The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Dog Poop The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Dog Poop
Showing posts with label Dog Poop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dog Poop. Show all posts

Friday, September 21, 2018

Puppies Spread Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria In Recent Diarrhea Outbreak


Puppy poop gave 118 people diarrhea in a recent outbreak caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Nobody died, but 26 people were hospitalized. And if the pet industry doesn’t change its puppy-peddling ways, these outbreaks could continue.

The CDC was first clued into the outbreak in August 2017, when the Florida Department of Health reported that six people had been infected with a type of bacteria that causes fevers, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea. By February 2018, the CDC discovered that more than 118 people in 18 states had been infected with the same thing: a bacteria called Campylobacter that’s usually linked to eating raw chicken or food contaminated by chicken juices.

To read more on this, click here: Puppies Spread Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria In Recent Diarrhea Outbreak


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Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Yes, People Should Clean Up Their Dogs' Poop, But Does This Poster in England Go Too Far?


A few years ago a borouh's campaign poster  included a picture of a boy eating dog poop, and it went viral on the Internet. Is it too much in the war on poop?

Some people take dog poop really seriously. If you work here at Dogster, it's kind of hard not to notice. Recently, Michael Leaverton wrote about the neighborhood in Brooklyn (my old neighborhood, actually), that was fighting dog poop via webcams, and activists in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Boulder, Colorado, have advocated using DNA testing to catch owners who don't clean up. And in a moment of true hipster weirdness, two Brooklyn artists had a turf war over painting dog poop gold.

These examples aren't much, though, when compared with the anti-poop campaign unleashed by the borough council of Spelthorne in Southeast England. These people really hate dog poop, and they've grossed out about half the planet in the process.

A poster in the council's "No Messin'" campaign features a picture of an adorable ginger-haired toddler looking at the camera. The child is holding two lumps of what looks like dog poop in his hands, and it's smeared around his mouth and cheeks. The caption reads "Children will touch anything. Dog feces can be harmful to human health and can cause blindness. An infection called Toxocara canis can be caught if the waste is not removed immediately."

The campaign was launched last year but recently exploded across international borders when it was posted to Imgur.com. Since it went up Sunday, the poster has gotten 1 million hits on Imgur and been reposted to scores of other sites.

Some people have declared the poster to be "vile," but the Spelthorne Borough Council continues to stand behind its approach. In a statement, one council member said that the campaign was effective precisely because it was "hard-hitting." The statement further reads:

"The council takes the view that these kinds of messages and imagery are necessary to have the required effect. It is using a number of different images and messages to deal with this problem which, it hopes, will persuade people to act more responsibly."

Spelthorne isn't the first government body in England to use this tactic, either. Last year, officials in Bristol put up a billboard as part of its war on poop showing a little girl eating fake (we hope) poo. Our man Leaverton wrote a hysterical take on this one, Why Is This Little Girl Eating Dog Poop on This Billboard?

It's certainly the responsibility of every dog owner to clean up after his or her pet, but -- does this go too far? I have to admit that my inner 12-year-old is giggling up a storm, but grown-up me is kind of squirming. I'm all for confrontation and making people uncomfortable in the name of a good cause. A good part of my urge to write is driven by the old maxim to "Comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable."

But this is dog poop. Is the situation really this out of control?

What do you think? Is the ad a good way to draw people's attention to a serious problem, or a bunch of people blowing things out of proportion with shock tactics?


                          Clean up after your pets by Shutterstock.



The poster that's gained so much international infamy for Spelthorne.


Another poster from the same "hard-hitting" campaign. This one kind of looks like the dog poops money. Isn't that a good thing?



                              Piece of poop on the beach by Shutterstock.


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Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Mucus or Blood in Dog’s Stool or Blood in Urine: What Does It Mean?


