I have two dogs, and I scoop poop year 'round. We don't get many hard freezes here, but when we do, I pick up the poopcicles.

I pick up after my two dogs right after they go. I would hate to walk around my back (or front) yard and be stepping in poop.

Oh, have no doubt. It's not just cover of snow that these jackholes leave dog poop behind. It's cover of darkness, too.

How about a little sign with a couple poop bags clipped on? It's inexcusable to leave it, a contaminant to water when snow melts.

You should see my neighborhood when the snow melts!

Thanks all! I do know responsible dog owners but there is this certain subset that thinks that the bodily fluids and wastes of their dogs are precious equisitely perfumed substances that we all should admire and appreciate. One such woman recently was standing there as her dog was happily peeing on the wall of my raised flower bed and got all bent out of shape at the suggestion that she move her dog to the curb.

Socks - I was thinking of a sign but trying to think of how to do it in a way that wasn't itself ugly and offensive. Do I really want to be known as the person with the ugly "no peeing or pooping" sign in their front yard - LOL. I think providing the bags is a nice touch. Definitely better than my fantasy of collecting all the turds in a big pile and leaving them on the side walk with a sign saying " Are you missing something? Found these and thought you might like to do the right thing."

Put a "curb you dog" sign up so people don't offend you with their dogs peeing. Or live in a high rise condo.

While you're at it, put up a few more signs so birds and squirrels don't relieve themselves on your precious flowers.

Seriously? Well, OK, I'll play along. The difference between dogs and birds/squirrels is that the former leaves droppings and urine in larger quantities, having a much more noticeable and repulsive smell, and they tend to leave these in places where I am likely to smell it/step in it (ie my garden and front terrace). Dog pee in sufficient quantities can kill plants - even trees - and you know how dogs are - one starts, everyone else has to join in.

And no it is not the dogs peeing and pooping that is offensive - its some owners' lack of respect and consideration for the property and yards of others.

Hope that clarifies.

Put up a fence. Plant hearty flowers.

I expect dog owners to pick up feces, but when a dog squats or lifts to pee, it's happening.

I avoid walking past one particular house because the nasty woman who lives there screamed at me AS I WAS PICKING UP AFTER MY DOG.

You could go that route. It works.

You could also spread dolomite lime on your lawn.

something like this would get your point across w/o being offensive.

There are many cute "curb your dog" signs that get the point across. I try my best to heed them and usually succeed.

Believing this is why ordinances get passed - our city has 1. Only a fine (or the threat of one) will make some folks behave, it seems...

"Dog pee in sufficient quantities can kill plants - even trees - and you
know how dogs are - one starts, everyone else has to join in."
poop you can pick up, but when your dog decides to pee there's not much you can do to stop them. I generally avoid really pristine front yards and lawns, and try to keep my dogs on the road as we pass by. I've been abused by a homeowner though when my dogs peed on the overgrown hellstrip outside their side fence (land that isn't owned by them, but belongs to the city) so no matter what you do, there is someone out there who will take offence. I've never lost a plant or tree to dog pee and I've seen plenty of dogs peeing on them on my property frontage. I own dogs so I understand there's not a whole lot of control when it comes to doing anything about pee, so I don't let it worry me. Even if my own dogs pee on one of my plants I tell myself they are just fertilising the plants lol, since pee is high in nitrogen. :)

My least favorite neighbors are the ones that bag their dog's poo and leave it at the corner as if they will pick it up when they come back home. I have on two occasions collected the bag and tossed it in their driveways.

almost as bad, bagging it and tossing it into my refuse can when they are out to the curb for collection. (Pet excrement must be double bagged here to be put out in the trash. also, I don't pay my trashmen to handle someone's "gifts." YMMV)

I live next door to a park and I have phoned my local govt office and asked them if they can put a bin with bags for dog poop at the park (I did this after someone decided to pick up poop in a bag and drop it over my side brick wall). This is what they provide at parks here where dogs are allowed, and the bins have a regular supply of poop bags attached to them for owners to pick up. I've noticed around various parks in my city, that when the bins and bags are provided, 99% of dog owners do use them, you always get a few lazy owners who can't be bothered but I think it makes a huge difference and most people do the right thing if a bin and bags are provided. Unfortunately the city never got back to me about it though.

Saltidawg, if I'm going past my house when walking my dogs I do the same thing and toss the poop bags down my driveway lol. When I get home I collect them up and they go in the bin. Not sure why some people have an issue carrying the poop bag around, I think the worst part is the picking up in case someone is watching lol, my husband refuses to do it so I'm the picker upper-er.

