Talk of The Villages Florida - I love dogs, but owners are another thing

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- - I love dogs, but owners are another thing (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/i-love-dogs-but-owners-another-thing-83879/)

I've got to differ from those who are tired of this dead old horse of a topic. Every week or so it shows up...because it has apparently not yet been beaten to death. As a newbie, it helps me know how strongly people feel on both sides, and I'm guessing many people on the polar opposites wonder how in the world THOSE people can think the way they do.
We aren't agreeing but at least we are aware that we are stepping on each others toes.

A few of my thoughts...

1. Every time someone starts a poop thread complaining about dogs, dog haters will chime in. There's not a lot, but there are a few, and they would have you believe that there are more irresponsible dog owners than not, and that's just not true.

2. IF your dog won't poop or pee on your own lawn, take action. Training is everything. SO WHAT if you have to take him out 50 times a day till he finally gives in and poops and pees in your yard? Who's the boss in the household?

Our latest, when a puppy, was housebroken on a lawn of pebbles his first winter, in a rental house down south. When we got back up north he was like, "What's this green stuff? I'm not using this!" It only took a day to retrain him. We moved down here, and I trained him to pee in the landscaping mulch instead of on the lawn.

3. The fact that a dog needs exercise is fine. But keep him in the street. Dogs in big cities everywhere go on cement, and owners pick it up. It's not abnormal. You can exercise your dog, and if he can't reach someone's lawn, he will go in the street if he's that desperate.

Whoa, it took 4 pages to pull out the grandchildren card, you all are a wee bit slow today.

I doubt these group beatings accomplish anything, doubt anyone's mind has ever been changed, I know mine hasn't. What I find fascinating is that when we do this it seems people's filters get turned off and they reveal themselves.

Ok, I love my dog. I walk my dog. Sometimes he pees and poops in someone's yard. If he poops, I pick it up. If he pees I carry a water bottle to pour on the spot. I am an avid Gardner and have a lush bit of grass. The urine from some dogs is very high in nitrogen And will burn the grass and leave an ugly brown spot. I hate it when this happens to my lawn. But as they say, s"#t happens, and so does poop and pee! We probably all have something that irritates our neighbors, so let us try to be kind and tolerant of one another. Some with dogs only have that pet in their ife and would be unbelievably lonely without it. Try to be understanding. I say tomato, you say tomatoe...let's work the whole thing out. Jeesh!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittygilchrist (Post 717002)

Nothing new................try reading the old threads. Yes, we are tired.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nysnowbirds (Post 716639)

I love dogs. However, when I watched a neighbor walk her two dogs and stop at my lawn this morning while her dog did his business on my lawn, I was shocked. She was not at the edge but well off the street with the dogs on a long leash in the middle of my lawn and waited a while until the dog decided to do his business on my lawn. Yes, she picked it up and yes, one has limited control over such things. But this behavior was rude, inconsiderate and selfish. Why not walk the dogs on YOUR LAWN? Or since we are a developing village (Hillsborough) with many acres of vacent land, why walk your dogs on your new neighbors lawns? It is just RUDE!

Any objections for "bird droppings" as well as other animal droppings on lawns, cars, houses, and sometimes on one's head.Who can we blame for this, God??.Maybe we should eliminate all forms of "non human" elements from the villages..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter (Post 717048)

Nothing new................try reading the old threads. Yes, we are tired.

tut tut, Bogie, not yet too bored to read and post..:icon_wink:

The Dog Poop Song

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X3DKPdHEYE]The Dog Poop Song - YouTube[/ame]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougB (Post 717100)

The Dog Poop Song

The Dog Poop Song - YouTube

Too bored to post? oh, no there's youtube maybe this one'll work.

re t-325 below, I'm not sure I follow you, but I don't expect to be pitied for taking responsibility to clean up after a dog I love. that would be like expecting a reward for changing my own baby's diaper.

Carrying around those greens bags filled to the brim...

and no one feels compassion for those owners who are doing their duty....

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittygilchrist (Post 717102)

Too bored to post? oh, no there's youtube maybe this one'll work.

Click the link in your post of my quote if my link didn't work for you

Comparing dogs' droppings to that of gators or birds or other wildlife is not a valid comparison.

Wildlife goes where it wants to go, and they don't like to hang out in peoples' yards, streets, nor among moving vehicles and pedestrians.

Also, the number of gators etc. in neighborhood streets, sidewalks and yards is miniscule compared to the number of dogs here that could easily number 20,000.

Domesticated animals like a dog on a leash are led to yards by an owner who either:

a) restrains the dog from going onto the yard because he respects other people's private property; or

b) disrespects another person's private property and allows and follows the dog onto the yard.

Does anyone really think the Dog Whisperer (Cesar), for example, would allow a dog on a leash to go onto somebody's yard to do its business there while out for a walk on the streets??

I certainly don't think so. His training is all about discipline, obedience, and letting the dog know who is the boss, and the dogs certainly do not suffer from such discipline.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovetv (Post 716877)

Let's not mock and minimize. Leaves are nowhere even close to what dog feces are for disease transmission, environmental pollution, and aggravation to neighbors:

Dog waste poses threat to water

By Traci Watson, USA TODAY

For as long as the dog has been man's best friend, dog waste has posed a menace to man's nose and foot. Now science has revealed a more unsavory truth: It's an environmental pollutant.

In the mid-1990s, scientists perfected methods for tracking the origin of nasty bacteria in streams and seawater. From Clearwater, Fla., to Arlington, Va., to Boise the trail has led straight to the hunched-up dog — and to owners who don't pick up after their pets.

At some beaches, dogs help raise bacteria levels so high that visitors must stay out of the water. Goaded by such studies, some cities have directed as much as $10,000 in the last few years to encourage dog owners to clean up after their pets. A few municipalities have started issuing citations to those who ignore pet clean-up ordinances.

Many dog lovers are in denial about their pooches' leavings. But researchers have named the idea that areas used by dogs pump more bacteria into waterways — the "Fido hypothesis."

Dogs are only one of many fixtures of suburban America that add to water pollution. Lawn fertilizers, rinse water from driveways and motor oil commonly end up in streams and lakes.

But unlike those sources, dogs generate disease-causing bacteria that can make people sick. Studies done in the last few years put dogs third or fourth on the list of contributors to bacteria in contaminated waters. "Dogs are one of our usual suspects," says Valerie Harwood, a microbiologist at the University of South Florida. "At certain sites, we find their effect to be significant."

It doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure out that dog do is nasty. But it took science to determine how nasty it is.

From mutt to blue-blooded champion, all dogs harbor so-called coliform bacteria, which live in the gut. The group includes E. coli, a bacterium that can cause disease, and fecal coliform bacteria, which spread through feces. Dogs also carry salmonella and giardia. Environmental officials use measurements of some of these bacteria as barometers of how much fecal matter has contaminated a body of water.

This wouldn't matter if pet dogs were as rare as pet chinchillas. But four in 10 U.S. households include at least one dog, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. The association's statistics also show that Americans owned 54.6 million dogs in 1996 and 68 million dogs in 2000. Of that total, 45% were "large" dogs — 40 pounds or more.

Those numbers add up to a lot of kibble. That wouldn't matter if all dog owners also owned a pooper-scooper. But several studies have found that roughly 40% of Americans don't pick up their dogs' feces (women are more likely to do so than men).....

How about cows, horses, buffalo and people with septic tanks does any of that pose a threat to water? How about chemical fertilizer compared to natures product? By the way I do not have a dog in this fight.

Okay -

i'm pooped !