Last week’s poll asked about your favorite sandwich sides and, not surprisingly, fries and chips (#2) ended up as the most popular selections even though I find both to be about the most boring things restaurants could put alongside a sandwich. The biggest surprise for me was the fact that even though I thought I had a decent number of options listed, other was the third most popular after the top two.
This week’s poll comes days after much of the snow has melted and mere seconds before we’re supposed to be pummeled by another 12″ to 18″ of snow. After the snow melted it created my #1 favorite spring time activity–cleaning up three months of my dog’s landmines in the yard. While there was only grass on about 1/3 of the yard, there was enough poop to fill an entire grocery bag and I have a feeling there are at least two more bags under the snow that’s left.
Yeah, I know it’s my fault for letting him do his thing and having the snow cover it for me but I’m just not going out there when it’s snowing, sleeting, or 1000 degrees below zero. It’s just not happening. My dog doesn’t require walks to use the bathroom (I don’t pity the people who train their animals to act in that way) and as such I have to put up with the yearly ritual where I spend two hours cleaning up his winter quarter mess.
What do you guys do? Do you walk your dogs and pick it up as you go? Do you let them out only to pick up their poop soon after it falls? Do you wait until the snow melts to get most of it or do you just leave it out there, regardless of the time of the year, to be made into mulch by the lawnmower? How you choose to handle your pet poop pickup go ahead and vote on the sidebar and then comment on below!
After you do both of those things feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
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February 20th, 2011 at 7:46 am
The Spring harvest is one of those things that I like to strategically procrastinate on. The longer I wait, the more of it Mother Nature takes care of. I’ve been procrastinating the current pile since 2008.
February 20th, 2011 at 8:06 am
For the past few springs, I’ve made a call to the unlucky chaps at Dr. Poolitte. Once the snow has about melted, I hand them some cash so that my lawn can start the summer with a clean slate, so to speak.
Your post is rather timely, because just this week I was thinking of giving them a call.
http://drpoolittle.com/
February 20th, 2011 at 8:34 am
This is going to sound bad but …
I wait until the snow melts and then pick up what they haven’t already eaten.
February 20th, 2011 at 8:59 am
I walk my dog at least twice a day, barring subzero temperatures or a driving thunderstorm, in which case he only wants to stay out long enough to do what he has to. So, I carry bags and take care of it as it happens.
February 20th, 2011 at 9:49 am
Mulch that crap up and just be sure to wear the shoes and not sandals the first time of the year.. I’ve got a 20′ radius that’s like a friggin Scotland golf course.
February 20th, 2011 at 10:00 am
Same deal as Tim, we walk our dog in the morning and evening, unless its really a mess outside. That gives us a little much needed exercise, and keeps her energy level down a little bit as well.
February 20th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Jeff poops in the yard all winter long and I clean it up in the spring. Worst 2 hours of the year, but it is only 2 hours.
I was going to clean it up this week, but I get home after dark and yesterday it was frozen into the ground.
He doesn’t poop on walks unless we go to a park or a trail. He won’t poop on the sidewalk.
The biggest issue is I don’t have a backyard. I have a side yard, right up to the sidewalk on Nicollet. It is pretty embarrassing. But it is what I have.
But my neighbors, they have three pugs and they let them poop inside in the winter. Can you imagine?
February 20th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Husband does it.
February 20th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Oh gosh, the mulching… Doesn’t it…smell?
We try to pick it up as soon as we can all the time. Sometimes they’ll go so fast we don’t notice and we fail to pick it up, so it’s frozen solid and we pick it up as soon as it melts (got some last week). Otherwise, we try to prevent them from eating it (I mean, I kiss them!) and we’ll hop outside with them to pick up the poo – takes like 2 minutes.
February 20th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
I pick Charlie’s up right away…of course, he is just a little dog so makes little tootsie roll size poops! Too bad my neighbor dog seems to like my yard too–I know those king size piles are not from my dog. Oh well–I pick those up too as I find them and move on…
February 20th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
This is one of those times I am glad I don’t have a dog.
February 20th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
nothing makes me chuckle more than seeing people walking around carrying little steaming bags of dog poo.
