To be gobsmacked for being told off for picking up after my dog??

[WhatJustHappened321]

So this happened today. Out walking my dog, minding my own business. He decides he needs a poo so I stand next to him rifling in my pocket for a poo bag. A woman comes out of her house and walks towards her car. Stops dead in her tracks and glares at me. I say tentatively... hello? She says 'I would like to know what you're doing?' I reply.. well I'm just about to clean up after my dog. She replies'well I should think so!!' I was.. like.. well yep.. there you go! That's what I'm doing 🤷‍♀️She then says... don't even THINK about putting it in my bin!! I said I have absolutely no intention of putting it in your bin.. I have my own bin thanks!! Turning to pick up his poo.. she carries on. I can't believe you're just standing there, waiting for him to finish!! I snapped at this point and said what the hell is wrong with you?? What do you want me to do drag him down the street mid poo?? She then got in her car and shot off at about 60 mph! I mean come on! I've heard of dog owners being told off for leaving their dogs mess... but I still can't get my head around this!!! ( btw he is a very small dog and his poo is like raisins! I always pick up, even I think no one would even notice it.) AIBU to think the woman was absolutely crackers??

Bet there's another aibu thread...
"I just watched a complete stranger letting her dog crap ALL OVER my lawn, while she just stood there. I warned her to pick it up and she just had a go at me. AIBU?"
🤣

One of my dogs was once pooing and I was standing, bag in had waiting for her to finish. A fella made a point of coming up to me t say 'do you know its illegal to let your dog so that?'
I replied 'it's okay if you pick it up!'
He continued on to tell me I could end up with a fine, I could be prosecuted etc etc while I stood there thinking wtf, i am clearly about to pick it up!? I just kept repeating that I wouldn't get anything of the sort as I was going to pick it up!

Bizarre.

Sounds like she was hoping you'd not pick it up!

Yes, always seems to be women the nasty dog poo crusaders take on with their opprobrium isn't it? Funny that.

Even male dogs don’t always lift their legs to pee. It’s a learned behaviour that they pick up from other dogs, rather than an anatomical necessity. My boy does it occasionally but more often than not he squats like a girl. That would have really confused your idiot woman!

Back on the subject of the thread, I met a woman the other day who had her dog trained to poo on command right next to the dog waste bins in our local woods. I was very jealous. Mine has a designated spot at home, but on walks he goes as he pleases. He does like privacy so he tries to pull me into people’s front gardens (obviously I don’t let him!) or down alleyways to do it.

As long as it’s picked up, I can’t really understand all the fuss about dogs pooing on the pavement. The pavement isn’t a sanitary place, with or without dogs. Foxes/birds/cats/rats/mice regularly pee and poo there and they don’t even clean up after themselves. It seems very silly to get upset that your buggy or your toddler’s shoes might make contact with a spot where there once may have been dog poo for a few seconds, when there’s all sorts of other gross stuff that could equally have graced that same spot.

My old boy dog used to squat too.

We lived in a pub at the time. All the punters used to call him Queero. His name was Nero

Oh bless you, so precious, perhaps you could look the other way? The dog doesn't need to be watched while it shits, would you like an audience?

Why do you watch dogs shitting?

That's interesting.

So - if the bins are (say) out ready for collection, it's perfectly permissible to use one?

Even male dogs don’t always lift their legs to pee. It’s a learned behaviour that they pick up from other dogs, rather than an anatomical necessity. My boy does it occasionally but more often than not he squats like a girl. That would have really confused your idiot woman!

Good point Sam. As it happens, I've never had a male dog who squatted, but I have had two bitches who lifted their legs (still got one of them). This isn't a dainty little, "lift-the-paw-an-inch-so-I-don't-widdle-on-my-toes" leg lift - it's proper "p*ss-as-high-as-I-can-up-this-wall-that'll-show-those-effers!" lift.

Apparently it's very common in bitches which had a male pup either side of them in utero (don't ask me how they know these things) - and particularly if the litter was mainly male pups. My first "ladyboy" dog was the only bitch in a litter of 5, and the present one, one of 2 bitches in a litter of 11. Apparently they get sloshed with free-flowing testosterone (there is a special term for it, but I can't remember what it is).

LOL!

she carries on. I can't believe you're just standing there, waiting for him to finish!

Probably expected you to pick him up and squeeze it out into the bag, like toothpaste @WhatJustHappened321

People don't usually go off on one about things like this unless they have had bad experiences in the past with people doing just the things they now accuse you have. Presumably this horse owner has had problems with people feeding her horses. Maybe she has even seen it from a distance and it was someone walking a dog so she assumed it was you. So in this case it was uncalled for but you can kind of see why she reacted as she did, it's not that weird.

