dog poo

Hi!

I woul dlike to know of any rules/laws about dogs pooing on other people's properties. I have a neighour that bring his dog twice a day to my front garden so the dog will do his business on my lawn. what should I do? Is it allowed here? Is it polite to let your neighbour's dog to poo on your garden?

In England he would get a big fine, around $1000.

thank you
Anna

I will try this once more. I must've hit some magic key combo which kicked me out despite adding a few comments.

First of all, have you caught the offender red-handed? You need to catch him in the act and confront him during the act. Take small waste bags with you so he can clean it up and carry it back home with him. That should be enough.

You could even bag it yourself and take it to his house and tell him that his dog left some presents behind but you don't accept deposits if you want to take it to the next level.

If it isn't enough you might have to call animal control or even the sheriff. Pictures would help you in this case - of the dog in the act near something distinctive in your yard to prove that it is this particular dog in your yard.

I had a lady neighbor who let her dog water our mailbox area on her daily walks. I finally yelled at her to get her darn dog off our lawn. I must've put the fear in her because she turned around from then on when she got hear our property. Hopefully your situation will be resolved this easily.

Polite? No. Illegal? I have no idea. I know that in some areas you can get fined for letting your dog poo in public areas and not clean it up, but I don't know about personal residences. I think a lot of it would depend on how the local law enforcement department views and handles it.

Have you tried talking to the man? Seems sorta extreme to bring the law into it without first asking the man to stop.

Butch, i see him and his dog pooing every morning and afternoon. LOL!!! not him pooing, just his dog.

I am afraid to confront him and make enemies. He is an old inhabitant of this place and acts like he owns all the land here.

I am going to complain with the president of the housing association this evening when she comes back from work.

Thank you for your help. I wanted to make sure that this is not a habit that is allowed here.

Um....before you start yelling at someone you have to live next to for goodness knows how many years, try asking politely first.

As a dog owner and walker, I've sometimes come across moments when my dog has made a pit stop (even when I make them "go potty" at home before we go walking). Granted, chihuahua pee and poo isn't as noticeable as others, but I try to bring paper towels with me.

It gets harder and harder to prevent these mistakes when you have houses going up everywhere. There is no safe spot anymore as every bit of land that you pass on an hour or more walk ends up being someone's yard. You can take precautions, but accidents happen. As a dog owner myself, I let a little poo go by without getting upset about it. Now, the frequent pooing you're talking about, I would talk to the man, but a poo once in a while and on the outskirts of my property, I don't really get worried about.

Different people have different views on this subject. My dad says it's free fertilizer and my mother hates it. The worst thing about it is when you step in it - that really takes the cake!

As a dog owner myself, I hated it when my dog goes on a sidewalk and I didn't bring anything along to pick it up. I just hope that the two or three times at the most this has happened can be forgiven. I've learned to walk him for a short distance now, come back to my own yard and let him go. THEN we can proceed for a long walk.

BUT when an owner lets his pet use someone else's yard and is a constant thing then that gets OLD, REAL FAST. I agree that you should talk to the owner first and see how that goes but some people don't like confrontation and some pet owners see nothing wrong with leaving their pet's wastes at their neighbors' front doors.

Our home association STRONGLY encourages dog owners to be responsible and clean up after their pets. So far no stronger language has been used.

NYC and other cities do have pooper scooper laws and some are strongly enforced including fines.

No home owner should be subjected to other people's pets frequenting their yard for bathroom use. It's bad enough when a dog is running loose and using your yard but it's entirely something else when the owner lets their dog use your yard while on a LEASH! That takes chutzpah!! What are they thinking?

As for walking your dog, I would suggest a wilderness trail if any are close to you. I typically run my dog in the backyard chasing Frisbees, playing keep away, and tug of war during the summer and winter walks through the neighborhood after he voids himself in our yard. If he gets the urge to mark territory on the walk, I keep him moving so he can't go and thus won't upset the neighbors. It's just the responsible, neighborly thing to do.

