What do you do about your dog poo?

[Macbeth8]

Recently have got a lovely cocker spaniel. Have had a labrador before but he only pooped on his daily walk.
Cocker spaniel just seems to poo when shes let out in the garden even if
Its becoming a nightmare. We have a lovely garden, loads of grass but now kids are ending up coming in with dog muck on their shoes. Its weird cos she is doing poo around different areas of grass. When its seen its easy to just scoop it up but its when shes done it randomly n weve had no idea.
The consistency is always mushy-ish meaning not easy to scoop up and the grass just gets ruined.
AIBU to think this is difficult to manage with? Is there some other option that people do with their dogs?

Can you train her to go in one specific place?

Can you fence an area off that just the dogs have access to?

Go out with her and pick it up straight away

Yep... keep an eye .
As to a runny consistency, get it checked out. Sounds like her diet needs adjusting.

We have a poo bin, scooped up if they do anything. If it's mushy and very frequent I'd be looking at her diet.

The consistency is always mushy-ish meaning not easy to scoop up and the grass just gets ruined. so what do you do if you're on your walk? Or is that not on grass?

We watch our dogs in the garden, as one likes to eat poo - just pick it up straightaway.

Incidentally, the poo eater is a Labrador, so maybe your old lab just gobbled it up and that’s why he never seemed to poo in the garden 😁.

It sounds like her diet needs adjusting - her poo shouldn't be soft and mushy.

But in the meantime you just need to supervise her - don't let her out unattended and pick it up right away. You can hose it off afterwards if you need to.

We always took ours out into the garden for the toilet at set times, stayed until they'd done it, then cleaned up immediately, throwing water on the grass if it was messy. We did it from puppies though so they got into a routine. Don't know if you could start it with an older dog.

My lab won't poo in the garden. She thinks it's part of the house, so I pick it up and sling it into the undergrowth where it won't get on anyone's shoes. In our area, the instruction in the National Park is to find a stick and flick it into the hedge.

We have fenced off an area that we take her to in the garden first to do her business, then once she has gone she can go in the rest of the garden. We pick up what we can and hose down the remainder.

Do you need to change dog food, they should be firmish with the occasional softer one? Keep the grass short and do a poo patrol once a day.

Sorry forgot to add where we got her from is a reputable dog trainer company/breeders. She was really expensive for that reason n we had a plan written up that she had to be on the same diet they've fed her - a mixture of raw food and royal canine.

Its difficult with two young kids, impossible to keep an eye on her especially in the mornings when im getting ready for work, getting the kids ready all in a 20 minute dash. Sometimes it looks like she hasnt actually done anything but then the next day for instance there will be a pile of poo somewhere! So she must be doing it quick

This is why I have a cat, they go for a poo in my neighbour's garden

I would just screen off a bit of the garden if you can, and let her go there. Just make sure you keep the grass as short as possible so it’s easy to pick up, and I find using baby wipes on the grass helps to get the worst of it off.

Stir stir

Excellent. Your dog is crapping in your own garden, rather than in public spaces. Well done that considerate dog.

She’s your dog now. Feed her what you want. Her poo should be solid, not mushy. Either you’re feeding her too much or the food doesn’t agree with her. Start by reducing quantities to see if that helps, and if not, change the brand. Royal Canin is great at marketing but not actually brilliant quality.

Our dogs are not allowed on our back lawn. It is fenced off. They do have an area they can go on that is not grass.

Presumably you're walking her at least twice a day? In my experience (currently on dog number 5) most dogs prefer to poo when out and about and you just bag it and bin tit or stick and flick into undergrowth. The only dogs I've ever known poo regularly in their own garden are dogs that aren't properly walked. She's a cocker spaniel so she'll need 90 minutes a day.

If the food the breeders had her on doesn't suit her then why on earth would you continue feeding it to her and not look for something that suits her better? Ask the vet for advice.

As soon as you get up in the morning get out and walk her.

Keep the lawn really short is my tip. It means poo is totally visible. If grass gets a bit long then it's game over for poop-hunting.

Get a ‘dog toilet’ installed on your waste down pipe. You can do it yourself with YouTube videos. It just needs to be connected near an outside tap or have a bucket of water handy.

But water dissolvable poo bags. Pick up poo in bag (they take a while to dissolve, but don’t hold them for ages) and flush down dog loo.

Easy peasy!

Royal Canin is crap and expensive. Go to allaboutdogfood.com and have a look at some good-rated dry foods like Millie's Wolfheart/Eden etc.

Our grass area is fenced off so dogs can't get to it.

We created them their own area with paving and an extended hose and dog Pooh bin and scooper.

We go and pick it up first thing in the morning probably lunchtime if any there. After tea time and before bed and we hose it down every day.

If you can't fence it off then you need to go and do a Pooh check before the kids go out onto the garden everytime.

Hard work but means no poo in the house or on the kids