What do you do with dog poop? Bury it...?

[MrsJewelsRae]

So we have a dog now, he's 3.5 months old and we've had him for almost a month. We've been scooping his waste into a bucket and keep it back by the barn but what do I do with it? We don't have garbage pickup out here and it's really not garbage, I can't bag it up and bring it to the dump..do you find a spot out of the way and bury it? How far away from crops should it be? Thanks!

[Farmer'sWife]

Ummm...we don't do anything, just let it be, however our dog is not very large. I know people who have trained their dog to go in a certain area, like the edge of the field or grove. That way it's not all over your lawn by the house etc. I wouldn't worry about keeping it a certain distance from crops, although I probably wouldn't put it right in my vegetable garden.

[mamaspirit]

I've heard of people composting it, but I think you need an enzyme to add to it to make it safe to use.

We have trained our puppy (now 6) to poop only in a certain area to minimize the kids "accidently" finding a surprise.

[Pepper44]

I would just pile it somewhere or leave it in the yard where the dog goes. If you put (garden/lawn safe) lime on it then it will disappear faster! I sprinkle it all over my big chicken pen then soak it really good with water, and the poop, odor, and flies are gone quickly.

[Momma2DoubleCuties]

We have issues with annoying high school trouble makers behind our house, so I throw it back there so they have to stand in it...

[mamadelbosque]

umm... nothing. we just leave it to rot in the yard/pasture/woods/wherever. Mostly the dogs seem to learn not to poop in the yard for the most part... if we're playing and theirs a fresh pile, at most it gets picked up w/ a shovel and chucked into the weeds...

[Tjej]

You can make your own little dog septic tank - I have been wanting to do this for years but we keep thinking we'll be moving...

I found it online (you can probably google dog septic or something similar), but its really just a garbage can buried most of the way (but enough so you can still put the lid on it), some holes in it, I think a little gravel at the bottom, the feces and some packets of bacteria for a regular septic system (cheap and available at hardware stores).

[elisheva]

Originally Posted by Tjej

You can make your own little dog septic tank - I have been wanting to do this for years but we keep thinking we'll be moving...

I found it online (you can probably google dog septic or something similar), but its really just a garbage can buried most of the way (but enough so you can still put the lid on it), some holes in it, I think a little gravel at the bottom, the feces and some packets of bacteria for a regular septic system (cheap and available at hardware stores).

We live in town and have made one of these. It's not full a year later but dh also said he doesn't see the level drop. He just admitted it has been a while since he added the septic stuff. I have noticed no smell and I love that the lid stays on.

[1stimestar]

We have over 40 dogs out at the kennel and just put it into a pile out by the woods. Every once in a while, just change the location of the pile. The old piles go away as the poop reverts back to nature.

[lobster]

Here's a quick how-to on building a dog waste composter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8UlP_V_6O4

I'd make one myself, but we plan to move soon, so maybe at the new house.

[baltic_ballet]

My local council sells this system:

Doggy Dodo Dispenser Worm Farm

The Doggy dodo dispenser is a very simple, mobile worm farm to place directly in your garden. Dispensers are a recycled product, made from wheelie (garbage) bins beyond repair.

Dispensers are very simple to use, as follows:

1. Place dispenser directly in your garden in a shaded area, i.e. next to a flower bed, by a tree or against the back fence, and push a few centimetres in to the soil.
2. Add worms and castings.
3. Drop in your dog's waste.
4. Add a couple of ice cream containers full of wetted and shredded paper once a week (to provide cover for worms to attack waste efficiently)
5. Add a little water to dispenser once a week to maintain moist conditions.
6. Worms convert waste to fertiliser, for instant take-up by plants.
7. Move dispenser and worms (contained in the first few centimetres of soil) to a new patch every 3-4 months or when dispenser becomes full.


We talked about buying one but our dog in nearly 16 years old and we are not planing on getting a new dog once she passes away.

Edited to add:

I recently found this product for picking up dog poop which is fully biodegradable and you can clip it to your dogs leash:

http://www.skooperbox.com

[MrsJewelsRae]

thanks! Yeah, the original plan was to train him to potty in the same area all the time- out behind the barn. And we did pretty good the first couple weeks getting up in the middle of the ice cold night and trudging out there with him. But then the dog and I got chased off by either a raccoon or a possum in a bad mood and I was too scared to go back there at night again. So now he leaves his crap all over the yard and the kids are stepping in it if it's not cleaned up right away. So I guess we'll just chuck it out behind the barn and hopefully try to train him to go back there again now that he sleeps through the night.

[karne]

Throw it into the woods in a pile. It's gone pretty quickly.

[PreggieUBA2C]

The dog here tends to prefer to go into the wooded areas. He doesn't poop in the open areas at all, ever. He's not been trained to do that; he just does. The property is completely un-fenced though, so he wanders around all day doing as he pleases and going where he wants to.

[BunnySlippers]

You can burn it.
A friend of mine does.

I was thinking of doing the same with the dog, rabbit and bird cage cleanings since all three are on wood shavings.

[Alyantavid]

Ours just get tossed in the pasture. The kids know to watch out for any poop anyways. Our older dog (a 130 lb Chessie) rarely ever goes in the yard so it's just our puppy's we have to deal with right now.

[Dahlea]

Throw it further out in the woods where the kid doesn't play

[Arduinna]

What are you feeding him? If you feed raw there is nothing really to do with it.

[stephienoodle]

Originally Posted by Arduinna

What are you feeding him? If you feed raw there is nothing really to do with it.

We live in-town right now (though we want to be in the country soon!) and have 0.08 acres. That includes house and parking lot, so if you figure it our backyard is tiny... probably 0.02 or less. Our 75lb foxhound eats raw and poops almost exclusively in the backyard. Now, we don't play or do much in our backyard because it is a little bit poopy in order to do so... but I never pick up the poop. As long as he isn't goofy and leaves his poop on the sidewalk, it always breaks down within a couple of weeks... sooner if there's rain. Once we have land, it'll be a non-issue unless he poops on a pathway or a play area.

[Shahbazin]

For a while there, we had 8-10 large (100-150 lb) dogs on the ranch where we lived - we dug a big hole with the tractor, dumped waste in the hole until it was full, then dug a new hole. The holes lasted quite a while.