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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask certain dog owners to actually answer this honestly

259 replies

ElenaCouch · 14/01/2022 13:49

If you don't pick up your dogs shit in the street:

A.) What is your excuse/excuses

B.) Do you worry about stepping in dog shit in your neighborhood, or you don't care if it happened.

C.) Does the thought of someone getting your dogs shit on their shoes/pram/wheelchair/ a small child falling in it make you feel GUILTY/INDIFFERENT/HAPPY.

you are anonymous, AIBU to want you to actually admit it and explain yourself

OP posts:
Nanny0gg · 14/01/2022 14:52

@Malteser71

I think it’s unlikely they are on MN
Why on earth not?

MN isn't full of model citzens!

MrsWinters · 14/01/2022 14:52

What I’d really like to know is why people pick it up and then hang it in a bush? I can kind of under not being bothered to pick it up (you’re just lazy and antisocial), I can’t understand any reason you’d bother to carry bags, pick it up and then use it to decorate a tree

NCforThis2022 · 14/01/2022 14:56

I very rarely walk my dogs on lead in public areas. Mostly we go off lead on our private land (farm). We try to encourage them to poo and pee all over the place as a probably stupid attempt to keep foxes away. No idea if it works, but it can't hurt, so...

On the rare occasions that they're in public areas, they're on lead and I pick up after them. I have to admit, I don't see much dog poo on footpaths near our small village, but there's so much more in the suburbs of our nearest town.

MogsBestestFurball · 14/01/2022 14:58

'I don't understand why all dogs are not DNA tested and licenced for a modest fee. Then any poo could be linked to the owner. If fines were high enough, maybe £500, the scheme would surely pay for itself?'

Agreed, this is such a good idea. Why is it not a thing?

I am so tired as a mother of seeing guilt inducing campaigns telling me my child should be spending 1000 hours a year outside, when the streets and parks around us are dog shit ridden.

AnImposter · 14/01/2022 14:58

Aw man i once forgot Poo bags. Ended up using a (plastic) tenner cos it was all I had on me 😭

EightNationNavy · 14/01/2022 15:00

In my experience, the amount of un picked up poo always goes up in school holidays - so easily-disgusted kids being forced to walk the family dogs are part of the picture. Otherwise there's v little "naked poo" round our way.

I'd love to see an analysis around the bagging and flinging into a hedge or tree though! I've even been tempted to put up a notice asking the flingers to just leave their bags nearly at the side of the path. I collect retrievable bags like that and pop them in the (carrier bag sized) bag with my own dog's copious poos. Would rather do that than see the eyesore of full poo bags hanging high in the hedges day after day. The modern day equivalent of the heads on spikes at the Tower of London !!

RicherThanYew · 14/01/2022 15:01

Because I'm an enormous bellend with shrivelled balls and I'm so important on this planet that I can't possibly do something as trivial as picking up my own shit. I'm just a bit of a wanker tbh

Littlewhiteballs · 14/01/2022 15:02

I got my first dog at 18 years old. As far as I remember, I never picked up her poo. I was selfish, self-absorbed and not organised enough to bring poo bags with me. I never thought about other people stepping in it, I don't think it ever crossed my mind. I had quite a chaotic life and was homeless, addicted to various substances and had anxiety and depression. Picking up dog poo (and caring about other people and my environment) was low on my list of priorities at the time. This was also more than 20 years ago before social media shaming was a thing.

Would never do it now though! I'm now a very responsible dog owner that always comes equipped with poo bags, water and baby wipes. 18 year old me would be proud.

Everafter20 · 14/01/2022 15:03

I have a dog and always pick up after them. I live in front of a football patch sized piece of grass and the amount of people that don't pick up drives my dh and I crazy! He has taken to shaming them but honestly they don't care! There is more people that don't pick up than do.

BoPeeple · 14/01/2022 15:05

Ooh, I’d like to add:

If you are a dog owner and you let your dog jump up on strangers when you are out for a walk, is it because:

a) you have no control over your dog and you are actually embarrassed but don’t want to lose face by apologising?
b) your dog is basically your child so you don’t care if someone gets its mud/shit on their trousers or a child is terrified, your dog comes first?
c) you don’t even notice?

I would genuinely love to know the thought process!

ClaudineClare · 14/01/2022 15:05

@LittleWilly

The only time I don't pick up is if we are on the moors or similar and my dog goes off and goes somewhere way off the path which tbf is what they do anyway. I also flick it into undergrowth if it's not quite hidden I would not leave shit on a path or pavement though
If you go to the bother of flicking it, you might as well pick it up. I also don't understand the logic of not picking it up if the dog goes "way off path", surely you can still where it does a poo and go and pick it up? I think it is really antisocial of you, tbh.
stuntbubbles · 14/01/2022 15:06

I’d love to live somewhere with a dog-free park, or a low-poo neighbourhood at least. It should be a Rightmove filter. It’s atrocious in my south London neighbourhood, and not even at the edges of the pavement but giant turds right in the centre, at traffic lights, in front of people’s gates. And the park is rancid. So fed up with it.

Gunpowder · 14/01/2022 15:07

I love the DNA idea.

Whenever I see owners not picking up poo I hand them a nappy bag.

BoPeeple · 14/01/2022 15:07

@ClaudineClare

I think it depends - if in the middle of nowhere and you can flick it right into some bushes then I think this is better for the environment than a plastic dog poo bag. If anywhere near civilisation then no.

