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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Dog s**tting in garden

291 replies

Londonwriter · 15/04/2020 10:33

We’re lucky enough to have a (narrow) 50ft garden during lockdown.

My DH has been allowing our dog to s*t in the garden. Everytime my three-year-old DS goes to play in the garden, which is currently his main outdoor recreation as the playground is closed, there is at least one or two cold, dry c*ps hidden in the grass.

My DH says that he feels sorry for the dog because, although we are using our one ‘exercise’ trip each day to walk the dog, the dog can’t manage. He says he doesn’t know the dog is c***g in the garden because he often wants to go in the dark.

I’m sick and tired of it. He’s pooing twice a day (on each trip out) and then, it appears, in addition, he c*d six times in the garden over the Easter weekend. I’m worried that my DS gets sick from the garden being a dog toilet. When my DH isn’t working from home, the dog manages perfectly fine on a short run in the morning, a brief walk around 4pm and a further brief walk around midnight.

I told my DH to try to get the dog to c**p in one place only, but apparently this is not feasible given he’s working full-time and we have a colicky baby.

AIBU? DH thinks I’m a hygiene Nazi and it’s fine provided the c**p is picked up.

OP posts:
IAmBeatrixKiddo · 15/04/2020 14:45

Your poor dog. It doesn't sound very well looked after.

Muminabun · 15/04/2020 14:47

I have a small garden and two dogs. First thing I put out birdseed and clear all the poo up. If the dc want to go out later I do a quick check again before they go out. Why don’t you check the garden before hand and just pick it up like every other dog owner with small children and dogs?

diddl · 15/04/2020 14:57

"Sorry do t get why you do t go out before your kid does and pick up the dog shit "

I don't get why the husband doesn't pick up the shit when he lets the dog out.

Londonwriter · 15/04/2020 15:18

@EvilPea Just to be clear, I'm not 'bleaching the grass'.

In general, I think people are getting the wrong end of the stick here - largely because I suspect there's a lot of pooing going on in gardens.

To clarify (and hopefully shut down the drive-by commentary), big dog normally goes for a poo on his daily walks - he has several a day. Some dogs poo on walks, it seems that some dogs don't. Both the dogs I've had have pooed on walks. Big dog, regular as clockwork, poos on his morning jog and on his last walk at night.

As such, big dog rarely poos in the garden. In fact, he rarely pees in the garden. This is partly because he is a complete Velcro dog and prefers to be underfoot of his humans than in the garden. It's also because I work from home and walk him anytime he barks at the front (or back) doors.

Due to the pandemic, my DH is wfh (I'm on maternity leave) and we are carefully following UK government guidance on social distancing. As such, we are taking it in turns to walk big dog twice a day - me going in the morning, DH in the evening.

My older DS is at home more than usual and playing in the garden. Big dog typically follows DS outside - it is, in fact, the only time big dog shows an interest in being outside (for everyone who's claimed that I'm being horrible to big dog if he's not constantly in the garden). Usually, if we open the back door to big dog, he just stands next to the door barking for us to join him.

Since my DH has been wfh, I have routinely found dog poo in the garden DESPITE the fact that big dog is pooing on his normal schedule, and DESPITE the fact that, as far as I'm aware, big dog has only been in the garden when older DS and DH have been in the garden. It is not a single poo. It is multiple piles - days old and covered in flies.

When this happened over the first weekend of lockdown, I got mad with DH who had taken DS into the garden while I dealt indoors with our nine-week-old-very-colicky younger DS. I couldn't understand how he could be in a garden that small, supervising a dog and a three-year-old DS, and not notice the dog pooing. He said that he would supervise big dog more closely.

This morning, I went to take out DS after the Easter long weekend and found, again, multiple piles of poo. Given I've never had a dog in ten years poo in the garden except when they had diarrhoea or sickness (and this was normal poo), I'm not used to dealing with poo and preschoolers in a small garden. I was particularly upset because my older DS had been playing in the garden in the area of the poo before I found it - he had run down the garden while I was manoeuvring the pram of my younger DS down the garden steps.

When I started the thread, I genuinely thought everyone's dog pointed/barked/sat at the back/front door and they took them out. I had no idea that dogs routinely pooed in their owner's gardens. I guess, as I'm self-employed and wfh normally, I'm in a privileged position of having an office dog who is either under my feet or we're popping down the road together for a walk.