If you have noticed mucus or blood in your dog’s stool or blood in your dog’s urine, you may be wondering if it is a cause for concern. Bloody diarrhea can be especially worrying. While these are symptoms of other conditions, they don’t identify the exact cause of the underlying problem. Usually observing any other unusual symptoms can help narrow down the reason for mucus or blood in your dog’s stool or blood in your dog’s urine, but your veterinarian is the one who will be able to confirm a diagnosis and give you the right advice for treatment. You should inform them of any other symptoms that are out of the ordinary, especially bloody diarrhea, and you may be asked to provide a sample from your dog for analysis. You should definitely consult your veterinarian as soon as possible if you see these symptoms. Leaving it up to chance can have dire consequences for your dog. Here is what you should know about mucus or blood in your dog’s stool or urine.

To read more on this story, click here: Mucus or Blood in Dog’s Stool or Blood in Urine: What Does It Mean?

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Friday, March 31, 2017

Dogdrones is a Fleet of Aerial and Rolling Robots, Designed to Clean Dog Poop Off of the Streets


There are drones to deliver pizza, drones which follow people around taking selfies – but someone has just come up with something a little more useful.

Dogdrones is a fleet of aerial and rolling robots, designed to work as a team to clean the streets of dog poop.

The system consists of two units – Watch Dog and Patrol Dog – which are already under test in prototype form.

Watch Dog is a flying drone which spots dog poop by looking for warm spots (in other words, fresh ones).

It then transmits coordinates to Patrol Dog, a rolling ground drone which scoops up and disposes of the poop.

Tinki, the start-up behind the idea, says, “By receiving GPS coordinates PD1 gets the command to immediately dispose of the dog poop.

With a camera and thermal imaging WD1 is scanning its environment. The drone is able to detect dog poop while it still has the body temperature of the dog.”



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Sunday, August 14, 2016

Man’s Roomba Vacuum Cleaner, Ran Over Dog Poop, Spreading a 25-Foot Trail of Feces Throughout His House


One man describes the events that unfolded when his Roomba ran over dog poop, spreading a 25-foot trail of feces throughout his house.

In a Facebook post, Jesse Newton said his dog, Evie, defecated in the living room at some point between midnight and when his vacuum cleaning robot was set to run at 1:30 a.m. When Newton‘s 4-year-old son awoke at 3 a.m. to crawl into bed with his parents, Newton smelled a strong odor. He got out of bed and walked into a “war zone of poop” in his living room.

Newton documented the dramatic saga that unfolded as a cautionary tail to others. The post, complete with a hand drawn map of the poop trail, has since gone viral with more than 140,000 reactions and more than 200,000 shares.

“Do not, under any circumstances, let your Roomba run over dog poop,” Newton said. “If the unthinkable does happen, and your Roomba runs over dog poop, stop it immediately and do not let it continue the cleaning cycle.”

Newton was not so lucky. He recounts his attempts to clean the copious amounts of dried poop from his living room and a failed effort at using a rug shampooer to remove poop from the rug where it all started.

“Some folks would shrug their shoulders and get back in bed to deal with it in the morning. But you're not one of those people,” Newton writes of himself.

Instead, in the early hours of the morning, he attempted to clean the Roomba but forgot to take the batteries out before soaking it. As the waterlogged Roomba sputtered to its death, Newton had some harsh words.

“You're not just using profanity - you're inventing new types of profanity,” Newton said of his reaction. “You're saying things that would make Satan shudder in revulsion. You hope your kid stayed in bed, because if he hears you talking like this, there's no way he's not ending up in prison.”

But the tale has a happy ending. After a week of trying to fix the costly device, he called the store where he purchased the Roomba and told them the story. The purchase came with a lifetime warranty.

"They are replacing the Roomba that ran over dog poop and then died a poopy, watery death in the bathtub - by no fault of their own, of course," Newton wrote on Facebook.

This is one experience that won't soon be flushed away.
See the full Facebook post below:

Jesse Newton with Kelly McQueen Newton.
August 9 at 7:23pm · Little Rock, AR · 

So, last week, something pretty tragic happened in our household. It's taken me until now to wrap my head around it and find the words to describe the horror. It started off simple enough - something that's probably happened to most of you.

