Why?

As a dog owner, I'll never, ever understand the idea of bagging your dog's poop then leaving it on the trail. All too often I've heard the justification, "I'm hiking right back by here so I'll pick it up on my way back." The problem is that, without fail, there are just too many bags full of poop left on trails everywhere. Either people don't actually come back and pick it up or they simply make the decision to leave it there.

I just don't get it.

Hiking with our dogs is a privilege, not a right. As pet owners, we need to do all we can to ensure that we are good stewards of the lands where we spend time with our dogs. Otherwise, we may not have access to beautiful places in the future to hike with our dogs.

Dealing with Dog Poop

Make no mistake, pet waste is an issue in the out-of-doors. Particularly when it's not dealt with properly. As more and more people and their pets enjoy the outdoors, the problem just keeps growing. For example, City of Boulder (CO) Open Space and Mountain Parks estimates that 40 TONS (80,000 lbs) of pet wastes are left on open space lands (40,000+ acres) each year. This represents a 10 ton increase in just the past 5 years. While most dog owners simply use either a poop bag or a plastic grocery bag to pick up their pets waste, some enterprising people overseas have come up with a solution:

Whatever method you use for dealing with your pet waste, please do the right thing.