How strange is picking up after your dog while on a walk?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I live in what could best be described as a rural subdivision. Livestock is allowed, houses have lots of varying size and there are no building codes. Also, no sidewalks, just grass and gravel on either side of the road.

I was walking my dogs when one of them needed to do his business of the solid variety. So I get out one of those little biodegradable baggies and scoop it up. An older neighbor (70s-80s) remarks that “this isn’t New York City, why are you picking it up?” and tells me I should just leave it because it will “go back to nature”.:rolleyes:

I jokingly say I don’t want to step in it and I continue my walk, depositing the bag in my trashcan when I got home.

The guy sounded honestly shocked that I’d take the time to stop and pick it up! I’m never going to stop picking up after them, but is it that strange?

2

Encourage your dog to crap in front of that guy’s house every time. You’ll never have to pick up dogshit again!

3

LOL, I missed the word “after” in the thread title and thought maybe this would be a tale of someone toting around a Great Dane.

4

Good idea. Except I’m 100% sure which house is his (he was walking down the street).

5

No, it’s not strange. In the year 2017, people are supposed to be conscientious about the environment as well as being a good neighbor.

Leaving shit on the ground so that it can get washed into people’s favorite swimming holes, thereby putting them at risk of illness? Leaving shit on the ground so that someone else can step in it? These are things that bad neighbors do.

An elderly person isn’t likely to understand this because he or she grew up with different values. Back when he/she was running the world, there’s was shit all over the place and people just put up with it. They tolerated all kind of nastiness. We’re trying to do things better, but sometimes they don’t get it.

Where I live, it’s against the law not to clean up behind your dog. I still find turds here and there, but it’s nice not having to constantly be on the look out when I’m walking to work in the morning.

6

You could always just put it in a bag and then put it back on the ground.

7

I don’t think it’s strange. I think it’s good manners. One of the reasons people don’t like dog owners is that many don’t pick up after their dogs. Good for you for doing it.

8

It’s certainly not strange at all in the city or where there are sidewalks and your dog poops on the walk. Out in the country, not so much. If there isn’t a sidewalk and the dog is pooping in the grass, it seems less necessary. I still wouldn’t look at you funny; it’s your business if you want to clean it up.

9

This is one of my go-to answers to “how have things changed since you were a kid?” Back in the 60’s, if somebody had picked up his dog’s poop in a plastic bag and taken it home with him, they would have taken him away in a straightjacket. Now, it’s required by law in most cities.

10

Since you did mention this, it’s IMO not directly relevant for people to mention it’s illegal not to pick up after the dog in some places, or in general to answer assuming it’s an urban or suburban environment. Well who knows maybe it would have been technically illegal not to pick after my dog on a rural road in Wisconsin, just gravel and grass on each side, no houses fronting on it (or way the heck back from it anyway), where I was visiting recently. I did pick it up and walked a long way till there was a garbage can (at a gas station). Nobody told me it looked funny, but it did feel a little funny. But force of habit.

Back home I live in about as densely packed an urban area as you can find in the US, of course I pick up after the dog at all times, of course some other people don’t, and of course they are being jerks and breaking the law. But out in the middle of nowhere, it’s a reasonable question I think.

11

Does a bear shit in the woods?

I have a hard time getting upset about “leaving shit on the ground” in a general sense when that’s what wild animals have been doing for thousands of years. But I applaud the OP for not leaving it where someone could step it in.

12

The setting matters. Leaving dog mess on an urban sidewalk is a problem. Leaving it in a rural suburban field might not be as much of a problem.

13

its never a bad thing haha :stuck_out_tongue:

14

If someone does that in Chicago and I see them, I’m taking your picture and posting it on social media. I’d get in the habit now of picking up.

15

Depends where you live. I don’t have to pick up dog shit, so I’m lucky.

Slight Hijack: One of the dogs is a freak. He always backs his ass up to a rock or bush to shit on. Kinda comical. He shit on my wife’s shoe last week.

Little rascal!

16

I also live in a rural neighbourhood where it’s common to see deer, foxes, raccoons, coyotes, etc.

I have always picked up my dog’s poop while walking. It’s really not that much of a chore, and I would hate to leave a steaming pile at the end of someone’s driveway.

I will admit to not picking it up on my own 2 acre property though. It does just kinda dissolve into the ground. I’ve only has small dogs, so we’re talking maybe three or four thumb-sized turds.

17

I’d say that 70% of people I see on the street with dogs do it. Not doing it is punishable by a fine of up to $250 in our city. Not that anyone ever enforces that particular law…

18

^ This.

Works as well on ‘respected members’ of the local chamber of commerce as well as gray haired matrons of the local women’s club: Pick Up Your Shit.
Because I already have your picture, I Do have access to the local community bulletin board of this town on Face Book and I WILL post that picture/date/time/place for all your neighbors or clients or everyone who works in the local Municipality to see.

19

Emphasis mine.

To me, this is an oxymoron. Suburban is suburban. Rural is rural. You can no more have a rural suburban field than you can have an urban country market.

If the situation is as described in the OP, that is, truly a rural setting, then I would agree with the older gentleman. Picking up after your dog in such a setting, IMHO, makes you look rather pretentious. Do you think anyone picks up after the horses, cattle, goats, chickens, etc… ? The likelihood of anyone else running across the dog’s leavings is pretty slim and, if they did, they would just view it as being as natural as a half-rotten stick of a dead bird.

If it is actually a suburban setting, even one with an occasional horse field, then the population density is much higher and picking up after a dog would probably be viewed as being environmentally conscious. Where I lived in Texas, I was definitely outside the city and my neighbors had chickens and horses, but if I was walking my dog and he crapped, I’d pick it up. I didn’t pick it up in my own yard (nearly an acre), or if he went in a vacant lot, but in someone’s yard, you bet.

In a city, with sidewalks and curbs, I would not have a favorable impression of someone who did not pick up after their dog. The population density is just too high.

Funny thing, in France, picking up after your dog seems to be unheard of. I spent quite a bit of time in France a few years ago and dogs are everywhere. In restaurants, bars, tied up to poles outside grocery stores. And, they poop on the sidewalks and medians. People just walk right past it. Maybe not in Paris, but in the smaller towns in the north it was pretty common; so common that there were workers who sprayed down the sidewalks and gutters, washing the shit into the drains every day. I doubt you’d find a Frenchman picking up after a dog.

20

Well, the OP does pick it up. His neighbor is basically saying, “boy, this ain’t the big city, no need for that!” I’m from Chicago, so I dunno what they do elsewhere, but, yeah, we pick up here. Neighbors get pissed about that kind of shit. But I’m guessing big city opinions are not really relevant to the OP.