Sometime between midnight and 1:30am, our puppy Evie pooped on our rug in the living room. This is the only time she's done this, so it's probably just because we forgot to let her out before we went to bed that night. Now, if you have a detective's mind, you may be wondering how we know the poop occurred between midnight and 1:30am. We were asleep, so how do I know that time frame?

Why, friends, that's because our Roomba runs at 1:30am every night, while we sleep. And it found the poop. And so begins the Pooptastrophe. The poohpocalypse. The pooppening.

If you have a Roomba, please rid yourself of all distractions and absorb everything I'm about to tell you.

Do not, under any circumstances, let your Roomba run over dog poop. If the unthinkable does happen, and your Roomba runs over dog poop, stop it immediately and do not let it continue the cleaning cycle. Because if that happens, it will spread the dog poop over every conceivable surface within its reach, resulting in a home that closely resembles a Jackson Pollock poop painting.

It will be on your floorboards. It will be on your furniture legs. It will be on your carpets. It will be on your rugs. It will be on your kids' toy boxes. If it's near the floor, it will have poop on it. Those awesome wheels, which have a checkered surface for better traction, left 25-foot poop trails all over the house. Our lovable Roomba, who gets a careful cleaning every night, looked like it had been mudding. Yes, mudding - like what you do with a Jeep on a pipeline road. But in poop.

Then, when your four-year-old gets up at 3am to crawl into your bed, you'll wonder why he smells like dog poop. And you'll walk into the living room. And you'll wonder why the floor feels slightly gritty. And you'll see a brown-encrusted, vaguely Roomba-shaped thing sitting in the middle of the floor with a glowing green light, like everything's okay. Like it's proud of itself. You were still half-asleep until this point, but now you wake up pretty damn quickly.

And then the horror. Oh the horror. So, first you clean the child. You scrub the poop off his feet and put him back in bed. But you don't bother cleaning your own feet, because you know what's coming. It's inevitable, and it's coming at you like a freight train. Some folks would shrug their shoulders and get back in bed to deal with it in the morning. But you're not one of those people - you can't go to sleep with that war zone of poop in the living room.

So you clean the Roomba. You toss it in the bathtub to let it soak. You pull it apart, piece-by-piece, wondering at what point you became an adult and assumed responsibility for 3:30am-Roomba-disassembly-poop-cleanups. By this point, the poop isn't just on your hands - it's smeared up to your elbows. You already heard the Roomba make that "whirlllllllllllllllll-boop-hisssssssss" noise that sounds like electronics dying, and you realize you forgot to pull the battery before getting it wet. More on that later.

Oh, and you're not just using profanity - you're inventing new types of profanity. You're saying things that would make Satan shudder in revulsion. You hope your kid stayed in bed, because if he hears you talking like this, there's no way he's not ending up in prison.

Then you get out the carpet shampooer. When you push it up to the rug - the rug that started it all - the shampooer just laughs at you. Because that rug is going in the trash, folks. But you shampoo it anyway, because your wife loved that damn rug, and you know she'll ask if you tried to clean it first.

Then you get out the paper towel rolls, idly wondering if you should invest in paper towel stock, and you blow through three or four rolls wiping up poop. Then you get the spray bottle with bleach water and hose down the floor boards to let them soak, because the poop has already dried. Then out comes the steam mop, and you take care of those 25-ft poop trails.

And then, because it's 6am, you go to bed. Let's finish this tomorrow, right?

The next day, you finish taking the Roomba apart, scraping out all the tiny flecks of poop, and after watching a few Youtube instructional videos, you remove the motherboard to wash it with a toothbrush. Then you bake it in the oven to dry. You put it all back together, and of course it doesn't work. Because you heard the "whirlllllllllllllll-boop-hissssssss" noise when it died its poopy death in the bathtub. But you hoped that maybe the Roomba gods would have mercy on you.

