This is a recurring theme in our Parish and each time someone finds a pile of dog poo outside their house the subject, and complaints, are rightly raised again.

I recall a discussion some time ago on here about unusual council measures.  Someone said that their local council sprayed the poo pink or yellow, another was reported as giving free poo bags.

If your council does something extraordinary to control the problem would you let me know what they do please.  Also did it work?  We are considering some creative options that get our dog owners attention without alienating them all.

Finally have any of you ever seen a 'poo guide' written anywhere that describes when it might be ok to kick it in the hedge and when you really must pick up.  My feeling is that as we live in a very rural village we might have more luck if we suggest a little flexibility (ie. it's ok to leave it in a ploughed field - not ok to ignore it outside someones gate).  We are trying to avoid poo bins, they're a bit too suburban for our needs and would also have to be emptied by volunteers (probably me!!)  Thanks for any help :)

May not of help to you, but I favour a 'get caught picking up' campaign.   Win a prize (money?) if you're caught on photo picking up your dog's poo :-D :-D   Can't help thinking that it would be cheaper on the public purse than trying to prosecute ;)

We have free poo bags apparently, but I've never seen them on offer :(

Our Borough Council gives away free poo bags, we just go into the council offices and ask, we get 2 packs a week, (there are about 30 bags in them...so with 2 small dogs I build up a stack)..they have a Care for your Area bit, next to the Council Tax counter..We have quite a few doggy waste bins around but could do with a few more and there are people who will not pick up no matter what.

I saw a pic in my latest mag of 200 poo bags hung from a tree by a lock to make a statement about people not picking up on towpaths. Quite frankly although I do pick up, I have every sympathy with those who don't, I have walked miles and miles of canal towpaths with never a poo bin to be seen! Perhaps they could supply more bins on towpaths and then people would be more likely to pick up!

Our council gives out boxes containing 150 fragranced nappy bags to anyone who asks.  They also leave unlimited stocks at the leisure centre which is based within the main recreational park in the town.  The park is a favourite place for dog walkers so they just call in and stock up.

When I was still training the council gave me shrink wrapped outers of the boxes to distribute to all who came to my classes.

There were still some irresponsible dog owners who never picked up but it wasn't for the council's lack of trying.

Our council put up signs of £1000 fine and paint a little doggy pic circled saying pick it up on the pavements every few yards ..I asked for these in our avenue a few years ago and I have to say they work ..when the paint starts to disappear I have notice the poo begins to re- appear, a quick phone call and they re-paint.
I know you are probably thinking the pavement signs are a bit of an eye sore but which is worse piles of poo along the road...?
People have been fined but not in our avenue as yet . I do think people think they are' being watched' so pick up . They do give out free poo bags to those who ask.
Also the council will come along and clean the streets with a sweeper to clean any poo but I notice you have to ring them first.

those of you having problems with no poo bins .'get onto your local council ' I did they told me they would have to survey the area first and gave me a number to log my complaint within week and I mean weeks the little red bins appeared all around the area people walk thier dogs.
I was delighted with myself ..although I know others may have also complained ...LOL
I am a bit of a moaner to the council re bin collections and street sweeping etc ..maybe they have my name on a list somewhere as I dont give up until they act.

Our council have officers who can issue fixed penalties for not picking up. They also put up signs and in dry weather (when we get it!) they spray-paint NO FOULING signs onto the pavement, especialy outside schools, shops etc.
Word soon gets out when someone is issued with a FPN in a problem area and the signs seem to work although sometimes it just moves offenders onto other areas.
The 'kick it in the hedge' idea is never acceptable under scottish law, your only acceptable reasons for not picking up are: being too infirm/disabled or if you would be in danger when picking it up i.e edge of a cliff or middle of a busy main road. Excuses of not having seen the offence or the dog having a dodgy tummy are not acceptable but obviously officers use their common sense.
Poo bins need to be put in an area easily accessible to the lorry & staff that empty them.
Our council now pursue non-payers of FPN's or people who give false details through the Procurator Fiscal, so for the sake of not carrying bags and picking up, you could end up with a hefty fine and a criminal record.

Thanks for your replies.  We are a small rural village of app 380 residents around half of whom live within a relatively compact area.  The remainder live on outlying farms and scattered properties.  I calculate that we have no more than 60 dogs, and probably just less than half of these live in the centre of the village.  Given that some of these are exercised on their own land then I guestimate we have app 20 that are semi regularly walked on the lanes and footpaths.  I suspect that we have about 5 offending owners, but a few of these own multiple dogs.