NEVER should any dog owner think that they can toss bagged dog poo into anyone's trash cans!

That's beyond bad form.

We have a collection bucket carefully hidden at the top of our driveway and that's where it all goes.

Saltidawg, if I'm going past my house when walking my dogs I do the same thing and toss the poop bags down my driveway lol.

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omg, I do that too! I've got pretty good aim at this point ;-)

(sad, I know)

I think the worst part is the picking up in case someone is watching lol, my husband refuses to do it so I'm the picker upper-er.

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I have 2 dogs and have walked around with, at times, 4 poop bags tied to my fanny/doggy pack.

"I have 2 dogs and have walked around with, at times, 4 poop bags tied to my fanny/doggy pack."

That's so funny, I have 2 dogs too, and I carry 5 bags, 2 for each dog and one spare! The spare normally doesn't get used but when I walk my dogs, they turn into poop machines lol so the other 4 bags often get used.

Yup, I mean, 4 FULL poop bags!

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do ;-)

Full poop bags toss really well, don't they? :-)

I threw one at a coyote recently.

Mimi! LOL you are too funny!!! I can't help but laugh at the vision of someone walking around with poop bags tied to them! HA!!! That is dog love to the max!

We don't walk our dog in the winter but if I lived where our winters were warmer, cleaning it up wouldn't be a problem. Where we live, it's typically 10 - 20 degrees out during the day and there's several inches of snow and ice on the ground so no, we don't clean it in the winter. Then again, I doubt very seriously any of the warm weather people would go clean their yards under those conditions either. (Though it's certainly easy to say you would when it's a balmy 50 or 60 degrees outside) Slipping on ice and landing on poop would be painful and kind of gross too right? My guess is that's why a lot of people in our area, including us, have fairly large and relatively private yards. Then regardless of whatever we decide to do or not do it doesn't affect anyone else.

In regards to the walking path in front of our house, we haven't had any problems that I know of, however it's over 100 feet away and belongs to the city so I could really care less if there's poop there or not. If we did have a problem though, I might put a small can down there with a box of bags as a courtesy. If I put a sign up, it might say something to the effect of:

Courtesy poop can and bags.

Please help keep the grass clean and the bag supply available to everyone.

Clean baggie donations are welcome and appreciated!

The can would be placed where we put out our trash and it could just get emptied weekly by the trash people.

We have a new puppy. Before having a puppy, no one left us presents. Now that we have our puppy, peeps keep leaving presents. One even left it in a bag. We pick up immediately, so know - not ours...

In my area, there's poop'n'scoop laws in addition to bags/receptacles at nearly every street corner. However, it appears that most owners take advantage of the lax enforcement. One neighbor routinely lets his three dogs out to relieve themselves least 3-4 times daily. My area (with laws and free bags) seems to be no cleaner than any other. And on trash collection days, I have to immediately bring my trash cans inside so they are not used by discourteous owners:(

We clean year round when we can. Who wants a dog to track that back into the house? However-as it has been noted deep snow changes things up. But with the warm weather and no snow- no excuses.

There is a really nice park I stopped taking the dogs to because people will not pick up after their pets. Disgusting.

Snow changes nothing. I've dug into snow and pulled up a handful of snow and poop and put it into the bag.

At night, I use my phone's light or a headlight.

It's just plain lazy and discourteous not to pick up.

mimipad- I was talking about in my yard during heavy snow. Night poop in the snow can wait until daylight to be picked up. Nothing lazy or discourteous going on here.

Yep, me too, my yard, my rules and IMHO it's not lazy or discourteous at all. However, if my dog does her deed out of the yard I'd never leave it or a bag for someone else to deal with; not on a walking path or in a park.

@ nannygoat18:

Hubby remedied a similar situation w/ our next door neighbor some years ago. The guy would let his large dog out & just wait on his front porch 'til the dog came back - usually from our yard. Hubby got so fed up, he took a shovel & scooped all the poo & tossed the load into the neighbor's driveway. The prob ceased after that.

I'm very tempted to do that, however someone was recently "caught on camera" and heavily fined:(

If I knew for sure that the mess belonged to my neighbor, I'd have no problem sticking it into a box, ringing his bell and letting him know he'd lost something.

Haha!