So not crazy. Just somewhat cross at my DH. He has now, incidentally, said that he thinks the pooing is happening at night after I've gone to bed. As I can't just pop down the road anytime I want with big dog for the immediate future, we are going to try the tips suggested further up the thread. So, if big dog goes down to the end of the garden and starts sniffing (i.e. he wants a poo), I'm going to take him into the front garden and - if he won't go there - we'll go to a specific spot on the gravel that isn't where my DS usually plays in the back garden, treat, praise, and hope he gets the idea. DH is also going to try to take big dog for his evening walk earlier, in the hope that he won't poo in the garden in the dark.

OP posts:
Londonwriter · 15/04/2020 15:24

And, no, I don't know why big dog seems to be pooing more. He rarely poos during the day when I'm working from home, and he rarely poos more than once a twice a day. This is why we've been doing the two-walks-a-day-morning-and-evening-with-pees-in-the-garden during lockdown - it's not because we are being neglectful of big dog. It's just that he doesn't normally poo.

I suspect it's his schedule that has been disrupted or similar. Either way, I'm cross that DH didn't seem to notice the poo.

OP posts:
Sheldonesque · 15/04/2020 15:29

i’m picking up the poo and spraying bleach disinfectant on the grass

So I lost my rag at him, was so repulsed that I sprayed bleach on the crumbly poo residue, and then posted on the internet

Then

Just to be clear, I'm not 'bleaching the grass'

Make up your mind. You wrote that you were so we read that you were.

so not crazy

Your posts would indicate that you might be.

Your poor dog has got himself a dogpoo troll for an owner.

midnightstar66 · 15/04/2020 15:34

Im actually staring to suspect you have a neighbourhood cat using your garden as a toilet or a fox seeing this is usually out of character/timing etc

TriangleBingoBongo · 15/04/2020 15:38

*What is your dog eating to poo 5/6 times a day

Same as ours, I guess. She has two meals a day and a few treats. She’s always gone more than twice a day.*

Some dogs don’t get on with some foods and need something bland/grain free. A lot of commercial dog foods are full of crap and not actually very good for dogs.

When my dog stays with my parents he eats their dogs food and always gets loose poos and goes more frequently. I’m not a fan of raw feeding but my last dog couldn’t tolerate grains so did feed him rawZ

TeensArghhhh · 15/04/2020 15:38

If your dog usually takes two dumps per day it would be very unusual for him to start dumping several times a day. My dog dumps once every morning and that’s it.

Neighbourhood cats maybe?

primeexampleof · 15/04/2020 15:42

Just pick it up yourself 🙄
It's very hard to teach a dog to poo in one place.
Although if I'm understanding you right, the dog goes for 2 walks and still needs to go in the garden? I'd be more worried about your dogs bowels tbh!

Londonwriter · 15/04/2020 15:43

@Sheldonesque From the comments about burning paws, destroying wildlife, and poisoning children, I have the impression people think I'm going out multiple times with buckets of neat Domestos.

This morning, in a fit of pique at DH, I picked up a spray bottle of surface cleaner (the stuff you use on kitchen worktops) from the kitchen worktop and sprayed it at the crumbly poo residue I couldn't pick up. This was because I was cross and the hose pipe wasn't handy, or connected. It would take major effort for that to poison or injure anyone, or anything.

I put 'bleaching the poo' because, as soon as I mentioned dog poo, some of the first comments were along the lines of "you evil dog owner. If there's uncollected poo in your garden, you must be also leaving poo strewn all over streets, playgrounds and public parks so that innocent toddlers can roll in it, etc, etc". As the mother of a preschooler myself, I think people who leave dog crap uncollected give the rest of us a bad name - it's disgusting. Hence the hygiene Nazi hyperbole.

OP posts:
diddl · 15/04/2020 15:46

" in the hope that he won't poo in the garden in the dark."

Or he could take a torch or his phone!

Londonwriter · 15/04/2020 16:21

@TeensArghhhh and @primeexampleof. Yes, this is what I don't understand. He has a routine of pooing morning and evening. We take him out morning and evening, and he's pooing with me and DH reports he poos with him. His poo looks normal colour, well-formed logs, etc. He's not being sick. His energy levels seem normal.

He's a big dog and the poos in the garden look like his normal poos. They're too big for a fox or a cat. The garden is enclosed with high fencing/a wall and the nearest neighbouring dog is two doors away. And yet I'm finding these poos in the garden all of a sudden...

The only thing I can think is that big dog is behaving differently because my DH is working from home. Or that it's something to do with his dog food. He has a tin of wet food in an evening and we use a couple of different brands - depends on what they have in stock. Maybe there's been a change of recipe.

