To accuse my neighbour’s dog or could this be fox poo?

[Reliablesource]

Warning: poo image attached! We have an ongoing issue with a neighbour in our block who sometimes lets their dog in the communal garden despite a no dog rule. We previously complained when they let their dog poo there last year and they did clean it up and promised it wouldn’t happen again. However, the owner occasionally accompanies the dog for an early morning walk through the garden.

We spotted this poo on the lawn today, but we do live next to a forest area where there are foxes, etc. Does this look like fox or dog poo? We don’t want to have a go at the neighbour if it’s fox poo but I can’t tell the difference. Anyone know better?

Could be either from the photo. You are going to have to smell it 🤪😂

From the colour it could well be fox, I can usually tell the difference BUT fox poo smells far worse than dog poo IME

Pretty sure it looks like a healthy dog's poo. Fox poo where I live (rurally) looks more like diarrhoea and is usually very dark.

Fox. DLab has rolled in enough.

I think it's more likely to be fox poo. The appearance of fox poo is extremely variable, depending on what they've been eating. It can be quite "seedy", especially later in the summer when there are lots of berries around, and since dogs are unlikely to be eating large quantities of berries, a seedy poo usually comes from a fox. In addition, the poo in your photo is partly white, which is usually a sign that the animal has been eating bones - again, foxes will generally be eating more bones than pet dogs.

However, if any of your neighbours are putting out dog food for the foxes, their poo starts to look more like dog poo!

How big is the offending dog? Generally, fox poos are similar in size to a smallish dog's poo (or even those of a large cat). If it's a big dog, it will have big poo - similar to a child's poo.

Fox poo smells like sweet horseradish - sounds nice but it’s vile. Dog poo smells like, um, dog poo. Have a sniff and you’ll know immediately.

Looks like fox to me.

It will depend on the smell. Fox poo reeks quite uniquely.

No opinion to add on the poo identification, but I am mildly impressed at how knowledgeable about fox poo some mumsnetters are.

Without something to scale against, it’s hard to tell. But overall, it looks quite dark to me compared to my dog’s poo, but that could be entirely due to diet.

But as others have said, fox poo has a very distinctive smell, which is extremely hard to get rid of if your dog rolls in it 🤮

I'm leaning towards fox poo. It's unusually well-formed and thick for fox poo which is generally softer and skinnier, but food is more plentiful this time of year.

Try disturbing it or breaking it up with a shovel or something - if the smell is richly musky, like plasticine melting in the sun, it's fox. If it smells like shit, well it's dog shit.

Source - owning multiple terriers who love to roll in the stuff.

Thanks for all the responses! Another visitor who is a dog owner looked at it and said he thought it was dog poo. It’s quite big. I have seen fox poo before and it was much smaller compared to this.

I really don’t have the stomach to investigate it any further, let alone sniff it. There were flies buzzing round it when I arrived home a short time ago.

So the jury is out, but from the size of it, I still suspect it’s from a dog. It is a small dog but they let it poo in the garden last year and it did surprisingly large jobbies…

It’s the consistency and shape of dog, but the colour of fox. Difficult one.

If it's fox you will not have to make any effort to sniff.

Could be fox, could be a dog fed at least partly on a raw diet.

Ask a dog owner to sniff it, or take their dog near it.. most dogs will absolutely want to roll in that if its fox poo!

You do have to get quite near, it doesn't tend to reek if its a few hours old and undisturbed (if its fox).

Leave your neighbours alone re their dog please

Why should we? They have previously allowed (and admitted) letting their dog foul a communal garden where children play. That is totally selfish, disgusting and irresponsible behaviour. You may not care if dogs crap in your garden but normal people do.

Dog

That's stupid if the dog is shitting everywhere and it's not being picked up.

That's said OP, it is hard to tell from that whether it's dog or fox. It's in between really. But fox usually looks more like cat poop, and that seems a bit too bulky to be cat poop. Particularly big fox I guess?

I’d say fox we have similar thought it was dog but it’s quite if in back garden that’s gated I’d be amazed if a dog had be able to wonder into it

Cat poo is also very similar to dog poo

I’d say fox. I’m having the same issue with foxes 💩 in my garden. Any one know anything to stop them. I have young children and it’s vile.

OP. have you considered that poo could be from your neighbour not just their dog...

You could use their front step for a retaliatory dump to get your message across. Best wait till after dark mind!!

P.s. or alternatively. you could get a life, and only go accusing your neighbours of not cleaning up their dog foul when you actually know it was them & their dog. Just a thought!!

P.p.s. if you opt for option 1, please do let us know how you get on. (Though you could spare us the pictures perhaps 😉)

I agree with this but my dog will often do poo this colour rather than a more normal dog poo colour poo. I’d say at least half of her poo is very dark brown.

I have got a life, thankyou. We have a gated communal garden and only one flat in the block with a dog. So it’s definitely not a random dog getting into the garden. And as I mentioned earlier, they have form for this, previously admitted it and claimed they didn’t know their unsupervised dog was shitting its guts out all round the communal gardens. So I think there’s sufficient evidence…