Should residents be able to 'police' sections of their street?

[StreetStrife]

After just being shouted at by an incredibly rude and aggressive woman who barged out of her house to have a go at me for letting my dog wee on a patch of council owned grass at the end of her close I thought I would ask wise Mumsnetters their thoughts.

The woman who took it upon herself to police her street, and also, apparently, takes it upon herself to 'look after' this small patch of grass by planting a few geraniums in the middle, claims that because she looks after it and children play there sometimes I should not let my dog on it. Apparently my husband has "already been told not to use it" by her, so how dare I.

My thoughts are that children play in gardens and parks where dogs go all the time, that this is not her land, and that this is a convenient place for my dog to wee while we temporarily have no garden access due to building work. It is the closest bit of public grass we have, and I am currently injured and can't walk too far (although this is not a visible injury). My dog is prone to UTIs and likes to wee on grass rather than pavement, and often refuses to go if there is no grass. The next nearest patch of grass is an extra five minutes away.

This has reminded me of many incidents I've been involved in or heard of over the years, often to do with parking spaces on public highways but outside someone's house.

Should residents be able to 'police' the use of the streets directly in front of or around their home? I think no, so AIBU? If you are one of the people that think I am unreasonable I'd love to hear why, and if you do this on your street do people abide by your demands?

Because she's trying to make it a garden area, not a dog toilet area.

It does. Turns it brown. I thought that was not the case with male dog wee. I've only ever had males and have never had brown patches.

So your original description of the scenario was misleading. And as for the very neat poos…..

This is a big drip feed, so perhaps you're just goading us!

This thread is bonkers. People are really so offended about dog pee?

It’s not the neighbours grass so it’s none of her business.

I saw on Spain you have to water down your dog wee. It's actually a great idea

Carry on using the verge, but take water to pour over the wee spot, a 2 or 4 pint milk carton would be easy to fill and carry , and I’d suggest you’d be obvious about it.
wee can smell, and burn the grass, and it feels this could be a possible conciliatory action?

Shall we start to let me pee everywhere as well

It won't stink of piss though. Have you ever gone into a park or an outdoors space and thought 'Christ, it stinks of dog piss!'?
I don't believe you would have. Do you also therefore smell the fox piss too? Not poo.. piss.

don't you have bins in your immediate outdoor space? They would smell more than a dog wee.

I think you're trying to be difficult as your reasoning is very flaky.

The thing is that she wasn't asking though, she was rudely and aggressively shouting to intimidate me.

I’m with your neighbour. A nice patch of grass that children play on shouldn’t be used as a dogs’ toilet.

Yes, please un-injure yourself OP. At least it's only temporary, and you're not long term lazy like wheelchair and cane users.🙄

Yanbu, people are insane. I'm really confused by those saying to let them piss in gutters, do they really want animals standing in the roads causing accidents or do they the pee that stands on concrete around it will smell better than in grass?!

Verges that are toileted repeatedly absolutely can stink of piss! Of course a concentration of urine has potential to smell.

I used to have this scenario in my previous house. We had a stretch of council-owned strip of grass in front of our garden where dog owners would let their dogs toilet. Of course nothing we could do, but we did plant some bushes on our side for privacy. Most would pick-up, but not all and I had to keep on reminding my kids to never walk on that grass as they could step in poo. Also if the bins were out, some dog owners would let their dogs wee on the bins which was pretty disgusting. The dog wees did turn the grass brown and it did look awful. We were so near a park and I could never understand the type of owner who would let their dog toilet right outside someone's house. Lack of dog training perhaps.

I absolutely love to hear that there are still valiant women trying to maintain a pleasant environment for everyone, planting flowers and taking good care.
Ive Been to areas that used to be beautiful and are now bleak and neglected. Nobody benefits from lack of effort in communities.

I'm no spring chicken, but I don't remember dogs being taught to pee in the gutter at all .

I think the smell of dog piss on concrete guttering would be way worse than on grass.

You mean the good old days when you'd see dog shit turn white on the paths because no one picked it up? Those polite dogs?

Is this mainly about her attitude rather than the piece of grass then?

Personally, as it’s only for a limited period of time and for future neighbourly relations, I’d avoid that piece of grass,

I have no doubt that she shouts at the children who play there for ruining her geraniums or playing ball games too

Yes, I think I will do this. It shows some willingness to accomodate her perspective, whilst meeting mine and my dogs needs in a perfectly legal and reasonable manner.

In Spain I often see dog walkers carrying small bottles of water to dilute the dogs' piss. Great idea. Wish it would happen here but dogs seem to be allowed to piss up against people's walls, car wheels, dustbins etc etc without care from their owners.

It does seem probable 😆

I live in Spain.
Never seen anyone do this.

Not saying it's not a good idea, just bemused that it's been mentioned twice now, and I've yet to see it.
Maybe it's in certain cities???

Wtf? Dogs wee where they wee, as do cats, foxes etc. Birds poo where they poo. I'm in my 50s and have never in my life heard of dogs being 'trained to wee in the gutter', nor seen them doing so.

I don't mean this as an attack but of your mobility issues are so great that an extra 5 minutes of walking to get your dog to a more suitable bit of land is too much for you, then your dog is probably not getting the exercise needed and it might not be appropriate for you to have a dog if you can't meet its needs. It might for example be appropriate to pay a dog walker to take the dog for a longer walk further afield, or if you can't afford that then various charities and websites like borrowmydoggy exist to help people who aren't capable of meeting their pets needs.

If your dog is getting plenty of exercise and you are talking about an urgently needed wee in between walkies, then you need something like https://piddlepatch.com/product/real-grass-dog-toilet/