To allow my dog pooping on the green space in front of our house

[Sunnydunnybunny]

We recently got a 7 months old dog and try to get into the new routine now. And we have an issue with the garden which I am trying to sort out, but it's going to take another month, or even two in a worst-case scenario.

We walk 2 h a day in local parks, but as a newish nervous dog, he sometimes brings his "business" closer to home.

I was wondering if that's ok to use the green space in front of our house ( we have like 15 houses in a circle and green space in a centre) to let him poop at night and if he needs to go between our walks. Of course, I clean up everything.
But still. For some reason, it's not comfortable for me, and I don't know if I am right in my feelings. I find someone else's dog poo there, and clean it up 😠, maybe that's why. Sometimes older kids use the space to kick the ball when the weather is better, and one of them has a dog.
I still hope to sort out the garden sooner..
What do you think/feel?

As long as you clean it up, you're fine.

Ignore some of the more hysterical responses. Dogs are one of the things AIBU likes to go nuts about.

Nobody is going nuts just suggesting there are other options available. Cleaning up dog poop is fine but not always done properly and children’s play areas should be avoided if at all possible. As the above poster pointed out, what’s wrong with the pavement?

@Tadpolesandfroglets

Nobody is going nuts just suggesting there are other options available. Cleaning up dog poop is fine but not always done properly and children’s play areas should be avoided if at all possible. As the above poster pointed out, what’s wrong with the pavement?

Nobody is going nuts? I would suggest there are quite a few OTT responses on the thread.

@Sunnydunnybunny

Thank you for your comments. I am somewhere in between. I don't think it's that disgusting, and I am cleaning completely, but I understand it may be quite unpleasant for people without dogs. I have 5 y.o.

I guess I will be going further to the bigger park area, although at night it's quite hard. If anything will use closer pieces as the last thing.

Toxicara. Thats why he shouldn't poop where children play. And you can't see it all in the dark.

Did you read the part about how much walking you should do with a pup? 2 hours is too long

You need to let him go in the garden, I can't imagine what kind of issue you have where your dog can't go. If you set up a dog who has to go somewhere else, you're setting up a few potential issues. My friend's dog is like this so if they're ill or the weather is horrendous or even if they're dog went up a mountain in the morning, they always have to walk at night.

Mine has arthritis so if we've taken him for a big walk in the morning (which he loves, we don't do it very often but try to balance what he needs with what he loves) its very useful to just be able to pop him into the garden last thing rather than another walk,

You need to make a tiny bit of the garden safe so he can go there. I don’t understand why you can’t do this.
And yes two hours is FAR too much.

As a dog owner I say no

If kids play on the green area there are always traces left, and if he has runny one, well yuk

There must be a way you can use your garden, even if it’s with the dog on a lead

I find it easier to pick up from a hard surface.

But please, please, as others have said, walk your puppy for the correct length of time.

I think in 50 years time, people letting their dogs shit and wee everywhere will be a real WTF moment, much like kids in cars with no car seats or seatbelts and smoking inside are seen as now.

@Lockheart..on the whole they are measured and sensible, providing lots of other options.

Personally I wouldn't if I knew children played there.

As long as you clear up properly, it's fine, it's a green space not a park.

If you are that sure you can easily remove all trace, why not let him shit on the carpet.
Why on the grass where the kids play?
Why not on the path?
I love dogs but mine is trained to go in a specific bit of our own garden.

That's fine if it's cleaned up. We had a dog poo area in our garden with gravel and they was great for the dog to wee and poo in. Much easier to manage than having to carry bags of poo home.

Ok, guys, I appreciate the time invested (honestly), and this is the internet and all, and seems that I hit the nerve somehow or something. But the tone of some of you is funny. Honestly. It's only off-putting from the conversation, but I guess some people like to lecture others.

Dogs HAVE to be wormed, regularly. And we are using professional treatments at the vet's office.
I thought that is an obvious thing, but ok, some people probably want to have parasites themselves and won't do it. I accept this. I am very sorry for the poster who lost the eyesight in their eye

Regarding "where children play" it's not a biggest crime as I haven't seen anyone using the space in the last two months. Not kids, not adults. But during the warmer months, they do. And if by daytime there were people I wouldn't go there at all. We have mostly teens here (who are still kids for me) my child is the youngest one in the area. I get the idea of getting into the poo, but I also think you can't clean everywhere, and we personally prefer to play in the parks and further from home (where there is a lot of different dirt, and sheep sometimes and cows, etc). But I get what a lot of you said and I agree overall.

Someone walk their dog there ( as I mentioned, I am cleaning that poo if I see it there, but I never saw anyone leaving it behind, so I could not ask why they are not cleaning. I guess that is one of the kids (teens)).

So that's not the same as walking your dog on the playground. But I get your point, again. There is no need to lecture me

Regarding the minute's rule, I never heard it actually. You can run, you can slowly walk, the same amount of time, but different physical load...
I stick to the distance (that is acceptable for the breed and age, the vet is ok with it), and also train him the same time. But I didn't think of it as relevant to post originally, what I meant I am not lazy and I am walking the dog.

