Why can’t dogs be trained not to stop and shit in the middle of the pavement?

[hibiscuslightening]

If they can be housetrained then presumably they are able to hold onto their poo? So why do they seem to always stop dead in the middle of the pavement and do it there?

Can they not be trained / encouraged to go in a quiet place (ideally the owners own garden) before going right through the middle of a busy pavement outside the supermarket?

My dickhead dog loves to poo on tarmac. So I take him to side roads so he doesn’t get flattened. He has a few favourite cul de sacs.

I pick it up though and he has a good diet so there is nothing left on the pavement/road.

Have to disagree there too.

There has been an absolute explosion of dog ownership where we live in recent years and we see a dog shitting at least a few times a week (I know as my child with SEN likes to announce it!!).

These owners do always clean up but I just wish they'd been able to move the dog kerbside.

They Can easily. The problem lies with unintelligent owners. Every day I see dogs not walking to heel but yards in front of The human. So many errors. I think that people should be trained before being allowed to have a dog.

Where I live dogs poo on grass almost all the time.
We must have more grass here.

My dog walked to heel when we were walking along a road. When not near a road, dogs should be free to explore. If they have good recall, then it is not a problem.

My friend trained guide dog puppies. They teach them from day 1 which is 8 weeks old. They take them out often to the same place in the garden and then say a word which they then associate with toileting. I think it is busy busy. They associate this location is where they toilet.

They also use the same command words for all actions such as lying down or getting down, different words and leaving and dropping so all guide dogs are taught the same.

They attend puppy training classes so they are taught to not pick up the toys or scavenge food as they are working. I agree with @GucciBear it is the owners who are mostly at fault. I also see dogs pulling their owners, guide dogs are taught not to do it, usually with different leads/harnesses and patience.

My dogs both ask to go outdoors to vomit. I can't take any credit for that, they taught themselves.

I had 3 dogs in my life and none of them has ever been comfortable pooping in the middle of the pavement.
My current dog acts like he poos once every 12 years, it has to be the perfect spot, and the quest to find it can last forever, but it's never in the middle of the pavement, generally on grass.

Yes I really don't see the problem here.

Of course they can be trained. Its the lazy moron owners that are the problem.

This is very rare where I live. I see loads of dogs every day on my walk with mine and I think I have only seen a dog do that a couple of times in 5 years.

One of DD's dogs only ever poos in their own back garden, never when out on a walk. No-one taught her this, it's just her preference.

A bit of a generalisation but the people who allow their dogs to poo on pavements are usually the sort that only ever strut their dogs around the streets as a status symbol and never take them for a decent walk on grass. These are also the types least likely to clean up after their dogs, so perfect storm as it were.

My dog would never in a million years shit randomly. She had her spot in her own garden.

I never took a bag out with me. One day my dog decided to take a big shit directly outside a school at 2.50pm. I was mortified. I ran home and then drove back quickly with a bag just in the nick of time before 3.15pm 🤣

Forgot to add I have no idea why she did that. It was very very unusual.

It certainly is NOT rare to see dog poo in the street!

Our dogs don’t shit on footpaths. This is admittedly more down to luck than excellent training. They both like to shit in undergrowth on walks.

Was certainly busy busy almost 30 years ago when we got our first guide dog pup, and several after. It certainly wasn't used just for personal gardens though as a previous poster stated, it was a command for any and all relevant time useful to the blind person. So for us taking the puppy into tesco for a big shop "busy busy" just before entering was crucial to the blind person knowing their dog had toileted.

My lab now would never shit on the pavement and if he did I'd whack him right round to the vet.

Does it really matter so long as the owner picks it up?

For 14 years my lab pooed either in a ditch, a gutter or a specific area in the garden. Now he tries his best but arthritus and the jabs he has to help mean he does sort of walk along doing it.

I always have bags and a water bottle and I don't tell him off, he literally only walks 10 mins a day now. I want him to enjoy his sniffing and meander, not worry that people might be judging the poor greying old boy pooping.

I rarely see it. I had a dog myself for 14 years and only once did she poo in the street and that was when she had a sudden upset tummy.

I discovered that there is nothing as finicky on this earth as a terrier choosing where to poo. The sniffing of different blades of grass, the turning in a tight circle, then a circle in the other direction, the dismissal of the original option, the starting all over again.......

My dog is actually very well trained. We get comments on it all the time. But it’s never occurred to me to train him not to poo on pavements. Why is it an issue if I pick it up? His poo is firm and leaves no trace once picked up.

Mine is a terrier indeed, it didn't occur to me it could be a terrier thing actually!

Not sure what people who live in more urban areas are supposed to do. I have no garden and have to walk on quite a few pavements to get to any grass. Sometimes my dog poops on the way. Not sure he can help it.
also it isn’t legal to go off lead where I live so dogs walk around the streets a lot. They are well trained just don’t have an alternative. And honestly the main local grass area is a park heavily used by kids to play football etc so personally I prefer dogs pooping on the pavement over in the middle of the grass where kids are rolling around even if the poop is picked up.