Picking up after a dog is the least complicated job in the yard and the easiest one to do badly. Most of what goes wrong is not effort. It is method: the wrong tool, the wrong pattern, or the assumption that what you cannot see is gone.
THE SHORT ANSWER
How do you clean up dog poop?
Walk the yard in a grid rather than wandering it, lift each pile with a rake and pan or a bagged scooper, bag everything, and put the bag in your household trash. Do not hose it into the lawn, do not compost it at home, and do not leave it to break down on its own. Grass and rain do not dispose of dog waste. They spread it.
What do you actually need?
Very little, and none of it is expensive.
- A rake and pan, or a bagged scooper with a long handle. Both beat a bag over the hand, because they keep you upright and let you work faster
- Bags you do not mind filling. Thin produce bags tear on gravel and cold mornings
- A bin with a lid you can dedicate to it, so the smell stays in one place
- Gloves, and a hose for anything on hard surfaces
A rake and pan matters more than people expect. Bending for every pile is what turns a ten minute job into one you put off until it is an hour.
How do you clean up a yard that has gotten away from you?
Work it as a grid, not as a search. Pick an edge, walk the length of the yard, move over about a stride, and walk back. Corner to corner, across and back. It feels slower than crisscrossing and it is much faster, because you are never wondering whether you have already covered a strip.
Two things hide waste and are worth handling first. Long grass swallows it completely, so mow before a big catch-up clean rather than after. Leaf cover does the same thing in fall, and raking first is quicker than finding it twice.
Start along fences and under shrubs. Dogs use edges and cover far more than open lawn, so that is where the volume is.
How do you clean dog poop off concrete?
Concrete, pavers and patio slabs need a different approach than grass, because the mess bonds to a porous surface and leaves both a stain and a smell after the solid part is gone.
- Lift what you can with a flat scraper or a stiff putty knife. A pan and rake skates on smooth concrete
- Wet the spot and let it sit a minute before scrubbing. Dry scrubbing grinds it into the pores
- Scrub with a stiff bristle brush and a little dish soap or an enzyme cleaner. Enzyme cleaner is the one that actually removes the odor source rather than covering it
- Rinse away from the lawn and away from any storm drain
Bleach is a common instinct and a poor choice here. It kills the smell for a day, it can discolor the concrete, and it is not something you want your dog walking on afterwards.
What about the smell that stays behind?
Odor that outlasts the cleanup is almost always bacteria left in a porous surface, which is why enzyme cleaners work and air fresheners do not. On grass, a rinse and time handle it. On concrete, gravel or artificial turf, an enzyme treatment is the thing that ends it.
How often should it be done?
Weekly is the honest floor for one dog, and more often if you have more dogs or you want the yard genuinely usable. The reason is not tidiness. A pile left out is a pile being walked through, tracked indoors, and rained into the soil, and the parasites in dog waste can survive in the ground long after the waste itself is gone.
What if you would rather not do it at all?
That is most of why we exist. The Lawn Dogs runs weekly, every other week and twice weekly routes across the Treasure Valley. We walk the grid described above, haul everything away in the truck rather than leaving it in your bin, photograph the latched gate, and leave a treat at the door.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you just hose dog poop into the grass?
No. It does not disappear, it breaks into pieces you cannot see and washes into the soil and the storm drain. The mess is still there and now it is spread out.
Does dog poop break down on its own?
Eventually, and far more slowly than people assume. In the meantime it is killing the grass underneath it and holding onto whatever it was carrying.
What is the fastest way to clean a whole yard?
Mow or rake first so nothing is hidden, then walk it in a grid with a rake and pan. Searching at random is what makes it slow.
Related
- Does Dog Poop Kill Grass?
- Is Dog Poop Good Fertilizer?
- What Diseases Can Dog Poop Spread?
- Plans and pricing
Sources
- US EPA, Basic Information about Nonpoint Source Pollution
- CDC, Healthy Pets, Healthy People