Kimchee, I am a dog owner myself. I am lucky that my dog learned to poo on his tray, in the toilet so, he won't do it outside.

There are places here, betweenh peep's plots where dogs can poo. no one will complain but he brings his dog here, twice a day and he always poos on my front garden or the neigbour's. He watches his dog poo then, after he finishes, they walk away.

My lawnmower is dirty with it and I have to keep it inside the house, in the basement. It is a job to clean it everytime I mow the lawn.

By the way, what a lovely little pooch you have!!!!!!!

Unless your dog bites someone it's a free for all around here. We have no leash law or anything else.

Thanks, Spider, for the compliment. He's my little 3lb. pride and joy. Again, his poo is very, very small. I think the darn tomato worms I seem to have picked up on my plants can defecate larger than he does. lol

If it's a regular thing where the man is using your yard as a toilet, I'd definitely speak to him about it. I know you don't like confrontation...I hate it too...but it would go harder on you in the long run if you spoke to some higher authority about it first. Also, most police or housing officers are going to ask you if you've asked the man to stop first.

Might as well just bite the bullet and get it over with. It would lend your complaint (if you still have to make one) more weight if you discussed the issue with the offender before making it official.

Hcmcdole: We don't have any wilderness trails near my house that I know of. The closest one is one hour away. Well, actually there is one more that's closer, but the ranger(?) who works there cautioned me against walking my dog in the area b/c there are canals on one or both sides of the trails and healthy alligator populations. My poor little pipsqueak would look like a jalapeno popper to some hungry gator.



This message was edited Jun 22, 2006 3:16 PM

Kimchee, Alligators in Georgia?!?!?! I thought they were only in Florida.

Anna, here is Gwinnett County's animal ordinance. As I read it, the dog can be considered a public nuisance anmal because he is creating an unsanitary condition. See if you read it that way.

http://www.co.gwinnett.ga.us/departments/police/pdf/animal_laws.pdf

KCBaby,

Sorry to hear you have to drive such a long way to get to a trail and your only other option is alligator infested. The trail we frequent is half a hour away but that is the price of development.

Yes, Anna there are alligators in GA. The Okefenokee swamp is home to some big alligators. I went to Waycross a couple of times (band competitions when our daughters were in HS) and visited the Okefenokee Swamp State Park. We took a walk on the boardwalks through just a bit of the outlying regions of the swamp plus took a boat ride through the canals. There were a few large lethargic gators lying on the banks trying to get some warmth from the sun (this was in November so they weren't too active).

Anna, you say your neighbour comes daily and you see him. But does he see you?
Why not try making yourself visible about the time he comes. Then you can just talk to him and when his dog poops on your yard you can handily whip out an old plastic trash bag, if he doesn't whip out a doggy doo picker upper (hand and bag, lol) himself. You can just kindly request that if he's forgotten his, you'd appreciate that he simply use yours.

A guy around the corner from me who gardens has sticks up with notes saying not to let dogs pee in his garden, please. At one point he had also left bags out with a note asking people to kindly use the bags if the dogs pooped. Now all the neighbours are so careful! They take their dogs across the street to walk as they are afraid to let them pee on the plants.

GGG

How exciting to live in a county that has alligators!

GGG, I was talking to him yesterday, as he let his dog poo on my garden.

here is a website that may help with your problem....
http://www.petsignsplus.com/1small3x12orderpg/pooporderpg.html

Thank you very much for that, Pins!

Hey Spider, gators are in SC on the coast too. Someone on my street just shot one, he didn't fish it out of the lagoon. That's rude. We have kids and animals everywhere so alligators are not welcome at all. They're illegal to kill but there all over the place where I live and don't be fooled they're dangerous. To an adult they're not much of a problem but to small childen they're very dangerous. My street alone has something like 20 kids under 10 so gators got to go. Sorry to you alligators lovers out there. For that matter we have so many that you can get a hunting liscense for them.