He's a very new neighbor and I've never even seen him. I certainly wouldn't want that to be his "welcome wagon" gift. I'm hoping that I can introduce myself and catch more flies with honey than poop:)

Well, the responses on this thread have been quite illuminating. "Deep snow changes things." Why on earth do you think that? I sincerely want to know. Like, it will never be spring and the snow (and poop) melt?

And this idea that we can't POSSIBLY train our dogs to pee/poop in a more appropriate spot than someone else's garden or lawn - what's that all about? Simple google of "dog urine kills plants" will get you more info than you can imagine. This from a gardener who is also a dog lover sums it up pretty nicely: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/complaint-box-dog-urine/

"But we do not want to become a society of signs and fences. Teaching dogs to respect plants is not impossible, even for the most manipulated owners — like those who tell me their pet is the one holding the leash. Oh really? I am quite positive that Miffy, given the option, would actually prefer to pee in the apartment rather than outside of it, yet you have persuaded her not to."

Today I watched a dog defecate on my lawn while the owner strode away without picking it up. I hurried after her and asked "Excuse me, but would you mind picking that up?" She glared at me and said I should thank her for the free fertilizer!

Kashka_kat please get a life instead of making snarky comments about things you don't see to know much about. Yes deep snow changes things which is why I posted that statement. As soon as it starts to thaw there is still poo that needs to be cleaned. I don't think it is that hard to understand.

Sorry Acadiafun I misunderstood - I entirely missed your other post stating you were referring to your own yard specifically. I should make clear that I am speaking specifically of an urban environment with many dogs per day travelling by and deposits left on other people's property for them to clean up and/or in common areas like parks and terraces meant for everyone to use. Houses/yards very close together - literally only 8-10 ft alley- which means if someone has a noticeable bad odor emanating from their yard it really is more of a nuisance than if the houses were spread out.

Certainly I know many fine dogs/owners who are conciencious, But of those who aren't - my neighbors small pine trees near the sidewalk 2 or 3 feet into her yard were killed by several years of dog pee - got progressively browner on the dog pee side until finally they removed. My raised bed in front last summer wasnt doing too well and I wasnt sure why until I saw what was going on (and got yelled at by someone for daring to ask that she move her dog). Im not sure WHAT I will do with that bed - once one starts they all do. At least 5 times a year if not more I have to spend considerable effort removing the stink from my shoes - and last summer tossed a pair of fav flip flops away because I just could not get the stench out.

That is MY frame of reference.

Cities/urban environments are all about users making compromises - one persons rights end where anothers begin.

BTW If I need a life so do some others here who have posted myriad times on this same topic!

Re: my original question, it arose in a conversation with some other neighbors because we were under the impression that it seemed like MORE poop left in yards/terraces in winter than summer. Maybe that's not true then? Maybe its just the same bunch of inconsiderate owners, only more noticeable in winter? Well Im not about to do a scientific sampling to test that hypothesis - so Ill leave it at that!

Kashka kat, I'm sorry your poor flower bed is getting bombarded by the dogs. A neighbor has her mailbox down at the curb because she has 3 labs with an electric fence that will not let the mailman come up to the house. This mailbox has plants around it as well and was being used as the local fire hydrant by passing dogs being walked. She didn't like this, understandably so and ended up taking the plants out, completely turning up the soil quite a bit and then replanting, including a little sign asking to keep the dogs off. It has worked so far. When I walk mine and the male heads over that way, I just keep him moving. I think it's working pretty well, because none of her plants have died since digging up and turning the dirt. I think we have to be mindful when walking the dogs to pay attention to what they are doing. I often see people (usually young people) either looking at their phones or with headphones on while walking the dog. Not a good idea in our area because we do not have sidewalks and it can get hairy when cars come flying up the street. Uh oh.....I have digressed...... I hope you can find a satisfactory solution to this problem.

And this idea that we can't POSSIBLY train our dogs to pee/poop in a more appropriate spot than someone else's garden or lawn - what's that all about?

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I hope you don't own a dog.

I would need a cork and a clothespin to stop my dogs from peeing at will.

smh

I agree mimipad, I'm sure it's all the smells and stimulation of the walk that gets everything going, no way to stop it once it starts lol, it's just nature at work.

When you gotta go, you gotta go:)

With dogs, especially males, it's not about having to go, marking things is a natural behavior and their way of leaving their calling card. When I take our dog to doggy day care, she does whatever she can to smell the wall on her way in, it's her way of knowing who's there. The only way to really detract them from it is to scurry past the spots as they start to sniff and distract them so they don't have a chance to stop.