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel. After spending a week researching how to fix this damn $400 Roomba without spending $400 again - including refurb units, new motherboards, and new batteries - you finally decide to call the place where you bought it. That place called Hammacher Schlemmer. They have a funny name, but they have an awesome warranty. They claim it's for life, and it's for any reason.
So I called them and told the truth. My Roomba found dog poop and almost precipitated World War III.

And you know what they did? They offered to replace it. Yes, folks. They are replacing the Roomba that ran over dog poop and then died a poopy, watery death in the bathtub - by no fault of their own, of course.

So, mad props to Hammacher Schlemmer. If you're buying anything expensive, and they sell it, I recommend buying it from them. And remember - don't let your Roomba run over dog poop.



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Monday, March 14, 2016

Why Does My Dog Take His Own Sweet Time When It Comes To Pooping?


My dog is the pickiest pooper I know. Come rain or shine or snow or sweat, he must and will trudge around to find his golden mud pile. Time does not matter.

Out of curiosity, you know, just because, I decided to figure out all the inner workings that make my dog so darn choosy about his poo spots.

Thankfully, Wired, wrote a nice long think piece on the science of dog pooping. I figured I’d gist it out for you below:

1. Informational Goldmine:
Dogs’ poo and pee serve as their social media profile, if you will. It conveys vital information to other dogs. Carlo Siracusa, director of the Small Animal Behavior Service at the veterinary hospital of the University of Pennsylvania told Wired:

“These messages can tell your dog how many other dogs are in the immediate area, the sexual status of those dogs—whether a female is in heat, for example—whether a particular dog is a friend or an enemy, what he or she had for lunch, and when they were last in the area.”

This partially explains why I can literally see that a-ha moment in my dog’s demeanor when he drops a deuce. He’s probably trying to hit on that Doxie down the street.




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Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Residents in a Washington, D.C. Community Say Dog Feces and Urine Are Dripping Down onto Their Balconies


Washington, DC -  Residents in a D.C. community say dog feces and urine are dripping down onto their balconies from the neighbor upstairs.

Keita Vanterpool says the disgusting situation is ruining her quality of life.

"I'll smell the stench of the urine and feces. It's unbelievable," said Keita Vanterpool.

"It's limited my capacity to even open my door and enjoy fresh air. I can't have my nieces and nephews over to play because the balcony is always contaminated."

Norma Brooks said her balcony is contaminated too.

"I don't want that! You know that's horrible," she said.

WUSA9's Stephanie Gailhard went two floors up to talk to Vanterpool's neighbor about the droppings.

Paul Travis admitted to Stephanie he washed dog feces and urine off his balcony at least once.

Vanterpool said the problem has been on-going for the last six months. She even took her concerns to city officials.

"I presented the information to authorities and they said we have to be out here when he does it."

She said he pours the animal feces and urine off his balcony around midnight when authorities are off the clock. She said she has pleaded with property management to do something.

"They have this attitude of we will get to it when we get to it and we will do it at the last minute so we are not cited and fined."

Vanterpool is taking Travis to court next month. She hopes he gets the message.

"You need to stop this. It is not right you would not like someone pouring animal excrement onto you and causing you extra stress. It is just not right."

WUSA9 reached out to city officials and property management at Marbury plaza, to ask them about the neighbors concerns. So far no one has called us back.




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Sunday, December 27, 2015

Sunny, The Youngest of the First Family’s Two Dogs, Sometimes Sneaks Out of the Kitchen and Poops at the Other End of the White House


Bo Obama is a perfectly well-behaved Portuguese Water Dog. He’s had top notch breeding and training. In fact, his professional trainer said that Bo was an attentive student who never had an accident. He’s certainly a presidential pup. Sunny Obama, Bo’s furry sister, is a bit of a punk.

First Lady Michelle Obama admitted that Sunny, the younger of the First Family’s two dogs, can be a little naughty. The pup will sometimes sneak out of the kitchen and go poop at the other end of the White House. Sunny didn’t get the expert training that Bo did, apparently, and she wasn’t potty trained when the Obama family got her in 2013.