Gators are so popular around here that I've actually come across a few as roadkill. Nothing like seeing a two foot gator sprawled on asphalt to give you a little jolt in the morning.

The trails I mentioned earlier have a healthy population and a boardwalk which leads into the swampy area. I remember one day coming across a family or tourists. Sounded German from the language they were speaking. Their children had opened the "Do Not Enter" gate that lead to a little raft looking thing attatched to the boardwalk but without the protective fencing around it. To be fair though, I don't think they could read English since they didn't understand when I said that there were alligators in the water. The two children were on their stomachs, splashing their hands into the water and peering over the raft. Since I'm not a parent, I was more bemused than horrified. Anyways, I finally got their attention by pointing at the water and then making a "chomp chomp" motion with both of my hands. They got the point and soon yanked their children to safety. It would have been funnier if I hadn't just seen a gator take out some sort of waterfowl earlier that week in another portion of the area. Plus, I figured it'd be bad for tourism if word got out. ;-)

Years ago we went to Orlando to do the Disney/Epcot thing with our two daughters. It was hot and crowded and our youngest didn't enjoy it at all.

We went to Sanibel Island after that and swam at the public beach. Beautiful warm water and an uncrowded beach! We saw an enclosed area with a four foot chain link fence close to the parking area with a sign "Beware of alligators". It was a pretty steep drop off with some water at the bottom and a few trees and sure enough there was a good size gator - maybe six foot long or bigger. Since that time there have been at least 3 people attacked on Sanibel Island. One woman lost her life from this - not from the attack directly but from massive infections that came from the water. They had to amputate her arm from the lacerations but it wasn't enough to save her. When we got back from that trip, my mother showed us in one of her magazines about another woman who was attacked by a shark off of Sanibel Island. I still have fond memories of Sanibel but I'm would be very wary of my surroundings if I ever go back.

I take a somewhat unpopular view on animal attacks. Animals attack out of instinct and not malice. And while I'm not saying that I blame all victims of attacks, in most situations it's a "we were invading their territory first" situation. Kinda as if some strange people just showed up on your lawn one day and started hanging out there day after day...and when you either told them to get lost or beat the crap out of them, they brought in all of their friends and shot you dead. Humans are a highly evolved creature that has blessed itself with a higher purpose. We've distanced ourselves from our fellow animals (people's hackles still rise whenever I point out that humans are animals too...7th grade science people). And we've conveniently taken ourselves off the food chain (being eaten by a creature seems unreal and scifi to us now) but we're the only ones enlightened by this revelation. So for the majority of wild creatures who were being themselves, it was just the wrong place at the wrong time. Quite sad really.

I TOTALLY agree with you Kimchee.

I think most people would agree with you KC but it usually means the demise of the animal if it attacks a human. Preservation of the species you might say?

Wild animals are being squeezed out of their habitat with no end in sight. Population explosion seems to be the biggest problem for wild creatures, but at least the mussels are being saved in FLA at the cost of an additional 2 billion gallons a day.

I agree hcmcdole: Our biggest problem is ourselves. I'm no extremist and I'm not trying to be insensitive to the people on this board, but sometimes I feel like we've gotten out of control, like an invasive species. Reminds me of an article I once read of brown snakes in Guam. We're so use to beating the odds that a catastrophic plague to us is if more than 1,000 people die. We seem to forget about things the Black Death that cleared out more than 1/3 of the European population back in the middle ages...an estimated 34 million people.

We've defied all the laws of mother nature. We have scientists who cure our illnesses, exterminators to decimate any predators, and the government even steps in to help us reproduce when we don't have the resources to bring up offspring.

