So, if your dog starts to wander into someone else’s yard or if you are walking on a path that is very close to someone’s window and your dog wants to stop to go potty… do not allow it to happen, just continue walking, (leash pulled close to you), and the dog will follow, it kind of has to because it’s attached to the leash that is required to be attached to you and your dog, linking you together. You walk, they walk. You run, they run. Easy peasy.

I must say… it’s absolutely rude to be standing outside someone’s window, regardless of what you’re doing, but even more so allowing your dog to relieve themself in someone else’s smellitory (the territory around their home in which they could easily smell). Another reason is that someone in the apartment/house may want to relieve themselves of a fart while they’re in the privacy of their own home… not realizing there might be a stranger right outside the window, secretly judging them.

Do not say that you can’t control where a dog goes to the bathroom. If you are a dog owner, training your dog is very important, not only for your safety and happiness, but a trained dog is less likely to piss humans off, reducing the chance of abuse. During the training period you will teach a dog where to go to the bathroom and where not to go to the bathroom. You wouldn’t allow them to go to the bathroom in your house, so that proves you have a say in where they “go”. Such as: when you’re walking on a leash, you hold the leash close to you in any area that your dog acts like it wants to relieve itself but you know it is an inappropriate place*.

If you feel your dog trying to relieve itself in an inappropriate place* you nudge it along to the nearest appropriate area. If indeed it really is an emergency, the dog will just poo as it walks ( You’re still responsible for picking that up) or dribble as it walks and therefore you will know it’s actually an emergency, and not just a marking-the-territory situation and in that case you should of taken your dog to the nearest appropriate spot right as you left your house/car, before going on a walk.

When walking your dog down a sidewalk, keep your dog between you and the road. Allow your dog to use the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the gutter… providing there is one. If not, you are walking to an appropriate place anyway so they will be able to relieve themselves soon enough. This will keep the dog from wandering onto private property, i.e. someone’s lawn.

As for the poop bags… there are ways to secure the used bag to the leash so it doesn’t end up smack in the middle of the running path, just around a blind corner waiting for a jogger to take a slide. Attaching a carabiner to your leash and then securing your pup’s poo bag will assure it will make it to the nearest dumpster.

* Inappropriate places

• On someone else’s lawn… Because they often pay dearly for it.

• Near someone’s window… Because that’s just rude.

• On carefully manicured bushes… Be kind to landscapers, they are human too.

• On flowers… Do they really need an excuse not to be urinated on?

• On mailboxes… Because collecting the mail should be a pleasant experience.

• On dumpsters… Because they stink enough already.

• On electrical boxes/lamp posts… Urine is very corrosive, causing unnecessary damage to city equipment.

• On playground equipment… Just don’t.

• On vehicle tires… Would you like your car peed on?

• On wooden fence posts/electricity poles… Wood absorbs the wretched stench.

Be a better human.