What is your method for keeping the back yard clean, or picking up after Fido on your routine walk?

Are you the efficient one who picks it up hot off the press, and never allows the yard a blemish?

Are you the organized planner, who has Susie and Billy trade off every other week?

Are you the procrastinator who walks out back one day and says "...Damn.", and spends the next hour cleaning up a mine field?

Are you that Go Green activist who just lets it decompose where it was deposited?

Also.

Do you pick it up or leave it on walks? what is your method of bagging? What kind of pooper scooper do you have?


This is all for research so don't hold back!

I'm between dogs, but in the past I let it decompose in the back yard- my backyard is huge and the only wooded area left in my neighborhood. No one went back there but the pup anyways.

As for on walks, I pick it up all hot and steamy with old newspaper bags and tie them off. I also bring extra bags for stale poops other people have left behind. I wish people just picked up their own- but so it goes

I try to pick up the yard every day or so, I use bags but would love an alternative. luckily Char likes to use the perimeter of the yard so that makes things a bit easier. I always pick up on walks it is the law here, but I would anyways. I don't pickup other dogs poop though, Dot you are a trooper!

I figure it makes up for the poops I missed haha. She refused to poop when we were looking- she'd even stop mid-poo is she caught us! Makes it a hunt sometimes to find! My mom says it's because she was a little lady... but I could just hear her thinking "mom, no! I worked so hard on that!" lol

I pick it up right after he goes. I carry one of those little bones with poop bags in it. I use them in my own yard, and when I take him for walks. I always pick up after him. I have a pooper scooper too. But it rarely gets used. His poops have been a little too mushy for the pooper scooper lately.

I prefer a clean yard and do not enjoy stepping on the stinky land mines when I go out into my yard. I do TRY to pick it up hot off the press but with 3 dogs scattered across the yard I don't always catch them in the act. Those times when I miss a poop for whatever reason I will scoop it up with a rake whenever I happen to discover it. When I do pick up freshly deposited stool I will either bag it in a biodegradable poop bag made specifically for dog poo or I will scoop it up with a rake and toss it over the fence into the woods behind our house to decompose naturally. I'd say 50% of the time I bag it and 50% of the time I rake and toss. Hubby almost never picks up dog poo and the few times he does he uses the rake exclusively.

While on walks I always pick it up with a biodegradable poop bag.

These are the poop bags I use:


This is the rake I use:

I use biodegradable pet waste bags - the cheapest ones I find online. I buy the roll to use for the backyard which I pick up at least once a day, and the rolls which I carry on both leashes so I can pick up after them when we're out. I always pick up after them when we're out. If I happen to be caught without a poop bag when we're out walking in the neighborhood, I will knock on the door of the home that's closest to ask for a bag, or go around until I find someone home. Otherwise, I will walk to the nearest place where there are bags and go back to pick it up. If I'm close to home, I'll go home and get a bag and go back to pick it up....All I know is when I did not have dogs and found poop on the side or at the parks and whatnot, I used think it was inconsiderate and somehwat rude - so I simply cannot be that pet owner that will leave their pet waste. That's just me, though.

HI I pick up as soon as he goes in the back yard. We use a pooper scooper there. When we walk him I carry those plastic bags we get from the supermarket and pick it up asap. Here you can get fined if you don't although I know for a fact some neighbors don't pick up after themselves.

As an environmental science student, I love hearing about people making the effort to be more eco-friendly! Props to you guys
I do want to give a little warning about biodegradable plastics, especially oxo-biodegradable plastics, I hope this isn't too far off topic.. The plastic these poop bags says they are out of us meant to "biodegrade" in the presence of oxygen, hence the "oxo" I assume. However, whether you put them in the trash or in the compost, they usually do not get the oxygen they need to decompose. They also add metals to the plastic to make it more readily decomposable!
There's an argument to be made that while the bags aren't really as ecofriendly as they say, you are composting your poop, and that's really good!
However, often times, when we take into account what these eco-materials are made out of, and the fact that they are made specifically to be thrown away, instead of reusing something, these things aren't so green after all! Just my 2 cents

A clarification- By no means am I an expert on dog poop bags, this is only based on my knowledge of biodegradable plastics and the information on the dogipot website. I haven't looked into this too deeply.

Well - MOST of the time I clean it up right away...but now that the dogs are on raw, I'm a bit lazier. It just crumbles away.

I try to clean it up as soon as I see it. My hubby hasn't yet cleaned any, he's still iffy about that (yet he wants me to make sure there's none in the yard ) but I always have a bag with me. We live right in front of a park and there's several dog bag boxes around so I always grab a few when I'm out for a walk (they're free!!!) and use those to pick up her poops. I always pick them up on our walks because we live in base housing and I know they'd get upset if we didn't.

Dot wrote:

As an environmental science student, I love hearing about people making the effort to be more eco-friendly! Props to you guys
I do want to give a little warning about biodegradable plastics, especially oxo-biodegradable plastics, I hope this isn't too far off topic.. The plastic these poop bags says they are out of us meant to "biodegrade" in the presence of oxygen, hence the "oxo" I assume. However, whether you put them in the trash or in the compost, they usually do not get the oxygen they need to decompose. They also add metals to the plastic to make it more readily decomposable!
There's an argument to be made that while the bags aren't really as ecofriendly as they say, you are composting your poop, and that's really good!
However, often times, when we take into account what these eco-materials are made out of, and the fact that they are made specifically to be thrown away, instead of reusing something, these things aren't so green after all! Just my 2 cents

A clarification- By no means am I an expert on dog poop bags, this is only based on my knowledge of biodegradable plastics and the information on the dogipot website. I haven't looked into this too deeply.

