Are people good about picking up after their dogs where you live?

I don’t walk my dogs as I have a half acre of fenced in property & my dogs free range 24/7/365. With my disability, I also don’t go out walking through my yard very often either. In the summertime, we are hot enough that pretty much everything dries out within a very short time & mowing the yard tends to break up & distribute what little bit there is out there.

When needing exercise, I do go to our local park & walk on the paved areas. The streets in my neighborhood do NOT have sidewalks & that makes it difficult for me to walk. I’m always amazed at how many poop piles there are in the park area considering that the city also provides FREE poop baggies. IF the owners think that you’re watching them, they do clean up behind their dogs; however, IF they think you’re NOT paying attention, they keep on walking.

We don’t allow pets where I live.

In my greater area, no. In my neighborhood, it’s not really an issue (I think!), because there is more space and lots of wooded paths.

I pick up after my dogs for sure when we’re in any area where people might walk. Fields, our yard, sidewalks, the street, forest paths: yes. I am unsure, though, about the wooded areas right across our street. Barely anyone walks there. No paths, lots of brambles, old trees, uneven terrain. I know trees can use a certain amount of nitrogen. I know plastic bags are awful for the planet. So, I’m really not sure what to do. We moved to this area fairly recently, and I’m still trying to figure it out.

By and large people are very good at picking up after their dogs here but I have occasionally seen a black poop bag tied to the branch of a tree and dangling in the air at about head height. Words fail me.

In general, yes.

Pretty much.

Yeah, mostly.

No. He craps in our yard. I call it fertilizer and it’s gone in a few days. The neighbors let their dogs out and one crapped in our yard. She was quick with the apology and asked if I wanted her to pick it up. I just waved it off.

Yes. My little subdevelopment makes it too convenient for them. There’s a little vending station at every corner where a blade of grass isn’t owned by a specific owner. Unfortunately, we also get a TON of geese during migration times so we get goose poop all over the grass.

I don’t own a dog. I own two cats who have only gone outside the litter box twice—both times because one cat had kicked enough litter out of the box, and i hadn’t noticed, that the other cat (I think) was just like ‘Oh, the litter is out here now? This must be where my Pet Human wants me to go now!’

Now, I have been commuting to the city and seen how readily city dog walkers giddily leave poop everywhere. They often will have the plastic bag in their hand, I think as a prop because if they didn’t, people would know what they were planning. You can see them side-eyeing looking for witnesses and then walking away without picking up.

Ummm… what is picking up? ~

Seriously though, people here generally don’t do that kind of things. What they do is let the dog find a place to do the business and come back home. Responsible owners will let them do it somewhere in their yard or at least supervised them. But there are some people who just let their dogs wander around and find a spot to do it themselves then come back. The idea is that dogs are intelligent enough to follow a routine and come back, just like how human use the toilet.

That is the reason why this dog exists and I got chased

@flutherother Having done this, I may be able to shed light on this weird phenomenom: There are no trashcans in the forest, usually. When I’m starting on a loop though the woods, I really don’t want to carry a bag for an hour or two if, instead, I could carry it back home only. Leaving the bag on the ground means I might not see it on the way back. So yes, I might tie it to a tree and definitely take it home to my trashcan an hour later. I don’t make a habit of this. But I’ve done it a couple of times, when I was under time pressure and needed to walk the dogs as efficiently as possible.

Unfortunately, I’ve also seen completely abandoned bags. That’s the worst case scenario for the planet.

@longgone That makes sense. It is the abandoned bags that annoy me.

Where my house is on the beach, yes. Very well mannered dog owners. I find little green bags in every coat I own.
Where my house is in the mountains, No. No need to as there is more deer, bear, wild animal scat than dogs when I walk my dog in the forest.

In my neighborhood, maybe 90% pick up. There is poop here and there. Worst are the ones that bag the poop then leave the bag. It’s still leaving poop, so why do they bother bagging it?!

Are the dogs pooping on the sidewalk?

Some let the dogs poop in neighbors’ yards then walk away, some pick up the poop then toss the bag next to trees on the sidewalk strip. The latter is baffling to me. It’s already in their hand. Just take it home.

I didn’t read the answers above. Overall, people seem good about picking up after their doors, BUT dog urine kills grass in spots on a lot of our lawns. Every so often there is a thread on a local Facebook group about it and more than one dog owner thinks it’s just horrible that some of us are annoyed about it.

From what I understand, if the dog owner just brings a water bottle with them, they can dilute the urine and save my lawn. A friend If mine asked her neighbor to do that, and it seems to work.

People spend time and money on their lawns, why do people think it’s ok for their dogs to kill it? These people have their own lawns. Literally my neighbor two doors down let’s her dog kill my lawn. I once caught her and said, “can you please have your dog do that on your lawn, he’s killing my grass.” The lawn is brown right where the dog was peeing. She replied, “I’m having surgery tomorrow.” Her mind is not going, she just wanted me to excuse it, because she had surgery coming up.

That’s one reason we don’t have grass in front – why spend time and money maintaining grass if neighborhood dogs are going to pee on it.

I was today years old when I learned dog pee kills grass.

Esp. when dogs pee on the same spot to cover up the smell of the previous dog. My dog loves to do that.

Here, dog urine doesn’t get a chance to kill grass unless it’s summertime. It rains too much in other seasons. People still don’t like it when dogs pee on their lawns, so I don’t let my dogs do that. I can see this being difficult when there’s very few public spots for trees and grass to grow, as I’ve sometimes seen in the US. What are the dogs supposed to do? Many dogs, especially females, will pee only on natural surfaces. Seems to me like it’s unfair of humanity to first cover the planet in concrete, and then get upset about having to share the small spaces of greenery with animals.

Carrying a water bottle for two hours or so would be a real pain. Of course it’s a good idea for just a short walk. I’ve done that before when I was in very urban areas.

@JLeslie Have you considered putting out a watering can for those dog owners to use? I know it shouldn’t be your responsibility, but maybe it would eliminate the problem.

@longgone I doubt I can set up a water bottle on my lawn. It would most likely be against the rules. I’d need to have the bottle and instructions. I really doubt anyone is walking two hours here, especially in the summer in 90ºF (32°C).

I thought about sprinkling something on my grass that would be a deterrent and maybe the dogs who regularly come to my lawn would get out of the habit. Is there something that would work? Would they start coming back as soon as I stopped?

There is dog repellant powder you can get. The one I got smells like licorice. Bleah!