for all those saying it disgusting , so are a lot of people unfortunately, the amount of times my Nan has had to stop her dogs from eating or rolling in human shit on walks is unbelievable , you soon learn the difference I told and it's not uncommon. You did what you could OP and I'm sure now it's happened once you will be more prepared for it potentially happening again.

How do you know my dog was out of control?

Others have said it already but, from your OP:

My dog loves to run out far and swim in the sea, she was ahead of me but in the distance I could see she was crouching down to go to the toilet. I hurried up to catch her however by the time I had got there I realised she had gone to the toilet at the edge of the sea and it was being washed away. I had a look to see if there was anything there but nothing was left.

Your dog was so far ahead that by the time you got to where she was she had not only completed defecation but it had been completely washed away by the sea. You yourself described your dog as being 'in the distance' before backtracking on yourself and saying 'I didn't mean the distance...' when you realised you weren't looking very responsible. The poo is one of those thing. The out of control dog running around far from you is not ok. A dog at the edge of the ocean and far enough to poo and have it washed away before the owner can get there, even whilst in your words 'hurrying', is too far to hear a recall and therefore out of control. Be more responsible.

Thanks everyone for your contributions.

One unpicked up poo in four years? I think we can safely say the op IS responsible.. But i've noticed this fact is deliberately being ignored.

My dog sometimes squats to go then changes his mind as it’s not the “right” place (he’s very fussy) I had a man shout at me for not cleaning up, we were on a pebbly beach, I was stood by my dog so knew it was one of his fake squats and there wasn’t anything to clear! He kept pointing and shouting so I walked away and he followed me to my car and started writing my reg number down. It was horrible. Wish my dog wouldn’t do his fake poos it’s embarrassing! He even kicks grass about as if he’s been sometimes 😫. I have no issue with cleaning up when he really does go btw

Maybe all those complaining about dogs on beaches would like to see the shit the day trippers left on our local beach at the weekend? Generally those that walk their dogs on the beach are locals who care about the area they live in

Math, OP quite clearly says it was the local dog beach. If she can't take the dog there to run (which requires some distance ftom the owner) then where? And don't say "dog park" . Most dog parks seem to be no bigger than the average back yard.

I wouldn't have picked up my poo given those circumstances and I normally do..

I meant my dogs poo

Suuuuuure you did

I really don’t see how this is much different to accidentally dropping a piece of litter and it being whisked off in a gust so you can’t retrieve it. I bet most people on here have had that happen. At least the poo is biodegradable.

I know people are saying the dog should be under better control but this could still happen even if the dog was right next to OP because of the tide. Just as you could have been more careful with your litter. Accidents happen. It’s a one off. They’ll be more alert to it in the future.

On our beach (and this is a May to October restriction only) dogs are specifically allowed anywhere beyond 100 yards each side of the local fishing boat. All the local dogs - especially springers and cockers - shoot off from their owners like bullets. They need to run. No owner could run as fast as these dogs need. I'd say my cocker goes from 0 to 200 yards in ten seconds. Then he zaps back, then he zaps off another few hundred yards and then zaps back again. That's not out of control. That said, I can generally see if he stops and assumes poo position. OP was just unfortunate with the chosen location on this occasion.

You should keep your dog closer, what if it ran up to someone with a phobia, ran up to a dog on a lead etc. That’s the main issue here

But that’s different to it running a distance away. Some dogs just won’t approach people or other dogs and if a dog has good recall it doesn’t matter if that happens 1m away from you or 30 etc. The dog was well visible as would have been any other dogs or walkers near by.

goodbyestranger

Yes mine does the exact same, she does almost loops, she runs and loops back towards me and then does it again in a different direction.

She's got a good recall so I can call her back. I think it's a spaniel thing because they all do it on our beach, she will run with other spaniels and they all run similarly.

I used to have a springer a long time ago, I must say, they're a joy to watch on a beach. This is a breed that simply doesn't tire, they adore water, i love watching them in the sea, they literally spring up and down in the shallow water, but when they're running, it takes a very well trained springer to come when called. They do tend to cock a deaf one.