@diddl Yeah. He needs to take a torch or his phone - or just do a quick check in the morning if big dog went into the garden while I was in bed. This is most of why I'm cross TBH. It's not that I won't pick up poo or I think dogs shouldn't poo. It's that I'm sure DH isn't picking it up, meaning it's being left out for me and my older DS to stumble onto. It's also potentially gross for the neighbours if I don't go into the garden for a couple of days - I care about being a good neighbour and having multiple dog shits in your garden is not very neighbourly, especially since one of my neighbours has been having lunch outside since the lockdown and the poo is attracting flies Sad.

OP posts:
Sheldonesque · 15/04/2020 16:26

I’ve never said you were leaving piles of shit all over your town.

I did say that you needed to have a go at your husband as despite him being an adult and all, he thinks it is ok to leave shit lying. It isn’t. And all of us who have had dogs, now and in the past, have mostly not let it lying.

YouSaid you put down bleach. What were we supposed to think? I’ve known dogs have terribly burnt paws Or been near to death due to disinfectants or treatments being put down where they ‘go’. It is horrific. So I’ll make no apology for popping at that. You didn’t specify.

Most owners pick up straight away - whether it be in their garden or out and about. If they poo at bedtime then it is picked up in the morning.

Your husband may be wfh - all the more reason for him to get off his arse and do a 5 minute poo sweep.

As said before, the problem isn’t with your poo dog but with your husband. If you can pick up then so can he. And now the grass and make it an easy job for everyone.

Your dog won’t know what the hell is going on at the moment - the one I’m caring for doesn’t. Routines are all to pot, owners home/not home and you getting all cross won’t help it either.

Get your husband a sandpit shovel and bags and send him out. You all chose to have a dog. You all have to deal with the good and bad.

Sheldonesque · 15/04/2020 16:27

Poor dog. Not poo dog.

Sheldonesque · 15/04/2020 16:30

And mow the grass.

Apologies for shitey typing.

Pippinsqueak · 15/04/2020 16:34

OP I have three dogs and three free roaming chickens in a 70ft garden and a 15 month old. Stop being precious. Make sure your dog is wormed properly and just pick up the crap.

Peppafrig · 15/04/2020 16:37

If the dog needs to go it needs to go . Could you hold the toilet in all day and go in a set time. Your ridiculous pick it up .

TeensArghhhh · 15/04/2020 16:38

He's a big dog and the poos in the garden look like his normal poos. They're too big for a fox or a cat

Just pick it up then....

Tigger85 · 15/04/2020 17:09

We have three dogs and a 2 year old Ds. We have a similar sized garden to you. When ds was a baby my partner fenced off most of the garden to be his play area, there is a narrow gated path that now leads to the 'dog toilet'. We did this because you can never remove all of the poo there's going to be microscopic bits left even if you hose it. When these dogs pass on we will get rid of the fencing unless we get another dog in which case we will just have a small fenced off area that the dog is trained to go to when it needs to relieve itself. It's not too late to train your dog to go in just one area.

ALovelyBitOfSquirrel · 15/04/2020 17:18

I'm now dropping off the thread

That was hours ago and yet you're still posting, still not listening. You don't deserve a dog. You're clueless, at best.

Sheldonesque · 15/04/2020 17:29

Indeed @ALovelyBitOfSquirrel

Indeed.

frostedviolets · 15/04/2020 17:34

This morning, in a fit of pique at DH, I picked up a spray bottle of surface cleaner (the stuff you use on kitchen worktops) from the kitchen worktop

I can’t believe you sprayed that on the grass.
I’d be furious if DH did that!

I wouldn’t be surprised if the grass dies where you sprayed it and as for ‘It would take major effort to poison anyone’, many disinfectants and sprays actually have warnings on to keep animals away/not let animals walk on surfaces until dry. Because they are toxic..

For cats, even very small amounts of disinfectant containing pine oil can be fatal.

If your dog walks on wet ‘surface cleaner’ or ingests it, licking paws for example I imagine he certainly could get sick!

Pippinsqueak · 15/04/2020 17:35

I'm struggling to find what the issue with OP is. Just every time you go out in the garden take a poo bag and pick the crap up.

Her excuses make me laugh...... neighbours smelling it really 😂😂😂

callmeadoctor · 15/04/2020 18:06

You lost me at "you've never had a dog poo in the garden in 10 years................."