Surely my dog can poo on the pavement if I pick up immediately?

[sergeantmajor]

Well it seems I am "in the doghouse".
Taking my dog for a walk, on the lead, with DH and DD at the weekend. The dog squatted down to poo on the pavement, outside a neighbour's house (NOT on their property). The owners were sitting in their front garden and started complaining, saying I shouldn't let him poo there, it was disgusting. I said that I was going to pick it up. Then they said I should move him so he finished his poo in a woody bit down the street. I said I didn't want to pick him up mid-poo, and that I would pick it up immediately. They kept calling out, saying how disgusting it was.
After I had picked it up, they said that I ought it to hose the ground down and they were going to get their hose. Actually (if you'll excuse the description), the poo was so firm that no trace had been left. I had a water bottle with me, so I washed away the (non-existent) traces. They continued to call out abuse and f-words, even with my dd present, and the exchange turned extremely unpleasant.
As I walked away, another neighbour called out the window "well done", meaning the unpleasant owner, not me!! I think they thought I was someone who hadn't picked up.
I am fuming.
As far as I am aware, city or countryside, the dog poos, you pick up: that's it. You don't try and catch it, or move it, or shield the process from view. I can't even imagine what the alternative is.
What do you think?

This is hilarious

Do people really think the outside world is a CLEAN place, apart from whatever dog poo might show up?

The surfaces you touch and walk on and sit on all day long are all blimmin' filthy – tiny traces of a picked-up dog poo on the bottom of your shoe are nothing at all compared to what you come home with on your hands and face and the bottom of your handbag.

Arrogant, anthropocentric bubbleheads - even in cities we live in nature, and there's no escaping what that means.

@sergeantmajor your neighbours are aggressive fools. I'd be tempted to sneak back with some rubber dog poos from the joke shop and scatter them around their front garden in the night...

Ironic the way most of you dog haters have filled this planet up with your fucking disposable nappies. And plastic shit toys. Though it sounds like most of you live in areas where the people are too stupid or nasty to have well behaved dogs.

My dog doesn't jump up or growl at people and is in fact far better behaved than most humans. Mostly she shits on dirt/grass because that's where I've trained her to go and I'll stop her from weeing anywhere anti social (never happened on a train platform for example) but I don't have control over her bowels to make 100% sure it's never on the pavement.

The same way I can't stop people from throwing their litter, chewing gum and cigarette butts onto the pavement. I suggest next time any of you dog haters see a smoker, or someone throwing a sweet wrapper, or chewing gum onto the street you go and vent your spleen at them the way you have done here.

But you won't of course because you, like the neighbours, are bullies. You want a nice easy victim and one woman with a dog is perfect. Fucking arseholes the lot of you.

OP they wouldn't have been so brave if you were a 6 foot guy covered in tatts. Disgusting behaviour.

@Heroicasymphony However, it is pretty disgusting watching a dog burp its hoop out while you're enjoying a bit of lockdown sun in your garden as the owner looks fondly on.

I don't know about looking fondly on, think you might be imagining that! Usually you're worried about whether it's ok, and potential massive vet bill!

Mine got kidnapped by gypsies who tried to breed her (true story) and by the tine I got her back had a serious uterine infection and spent almost 2 days throwing up on my new rug. £2k later and emergency surgery on a Sunday. The rug didn't make it. Now on the rare ocassions she does throw up I'm far from looking on fondly!

Anyway we none of us can choose what we see or hear in the street. That's why we have gardens. I'm not fond of listening to screaming children which is why I have earphones. Sitting looking out on the road would not be my idea of a good idea - and not because I might see an animal shit or throw up.

You shouldn't have a dog if you can't take it for a walk in a grassy area and how do you expect me to get to said grassy area? If on the way my dog has to go on the pavement, she has to go. That being said, if I saw people were sat in their front garden I'd make a conscious effort to pull her out of view. But ultimately the whole exchange was unnecessary.

@cleopatrascorset bhaa how Hilarious! I haven’t had a good laugh all day!
Lol no wonder dogs growl at you, i would too
I’m not even a dog owner!

Nothing wrong with what you did OP. I always make a point of getting a bag ready so it's clear I'm going to pick up.

Only issue I have is when people then put the bag in other people's wheelie bins, yuck.

@heartsonacake

I don’t blame them; it is vile. You saw them sat there you could at least have moved the dog down a bit so they didn’t have to witness it.

All that would achieve is a trail of dog shit instead of a tidy pile

These people where grown adults... they could of diverted their gaze? Not looked a the dog while it was going to the loo?? I'm assuming your dog is not as big as a horse OP in which they could easily just I dunno, not look?!?!?

So so strange. Why have people always got to bring others down for some stupid reason or another.

@Stellaris22 Only issue I have is when people then put the bag in other people's wheelie bins, yuck.

People do this? Omg. That's appalling. I doubt it though because if you're that much of a tosser you aren't picking up in the first place.

Dog shit is vile, there's no question of that. However so are people, and on balance dogs give so much happiness. I see it every day. One of my best friends 'borrowed' my dog for a week and enjoyed it so much. Service dogs, police dogs, dogs for the blind, a trusty companion for an only child, a loving protector for a baby, a warm and happy friend for a lonely elderly person, someone to keep a person with depression moving, someone to break down the barriers for an autistic child or traumatised teen.

Dogs have been with us for many hundreds of years. They can read our emotions, and (mostly) they do what we tell them to do. So in the greater scheme of things a bit of shit residue on an already disgusting pavement is a small rice to pay. I think people who don't understand that are probably unhappy within themselves.

I'm not personally a fan on poo or pooping animals near my while I'm relaxing but the law allows your dog to crap on public pavements so they were unreasonable to take issue with you.

