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?

@Getyourselftogether you can hose down real grass.

Dogs poo. I'm pretty vigilant but you can never be too vigilant. I go out at least once a day, usually twice, with poo bags and put them in a little pedal bin until waste collection day. That's for one very small Jack Russell.

If it's a messy poo, then I grab the grass it's on with the poo, or chuck some weedings on it and grab it that way.

wcs owner here

firm poos are a must as they can have impacted anal glands, recommend raw carrots and a good grain free diet with some extras like sardines and scrambled eggs. All about dogs food is a website that breaks down nutritional content of food in the uk. On our budget we feed barking heads and have firm pops that are easy to pick up via a bag

and yes ours poo where ever they want..including being far too busy sniffing on a walk and coming back to poo in garden 🤦🏻‍♀️

Royal Canin is absolute shite. Sack that off for a start. Just stick to the raw food and she'll thank you for it. If you do go for dry food choose something like Millie's Wolfheart, Eden or Orijin. Granted they're not as easy to get because you can't get them from Tesco/Asda/Pets at home. They also look more expensive but you feed less in terms of quantity so doesn't work out more expensive. Check out the all about dog food website

Also don't think you said how old she is but don't forget puppies digest food much quicker so there will be more poo! Consistency shouldn't be mushy though.

We were having similar issues. I ended up buying some 1m high metal fence panels on amazon. This means our dog now does her toileting on the patio near the house so I can deal with it immediately. It's worked pretty well. She does still spend time on the grass but only when I know she recently done a poo.

Our dog has soft stools as well. We've tried lots of different food (not at once obviously including RC and he just has a sensitive stomach.
He has to have his anal glands cleaned regularly.

He will make a poo on our walk but will always poo in the garden as well.

We have a small garden and go out as soon as he comes in to pick it up. Have trained the children not to go into the garden until we have checked it and to always wear shoes outside.

Walk her first thing, even if it’s 10 minutes around the block. Change her diet, it shouldn’t be mushy. Or rain her to use a certain part of the garden

Don't understand why this is an issue. My dog does most of his poos in our garden (he does at least 3 a day) and I have a 3 year old. I just check every time we go outside and pick it up🤷‍♀️

You don’t have to continue feeding her the same diet that the breeder has said. Faeces should be firm (and kick able) not soft and mushy.

I found switching to grain free and avoiding chicken helped give my dog less squishy poos.

Mushy poo=poor diet. Royal Canine told an acquaintance that they use BHT/BHA as a preservative. It’s been proven to be carcinogenic. Have you seen the percentage of actual meat in that ‘food’? This website is really useful. www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0061/royal-canin-mini-adult.

I’m appalled that so many breeders use this, lots of incentives from the brand to start puppies on it. IMO, it is not good quality. 2, 3 and 5th ingredient=maize. Dunno why you’d feed your dog that. My breeder sent us a bag of it when we got our puppy. It was sticky with the sugary content.

@eastegg I'm not going to leave my toddler unsupervised in the house whilst waiting to see where my dog has pooed in the garden then having the hassle of finding the poo and potentially needing to hose the grass down
I don't want my toddler to be playing in grass that has been full of dog poo, maybe thats just me

Train her to go in a set area. It didn't take much at all to teach our adult dog that she's not to poo on the grass anymore and she's using a square of concrete. We're going to put gravel aswell to make it easier

There’s definitely a flavour in a few of the posts, not the OP and definitely a minority, that smacks of ‘I don’t want it in my garden but it’s fine in a public place’. If you’re a vigilant responsible dog owner, picking up after them, then what is the difference? In both cases there’s a little bit of residue on the ground which a child could potentially come across.

As others have said, your dog’s poo shouldn’t be ‘mushy’ and of course you are not obliged to feed her on whatever the breeder was giving her.

If you can’t see her poos on the lawn, you need to keep your grass much shorter.

How big is your garden?

In my small garden, I watch from the window and see where he makes poo. I go out and pick it up before he comes back into the house. It takes a minute.

If your toddler can't be left for a minute, then bring your child outside to watch you clean up after your dog.

There isn't another way around this as presumably if you can't take your child outside for a minute while you clean up, you will not be able to take your child for a walk two or three times a day while your dog poos.

If your garden is big - and it sounds like it is big when you can't see poo easily and have to search for it - then simply fence an area off and that can be the dog's area when first let out. Once the dog has done its business, you can let the dog run around the rest of the garden.

We follow our dog and take up the poo straightaway. When it gets dark earlier, we use a torch to go out and pick it up. Our garden is small and we have accepted that we can't walk around in bare feet as there will be remnants of poo left whether its solid or not.

Ditch the Royal Canin and go all raw - good solid dryish poos! Couldn't believe the difference. If I had little kids I would not want this either - fence off a little area for her and religiously take her there to poo before she can play.

I have a spaniel she fed raw diet, she prefers to poo on her early morning walk. She very rarely goes on the garden - usually if morning walk missed. I would definitely review the diet, it could also be the age our dog only really avoided going in the garden when she was around 2 years old (ish)

Peeing though is killing the grass - tried everything!! We water the grass area once she been - pointless!!! Oh well

My dogs are properly walked but rarely go for a poo as they are having too much fun. My youngest one will occasionally but not often. The oldest one is too focused on playing catch. They are still very young though.

We just pick it up from tye garden regularly and have a bin for it. Luckily rarely mushy

I’ve read it all now.

A stealth boast that your dogs don’t pooh on a walk as they are having too much fun. 😂

@Youcansaythatagainandagain
Thanks for the tips but I'm not sure if you've read my post wrong - I don't want or need my dog to poo in my garden.

we take our dog a walk twice per day to do her poos we pickup and obviously bin it on the walk - which means she never poos in the garden and she's just trained to poo on walks. It's not a hassle at all to go on walks and it's one of the reasons we love having a dog to get out on walks even just round the block. Its nice to relax knowing my child can play in a clean space at home in our garden.

So many issues here. I think your expectations are off, did you think your dog just wouldn't produce any poo or magically know not to go in the garden?!

Also I agree with others you should trial another diet. Personally I'm not keen on raw especially with children in the house and it's not best for all dogs despite lots of unscientific rhetoric on the issue.

Our dogs do really well with James welbeloved, beautiful coats, good stools, no issues. but it's like people they are all different so you'll want to try to see what's best for your individual dog. If it doesn't sort itself out with a diet change then see your vet. Constant mushy poos are not normal and as a PP said it'll cause AG problems before too long.

Good luck

If you don't want to change the food, I'd suggest using a tube of probiotic paste to improve her stool quality. www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/protexin-veterinary-pro-kolin-dog-%28online-only%29 should make the poo harder and less frequent.