February 20th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
So glad I can answer “N/A” to this one. Just one more reason I don’t have a dog. It’s against our association rules to leave dog poop without picking it up. I’ve never had a complaint come through about someone not cleaning it up in the winter so I’m not sure how we’d handle that…
February 20th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
I patrol the yard every few days. With three dogs, the amount of poop can be staggering. We have a path around our backyard for the dogs to run through. They pretty much just poop around two big trees. That makes clean up a breeze. The frozen morsels are too tempting for a quick snack to leave lying around too long. One winter, I was lazy and didn’t pick up. It was extremely disgusting harvesting in the spring.
February 20th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
You guys could dry the poop and use it as a fuel source. Like the pioneers did with buffalo dung. I bet Dr. Poolittle could probably power the city.
February 20th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
If cleaning up dried dog shit in the middle of July has taught me anything it’s that heat and dog shit do not mix–dry or not ;-)
February 20th, 2011 at 7:06 pm
I tend to pick it up every morning or at least every other day…. I’ll miss the frozen poo come summer, but that’s all I’m going to miss about winter (as I’m typing this in a hotel in Ames because I decided I didn’t want to drive through a blizzard at night…)
February 21st, 2011 at 9:56 am
I live adjacent to a foreclosed property that is multiple acres of weeds and brush. As soon as the bank took over, my boy figured out a new place to crap. I hope nobody ever buys that property. I don’t pick up shit.
February 21st, 2011 at 10:39 am
I am one of those people who walk around carrying little steaming bags of dog poo. This is a sore subject for me. I cannot believe how many people walk their dogs on the sidewalks in the area and do not clean up after them. Disgusting! As the snow melts, you have to pay attention to every step you take to miss stepping in soggy poo.
February 22nd, 2011 at 10:41 am
I have dogs, which apparently means that if you walk your dog past my house, you are welcome to let it shit in my yard. I didn’t get the memo, but supposedly I’m not supposed to mind this.
February 24th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Our kids play in the backyard all year long, and I hate having a big area of poop soup in the spring, so in the winter I watch the forecast and try to pick up before each snowfall so the piles aren’t hidden. This last melt/refreeze was great. It uncovered a bunch of poop, then refroze so it was easy to pick up.
February 24th, 2011 at 9:47 am
A couple more points…when I take my dog on a walk, I plan it around public garbage cans so I have a place to drop the steaming bag of shit. I hate having to carry it.
Second point…Menards just had a deal on poop bags if you don’t mind their rebate system. 200 bags for free after rebate (10 box of 20 bags). This is the third time I’ve seen that deal so keep your eyes on the Menards ads for it to come around again. One time it was their 50 count box. Suffice it to say, I have enough to pick up shit for a couple of years.
February 24th, 2011 at 11:35 am
lenny,
Pardon, but what exactly are poop bags? Back when we had a dog we just used sandwich bags. Are poop bags better/worse, cheaper/pricier? How about environmentally-speaking? I’m curious.
February 24th, 2011 at 11:39 am
sandy,
Some have a sweet little setup where you can reach down with your hand protected and pull the rest of the bag around it and never have the dog shit come anywhere near your skin. A lot of the homeowners associations around us have these types of bags. We also noticed they were available along the lake walk in Duluth several years ago.
February 24th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
They are simply bags dedicated to picking up dog crap. Bigger than a sandwich bag (our lab would need 2 or 3 sandwich bags per dump) and they have the handles that can be tied together to seal-in that fecal goodness. When 0.4 mils is all that separates my hand from a fresh pile of steamy poo, I want to be confident of the integrity of bag. That is why I will not reuse plastic bags from stores.
The brand I get from Menards is called Go Green, so it must be good for “Mother Earth”! You can see them there:
http://www.amazon.com/Perf-Go-Green-Doggie-50-Count/dp/B001QXDWO6
and their description:
Biodegradable and 100% Degradable – breaking down and leaving no toxic or visible residue
Using Post-consumer recycled plastic to make our bags – we actively remove plastic from the environment
Easy to use
Extra Stong
Perf Go Green is Perfect for the Planet and simply the quickest and easiest way to do trash!
February 24th, 2011 at 7:20 pm
I heard an artist speaking on the radio the other day about going to garbage dumps to find things to create art from. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
February 25th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I find the freshly filled bags make nice hand warmers on the really cold days. Kind of like hot play-dough in a bag!