My preference would be that anyone who wishes to keep a dog, and thus spend their day handling poo, should do so on their own property, and a 'walk' should be for exercise not a euphemism for public shit. But as I'm not the supreme leader, and overall consensus is pro deficating animal, I have to live with people doing what the law allows.

If they really had issues with it they should campaign for stricter dog laws, not take it out on you.

@cleopatrascorset

"Maybe we should strap poo bags to our dogs bums???? 🤣 "

I fail to see what's funny. I put a nappy on my baby to stop her crapping on the pavement. Why can't you do world the same courtesy for your "fur baby"?

I sincerely hope you don't have children if the nasty attitude you're displaying on this thread is anything to go by.

They are being unreasonable of course. However maybe they have the rage from other less polite dog owners who don’t pick up (which does drive me mental!)

Only issue I have is when people then put the bag in other people's wheelie bins, yuck.

People do this? Omg. That's appalling. I doubt it though because if you're that much of a tosser you aren't picking up in the first place*

What’s wrong with putting it in the nearest wheelie bin? It’s a bin. Nobody touches it, and unless someone is going through the bin how would you even know it’s in there?

I couldn’t care less if someone put dog shit in my bin. Better in there than on my path, on my drive (yes, it has happened) on the grass by my house which I mow, or even worse, hung on a tree in it’s little plastic bag.

I took my dog for a walk in the park the other day. Lots of families with picnics. Most calling out trying to get him to come over because he was ignoring them

Bear scat is much harder to pick up. I don’t have any experience with gorilla shite, so can’t comment.
Am lol at Cleopatra (and your neighbours) though. There is literally nothing to be done. A dog’s gotta do what a dog’s gotta do, once he’s started.
I might have been tempted to move the dog onto their lawn. For whatever reason, it does ‘seem’ more hygienic, but makes fuck all sense really. There’s usually residue left in grass.
My favourite is the undigested foot long grass dangler that requires help.

It's better to use a wheelie bin than nothing at all. But in hot weather it is smelly and it's odd if there are public bins. I've seen people do this even when there are public bins near by, just seems rude to walk into someone's front garden and use their bin.

If there aren't public bins nearby then it is better than not picking up at all.

I've trained my dog to go in the kurb, he will pull me to one side, I would feel embarrassed if my dog shit in the middle of the pavement, it does happen occasionally though but her reaction was OTT

Hmmm, so i'd be thinking, why can't they go to the verge? In this weather, depending on how runny it was, you'd smell it in your garden. A firm poo wouldn't be such a problem. I'd never say anything to the owner but it might be yours is the fourth or fifth dog that day and they just got ratty. Dogs often poo outside my house as I have a little shrub in the middle of a double drive. Not all of it's picked up, so I tend to assume the worst when I see a dog squat.

@Stellaris22 perhaps it's just me but I'm always walking somewhere where there will be a public bin (on the way to the park or tube). I often have to carry it for almost 10 minutes but there's no way I'm going to piss off my neighbours like that. I really don't want to be in the pub (if they ever open) and get accosted by someone whose wheelie bin I've abused. 😁

@ladybee28 of course the world isn't sterile. That's no reason to shit all over it though. And owning a pet is the opposite of living at one with nature and the ultimate exercise of anthropometric behaviour. If you really want to go down that route.

@ForeverBubblegum agree with you. I wish that things were different but they're not, so it's not ok to go shouting at people in the street for doing what's deemed ok in this country right now.

@strugglingwithdeciding

Not illegal as long as you pick up but I do try to encourage mine not to go on pavement , (will generally go in verge )etc if I can but sometimes can't be helped

Yep, this.

Neighbours are nuts.

You should have slung the bag of poo in their garden.

@ForeverBubblegum

I'm not personally a fan on poo or pooping animals near my while I'm relaxing but the law allows your dog to crap on public pavements so they were unreasonable to take issue with you.

My preference would be that anyone who wishes to keep a dog, and thus spend their day handling poo, should do so on their own property, and a 'walk' should be for exercise not a euphemism for public shit. But as I'm not the supreme leader, and overall consensus is pro deficating animal, I have to live with people doing what the law allows.

If they really had issues with it they should campaign for stricter dog laws, not take it out on you.

I think most of us dog owners would prefer that to - it's much easier if all the poo is in my garden then carrying it around on a walk with me. But exercise does to dogs as it does to humans - stimulates the bowels

My dog has full access to the garden all day and he always shits 5 - 10 minutes into a walk on top of something. He prefers a large leaf but sometimes tries to shit on vertical surfaces too like fence posts. My favourite is when he manages to shit over the bottom rail of the fence by the river and it rolls straight down the bank and washes away. I walk in such a direction that he poops somewhere green, I always pick up (unless it’s a happy roll down the banking day!). Despite his excellent habits he still catches me out now and then and shits on a flat bit of pavement 40 minutes into his walk - he looks as surprised as I do.

@Home42 yes mine is the same, usually about 3 minutes in. It's annoying because then I've much further to carry it. But there's loads of trees on the streets around here (along with neighbours who don't scream) so it's at the base of one of those. I can have the back door open all day but no, once we start that walk it's 'time'.

The weeing is some sort of territory thing. They leave little 'I was here' markers. Leaves, corners of fences, trees - anywhere another dog has been. I do stop it a lot of the time (just don't let her stop) and if it's anywhere near anyone's house/gate she gets pulled away sharpish.

But what can you do? The world is full of animals doing what they do. As for not having pets, that's a pretty niche view I have in the same category as extreme religion.

Bloody hell some people are weird. I’m looking at you Cleopatra

And no, you don’t put a nappy on your baby so she doesn’t shit on the pavement, you do it so she doesn’t shit all over her clothes and herself.
Let her shit on the pavement if it really bothers you, just make sure you pick up after her!