Thank you all for your worries and input!!

As I said I'll stick to the bigger area further away.

Garden is not usable atm, neither for the dog or humans, but I'll try to sort that out.

No, if children play there you need to find somewhere else.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom

Dogs don't shit on demand. When they have to go, they go.

Then how can they train guide dogs to shit on demand? They go in a specific area in the garden as when you are out with them the owner cannot see the shit to pick it up. Or is this a breed thing? I am not a dog owner just curious as my friend trains guide dog puppies.

Then how can they train guide dogs to shit on demand?

Ask your friend how many guide dogs fail the training process. And how many different breeds qualify as guide dogs for the blind. And how they choose guide dog puppies to train...

Guide dogs get to be guide dogs because they're not like most dogs!

People who use the "but guide dogs can do it" angle drive me nuts... It's like saying "But Usain BOLT can run 28 miles per hour, why can't YOU?"

Well, because he's genetically predisposed to being fast and he's trained really damn hard and beaten every other human on the planet....

(and I'm sorry if this comes off as spiky, I don't mean it to be directed at you. I know you said you were just curious, but it just makes my eyes roll SO HARD when I read this over and over again on mumsnet)

It would be great if I knew when my dog was going to shit, unfortunately I don't. She gets let out into the garden first thing and she does a poo but she'll also do another one when I take her for a walk around 7.30, if this happens to be on a green space then tough. As long as you clean it up you're fine

I hate it when urban patches of green become dog toilets. And I would look disapprovingly at you if you were my neighbour.

And I understand that dogs poo when they poo. But there is a difference between a dog pooing on the pavement while on a walk (and then it being picked up) to somebody taking their dog to the little green for a poo. Even if it gets picked up, it means this area is
Now a dog toilet and it puts people
Off using it for
Other purposes.

@dalrympy

I'd be pretty pissed off if I was your neighbour! Can't possibly think of why your garden has an issue that means your dog can't shit there.

Plus why did you get a dog BEFORE the garden was sorted out!

You do realise that plenty of people live in flats and have no garden but also have a dog, right?

OP, don’t listen to the entitled people on here. That green space isn’t just for kids, and you and your dog have as much right to use it as anyone else. We have a similar green space in my modern housing development and I wouldn’t think twice about exercising my dog there. The space is for everyone to use responsibly. In fact people’s kids are always leaving their sweetie wrappers and juice bottles lying which is very annoying when your dog thinks it’s food. I pick up my dogs poo, would be nice if they returned the favour and took their rubbish home 😡

Honestly, there is no way in the world that one or more foxes and lots of cats don't use the same piece of grass area and poop on it every night. As long as you clear up after your dog, I can't see a problem (unlike lots of my neighbours who exercise their dogs on our communal lawn and DON'T pick up).

Don't wish to sound harsh as sometimes the opportunity to take on a dog arises when you are least expecting it, but I think it would have been better to sort out your garden first. Allowing a dog to use a safe communal space where DC play is not very community minded and I say that as a dog lover and owner.

OP, don’t listen to the entitled people on here. That green space isn’t just for kids, and you and your dog have as much right to use it as anyone else. We have a similar green space in my modern housing development and I wouldn’t think twice about exercising my dog there. The space is for everyone to use responsibly. In fact people’s kids are always leaving their sweetie wrappers and juice bottles lying which is very annoying when your dog thinks it’s food. I pick up my dogs poo, would be nice if they returned the favour and took their rubbish home 😡

As said previously, I'm a dog-lover and owner, but I can appreciate the fact that a green space in a close which is over-looked by houses is a fantastic resource for parents and DC and an increasingly rare one nowadays. I think children's needs come first in this instance. I would never allow my dogs to ruin that for young families. You may pick up your poo but as we all know, others do not, and if young DC are running around, it's safer to keep dogs away from the area anyway.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom

Dogs don't shit on demand. When they have to go, they go.

Then how can they train guide dogs to shit on demand? They go in a specific area in the garden as when you are out with them the owner cannot see the shit to pick it up. Or is this a breed thing? I am not a dog owner just curious as my friend trains guide dog puppies.

Thousands of guide dog puppies fail their tests every year. Obviously, they don't all fail for pooing on the street but it's very, very hard to train a guide dog. There was a TV show on Netflix (I think) about a litter of dog bred as guide dogs, and I think only one out of nine ended up passing their test. The others all failed and ended up as normal family pets.

Also, think of how many breeds you see as guide dogs? Generally golden retrievers and labradors, maybe with the odd German Shepherd thrown in. These dogs are bred from lines of guide dogs, and are trained rigorously from eight weeks of age. Raising and training a guide dog is pretty much a full-time job - it's hard work.

It is possible to pull your dog away if you see them squatting on someone's lawn or peeing up someone's door, but they can't hold it forever. Mine once shat in the middle of a zebra crossing - we held up four lanes of traffic while DH cleaned it up