Just as I bet the lady in this case has had people leaving dog crap outside the house, incompletely cleaning up and leaving smears, putting crap in her bin. She had no cause to have a go at the OP but this out burst wouldn't have happened for no reason, there must be some inconsiderate dog owners in the area for her to react like that.

Another example of mumsnet casual ageism.

My most embarrassing was when mine decided to stop and poo mid way across the pelican crossing, so I had to stand there and wait for her to finish and debate whether I had time to pick up before we got run over. Luckily the waiting traffic thought it was hilarious and waited.

Mine did that when she was a puppy! And then again recently when we were away at 10 years old! Not done it in between times, so no idea why it happened again so many years later.

I had someone say something about my dog weeing on the pavement outside their house. Like it's such a shame they have to go when they do or something like that. It was clearly said as a dig and they disapproved about what my dog did.

With some of the comments on here it feels like us dog owners who let their dogs toilet out in the street are bad owners as we haven't taught them to use the loo before they go out! Mine usually waits (apart from the two times mentioned above) until we get to a grassy area, but if she is a bit desperate she'll find a small mossy area next to a wall and use that.

Even male dogs don’t always lift their legs to pee. It’s a learned behaviour that they pick up from other dogs, rather than an anatomical necessity.

It also has a hormonal element.

Some bitches do it too and are more likely to if they were placed in utero between two males and thus exposed to higher levels of testosterone during fetal development.

Fun fact of the day

This happened to me as well. Walking the dog in the local woods, we’d just got out of the car and she decided to have a poo in the verge. I was standing there, black poo bag in hand, waiting for her to finish when some bloke came marching over to bollock me for not picking up my dogs poo. I’m like wtf? She hasn’t finished yet, and the bag is right here in my hand. He marched off and told me he’d be keeping his eye on me.

I also got told off for not picking up a poo when my girl dog had had a wee - by the council dog warden. He was insistent he saw her pooing, would not accept she was having a wee so we ended up in this ridiculous stand off while he scoured the ground around us looking for dog poos.

I think the issue is people who choose not to have pets of their own still have to live with other peoples pets shitting and pissing all over the place. Yes dogs can’t help when they need to go, but those dogs didn’t spawn out of thin air. Having a pet dog is a choice, the mess you might inflict on others is a part of that choice.

I have a dog because my family wanted one - I wasn’t fussed - so I do see both sides really. I don’t particularly like stepping over puddles of piss or scrapings of shit at the end of my driveway regardless of whether it couldn’t be helped by that dog. I suppose yes it’s “tough luck” because that’s what dogs do, but also tough luck to dog owners who get confronted over their pets pooing and weeing on footpaths or peoples property.

That’s so interesting. Our bitch lifts her leg too. I’m delighted to have discovered why she does it.

😂

I agree with the woman. It's so rude to just let a dog poo outside someone's house or in middle of street! Move your dog on to a better location where smears of dog poo aren't left (even after cleaning) for pram wheels, wheelchairs, shoes. Would you be happy if I blatantly let my toddler poo in front of your house?

So rude and even if you don't agree, you need to understand that lots of people aren't happy with people letting their pets poo on the pavement outside their home. Presumably your dog doesn't poo inside your house so can be trained to wait while you move it along a bit before it craps in the middle of the street.

Would you be happy if I blatantly let my toddler poo in front of your house?

It's an animal kept as a pet. Not a human .

Just think one day your toddler might be older and begging you for a dog or a cat. And that pet will will need to poo. Glad to hear you will be avoid all of this by some miraculous method.

And for clarity the pavement outside your house does not belong to you anymore than the people walking dogs on it. Chill out.

Cocked his leg on her bush

Interesting! I did not know that.

So, was your dog pooing on her neighbours garden then? Perhaps her and her neighbour had recently had a talk and were fed up of peoples dogs pooing on their gardens? No excuse to be rude though, but I can understand if its a bit of a problem, and perhaps you were the last straw so to speak so got the brunt of it.

And on grass, even when picked up, it rarely gets rid of all the poo, lets face it.

There was a problem down a road we used to live. The front gardens all went right to the path, and owners were always letting their dogs crap on the grass instead of the path. I realise they have to go somewhere, but if you don't own a dog it gets a bit annoying constantly having dog poo smears on your garden.

I wouldn't take it personally OP. Its just one of those things. She lost it and was rude, but also perhaps she thought you were one of the ones who left it there all the time.(or one of the ones who would put it in her bin!)

Have we established that OP's dog WASN'T pooing on anyone else's property?

Not this woman's or her neighbour's but on the public right of way?