I'm no doomsday soothsayer. I think with our intelligence, we'll be able to thrive for several hundreds of years, but questions is, "at what cost"? A lot of us suffer from what I call "green guilt" but no one wants to give up anything. People feel sorry for the condition of food cattle and chickens, but few want to pay the price of organic or free range products. I know I just about swallowed my tongue when I saw a chicken priced at 9 dollars. For one doggone chicken! But then I thought "well why not?" That's how it was in the past. Back in the day, few families could afford to put meat on their table every day. It's only after we started mass production of animals that people expected to see meat as a main course. And it's been proven throughout history that the peasants were often more healthy than royalty b/c they ate a more diverse and nutrient rich diet. (I know this is a little off-topic...but there is a link between this method of thinking and this board.) So now I buy free range where available, which keeps my meat intake to a minimum ('cause I'm poor), which has me eating more veggies, which got me thinking I should like to try my hand at growing them, which lead me to growing veggies on my porch and the dread leaf rot which is affecting my cukes...all the way to Dave's Garden. Whew...that was a fingerful!

Mussels in Florida that are being saved? Don't think I know that one. The only mussels I read about in Florida are invasive species.

KC,

That's what forums are for even though it got off topic on this thread. You should start a new one over in general discussion if you want some feedback.

I for one like my cake and eat it too. Call it greed. We complain about all the jobs leaving the country but we like our inexpensive goods even if the bulk is from China. Maybe one day there will be a doomsday but hopefully people will change voluntarily instead of being forced to. (Remember the movie "Soylent Green"?).

I like quality food but not sure about the organic labels. Who verifies if it is truly organic? To whose standards? I go by look and smell and yes, Brand Names.

Yep, endangered mussels in Florida. It's all the talk in Atlanta due to the drought and people having to cut back on watering or NO watering yet some federal judge in Alabama dictated to the Corps of Engineers to release 40% more water for the mussels. According to the newspaper that is five times more than metro Atlanta uses daily.

I'm one of those DeKalb County residents who can no longer water outdoors. One of the reasons, besides the mussels, is so we can conserve water for Atlanta's growth. I was on I-285 today around 4 PM. I say we have enough people already! Let's preserve the life we have, as well as our plants and food (vegetables we grow). I just don't get what's happening with the water.

True that pins2006. Enough people indeed...and expanding at an explosive rate. And I agree HC, we do want our cake and eat it too, but what we don't seem to realize is that the cake makes our bottoms bigger. ;-)

I buy Newman's Own Organic b/c even if it's a sham, I can honestly say it tastes fantastic and the man gives all his profits to charity...where's the harm? As for the others, I agree that it's tricky navigating through the endless claims of "cage free" and "all natural". I will say that the one brand of organic, non-hormonal milk I use tastes radically different from the milk that I'm use to. Whether it's b/c it's truly organic, who knows. And the eggs I buy do taste different as well. In fact, the first time I tasted real non-tampered-with eggs (that I knew were the real thing b/c the chickens happen to belong to a co-worker of mine) I had a hard time acclimating to the new taste. Now I'm use to it.

Soylent green...ahhh...I remember that film. I'd like to say that if the laws permit, and if I didn't think I would taste like utter crap, I would gladly give permission for my remains to be processed into easily digestable food cubes. In fact, I think it an absolute shame that all that fresh meat be entombed in slabs of concrete beneath the earth. At the very least, go back to the days of non-embalming and wood boxes. I believe it was Wordsworth who wrote about looking forward to burial and the merging of his body with the earth and the roots of living things. But apparently our bodies aren't really good for the environment, even as fertilizer. What does it say about us that we're so full of impurities that we aren't good eatin' to either flora or fauna. Tsk...tsk...tsk.



This message was edited Jun 24, 2006 11:58 AM

I have my own solution to the dog poo problem and to keep dogs off your property. If you ground up enough dried hot pepper or black pepper and spread it evenly across the grass area it will make the dogs sneeze and not want to poop there. I own a relatively large property where I can't observe in some areas and these used to be pooped on. I also poured ammonia along the sidewalk and sides of the street. This creates an awful smell mix for the dogs. They stopped walking on the sidewalk in front of my house for a while.

This I call the silent remedy.

