CItyDog: The 'Unspoken World' of City Dog Poo

I thought I had researched enough for what to expect when I first adopted Miss M, but right after her Adoption Counselor drove away and we were left alone for our first walk together, I realized there was something I hadn't anticipated. Walking Miss M in one hand, and carrying my hand-held purse in the other, I felt at a loss when Miss M had diarrhea 'sprinkler-style' across the sidewalk and I couldn't figure out how to handle an excited dog, hold my purse, and clean up the poo that went everywhere.
While most people aren't really talking about it, our most-asked email questions are about the bathroom habits of City Dogs. We wrote about how city dogs manage bathroom breaks in this post here, and this is Part II about some things I've learned the hard way.

Poo Pick-up Techniques and Trustworthy Poo Bags

I've learned the hard way how important it is to have our dogs in a reliable sit-stay while picking up their poo.
 It could get messy.
I try to carry a cross-body bag, and if I have a shoulder-bad I need to anticipate it potentially falling into the poo if I lean over to pick it up. Scarves, leashes, and cameras also have the potential to fall into the poo if you are not planning well.
I know a lot of people save plastic bags from grocery stores to use as poo bags, but this turned out really badly for me. The grocery store bags can have all kinds of holes in them which is not a risk you want to take when picking up poo. A lot of the time we are picking up loose poo on the cement which can also break the bag and cause all kinds of messes.
We trust the Earth Rated poo bags which we get on Amazon and are supposed to be biodegradable. We decided to 'save' our grocery store plastic bags by just bringing our own reusable bags to the grocery store.

City Trashcans

Even though there are tons of alleys lined with trashcans, I plan my daily walks strategically to only throw my poo bags in certain trashcans.
I will never forget the story our friends told us of the time they went to throw out some trash and when they opened the bin a city rat jumped out, landed on the girl and ricocheted off of her onto the guy. Now I only use trashcans that are already opened, and when I throw the bag in the trash I run far away in case it has disturbed a 'jumping rat' who might be inside.
People can also be really possessive about their trashcans and I have a couple of friends who have gotten yelled at for throwing poo bags in trashcans in the alley. People become territorial because there is only so much room in each trashcan and sometimes the trash can get filled up before it gets picked up which creates all kinds of messes in the alley. There are also people who go digging through the trash and when they do that they leave the trash allover the ground which becomes really gross. And it attracts even more of the football-sized city rats.

Unattended Poo

I think one of the reason's people in the city generally don't like dogs is because so many people don't clean up their poo. It really is everywhere. And it makes me angry with these dog owners as well.
Besides being gross, dog poo is considered a delicacy for rats. It draws all the rats to the yard. And these are big, football-sized city rats.
I've noticed a couple of trends with people not picking up their poo. Some people think it's ok because it's in their own yard. I've seen owners with smaller dogs not pick it up because maybe they think it's so small it won't make a difference?
I've also noticed it's a big trend among off-leash dog walkers to not pick up after their dog. A lot of the time they will walk way ahead of their dog, so maybe they can pretend they can't see their dog poo-ing so they aren't responsible. I'm also guessing if they forget to bring a leash they are not going to remember to bring a poo bag.
There are also the people who think poo has the some properties as snow and they are exempt from picking it up if they just leave it in the snow. Which makes it worse when it all melts into a big poo-grime puddle in the Spring.

False Accusations

If you have a female dog that squats down to pee, some people might think your dog is actually poo-ing and accuse you of not cleaning up after your dog. I didn't understand this at first when one girl yelled at me and told me I needed to clean up my poo. We've realized it's beneficial to carry our filled up poo bags and throw them out at the end of our walk so people don't think we are the ones leaving the poo behind.

I know this might a taboo topic, but anyone else have any poo stories or tips to share?

Also:
These leash add-on's are helpful.
So are these City Dog bags.
How this command changed our lives.

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