To ask, if you don't pick up your dog's poo, why?

[BelleMarionette]

The streets here are littered with shit.

I have a dog and collect mine and carry spare bags to share too. I know it's not all that owners. I collect other poo too but can't do the entire neighborhood.

If you don't pick up yours, please tell me why, and what would get you to pick it up.

I challenged a woman yesterday whose dog shitted and she walked off. She still didn't collect it.

I'm wondering about creative solutions.

Fed up of mine and my kids shoes being covered by it.

I do believe some of it is cats too, so cat owners suggestions welcome too.

My DH had to pick poo up off the school pitch before games. As the school is fenced off, we were told that it’s fox poo. 🦊

Where do you walk him, the mountains of Tibet? He’s your dog so pick up his shit please!

If you can’t clean your dog shit up, then let it do it’s business on your path, or in your garden - until
someone comes round who can clean it up. The idea that because you cave bend down, it’s ok to leave your dog shit everywhere, is selfish in the extreme.

I live in the edge of the moors, lovely place to walk … and (of course) full of people brining thier dogs out for a shit. The trees are full of dog poo bags, and they get left on walls, and fences. What do the people who leave these bags think will happen? That the dog poo fairy will come along and move them.

I wish it were feasible to have a law were dogs were only allowed to shit within 5 feet of the owners front door … be a lot more cleaned up then.

christ, what kind of area do you live in?!

I can't remember the last time I saw dog poo on the street.
There are dog owners around, but everyone picks up the poo.

The road to my son's school is horrible. There were 5 huge piles of shit on there last week. 5!

The other day I witnessed my SiL pick up and bag her dog's poo but then put it in someone's wheelie bin!

Yes, they are trained to go on command, but can obviously get the odd dodgy tum or get caught short occasionally just like any other dog. That is why the exemption is there. Same applies to other types of assistance dogs.

More likely foxes or hedgehogs

Here where they tell you not to.

The cats round here don’t. I’m plagued by cat shit. Usually right by by drivers door for me to step in or near my washing line. I know it’s a cat as I have video footage.
Cat shit is much worse to stand in than dog shit as well.

I will pick up after my dog everywhere that other people might come across it and that included on verges or in the bushes next to foot paths because kids don’t always stick to the path when you are out. The only exception I make is when I’m somewhere that isn’t regularly visited by other people, remote forestry plantations etc. I would leave it if it’s in the undergrowth there.
Even more puzzling them people who don’t pick after their dogs are those who pick it up and then chuck the bag into the bushes. I run with my dogs rather than walk them and I have run for 10+ miles with poo bags dangling from my wrist so I really don’t see why other people think it’s ok to chuck them in bush if there is no bin.

Not ideal, but better than just leaving it. I don’t mind when people do this to me, unless the bin has literally just been emptied and it’s just sitting there at the bottom of the bin for 3 weeks…..

Not a very good one apparently 🤷‍♀️

The street I live on is actually fairly quiet and there are a lot of neighbours with respect for their surroundings and like to keep things tidy .. but we do live fairly close to the town centre which seems to influence the amount of dog shit, fly tipping, spitting, litter, etc in the surrounding streets.

My DH’s nan lives further out of town, and the pavements are immaculate .. same as a lot of the areas further from the town centre. We’re looking to move in a couple of years and I’d quite happily downsize to live in an area where people take pride in their surroundings!

Guide dog owner here:

firstly, guide dog owners are exempt from picking up, however they are still strongly encouraged to do so, and even during training the expectation is that they do.

Secondly, while the theory is that guide dogs go on command, let’s be honest here, if someone tells you you need to have a shit and you don’t feel the urge to go yet, could you do it? Ultimately they’re dogs,and there will come times when they have to go.

My dog is one such dog. he is one of those who has to get moving before he goes, and then he will indicate grass. As a rule I take him for a walk round the block before I go out, then I pic up after him and take it home to dispos of before I go out. And on occasion I have stopped a member of the public and asked just to point out where it is if I can’t find it, and they have happily done so, e.g. “left a bit, just in front,” that kind of thing.

Yes there may be some times when it’s impossible, but I do fear that there are some (although not any who move in my circles) who see exemption as a reason not to even try.

I also get irritated by the clear theatrics that people do to avoid looking like they’ve noticed their dog shitting - turning the other way, calling them, then having a ‘cursory’ look around before feigning bafflement and walking off. I once ‘helpfully’ directed a woman to a pile of shit her terrier had left on the kids playing field, her face was like thunder!

im the same as you @Lockheart if we’re in the woods and it’s off the path then I don’t, but always will around the village, on pavements or anywhere that people will have a chance of coming into contact with it. First rainfall and it’s gone anyway.

I disagree with ‘stick and flick’ due to the sheer volume of dogs in our area. Sure there are very remote areas of the country where there’s an argument for it. If you’ve been walking for several hours. But it’s used to justify leaving it anywhere perceived as ‘countryside’.
I think there are so few areas in the heavily populated south where this is the right thing to do. I live within a national park boundary in a very accessible bit for dog walking so most people only go within about 1/2 hour walk. That’s the bit used by all the local kids.

its either fields (sheep or arable, either not appropriate for it to be left).
wooded areas - that are played in my local children, including mine, and it’s disgusting fur them to be digging around for bugs between piles of dog poo. there are a few very small fields given over to meadow - they’re actually owned by local neighbours and the local children make dens in the long grass in summer. - again horrible when it’s covered in poo. These fields are fringed with brambles…. Which a lot if you are advocating flicking into… Which are all picked and eaten by locals, mostly the local kids on walks!

Bag and take your poo away.

Some I guess, some would be of the mindset of oh it's poo, ect, and prefer not to soil their hands so to speak.

in my area cat poo is worse - why is it okay to leave that out? Filthy and dangerous

The really really don't bury their poo.

I said back in the 1990s that dogs should be DNA tested and licensed. Any faeces found in the street should be collected, tested and a fine sent to the appropriate owner. The fines collected could fund the system.

After years of being told it was not possible, it is now being considered as a practical solution to the problem.

Well there are longer pooper scoopers so what he is doing is actually disgusting. So is the whole 'stick and flick'.

As bonkers as this sounds, maybe it has a role.

The problem is lots of dogs won't be registered: I see lots of banned breeds here too, so no way these people would have their dogs registered.

I'm a cat owner, we can't control where our cats shit unfortunately and they are legally allowed to free roam.. and shit. Also a dog owner and I always pick up, but I do see it scattered around everywhere. It's laziness, couldn't give a 'shit' attitude, nothing will make them change, its in their genes to be pricks

I rarely pick up my 9 year old labs shit outside. He either does it in the garden or when outside he races well into the woods and hides in bushes/long grass then comes back a minute later with tail wagging furiously and a big grin on his face 🙄. I would never be able to find it.

my pockets are full of poo bags whereever I go, and I pick when he goes somewhere less remote, some of the bags must be 5+ years old now!