Hi Spider07 - back on the original thread... I used to live downtown (Ansley Park) in a house with a tiny front lawn and a huge magnolia tree. I had to rake up magnolia leaves all the time - they are like plastic, do not decompose and keep the dog poop damp. I had to use rubber gloves to rake. My rake would get poopy and then I had to bag all the poopy leaves. I grew to a high levels of anger everytime I'd see an owner stopping to let their dog use my lawn as a toilet.

I had a dog of my own then, a pretty mostly doberman dog. And I took her to the park area where she could poop. AND I would not let her use the neighbor's yards.

One morning as a dog was squatting, getting ready to go on my lawn, I ran out of the house saying "NO! no no NO!!!!!" The dog and the owner stopped as if frozen. The dog stood up (business undone) and the owner stammered "he just HAD to go! - Sorry!"

For about a week, before work and after work, I'd watch for the dogs and repeat my performance. Yelling, waving, running. All dog traffic in front of my house ceased. I did see a few move to the other side of the street when they came by - we were on one route to the park.

I don't care if these people thought I was crazy or not. I found I was able to rake my leaves without getting covered in dog and I was really happy about that!

Thank you for the tip mcorps. I will use ammonia. It is a good idea.

Sterhill, I feel for you. I don't understand thesepeeps that let their dogs go on peeps gardens. It is beyond my understanding.

Maybe they thought they were doing you a favor by depositing free fertilizer. ;-)

LOL!!!

Kimchee,

Talking about organic food earlier.....

Once thing that I really miss since I moved to the US is the lack of organic produce in the big supermarkets. In England you find most of organic produce at the local supermarket. The same mainstream food has an organic counterpart. You don't have to drive 40 minutes to find a farmers market that sells organic. You also find ready meals, pizzas, cakes ice cream, etc...etc...

You can even get vegan food at your local.

You will not believe what happenede now.

The old man came walking with the dog. He took the dog through our lawn and let the dog pee and poop near the front door. Can you believer that?!?!

Well, I had enough!!!

I sent him a note and told him that if this does not stop, I am filing a complaint agaisnt him and his dog.

I hate doing it but I can't cope anymore with his behaviour.

I'm telling you - when you see him, run outside waving your arms and yelling 'NO NO NO NO NO!" - it will scare both of them! And you won't believe how much better you will feel.

It worked for me with a lot of different owners and their dogs - I had dogs stop mid-stream... I had not intended to do it but one day it just got the best of me and THEN I discovered - hey this works! It NEVER worked talking to the owners. They just always said 'oh I'm sorry, he/she just had to go'

Any dog can hold it a bit longer - I walked my dog in the middle of the street and when she tried to make for a lawn, I'd keep her on the asphalt until we got to the park.

That man has spherical objects the size of grapefruits. To your front door? Now that's just disgusting. Send your note and if he does it again, fry his backside with the housing association.

OUTCOME:::

He must have got my letter whenthe post arrived. He came here shouting and swearing. That he will make sure we have lots of problems in this place, that we english are nothing, that I am sick because I don't want his dog to pee or poo in my garden. He shouted and shouted and foamed in the mouth then left. I was so afraid he was going to hit me that I close the storm door while he kept shouting outside.

Then I just had a good cry.

Call the police and report this situation ASAP. Not only should he keep his dog off your lawn (and himself as well - this is trespassing), but his behavior is inexcusable. I hate it when neighbors act like they can do whatever they please despite unwritten rules of civility.

Kimchee...............LOL...........thank you for the laugh....spherical objects Omygosh that was just too hysterical!! Spider......take out a restraining order against him AND his dog. We did that with our nasty neighbor and, so far, have seen no returns.

the police are on their way here.

Spider07, calling the police was the right thing to do. You don't need some old codger abusing your private property or threatening your lifestyle. Then.... call an officer everytime he comes around. The police will eventually get tired of him and put some pressure on him, maybe even a fine. My son is a deputy and trust me, lots of people use their services for civil enforcement. You pay for them, so don't be afraid to use them.