It would be nice to think that we can adopt a personal approach whilst still getting our message across.  The Parish Council will make some effort but we aren't really a suitable candidate for inclusion on the dog wardens round.  I'm happy to investigate free bags but it may be me that buys them.

Does anyone have a view about spraying the poo?  I wondered if - for one week only or until it rains - that it might be one way to highlight the scale of the problem! 

As an aside - does anyone know if dog poo is dangerous to livestock such as sheep and cattle?

Quite frankly although I do pick up, I have every sympathy with those who don't, I have walked miles and miles of canal towpaths with never a poo bin to be seen! Perhaps they could supply more bins on towpaths and then people would be more likely to pick up!

I carry bags of poo for miles at a time as we have very few poo bins in our area except on the beach where dogs can go during the winter months. I don't think that the fact that there are very few bins should make a difference as to whether people clear up or not - we want to own dogs and we have to take responsibility for clearing up after them whatever the circumstances. Yes it would be great to have more bins available but as they are a relatively new idea I tend to be thankful that there are some around now where there never were any before.

I take a very small shoulder bag with me - think it was originally a camera bag - and  double bag the poo, then put it inside a carrier bag and then put it in the shoulder bag and either take it home with me or dispose of it in a poo bin if I come across one.

Carrying it round with me is not one of life's great pleasures but it's just one of those things I accept goes with being a dog owner. As an owner myself I absolutely hate seeing piles of it all over the place because someone else can't be bothered to clear up after their dog - not a pleasant job but far more pleasant than leaving it for someone else to tread in. I think it is very easy to blame councils for not providing receptacles whereas we should all be blaming the dog owners who don't clear up and don't believe that it is their problem to deal with.

I sometimes pass a couple who have a dog walking business and between them they can have up to seven dogs at a time and I have never seen them carrying a full poo bag and they don't carry a shoulder bag either :-). It is a rural area but that should make no difference - I really don't believe that for the hour and a half they are walking seven dogs not a single one has needed to go to the toilet.

> I accept goes with being a dog owner

I too carry mine around with me, it is the only negative thing I can think of about owning a dog. I do not discriminate to where I pick up as I do not realy see the difference if it's the pavement, the woods or a field. But must admit to using public waste bins if no poo bins around.

put the word arround council is going to secretly dna test poop and issue £500 per poop to its owner!

> As an aside - does anyone know if dog poo is dangerous to livestock such as sheep and cattle?

No more so thatn the dogs are at risk from the livestocks droppings, both will pass on various worms to each other.

I saw a pic in my latest mag of 200 poo bags hung from a tree by a lock to make a statement about people not picking up on towpaths.

That reminds me of a post I recall reading on this forum some years ago about poo. A lady posted saying  she hung her poo bags from a tree in protest at there not being enough bins in which to put it!! I didn't understand the logic then and I still don't!!

I also carry bags full of poo around when no bins available .

Why dont you print out notices yourself... and pin them in the areas where the offenders are,,, telling people to pick it up ..I imagine you wouldnt need many if your village is so small.

I also carry poo bags for as far as it takes - often I bring it home ;)

Keeps my hands lovely and warm in winter :-D :-D

> Keeps my hands lovely and warm in winter

Pocket warmers on a winters walk, have had OH complain about the drains and then I realise what's in my jacket pocket!

>Why dont you print out notices yourself... and pin them in the areas where the offenders are,,, telling people to pick it up ..I imagine you wouldnt need many if your village is so small

This does work for a time then no one 'sees' the notices any more, we've also put articles in our village magazine.  Perhaps I'll suggest a range of options that we can rotate to keep the subject in peoples minds.

My OH said we should post the poo through the door of the offenders if we know who they are.  Methinks he was getting a bit militant at that point in the debate!!

Lol @ Dill.
got coats with poo bags in that havent been worn for over a year...found them when sorting out the coat cupboard!!!
pack in the car always and never go out with the dogs without  a pocketful of bags...friend of mine before she moved to Wales took her dog out, picked up the poop:)...no poop bin so threw it a bush as she couldnt be bothered to carry it home:(
i was disgusted when she told me!

