Our dogs' favorite activity is to go
on a walk with us. This normally occurs when I am home from work; and
they never let us forget to take them out. They get so excited that
they can hardly contain themselves and it is always a melee when we
get them ready for the outing. All of them need to get their
harnesses and leashes adjusted so that we all stay together.
Lately the excitement leads to the dogs
pooping almost as soon as we leave our yard. They know that we will
be going on their favorite path and that there are many fantastic
smells to be sniffed and many blades of grass to be marked with their
urine (it is a big job, you know, and someone's got to do it). More
recently our little one has taken to pooping on our neighbor's
lawn. It appears that he is so excited that he cannot contain himself
until he gets to the designated pooping areas. The first time he did
it my husband tried to get him to stop his pooping and to hold it
until we got further along. He was unsuccessful; the turds shot out
and made a perfect pile on the neighbor's lawn. Fortunately, no one
saw the dirty deed and we didn't have to feel embarrassed. The
perpetrator just trotted down the path contented that he had less to
carry.
To avoid possible problems in the
future, my husband started running with the dogs as we leave our
house and continuing passed our neighbor's lawn until the path
enters the woods. Since the dogs love to run, their attention is
diverted to running from pooping. We stop the run when it is safe for
them to poop; then we walk at a normal pace. This method works well
to keep the neighbor's lawn poop-free. Now all we have to wonder
about is what the neighbor's think about why we are running our
dogs just a short way before slowing down to walk. Oh well, let them
wonder. They will never know that our strange behavior is keeping
their shoes clean and their lawns beautiful. 