To be annoyed about being asked to pick up poo?

[WFHbore2023]

I'm going to start this by saying - I did do it. I'm annoyed at myself, but I was a bit stunned.
I was walking along with my dog, earphones in. A woman with a pushchair was walking along the same path, walking towards us.
She pointed at some poo on the floor and said something to me, which I didn’t hear as I had my earphones in. I assumed she was asking if it was my dogs poo, so I just said no. I took out an earphone and she said ‘have you got a poo bag? will you pick it up? I hate it when people leave poo’
I was a bit shocked so just picked it up and said ‘yeah, me too’ but afterwards I was like ‘wtf?!’
In hindsight, I should have just given her a bag to pick it up if she’s so bothered by it!
I pick up my dogs poo, and I happily do it, because that is MY job! It’s not my job to pick up other peoples dog poo, it’s bloody gross!
It would be like me pointing to a dirty nappy on the floor and expecting her to pick it up, just because she has a child with her.
Was she BU, or am I for being annoyed that she asked me to?

A huge difference! Some dogs have huge smelly poos which my dog doesn't have due to the food I feed her. The only time I have ever picked up another dogs poo was when I couldn't find my dogs in the fallen leaves so picked up another one so as to have not added to the amount of poo around.

I think if you had heard the woman properly you probably would have given her a bag to pick it up herself but she caught you off guard.

Yeah, fair enough. I mean it's over now. It's probably made you feel like a bit of a push over but I doubt you'll care about it tomorrow. 🙂

Nappies aren't generally stranded about everywhere unlike dog poo.

Also you're unlikely to get Toxocariasis from a dirty nappy, whereas little children touching dog poo left by rubbish dog owners who don't pick up their dog shit might: www.nhs.uk/conditions/toxocariasis/

Dog owners if you have a dog pick up it's shit! So fucking annoying seeing about.

I'm sure she was frustrated at poo dodging, but she was still unreasonable to ask you to pick it up, even if she thought it was possible it was your dogs poo. ("deposited" outbound walk, coming back the same way/ from a previous walk etc) Even moreso when you clarified for her it was not your dogs.
Just because you're a responsible owner and pick up your own dogs poo, doesn't mean you'll find it any less unpleasant to pick up some other dogs poo than a none dog owner would. I do wonder if she would have picked it up, or declined to do so, had you offered her the poo bag.

Having never owned a dog, therefore having never picked up ones poo, i'm actually a little oddly intrigued. Doesn't the older, colder stuff end up being drier, so more firm/solid, so easier to pick up without, for a better way to put it, smushing, and smelling worse? I have pet snakes and their fresh poo certainly smells far worse, along with being much wetter and squishy, than if you leave it for a few hours to dry out to pick out the tank. Fresh poop picking definitely turns my stomach much more than a few hours old. (appreciate you can't do this with a dog in public rather than a back garden)

Kinda makes an assumption that dog owners are responsible for picking up all dog shit irrespective of whether it came out of their own dog. If she was that bothered about it she could have asked you for a poo bag.

Nappies are left all the time on the beach near me. Absolutely disgusting. We even had a family ask to use our parking space to change their baby, they left the nappy behind in the space. Clearly those who claim it doesn’t happen, live nowhere near the sea. That and bbqs are left behind every day in summer.

According to some on this thread that's exactly what dog owners should do. It's a very odd logic. I have 1 dog and I pick up his poo apparently me having this dog means I'm also responsible for every other dogs poo and should I come across it I should pick it up simply because I own a dog.

I always pick up after my dog and do pick up others if they are near the one I'm picking up. I don't routinely pick up after other dogs though. I would have passed her a bag and moved off. Picking up cold poo is far worse than picking up the poo your dog has just done.

is it a bit like assuming someone's actual job should be their job in any situation? Like my friend's a plumber so if he's here for a cup of tea he should fix my leaky tap? Or I'm a therapist so I should be there any time any friend has a problem even if I'm busy?

It just does. I can’t pick up other people’s dog mess and I could never change other people’s babies nappies.

Very odd of her OP, especially as she'd likely have a nappy bag in the pram that would have done the same job!