Interesting!
Just a thought....I would 'hope' that once the bags get picked up by parks and recreation or waste management, it would then get the oxygen required to break the bags down once it reached it's final destination?

mheath0429 wrote:

Well - MOST of the time I clean it up right away...but now that the dogs are on raw, I'm a bit lazier. It just crumbles away.

One of my fav. parts about feeding Stark raw... We have a portion of our hard on the side of our house (locked gates on either side) where we let Stark out to do his business... we don't usually pick it up from there b/c it crumbles away

When we're at a dog park or going out for walk / activities, we pick it up right away.

I usually pick up poop in the yard about two or three times a week. I only have one pup, so it's not too bad. I use a metal rake and a metal scoop pan thing. It was given to me, so I don't know where you would find one now. As for getting rid of it, I usually toss it over our 6 foot fence into a retention pond out back. Sometimes I bag it. It usually depends how soon the garbage man is coming during that week (I really don't want to smell poop in my garage). I would say 80% toss and 20% in a garbage bag.

On walks, I always bring a plastic grocery bag. I almost NEVER have to use it though because she doesn't poop on walks! I never ever just leave her poop there. I know some people that don't pick it up and I think it's pretty rude/gross. You take the responsiblity of your own companion! lol

It's usually nighttime when I take walks, so I never see anyone else's poop. Although last night I did step into some poop. -.- So irritating. lol

Poop usually stays in the yard since the kids are like, allergic to fresh air or something. So the back yard is really just the dogs' domain. Every now and then my mom sends someone out to scoop and we just use a shovel. That or she just runs it over with the lawn mower. Gross.

On walks, I always pick it up. I just use the mass produced baggies that clip onto the leash. The way I see it, it's not my lawn and who knows who's going to walk there next, so I clean it up. Just because we don't really use our yard doesn't mean everyone else wants it in theirs. Though, for the most part, my dogs don't poop away from home. I don't know what it is about them. They either poop before we leave or they wait til we get back. I'm pretty sure Callie does this because she's too curious about what's going on to worry about pottying.

cmanding wrote:

Interesting!
Just a thought....I would 'hope' that once the bags get picked up by parks and recreation or waste management, it would then get the oxygen required to break the bags down once it reached it's final destination?

Composting requires oxygen and heat to really work, especially at the beginning of the process. So, yes the oxygen is present when they get there. It's mostly used up at the beginning, but the bags are marketed as decomposing over 18 months or so- too long. Also, theres evidence that they don't decompose as marketed, even with plenty of oxygen. I believe that many waste management facilities don't consider oxo-biodegradables compostable, mine doesn't.

I use the bags on walks and in the back yard. About once a day in the summer or warmer weather and maybe once every 3 days in the cold because it freezes and is easy to pick up lol

I live in an apartment complex so I always pick up after Anna right away. We also have the dog boxes and I just grab a handful of bags to leave in the house and one or two to keep in my purse. Anna is very specific on where she potties so I highly doubt she will go elsewhere unless she absolutely had to.

I absolutely despise people who do not pick up after their dogs The worst part for me is we have so limited grass and half the people cannot just grab a bag and clean up like they are suppose to. I just don't understand, lazy people. I wish my apartment complex would be a little more strict on this but hopefully we will be out of here when our lease is up and we can have our own yard. They are planning on putting a dog park in our complex and I was so excited until I realized how many people will probably not clean up after their dogs in the fenced in area.

Yeah but isn't just super gross to have to pick up a pile of steaming doodoo with that super thin bag? ewwwww

MyKeeonah wrote:

Yeah but isn't just super gross to have to pick up a pile of steaming doodoo with that super thin bag? ewwwww

Honestly, it's not horrible! I've rarely ever had Callie poop to the point where it's super super warm. It's a little warm, yes, but I grab it up so fast I rarely have to feel it. And I'm the germaphobe type so it takes the littlest things to gross me out. The only times poop scooping isn't fun is when we've got some diarrhea issues. Then I pick up what I can and let nature wash the rest away. I'm not messing with all that. If you've got dogs like mine who travel while they poop, I just wait until she's all done so the whole thing goes quickly. Callie's also the type that won't poop at one spot, then five minutes later, poop in another spot. She gets it all done in one go.

The kennels are scooped daily with a long handled rake and long handled scoop pan. The large yard has a couple of primary pooping areas the dogs have chosen and are cleaned every few days with the same scoops. On outings we always have poop bags handy to dispose of properly.

We live by the "No BM is Left Behind" motto!

Brewer likes to eliminate while we walk or run him, so we have a ready supply of biodegradable bags.

HuskyMom09 wrote:

The kennels are scooped daily with a long handled rake and long handled scoop pan. The large yard has a couple of primary pooping areas the dogs have chosen and are cleaned every few days with the same scoops. On outings we always have poop bags handy to dispose of properly.

Would you use a more sophisticated pooper scooper system if there was one?