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?

Worm your dog.
Pick up the poo.

Let your dog shit where it needs to within reason, I would say a communal green space that is not specifically a childs play area is fine - if folk want their kids to play in a sanitized area guaranteed free of any shit, they can play in their own gardens or stay indoors as thats about the only way.

For those wailing about toxacariasis and blindness - you need to EAT a considerable amount of shit, from an animal that has worms, a shit that has sat at a constant fairly warm temperature and humidity level for several days.

That shit could come from a fox or a cat and from either species is far more likely to carry worms than a healthy, routinely wormed pet dog.

The risks of going blind from dog shit, from a dog who is wormed and whose shit is picked up immediately is pretty much nil.

@Spreadingchestnut

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.

Why should children get priority over myself when it comes to using a green space (unless it’s something specifically intended for them like a play park)?

It’s the people that don’t pick up the poo that ruin it for others. Don’t see why we need to punish responsible dog owners.

There’s loads of foxes, badgers, wild birds and cats round here too, and they also have every right to be here also. If parents are really that frightened of their children coming into contact with abit of fecal bacteria then maybe they should contain them to their private gardens or stop them going outside all together. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m more interested why you can’t use your garden ?
If it’s overgrown it shouldn’t take two weeks just to weed whack it enough so the dog can go out for a poo ?

Yikes I would not be annoyed if you occasionally let your dog poo on the communal space, but to ear mark it as the dog’s toilet is not great when people play and sit there.

@WiddlinDiddlin

Worm your dog. Pick up the poo.

Let your dog shit where it needs to within reason, I would say a communal green space that is not specifically a childs play area is fine - if folk want their kids to play in a sanitized area guaranteed free of any shit, they can play in their own gardens or stay indoors as thats about the only way.

For those wailing about toxacariasis and blindness - you need to EAT a considerable amount of shit, from an animal that has worms, a shit that has sat at a constant fairly warm temperature and humidity level for several days.

That shit could come from a fox or a cat and from either species is far more likely to carry worms than a healthy, routinely wormed pet dog.

The risks of going blind from dog shit, from a dog who is wormed and whose shit is picked up immediately is pretty much nil.

Fairly sure I did not eat a "considerable amount of shit" before the age of 4 when my infection was discovered by which time I was already blind in my right eye. It was presumed a lazy eye until then. So get your facts right before suggesting that anyone with a life changing consequence of an infection is a disgusting shit eater.

Why should children get priority over myself when it comes to using a green space (unless it’s something specifically intended for them like a play park)?

To my mind because the green space is this instance is in the centre of a circle in the middle of houses where children play and where their parents can keep an eye on them from afar. It isn't really possible for the DC to go elsewhere and play unsupervised without their parents going with them, whereas we are already accompanying our dogs and can take them elsewhere without too much trouble. There are so few village greens or closes where DC can meet together and play that they are worth preserving exclusively for DC imho.

I'd imagine there's a high chance that a neighbour will report you if you do. More importantly, it's disgusting and a health hazard.

Please don't. We have a similar patch of grass we have to walk across to get to our car and it's always full of dog shit

@Griselda1

I'd imagine there's a high chance that a neighbour will report you if you do. More importantly, it's disgusting and a health hazard.

Report her for what? As long as OP cleans up, she's not doing anything wrong.

Separately from dogs, completely off-topic. That's very irresponsible to send your kids to play on their own with your "supervision" from the window.

It's the absence of supervision, and parents should do better, taking kids somewhere else, other than letting them playing where delivery vans go back and forth all the time. I am not even mentioning regular cars.

Also during the past lockdown kids in our town absolutely ignored any distancing. This is not a health risk, but the wormed dog is? Very interesting.

Guys, I want to remind you about the fundamental attribution error: the tendency to overattribute people's behaviours (what they do or say) to their personality and under attribute them to the situation or context".

In other words, someone is a lazy asshole not to do their garden (even if you don't know the context at all) but you are not one, not supervising your kids.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, once again thank you for the input and I am gone from the thread.