Keeps my hands lovely and warm in winter

It sure does, specially when you're picking up after 5! It's so not good though if you forget to empty your pockets when you get home ... and you don't need the same jacket for a few days .... oh dear :-(  :-(

got coats with poo bags in that havent been worn for over a year...found them when sorting out the coat cupboard!!!

Just spotted your post. I'm so glad I'm not the only one, though haven't yet managed to forget to empty pockets for that long, yet!!

Actually I've often thought of doing some little warning notices to shame people ... not sure what I'd put on them, but they'd be in the shape of a triangular flag, mounted on a long bamboo cane and stuck in the middle of the poo pile.

One of my crowd got campylobacter a couple of years ago, went on for a while before determined what it was. We concluded, the vet and I, that she'd probably walked in poo whilst out, and then cleaned herself, inflicting herself with campylobacter. Trouble was she  had terrible diarrhoa when in my car, which I cleaned as best I could, but then I also got campylobacter. That cost me well over £1,000!!! That's when I thought about doing my poo stick thingy. Cost so much as there was £150 vet bills and testing (twice) for her and the rest was lost income for me as I'm self-employed. Campylobacter is not nice and you can't work for quite some time!

So some sort of shaming with poo flag poles might be a good idea?

I recall our parish council having a big debate about 20 years ago on the red dog bins...it seems some of the pensioners had assumed the village had a new postbox delivered :)

I would have liked to see the headline in the local press: "Trawden gets t**d class post"

>friend of mine before she moved to Wales took her dog out, picked up the poop:)...no poop bin so threw it a bush >as she couldnt be bothered to carry it home:(

I think I know where she lives! :( :(

I too am guilty of leaving a poo bag in my pocket and hanging up my jacket.  3 days later (warm weather - no jacket) it was coming to meet me at the front door  

And also forgot and left one in the boot of the car

> I also carry poo bags for as far as it takes - often I bring it home ;-)

How many times have i done that...:-D

I can understand when some dogs decide to go poo in the middle of a thicket of bushes/shrubs or nettles in which its almost impossible to even get in to get it out.. :-(

I know of some good friends who often just flick the poo into the next field, which i must note is that most of these fields the gp have access to. They are also the first ones to moan about treading in it.

I myself always seem to walk in it, more often than not when wearing flip flops as i don't stick to the actual footpaths and often walk in the grass next to them in the country - people seem to think if its not on the footpath its ok to leave it :-(..

I remember reading somewhere a year or so ago, about a chap who was so disgusted with all the dog poo, that he got a can of aerosol paint and sprayed them all bright pink. Unfortunately he used the wrong kind of paint and was landed with a ginormous bill from the council for removing it!

I've done the anonymous Notice thing here once (dived out at midnight and staple-gunned a few to walls) when there were just too many poos on the pavement, and it stopped overnight. It seems to go in spates, probably one person just using the same patch day after day without picking up, then maybe moving on to another street - perhaps when this one is "full"! Last time there were more than a dozen deposits in a 100-yd stretch, I got some coloured chalks and drew circles around them. This street is used by a lot of mums taking their young children to and from school, so at least it marked out the poos so they could avoid stepping in them. Then, it rained, of course..... *sigh*

The other thing i see is a lot of people of a certain age walking their dogs off lead in rural spots. They walk on ahead of their dogs and not caring what their dog is up to behind them, so often could be they have no idea their dog has pooped in a public place..

I've been having another big think about this and i'd love to see poop spray painted a colour i can see then i know where not to put my feet :-)

Also in villages there are a lot of nosey parkers who'd be only too willing to act as neighbourhood watch to catch the culprits out by taking a photo - naming and shaming them in a parish newsletter sounds a great way to do it :-)...

dog wardens where we live are on the ball for dog fouling ...although sometimes a bit too forceful I know a few people who have been fined, they actually had poo bags in thier hand with poo in, one of  the dogs went again  but the warden got on it before the owner he fined her on the spot even though she was about to pick up ..he said she wasnt quick enough....
They sit in park.. car parks and watch with binoculars ;O

Have just got in from walking around the fields behind us, shoes covered in s**t. Blackberry season soon, ended up wearing wellies last year as the hedgerows one long dog latrine from people not picking up or just throwing it to one side!

I think our council hands out free poo bags at the rent office.  I've never been in the rent office, so just going by hear-say! 

A few people got fined a year back in our village, and there was an uproar that an elderly man got fined for not picking up poop.