DoughNutBabe · 14/01/2022 15:10

Didn’t pick up just once. I was walking my mate’s dog as a favour and the lead had a small container for the poo bags but later turned out there were just 2 bags left. My mate’s dog decided to do their business in the ‘poo corner’ where a great number of poos already rested…and they were a small dog but decided to poop on top of the largest pile you can imagine! I couldn’t really unpick their poo from the other’s poo and there wasn’t enough space for the big poo in the two baggies I had with me. It was vile and I felt guilty, however, no pushchairs or scooters would willingly go into that well known poo corner iyswim.

liveforsummer · 14/01/2022 15:10

[quote BoPeeple]@ClaudineClare

I think it depends - if in the middle of nowhere and you can flick it right into some bushes then I think this is better for the environment than a plastic dog poo bag. If anywhere near civilisation then no.[/quote]
It's bad for wildlife. You can get biodegradable poo bags

sadpapercourtesan · 14/01/2022 15:10

The stick-and-flick brigade are no better than the people who leave it on the pavement. If you want to bleat on about it being better for the environment, use a paper bag.

Children don't stick to the paths in woodland or the countryside, and nor should they bloody have to for fear of getting covered in your pet's faeces. And before the whataboutery starts - yes, I know there are wild animals who defecate in the wild, but the VAST majority of the shit that children end up stepping/rolling in is domestic dog shit. It's not actually all that common to happen across fox/badger shit, and certainly doesn't bolster the argument that leaving dog crap lying around is "natural".

Carpetdrought · 14/01/2022 15:10

If I forget a bag which is MORTIFYING I will knock on every door until someone gives me a plastic bag. But the fear is so real Confused

krustykittens · 14/01/2022 15:10

Because they are anti social cunts. Older people didn't have the same social pressure and don't seem bothered about picking up after their dogs. One neighbour lets her dogs shit all over her own land that her sheep graze on and harrows it in. Envy And please pick up dog poo in fields - it is incredibly toxic and can pose a danger to grazing animals. Don't blame foxes for it either. There is one fox around here covering a territory of a couple of miles. There are far more dogs and if everyone let their dogs shit all over fields it soon causes a problem. I know people who can no longer take hay off their fields as dog walkers let their animals shit everywhere, going "it's the countryside innit?" Livestock have aborted and horses have died when they have swallowed poo bags helpfully left lying around.

Arethechildreninbedyet · 14/01/2022 15:10

I would love the answer to this.

There's an AWFUL woman near me who walks with a labrador. The dog is ALWAYS off lead on the pavement and runs up and down as she power walks and talks on her phone.

It will stop and shit and she will be 30 yards ahead, completely oblivious. I see her all the time and am usually driving somewhere when it happens so can't exactly shout 'oi your dog's shitting.'

ClaudineClare · 14/01/2022 15:11

True, Bo. I am not a dog owner so not really up to speed on all the ins and outs of dog poo etiquette. I just know how much I hate stepping in it!

JeshusHChr · 14/01/2022 15:12

@Malteser71

I think it’s unlikely they are on MN
Why? WHy? Is this unlikely?! Do you think only poor people are selfish arseholes!

I live in an affluent area, not in dog walking distance from a 'poor person's' area and there is regularly dog shit right in the middle of pavements. Dogs are on leads on pavements so there is no way the owner missed their dog doing that massive turd outside the primary school!

ElEmEnOhPee · 14/01/2022 15:12

Not a dog owner but 3 incidents I can recall ...

I was with my mum and she bumped into a woman she vaguely knows who had a dog with her. Dog shits on the path and the woman makes a drama about not having a poo bag with her. My mum hands her a carrier bag and she picks up the poop, ties a knot in the bag. She wanders off and me and my mum continue to stand there whilst my mum was looking for something in her handbag, next thing we see the woman fling the bag into the bushes! On the off chance she's reading this we've told loads of people and they all said they're not surprised because you're known to be a prick around town anyway.

Another time I was taking my son to school and there was a bloke with his son chatting to some people. Saw his dog do a huge shit on the path (where kids are walking to school, people with pushchairs etc) and waited to see if he picked it up, when he started to walk off I confronted him. First he denied his dog had done a shit, when I pointed at it he said it wasn't his dogs, when I told him I'd seen it he said he didn't have any poo bags and would be back for it. I told him he shouldn't have a dog if he can't be bothered to pick up after it.

Next time I was on the beach with my mum and son having a picnic. Huge dog bounds over and snatches a packet of crisps out of sons hands. Look around and can't see anyone, then dog does a massive shit right next to where our picnic was! I stood up and eventually saw the dog owner, middle aged man. He started calling the dog and I told him he needed to come pick up his dogs shit, he huffed and puffed about it for a bit then reluctantly started walking down. Now, this beach is a big rocky beach that's quite steep in some areas and as he's walking down he stumbles and does a full on forward roll down the beach, I'm only disappointed he didn't land in his dogs shit.

In my experience it's almost like some dog owners think picking up shit is beneath them.

Brindle88 · 14/01/2022 15:13

People do this because they’re lazy and don’t give a shit about others.

Mrgrinch · 14/01/2022 15:13

The only time I don't pick it up is if my dog does it in an area which I can't get to, like in the bushes etc.

He loves to play in places like that and jump over or wiggle under things and it would be virtually impossible to get to, so not much chance of it being stepped in.