Dog poop pickup poll

[jcretire77]

Our front yard has a fire hydrant and plants on a berm. So many dogs pee that it has killed the plants and damaging the lawn next to this area. Why not across the street where there is also a sidewalk and it is a common area? I could not understand how someone let their dog poop in the middle of my driveway and not clean it up. I have zero tolerance for the idiot owners.

 

[irishgal]

I see two issues here. First, I have never heard of a city or town that had animal control regulations that allowed dogs to roam off their property. For me, that is a huge issue. Dogs don't understand that the driveway or the sidewalk is where their property ends, and can potentially become territorial with neighbors if they decide the area in which they roam is "theirs".
Second is the poop, which of course goes along with the roaming dog.

I would talk once to the neighbors, tell them they need to keep their dog on their property unless it's on a leash and if they don't do this I would call animal control and let them know the dog is roaming. They usually will at least come out and talk to the owner.

People and their lack of understanding of canine behavior (my dog won't ever bite, my dog is okay off leash 100% of the time, my dog is exempt from leash laws...) never ceases to amaze me.

 

[ER Eddie]

You could be like George H. W. Bush and draw a line in the poop.

Let's keep politics out of this. We have enough crap in here already.

 

[irishgal]

I walk our dog on a leash in the neighborhood daily. 99% of the ugly dog confrontations we have had are with dogs let out like this. The dogs find it to be more fun to attack us than to just do their business. Occasionally some of these dogs get a face full of Halt pepper spray. Shame on their owners.

Glad you are carrying Halt. I have used it many times as well. I will never get the mentality of allowing dogs, who are likely not even trained basic recall, to run out in the yard or street..

 

[EarlyBirdly]

start with a friendly chat.

Nonsense.


Escalate immediately by burning down their garage.

 

[HadEnuff]

Nonsense.


Escalate immediately by burning down their garage.

I wouldn't go that far right away, but I might start with the old "poop in the paper bag set on fire on the doorstep, ring door bell and run away" trick...

What was that called?

 

[Carpediem]

Do you have a bag on your mower, or is the poop just flung across the lawn? If the latter, maybe you could angle your approach so the poop gets shot at your neighbor's lawn.

The mower doesn't propel the poop out of the opening per se. Rather it slices into it and makes a huge mess and a very smelly clean up. I would never mow over it because I don't want the hassle of cleaning my mower.

 

[kgtest]

I help my neighbors by pointing out where there dog pooped. They appreciate it and pick it up when I do it. Of course there are always a few rouge one's when I mow the lawn. I've owned a dog, so I understand the struggle. Off leash dogs during rush hour commutes...something I need to add to the pet peeves. It's like hey what could make all of my neighbors commutes more stressful...how about a neighborhood full of dogs running loose when all the commuters get home. Hell I love walking my dog at precisely 4:15 and 8am...no better time right? I like joeee's idea if they don't initially comply. Make them feel the misery you are experiencing! I love dogs BTW, just not dog $hit.

 

[nativenewenglander]

Our next door neighbors got a new dog at the end of last year - a white lab. They're not the type of owners who keep their dog on a lease nor watch it when they let it out to do its business. None of their property is fenced. A couple of times it came running at me while I was mowing and we often see it running free through our yard.

We have a medium sized older dog (13) and a fenced backyard. Our dog only goes in the backyard when we let it out. We never let it out the front or to run free.

Lately I've found rather large piles of poop in our side yard where it's not fenced - next to the neighbor's house. It is definitely not our dog's poop and the volume fits that of a lab. At first I thought I would just pick it up and not say anything, which is what my DW wants. But on second thought, there is no way I am picking up someone else's dog's poop. So I picked it up with a shovel and put it in their yard.

What would you do?

We had this happen with a neighbor across the street. My wife and I put up with the poop for a while, then set up a game cam. I'd say within a week we had multiple pictures of their dog doing it's business on the lawn and driveway. Once we showed them the photos the pooping stopped for a couple years. Then it started again last winter. The neighbors stopped talking to us after we showed them the game cam pictures by the way. The husband ended up having an affair with a high school girl,he was a principle. They recently sold the house and moved out of town. Problem solved for now. New homeowners have two dogs, ugh. They seem like responsible folks, we shall see. Good luck with your issue.

 

[dirtbiker]

If it happened once/rarely, I'd just pick it up and not create waves. Any more than that, and I'd have a friendly chat. Probably come over with an extra beer in hand. It's amazing how things can get settled civilly over a beer. If it continued after the friendly chat, it would be a more serious chat. If it still continued, I'd lay out some antifreeze. Just kidding! It's not the dog's fault his/her owner is an A-hole. If it still continued, I'd carry the piles onto their sidewalks. It would be a shame to have it escalate that far.

 

[Scrapr]

The husband ended up having an affair with a high school girl,he was a principle. They recently sold the house and moved out of town. Problem solved for now.

This part of the story sounds more interesting than the dog portion

*I allus pick up poop. Then if I see more I will pick it up as well. In the local park the same dog poops in the same place several times a week. Same size & composition. I am thinking about a trail cam there. I have picked up as many as 5 poops there.

When we had three Goldens it was a challenge to watch who was pooping at the local dog park. You had to keep your head on a swivel

 

[rick55]

I wouldn't go that far right away, but I might start with the old "poop in the paper bag set on fire on the doorstep, ring door bell and run away" trick...

What was that called?

The Flaming Bag Of Dog Poop...

 

[zedd]

Recently changed my dogz kibble. He thrives on it. Interestingly the Magpies pick up all of his poop now.