Sunny has a history of rowdy behavior. She once knocked over a toddler at a White House holiday event, though she apologized by licking the little one’s face. It’s nice to know that her high status in society hasn’t affected Sunny’s ability to throw decorum to the wind. Even the President has to deal with dogs pooping in the house.

  
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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Are You Leaving Dog Poop in The Yard?: The Dangers of Not Cleaning Up After Your Dog


Is dog poop dangerous?
Cleaning up after your dog can be a stinky job, but somebody's got to do it!
Constant clean up is necessary for a healthy environment for you and your family.

Love, food, and shelter were all things you actively agreed to
providing for your new pet when you purchased or adopted them.
Sanitation and cleanup are also important facets of pet ownership
that are critical to the health and well-being of your entire
family.

Dog feces is as high as 3rd on the list of contributors to
contaminated water. Cleaning up after your dog is one guarantee in
the life of every pet owner. Left un-checked, your yard can quickly
turn into a mine field of feces in a week or less. On average, dogs
do a number two twice per day which adds up to about 14 piles of
poo in just one week, per dog. Contrary to popular belief, dog
feces is not fertilizer and does not provide any benefit to the
soil.

So, what's in it?
Dog feces may contain parvovirus, whipworms, hookworms, roundworms,
threadworms, campylobacteriosis, giardia, and coccidia. If left
unattended, these parasites will contaminate the water, soil, and
can even cause infection in both pets and humans (especially
children). The microscopic Hookworm larvae can be passed to another
pet or person directly through the skin or by accidental ingestion
as can other bacteria.

What bacterias can cause infections in both pets and humans?
Yes, humans are capable of contracting hookworms, tapeworms,
threadworms and campylobacteriosis. This is the most significant
reason to avoid allowing dogs (especially puppies) to like your
face and mouth - affectionately known as "puppy kisses". If a dog
has recently eaten feces or attempted to groom their hind quarters
and come into contact with this infectious material, there is a
chance the parasites will be passed directly into your mouth.
Children are especially venerable to infection because they tend to
enjoy playing in the dirt, where parasites such as hookworm larvae
lay dormant waiting for a new host. Young children may also put
dirty hands or toys in their mouth, further increasing the chance
for infectious material consumption.

What can you do to prevent the spread of infections/bacteria?
Pet feces can be catastrophic to the local water table,
contaminating nearby ponds, lakes, rivers and drinking water. When
feces is allowed to remain on the soil for long periods, rainstorms
will begin to dilute and break apart the feces and slowly spread
the bacteria on other contaminants into local water sources. If
your yard happens to hold water for extended periods of time, the
problem may be amplified.

To avoid potential infection, dog feces should be removed from the
yard every 1 - 7 days, depending on the size of the dog and number
of dogs in the household. Larger dogs will need more frequent
cleanup, as will households with more than 1 dog. A family with one
Pomeranian will have a much lower environmental impact than the
family with 2 Great Danes.

If you are too busy to clean up after your dog, or the thought of
it just makes you gag, there are many services available today,
that will gladly do the dirty work for you.

A sanitation expert will locate and remove any feces found on
premises 1 or more times per week for a fee. Some
areas do have legal statutes that regulate the cleanup and disposal
of pet waste, so be sure to contact your local health board for
more information.





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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Dogs Have 'Inner Compass' When Pooping, Study Suggests


Berlin - German and Czech researchers studying squatting dogs doing their business have found the pooches have an "inner compass" that may help explain how they find their way home over great distances.

When the four-legged friends stop during a walk to defecate or urinate, they tend to do so along a north-south axis, provided the earth's magnetic field is stable at the time, the scientists said Friday.

