Dog Poop – Doggy Waste, Bags, Disposal & Removal

Many new dog owners quickly realize that the cuddly ball of fur they brought home is actually a pooping and peeing machine in disguise!  This new dog poop and pee machine produces many loads per day, it doesn’t necessarily care where it goes, and the owner has to clean-up after all of that!  AND, the cuddly ball of fur will continue to do its business for the next 10-20 years!!

This article is intended to help you deal with the practical challenges of cleaning up after dog poop and pee. Hopefully we will make your life easier as you pick up after the dog poop each and every day over the next 10-20 years.

Volume

First and foremost, if you feed your dog high quality, nutritionally dense food you will get less coming out at the other end. This will also make for a much healthier dog and just like people, dogs are what they eat. The feeding instructions on a bag of high quality dog food, for example, will typically be 3-4 cups per day for a 100 lb dog. The feeding instructions on a low quality dog food, by comparison, will typically be 10-14 cups per day. Granted, the lower quality dog food will be cheaper but, given the amount of fillers that your dog can’t utilize in the 14 cup per day food, do you really want to pick that up in your back yard every day!?

Poop Pick-Up

Every dog owner should pick up its dogs poop every single time!!! WITH EMPHASIS! Unfortunately, some don’t and it is you and I that end up stepping in it! Here are some simple tricks or products that will help with the dog poop pick-up:

1) The Newspaper Trick – bring a newspaper with you on your next walk. When your dog has squatted and is now fully committed to having his/her poop, slide the newspaper underneath and let your dog go on it. When done, simply fold the newspaper up with the poop inside and continue your walk to the nearest garbage can. Yes, your dog will look back at you for the first couple of times wondering what the heck you are doing with that paper, but remember, the dog is already committed to pooping and they aren’t going anywhere!! Many people ask we’ve trained our dogs to poop on the paper, but really, there is no training at all!

2) Doggy Bags – most owners prefer using doggy bags. In this case, try to use bio-degradable pick-up bags as there will be a lot of them over the years and it adds up to quite a bit of plastic going into the landfill. Earth Rated offers a full line of modestly priced bio-degradable pick up bags, from bags with handles to those on a roll with a handy dispenser. They are available in a Lavender scent or unscented.

3) Poop Scoop – is used mainly around your backyard as they are too cumbersome to be bringing with you on walks. Many different garden tools or shovels will work and cheap pooper scoopers can be found in many pet, hardware or big box stores.

Disposal

What do you do with all of that dog poop you’ve been scooping up around your yard? Well, most of the time it goes out with the garbage but some municipalities are now banning the practice or are encouraging dog owners to compost the waste. This isn’t a bad idea as you can imagine how much space dog poop takes up in our limited landfill areas, or what a mess it makes when a full bag of poop breaks as the garbage-man is throwing it into the truck!

The Waste Manager Dog Waste Disposal System is a small septic tank that is installed into your backyard to hold and break down the dog waste that you pick up each day. It uses digestive enzymes to naturally break down the dog poop so that you don’t have to throw it in the garbage. Refill digestive enzymes are also available at Petacular at Waste Manager Natural Clean Up Tablets.

 

 Rolling in the Poop

 

 

Believe it or not, many dogs will roll in dog poop given the chance, or in the smelliest pile of fish entrails or similar garbage that they can find. We’re not exactly sure why they do so or enjoy it so much, but assume that it is related to their basic hunting instincts and how they smell downwind to potential prey (i.e. a dog hunting for lunch is better off not smelling like a dog). Often dog owners are caught completely by surprise, or don’t immediately realize what their dog is actually rolling in until too late! If it happens to you, and it probably will, we recommend Earthbath Pet Shampoo, the highest quality line of all-natural, bio-degradable pet shampoo. Each formula cleans safely and gently while leaving your pet’s coat bright, shiny and smelling better than ever before.