Whilst my garden was being done we let out dog use area out front but not the green where kids play just a grass verge area ,
He is wormed monthly and obviously we picked it up bit its an area no one walks on other than maybe other dogs and if was ever unpickable we could throw water on
My dog once had upset stomach unbeknown to us and went on pavement by park , i was mortified so we went home and got bucket full of soapy water to clean up any remenants
Its not too nice where kids play

Op, I am sorry you are upset but you asked for an opinion in AIBU which is not known for its measured responses. There is a separate dogs' topic. Also, you didn't mention delivery vans in your op! Yes, absolutely DC should supervise their DC, but if this green space is in the middle of a circle of houses as you described, it's seems a shame that DC can't use it to play freely as they used to do when I was a child. There's nothing worse than DC coming home with dog poo on their shoes or clothes. You also said that you didn't feel quite comfortable with using the green space for your dog and as such I thought you were eliciting genuine opinions.

I am not upset, it's just pointless. People are not reading anything further than the original post (even reading that one superficially) and are quite harsh in judgements.

Although there is a button to display TS posts too.

It seems that people here not interested in a constructive meaningful discussion, but simply enjoy feeling superior and right (which is pure correspondence bias btw). Well, that's the internet I suppose.

As I mentioned again, I am grateful who contributed sincerely and actually took time to read the details.

Thank you and have a nice evening.

I hope you have a nice evening too op.

Fwiw, and to be fair, I think people have offered a spectrum of opinions which is to be expected.

@Griselda1 who would OP be reported too?

@Sunnydunnybunny

I am not upset, it's just pointless. People are not reading anything further than the original post (even reading that one superficially) and are quite harsh in judgements.

Although there is a button to display TS posts too.

It seems that people here not interested in a constructive meaningful discussion, but simply enjoy feeling superior and right (which is pure correspondence bias btw). Well, that's the internet I suppose.

As I mentioned again, I am grateful who contributed sincerely and actually took time to read the details.

Thank you and have a nice evening.

Sadly this is MN across the board. People can't or won't take the time to read and jump on their highlight reel bandwagon.

Glad you see it for what it is OP.

Sadly this is MN across the board. People can't or won't take the time to read and jump on their highlight reel bandwagon.

Glad you see it for what it is OP.

I am genuinely confused by this. Lots of people, including myself, took the trouble to answer respectfully having read all of the op's posts. (Incidentally the op's subsequent posts didn't add much extra information to the original post unless I am missing something significant or I am missing a whole page of the thread or something.) My opinion evidently didn't correspond with that of the op's , even though at the outset they were asking what everyone thought.

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?

So while I agree that Mumsnet threads in general can have too many posters piling in to point-score, and AIBU threads in particular are bad for this, I don't think that was the case here.

My son got really sick from picking up a bacteria from dog poo. It’s because he was playing football in a park people walk their dogs and the ball must have gotten traces of the bacteria on it.

@Sunnydunnybunny
Can you expand on Garden is not usable atm, neither for the dog or humans, but I'll try to sort that out.
How can it be so unsuitable for the dog just to poo in?

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.

Guide dog puppies are taught (or at least trainers try extremely hard) to get them to spend in a particular area before leaving the house. It's done from a very young age by using the "busy busy" phrase each time they go and rewarding them for it. You also have to follow a very strict feeding time and walking routine so you have an idea when they will need to go. It's bloody hard work and plenty of guide dogs don't do it perfectly (but any that don't would go to a visually impaired person who has some useful vision so they can pick up after the dog)

And as pp said, many guide dogs fail their training. When I trained one I think the stat at the time was 20% made it to be a guide dog and 20% of the remainder went off as autism assistance dogs.

We were friendly with other people who had guide dog puppies at the time (saw a lot of each other as we did pup training classes together) and one of their dogs failed GD training for exactly this issue. Tbf I think he was a bit wilful too so wasn't just the bathroom problem. He's an assistance dog now afaik.

Who cares about guide dogs? Get your dog to shit either in the garden or on the pavement. Simple. You already feel uncomfortable about it and that’s because it’s not really a nice thing to do.

@Tadpolesandfroglets

Who cares about guide dogs? Get your dog to shit either in the garden or on the pavement. Simple. You already feel uncomfortable about it and that’s because it’s not really a nice thing to do.

Tadpoles, I am genuinely curious. How would one go about getting your suggestion right?

You cant say to DPOOCH - please poo now, and they comply. If this is possible, I would LOVE to know how. It would mean I could get DPooch to have a crap next to a bin, save me having to walk miles with a shitbag.

Am wondering how many people who are up in arms about dog crap own cats who are allowed out to roam...