Personally, I buy scented nappy sacks from the supermarket - and often end up carrying them for miles until I find a poo bin, if I'm on the playing fields with the chuck-it I just bag it and leave it sat on the grass, picking up on way back home, I'm using baby blue bags just now, so very easy to spot!

theyre the bags I use from tesco

dogs a babe - the paint you are looking for is SURVEY PAINT.

http://www.survequip.com/Survey-LineMarking-Paint/

If put down in completely dry conditions it will last around 3 months, so good for 'bag it and bin it' type of messages on the pavement. If the weather conditions are not so dry then it will last anything from a few hours to a few days so good for circling the poos!!.

So 'Lucydogs' do you also find it acceptable to chuck litter when there is no bin? I personally take it home with me (or store it in my car :-P) but I would never ever sympathise with anyone who leaves/dumps litter or dog poo.

Our village is a minefield, I've reported one or two persistent offenders, they get a letter but that's all.

I religiously pick up where ever we are and since getting a Dickybag, don't have the problem of carrying swinging poo bags for miles.

No I do not chuck litter or dog poo, if you would take the trouble to read my post I clearly say that I DO pick up. I merely sympathise because I have had to carry bags of poo for miles along towpaths because there are no bins, whether normal bins or dog bins, provided. I would be grateful if you could refrain from making accusations like this in the future.

>>So 'Lucydogs' do you also find it acceptable to chuck litter when there is no bin? I personally take it home with me (or store it in my car ) but I would never ever sympathise with anyone who leaves/dumps litter or dog poo.

>since getting a Dickybag, don't have the problem of carrying swinging poo bags for miles.

Thanks Robert.  I've been wondering whether to ask dog owners to register with the Parish Council for some free poo bags - that way we get names and addresses - and offer to enter them in a free prize draw for a poo bag thingy? 

I like the Dicky Bag, and Popooki looks to be another good one - does anyone else have collection bags they recommend?

We are launching our village website later this year so thought that I might approach some enterprising pet stores, insurance companies, or food manufacturers to see if they'd like to offer us freebies for publicity.  I'm considering a dog poo awareness week and a sponsor could be ideal :)

In the meantime I may photograph our poo trees for entry into our village show!!

Sorry 'lucydogs' maybe I shouldn't have asked you if you also find it acceptable to dump litter. I was just concerned that you sympathise with the offenders as I see no excuse whatsoever to leave dog poo or litter (which I am fully aware you do not do).

That's ok. :) Yes I do sympathise with the yuckiness of carrying poo bags, but no I don't think it's acceptable to dump it. :)

got coats with poo bags in that havent been worn for over a year...found them when sorting out the coat cupboard!!!

I should have sai d that the poo bags were empty...I always take more than I need....can you imagine the smell if they were full, doesnt bear thinking about!!!

well this is a topic close to my heart..in France the problem is multiplied millions of times more...about every 500 meters one comes accross one of these things.

well what is never suggested...is BURY it ! surely...if out walking...do what CATS DO...dig a hole in the ground...shove the paper with dogshit in it and cover it up and just stamp on the ground. all this putting in waste bins makes smells and flies.

I like the Dicky Bag, and Popook, too :x

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I have a dicky bag,it comes complete with scented insert and holds hand sanitizer as well,not cheap but very well made and a complete answer to the no nearby bin problem.What annoys  me is the people who do pick up the poo,but then just drop the bag in the lane and do not bother to use biodegradable bags,so they adorn the country side for years

> What annoys  me is the people who do pick up the poo,but then just drop the bag in the lane and do not bother to use biodegradable bags,so they adorn the country side for years

I absolutely hate seeing that - it's even worse than seeing unpicked-up poo!
Too much ammunition for the anti-dog brigade who are getting more and more noisy these days with all the dog attacks, DDA etc. It's about time we waged war on the 'half-responsible' dog owners who pick up but then create an environmental pollution issue, and give all of us a bad name.

well our council charges you with a 1,000 fine if caught... fair enough. but i've never ever seen anyone going on poo patrol... i always carry poo bags with me and pick it up... sometimes i have to carry it all the way back home as there seems to be a massive lack of bins here. - i think from a council perspective there is a lot of improvement needed... more bins, and people who really try to catch foulers. I live on a small island just off Barrow and it's got the wonderful nickname of "dog sh*t island". it's a big shame that these irresponsible dog owners don't want to pick up after their dogs and that a lovely island with nice beaches is given such horrible name becaue of them.