To read more on this story, click here: Dogs Have 'Inner Compass' When Pooping, Study Suggests FOLLOW US!
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Monday, January 12, 2015

The Scoop on Pet Poop: Facts and Fiction About Disposing It


Picture of dog
Flushing dog poop down the toilet – without a bag, only the waste – is perhaps the best disposal method, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Resources Defense Council. Leaving pet waste on the ground increases public health risks by allowing harmful bacteria and nutrients to wash into storm drains, and eventually into local waterbodies.

To read more on this story, click here: The Scoop on Pet Poop: Facts and Fiction About Disposing It FOLLOW US!
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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Ticked Off! Picking Up After Your Pets


Picture of dog
We have been asking our viewers what ticks them off and our new segment took us to a battle brewing on Capitol Hill and it isn't about politics. It turns out dog owners and homeowners are ticked off there!

The issue is what some of those dog owners are leaving behind in the homeowners' trash.

To read more on this story, click here: Ticked Off! Picking Up After Your Pets FOLLOW US!
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Friday, October 17, 2014

Central Park Drinking Fountain Doubles As Dog Bidet


Why pay a fortune to have a professional dog groomer shampoo your four-legged beast when Central Park is already filled with dozens of little sinks, perfectly adapted for scrubbing your pet's anus? Like petite puppy bidets, the push of a button sends a cool burst of water arcing upward—you may have seen other park goers use the stream for their mouths to quench their thirst on a hot day! But you will use them to scrape fecal matter from your dog's matted butt fur.


To read more on this story, click here: Central Park Drinking Fountain Doubles As Dog Bidet

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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

31 Problems Only Dog Owners Understand


Early-morning walks in freezing weather. You have to put on so many layers just to go around the block, and he'll be sure to stop and sniff every single tree, fire hydrant, and trash can as you shiver.

The cost of walks, grooming, boarding, and vet visits. You're not going to be stingy about taking care of him, and the people who run these businesses totally know that.

To read more on this story, click here: 31 Problems Only Dog Owners Understand









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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Yes, People Should Clean Up Their Dogs' Poop, But Does This Poster in England Go Too Far?


A borough's campaign last year included a poster of a boy eating dog poop, and now it's gone viral on the Internet. Is it too much in the war on poop?

Some people take dog poop really seriously. If you work here at Dogster, it's kind of hard not to notice. Recently, Michael Leaverton wrote about the neighborhood in Brooklyn (my old neighborhood, actually), that was fighting dog poop via webcams, and activists in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Boulder, Colorado, have advocated using DNA testing to catch owners who don't clean up. And in a moment of true hipster weirdness, two Brooklyn artists had a turf war over painting dog poop gold.

These examples aren't much, though, when compared with the anti-poop campaign unleashed by the borough council of Spelthorne in Southeast England. These people really hate dog poop, and they've grossed out about half the planet in the process.

A poster in the council's "No Messin'" campaign features a picture of an adorable ginger-haired toddler looking at the camera. The child is holding two lumps of what looks like dog poop in his hands, and it's smeared around his mouth and cheeks. The caption reads "Children will touch anything. Dog feces can be harmful to human health and can cause blindness. An infection called Toxocara canis can be caught if the waste is not removed immediately."

The campaign was launched last year but recently exploded across international borders when it was posted to Imgur.com. Since it went up Sunday, the poster has gotten 1 million hits on Imgur and been reposted to scores of other sites.

Some people have declared the poster to be "vile," but the Spelthorne Borough Council continues to stand behind its approach. In a statement, one council member said that the campaign was effective precisely because it was "hard-hitting." The statement further reads:

"The council takes the view that these kinds of messages and imagery are necessary to have the required effect. It is using a number of different images and messages to deal with this problem which, it hopes, will persuade people to act more responsibly."

Spelthorne isn't the first government body in England to use this tactic, either. Last year, officials in Bristol put up a billboard as part of its war on poop showing a little girl eating fake (we hope) poo. Our man Leaverton wrote a hysterical take on this one, Why Is This Little Girl Eating Dog Poop on This Billboard?