PM me. I'll send you some Magpies.

zedd,
the thread killer

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Recently changed my dogz kibble. He thrives on it. Interestingly the Magpies pick up all of his poop now.

PM me. I'll send you some Magpies.

zedd,
the thread killer

We live in the country. No one picks up poop and I've never known anyone to care about this. The only time I've lived in a city I didn't have a dog. Regularly in my yard we find all sorts of critter poop including coyote. And neighborhood dogs. I'm sure our dog poops on their yard too. It's just poop. We mow it and go on.

 

[bigcmagor]

We live in the country. No one picks up poop and I've never known anyone to care about this. The only time I've lived in a city I didn't have a dog. Regularly in my yard we find all sorts of critter poop including coyote. And neighborhood dogs. I'm sure our dog poops on their yard too. It's just poop. We mow it and geaux on.

Fixed that.....

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Fixed that.....

I laughed out loud- Thanks for the smile with my coffee!

 

[jollystomper]

I would start with a friendly conversation. As mentioned above, bring something as a gift perhaps to show that there is no hostility involved. I am .amazed these days on how more and more folks are unwilling to talk to others face-to-face.

If that did not fix it I would clean it up and move it to their property. And tell them I was doing this.

I also agree about the ordinance issue mentioned - unless you are in the remote country most locales have laws about pets running free. Poop is the least of the issues - harm to others or to the pet itself is paramount.

I am a "Judge Judy" fan... some of the most "humorous" episodes are the ones involving situations similar to these. She does not pull any punches.

 

[msanniee]

I have asked neighbors to curb their dogs and had to explain what curb your dog meant when I lived in San Francisco.

I let a very gossipy neighbor know that if dogs continued to use my yard and damage my lawn, after asking the dog be curbed, that I would happily post pictures on social media.

To date the second security camera I need to put up to monitor my front yard is still not up, but no more damaged lawn from dogs either.

The power of using gossip where I now live is quite amusing to me ......

 

[Caskem]

Love the specious comparison

Among millions of others, Syrian refugees and people living in poverty all over the world might be able to draw a distinction, for example.

But we're not talking about some third-world s**thole are we? We're talking about the United States, where people have investments in their property and communities. And neighbors who don't respect those investments are problems.

 

[CRLLS]

We no longer have any dogs although we consider us dog people. We live in an older area with a few un-improved lots. A week or two ago we went for a walk. I saw something in a branch about 8 ft up on one of those overgrown lots. At first I thought it was tent caterpillars. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be 3 bags of dog poop. I suspect that someone actually picked up the poop and then decided it was OK to throw it on the lot and got caught up in the branches. Really people? WTF were you thinking?

 

[mountainsoft]

Lately I've found rather large piles of poop in our side yard where it's not fenced - next to the neighbor's house... What would you do?

Build a fence. Honestly, dogs are gonna do what dogs do. Yeah, maybe the neighbors are being irresponsible, but even if they contain their dog or only let it poop on a leash who's to say a different dog won't leave presents for you.

In my area, we get deer poop, rabbit poop, bird poop, and even the occasional bear poop. Dogs aren't really a problem. We had a bird decide to take shelter under our front porch for the winter and had bird poop all over the place. I just cleaned that up last week.

We have bigger problems with deer eating all of our plants. The only reliable way to keep them out of our garden was to build a fence.

I would rather build a fence and keep everybody happy than cause tension with neighbors I have to live next to for years.

 

[karen1972]

I do appreciate the problem, a friendly conversation at least puts them on notice... I've had nothing but bad luck with bad dog owners and turned in several for leash law violations. It amazes me when your dog gets hit by a car because its running all over that you blame the person who couldn't stop and not think.. oh I should have had it on a leash. Dog still in cast, still running free, almost got hit a second time.. turned them in for the dogs safety.

 

[Badger]

Talking to the neighbor about their dog will not always be a safe way to approach the problem. These are inconsiderate people.


I had the same problem with neighbors and got tired of running over the poop with my lawn mower and having to wash off outside with the hose before going inside to take a shower.



I finally started taking pictures and reporting to the police and animal control. Dogs off a leash is illegal here. After a few fines and a court date with the pictures that cost them a couple hundred dollars the dog was kept on their property.



No confrontation or conversation or any kind of endangerment to me and the problem was resolved.


Cheers!

 

[ychuck46]

How we roll

When we lived in our prior home we had neighbors who let their dog crap all over our lawn. They said he must just prefer our lawn since it was so nice. Welllll, one night they went out for dinner and as usual they did not turn their front light on, and they preferred to go in via that front door of the home regardless. Somehow a bunch of their dog's crap made its way to their front steps that night. When they came home we saw how they went into the house, and seconds later they came out scrapping their shoes on the steps. Somehow their dog no longer preferred our lawn after that since the crap on our lawn never reemerged.

Sometimes talking doesn't do a lot of good with inconsiderate people.

 

[Chuckanut]

I vote for having a chat with the neighbor. If she takes responsibility and cleans up the mess herself, and keeps her dog from roaming about on my property again, I know she is among the 50% (or less it seems at times) of dog owners who are responsible people.


OTOH, if I am hassled, if she refuses to pick up the poop, if she claims it can't possibly be her dog even after I assure her I saw the dog pooping, if she tells me her dog has some sort of right to poop on my property, then the next time I will return the poop to her.


Note: one of the reasons I don't have a pet at the current time is that I no longer wish to clean up after them, whether it is hair, poop, damaged items or anything else.



Generally, I like dogs, cats, etc. It's some of the owners who can get under my skin.