Meh, I'd have done it. There really isn't anything magically less gross about your own dogs shit, and you went equipped to pick that up.

is it a bit like assuming someone's actual job should be their job in any situation? Like my friend's a plumber so if he's here for a cup of tea he should fix my leaky tap? Or I'm a therapist so I should be there any time any friend has a problem even if I'm busy?

Exactly. I understand dog shit on the pavements is annoying ironically if anything it annoys me more now I have a dog because I pick up after him and get frustrated others don't. However I just don't understand the logic that just because I have a dog it means I'm more responsible for cleaning up after the feckless muppets who don't pick up their dog poo.

pre pandemic, we were sitting in a pub garden having lunch , probably 6 or so of us . My SIL had her dog with her , very free range , never on a lead ( didn’t even own one !) off dog trotted and did a poo , waitress came over and very nicely asked if SIL had a bag as dog had pooed . SIL , said of course! And promptly gave the bag to the waitress!!! We were all sat there stunned, with our forks half way to our mouths … waitress was so shocked , she did it 🤦‍♀️

I'm with the OP. Other people's dog's cold and smelly poos are definitely more gross than my own dog's poos. I can't really explain why, I don't suppose there's any real logic to it, but the few times I've picked up after somebody else's dog I've retched heavily. my job is literally dealing with human faecal samples in a lab, so if anybody "should" be okay with it that would be me!

Some of these posts are hilarious.
A community of dog owners? Dog owners come in all forms and apart from sharing my home with my canine I have about as much in common with most of them as I do with Rishi Sunak.
I have teenagers. Does that make me responsible for repairing or reimbursing any damage caused in my village, which is conveniently blamed on ‘kids’?
I am also a landlord with very well maintained property, should I pick up all the slack from ‘slum’ landlords?
At least I can save a little time picking up sweet wrappers blown into my garden from the primary school as my neighbours have a 5YO, so I guess that’s now down to them.
Like many dog owners I have picked up stray poos to help out if they are likely to be stepped in, rather than just complain about how disgusting it is.
I am equally irritated by poor dog owners who let everyone down, but it doesn’t make me responsible for clearing up their mess.

I've had something similar before - it was 10+ years ago and I'm still slightly annoyed by it, never had it since though.

I was at a holiday cottage with two Jack Russells (and DH and DS), and clearly been spotted out with them by one of the neighbours. One evening, I had just left the cottage to walk (without the dogs) to meet DH at the pub (he was already there with the dogs) for a meal with young DS. A man stopped me and asked me in a quite aggressive way if the dog poo on the lane was my dogs. I said no definitely not I always pick up after my dogs and this was clearly from a much bigger dog that mine (and I had spotted one wandering about a few times).

Man clearly still thought that it was my responsibility to sort out, so I asked him if HE has a poo bag (he didn't), so I said I would pop back and get HIM one. Unfortunately, DS ended up hitting his head on something (think it was a stable door) during this process and then he was hurt/upset etc. and this horrible bloke was still glaring at me through all of this. At least I didn't pick up to poo though - I gave him the bag (he didn't thank me) and then glared at him before going off.

Because you own a dog and she doesn’t, and as collective group you are cause of the problem of dog shit on pavement.

As a non dog owner, I've picked up dog poo in playgrounds(!) using a nappy bag as they make excellent substitutes for poo bags. No reason why she couldn't have done that herself...

I have literally never seen dirty nappies lying around in a public space. I see dog poo on every visit to the park. Are you honestly saying you’ve never missed a stray poo ever?

DH cleans the toilet even though others also use it.

So why I wouldn’t wash his glass?

I've picked up random dog poo on my own volition.

But I'm not going to do it because a random entitled person commands me to.

That's possible. However, given she didn't appear willing to pick it up herself (she'd have asked for a bag if she was), it's not a reasonable conclusion that she didn't have one. I guess we can categorise that as "unknown".

Just because you've enever seen a dirty nappy left doesn't mean it doesn't happen, it's pretty common where I live unfortunately.

Also yes I genuinely have never not picked up after my dog. He's walked on lead so no lost poos in the woods etc. I don't think I'm unusual in that fact.