In September of 2010, we adopted a beautiful retired racing Greyhound. We love her to death, and she's an absolute joy to have around and super east to take care of. We live on the upper two floors of a house at the moment with no direct access to our backyard, so we must walk her for bathroom breaks, 4 times a day. She loves to go to the small park 2 blocks away from our house, so I try to take her there every second day or so. I enjoy taking her places she likes to go because I like to see her happy and she deserves it after years of being a working dog...:) It's also been a few years since we've both owned dogs, and when the weather is nice we enjoy the fresh air.
We are very responsible parents, and very conscious about picking up after her. I wouldn't dream of letting her shit somewhere and not pick it up. I don't even leave it in my own yard, and I sure as hell don't leave it in anyone else's or public property for that matter. One time the poop bag fell out of my pocket without realizing and I had no choice but to leave her steaming pile of shit right where she left it. But I came back and picked it up because public property or not, that's not cool. But now that the snow is almost gone, it floors me how much dog shit people have left behind in the park we go to. Like, it's EVERYWHERE. Why is that okay? Why is it okay to let your dog shit where kids and other dogs play and leave it there? Because it's not your property so you don't give a shit? (pardon the pun) You can't even walk through the park without playing a tweaked version of hopscotch.
I really don't understand people anymore. As a dog owner, I have poop bags everywhere- in my car, my purse and in every pocket of every jacket I own. So many people these days have a sense of entitlement, and feel everyone else should be responsible for things they do or do not think they should have to do. My parents taught me to respect others and their property, and I don't do to others what I wouldn't want done to me. I don't even let my dog go to the bathroom on anyone's lawns and prefer she go on public or city property. Aside from the fact that I think it's rude, there's no way I could get away with the event going unnoticed. My dog brews up some steamers that are probably bigger than mine so there's no just kicking some dirt over HER logs and carrying on with my day. Personally, I don't care if someone let their dog shit in my yard, as long as they pick it up. I'm a dog owner. I get it. But it is my luck that the one time I would let her go on someone else's property, she would decide to pick the house of some grumpy 79 year old man who's mad at the world, and (of course) would just happen to be looking out his window at that exact time, come scurrying out in his shorts, black socks pulled up to his knees and sandals with his fist in the air screaming "Get off my goddamn property! Damn inconsiderate kids!" Kids, of course, because everyone under 60 is a kid to him. This surely wouldn't happen to the actual inconsiderate people who NEVER pick up their dog's shit, but to considerate little old me who had no intention of leaving a pile of steaming shit in someone's yard. They must have all been to his house, because now they let their dogs shit in the park.
Come on people, pick up your dog's shit! That is all.