It's certainly the responsibility of every dog owner to clean up after his or her pet, but -- does this go too far? I have to admit that my inner 12-year-old is giggling up a storm, but grown-up me is kind of squirming. I'm all for confrontation and making people uncomfortable in the name of a good cause. A good part of my urge to write is driven by the old maxim to "Comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable."

But this is dog poop. Is the situation really this out of control?

What do you think? Is the ad a good way to draw people's attention to a serious problem, or a bunch of people blowing things out of proportion with shock tactics?

Clean up after your pets by Shutterstock.



The poster that's gained so much international infamy for Spelthorne.


Another poster from the same "hard-hitting" campaign. This one kind of looks like the dog poops money. Isn't that a good thing?


Piece of poop on the beach by Shutterstock.







(To subscribe to The Pet Tree House, click on this icon
in the black drop-down menu on your right. Thank you.)


on Twitter @thepettreehouse

Visit my new blog! The News Whisperer, An informative blog of what's going on in your world today!
 at: www.whispersoftheworld.com



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Sunday, August 17, 2014

Brooklyn, New York Residents Set Up "Wall of Shame" for Messy Dog Walkers


Dog walkers who don’t clean up after their pets on one Brooklyn street could find themselves in for a surprise nastier than the messes their pooches leave behind, thanks to a group of fed-up residents.

The South Oxford Street Block Association said on its Facebook page that it is setting up an online “wall of shame” of photos and videos of dog owners who don’t pick up after their pets on walks.

The group's president, Abby Weissman, already posted surveillance footage of a woman walking off after her dog stopped to do its business by a tree box on a sidewalk.

Weissman encouraged other members of the group to be on the lookout for more scofflaw dog walkers and to send in similar photos and videos.

“There is no excuse for this behavior,” Weissman said in a Facebook post. “If you can’t clean up after your dog you shouldn’t have one.”

Some residents in the neighborhood said they supported the idea.

“I am with y’all all the way (about) catching dog-walkers leaving their poop on the ground,” one longtime Fort Greene resident said in a post to the group’s Facebook page. “Oh does that drive me nuts.”

Under city law, dog owners who don’t pick up after their pets could face a $250 fine.

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Monday, May 14, 2012

Does Your Dog Eat Poop?



Yes, it’s disgusting. Yes, it’s potentially unhealthy. And, yes, it’s fairly common in the animal world.

Only one of my dogs did this, and at the most inappropriate time...when we were eating or had company!

My little Sugar, who crossed over the Rainbow Bridge in 2008, would eat her poop.

One day I noticed Sugar eating her poop. My first reaction was to run over and make her stop.

The next time that I noticed it was when my husband let them in, and she came running pass me with it hanging out of her mouth.

Finally, I found some in her bed and decided that she need to go to the vet.

Their visit to the vet was in a couple of days, so I waited and asked him when I got there.

He told me, that a dog will eat their own poop for a number of reasons:

  • They think it smells and tastes good. Dogs are notoriously poor arbiters of taste.
  • They are hungry.
  • They may be missing key nutrients in their diet or suffer malabsorption.
  • They like to keep their territory or bedding clean.
  • They have fun playing with it. This is especially true for dogs that are mouthy.
  • They are bored.
  • They know that removing the evidence means no punishment for inappropriate elimination.
  • They know that fewer predators will give him grief if there is no physical evidence of his having been around.

In Sugar's case, she was lacking nutrients. She was put on medication and finally stopped.

There may be other reasons for routine coprophagy, as the condition is known. It can be hard to figure out why a dog chooses to eat poop, but if the problem persists, ask your veterinarian about a remedy for this habit. What veterinarians do know is that it is normal behavior for a wide variety of species, even if humans are revolted by the very idea.

The American Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) says, The act of dogs consuming their own or other animals’ feces is known as coprophagia . Although it’s not known exactly why it occurs, coprophagia is a normal behavior in many species, including dogs. Ingesting one’s own or other dogs’ feces is particularly prevalent in puppies.


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