The Reasons Why Your Community Needs Dog Poop Bag Dispensers

By Fred Levine | July 28, 2018

Cleaning up dog poop when walking your dog is the responsible, courteous thing to do. No one loves stepping in a fresh pile of doggie doo. More than that, it is the ecological, sanitary thing to do. Dog feces can spread several kinds of diseases both to other dogs and to humans. By picking up after your dog, you are helping keep your area clean for the next person who walks down the same trail or across the same grassy patch.

A Pet Owner’s Embarrassing Moment

But if you are a pet owner, the chances are you’ve had the morning where you stumbled out, bleary-eyed, with your favorite pooch on the other end of your personal buddy line so that your canine companion can empty out in the natural, outside world. And, oh, horrors! You forgot that dog-bone shaped bag dispenser.

Dispenser to the Rescue

Fortunately, your local housing authority may have provided the perfect solution. Near your customary walkway, stands a doggie doo bag dispenser, accompanied by a lidded wastebasket for your canine’s biological end product.

Just in the nick of time, you are able to grab a bag from the dispenser, just as your pooch is making those familiar circling and sniffing motions that presages the event. Sure enough, he humps his back, lifts his tail out of the way and makes a steaming deposit. You slip your hand inside the bag, gather up the results of his effort, and pull the ends of the bag up over your hand, and quickly capture the mess in the bag.

Triumphant, you tie the end, toss the bag into the disposal bin and cadge another bag or two — just in case. Now, you are ready to stroll down the sidewalk letting your dog happily sniff around, while knowing that you are prepared just in case that was only one of the events of the morning.

Benefits of Dog Poop Bag Dispensers

Dog poop bag dispensers placed at intervals along a walking path or in an area where many pet owners walk their dogs makes cleaning up easy – even if the human half of a walking team has forgotten the all-important sanitation bags. When a dedicated disposal receptacle is provided, it also helps direct the waste to an appropriate disposal place.

Picking up dog feces when walking your dog has several benefits:

    • Common Courtesy. No one loves stepping in dog poop.
    • Disease Prevention. Dog doo can contain a variety of pathogens and parasites. Picking up poop minimizes the likelihood that the eggs from parasites, disease germs and just plain old e-coli will take up long-term residence in that spot.
    • Water Protection. Rainwater can carry dog feces into nearby streams and rivers where it behaves as any other raw sewage might.
    • Preventing Poop Eating. This is a disgusting habit acquired by many dogs – especially if they have access to cat feces. Dogs are scavengers, and poop often contains quite a bit of discarded protein, which could be lifesaving in wilderness conditions.
    • It’s the Legal Thing to Do. In many areas, it is now legally mandated that dog owners clean up after their animal.

Encouraging Correct Behavior

When parks, apartment owners, and municipalities provide doggie doo bag dispensers, they are encouraging appropriate pet owner behavior. After all, the dog has been trained to “go” when outside on a leash. It is only a small step farther to “train” the human half of the equation to take care of the natural result. When compared to the cost of disease, contaminated water, and disgruntled joggers or walkers, a bag dispenser is a minimal sort of expense. Although the bag needs to be restocked from time to time, the dispensers are usually made of metal and are likely to last many years.
If you are a dog owner, it is an easy matter to attach a bag dispenser to your canine companions leash, just to help remember to have a bag on hand. But if you should forget it, it is super nice to know where several bag dispensers are located along your normal walking route.
If you are not a dog owner, those dispensers are your insurance against walking from your home to your car, only to suddenly feel something squishy under your shoe.

Posted in Dogs