Just wondering about dog walking etiquette

[Kaitlin and Ludo]

This morning on our walk, Ludo peed in someone's yard.  He's a squatter, so to the untrained eye, it might have looked like he was pooping.  The lady rushed out of her front door and demanded I pick up after my dog.  I politely responded "He didn't poop in your yard.  I clean up after my dog, but if you would like to check and if I made a mistake, I would be happy to clean up after him."... She said she watched him out her window and that he had pooped in her yard.  She hurried over to check and he clearly hadn't pooped in her yard.  She didn't apologize for accusing me, just scowled and walked away. I can totally understand the annoyance of having someone not clean up their dog's poop, I would be annoyed too, but the way this lady spoke to me really bothered me.

But it got me thinking about what is appropriate regarding a dog peeing in someone's yard.  My neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks but we do have drainage ditches along the edges of all the properties.  I allow Ludo to walk only on the street side of the drainage ditch (maybe 2 feet from the street) in the grass. I've never had ANYONE say anything about him peeing (or pooping) in this area.  I clean up after him every time. For the record, if someone has a flower bed or something, I won't allow him to walk through and potentially pee there.

I have been trying to find out, just out of curiosity, where the property lines end in my neighborhood.  I'm pretty sure where we are walking is considered an easement and is essentially the equivalent of where a sidewalk would go if we had sidewalks.  So I don't think I am doing anything wrong to begin with.

I am curious to hear what you guys find acceptable during walks.

[Amy and Annabelle]

Does she know Ludo is a boy and therefore she expects boy dogs to hike? Otherwise I don't understand why she assumed he was pooping, because girl dogs squat. I would say anything considered public space, even if she takes care of it, would be fine. I think she over-reacted a bit and made a big assumption on her part. But the worst was not apologizing after she wrongly accused you. Anyway I walk on bike/walk trails since I live in the country and have no safe place to walk without driving somewhere.

[Kaitlin and Ludo]

She might know Ludo is a boy.  Everyone in the neighborhood seems to know him :p  But I don't understand it either.  It really caught me off guard.  I agree, it was inappropriate of her and rubbed me the wrong way.  Unfortunately, she lives just a couple houses away, so it's not like I can really avoid their house. I'm sure things will be fine moving forward.  Despite my joking about letting Lu pee there every day from now on, I'll be respectful and steer clear of their yard.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

In my neighborhood, we do have sidewalks, and then there is a grass area between the sidewalk and the street which is referred to as a parkway. The parkways are public property, even though the homeowners are responsible for mowing them. Mailboxes and street lights are all located on the parkways. Fire hydrants are also located there. A few people plant flowers around their mailboxes, or around the trees lining the parkways, even though they don't own that land. 

When you are walking your dog on the sidewalk, the parkway is to one side of you and someone's lawn is on the other side. Most of the responsible dog owners here try to only allow their dogs to do their business on the grass on the parkway side of the sidewalks, and not on anyone's lawn. Of course we always clean up the solid waste, but obviously there is no way to clean up pee, lol. The village dog laws state that you must have your dog leashed and you must clean up after him, period. So if your dog pees on the parkway, you are not breaking any laws. 

Even so, there are some homeowners who get crazy when your dog pees on "their" parkway. These are inevitably the ones who fuss over the grass on the parkways and have planted flowers and/or shrubs around the mailbox and trees, sometimes even around the lamp post. (I haven't yet seen anyone plant flowers around a fire hydrant, lol, but nothing would surprise me any more.)

There is one man in my neighborhood who used to get upset when Jack even walked on "his" parkway as we passed his house, and if Dog Forbid Jack pee'd against the lamp post there, he would get verbally abusive. Insults, even four letter words. I mean, "Why don't you let your G.D. dog pi$$ in your own F'ing yard" kind of abuse. The interesting thing about this was, he only did it when it was women walking their dogs. If there was a man, he never said a word, no matter what the dog did. 

After this happened 3 or 4 times, I called the police and reported that I was being publicly harassed. I explained to the community service officer who came to my house that I was breaking no laws, (even showing her the poop bags in the bin, lol) and that this homeowner was being verbally abusive to me. They actually went over to his house and talked to him. He still gives us a dirty look when we pass his house, but he's never opened his dirty mouth again since. :)

[Kaitlin and Ludo]

Sidewalks would make things a lot easier :p  Half of my neighborhood DOES have sidewalks and when we walk on them, we observe those general rules-- Ludo walks on the parkway side, not the lawn side.  I think she must just be a crazy person. Though I'm glad she, so far, doesn't seem to be as crazy as the guy you described.  Sheesh!!

[Nancy & Echo]

Some people are just nuts.   In my area, parkways are public property, though the owners are supposed to care for that area.

Several years ago, (before I got Echo), my acupuncturist had 2 Bichon frise dogs.  On the way to her office, there was a house with a parkway that was completely sand - just plain ordinary tan-ish sand, no plants or mailboxes or anything.  When one of her dogs peed on the sand in the parkway, the owner demanded that she clean it up, and never let her dogs pee on 'her' parkway.  My acupuncturist was understandably upset with the owner of the house.

[Kaitlin and Ludo]

Yikes.  I think you're totally right-- some people are just crazy.  I guess I'm lucky that my run-in didn't escalate to anything like what you or Karen described!!

[Adina P]

I think it's perfectly okay to let a dog pee on a lawn.  In a perfect world we'd all have perfectly trained dogs and we'd have them eliminate in our own yards before a walk and they would never stop to pee without a command.  But in real life, I'm happy people walk their dogs and pick up after them if there is a poo.  Do it on the edge of the lawn, don't mess up flower beds, etc and I think you're fine.  But that's me.  I think it SHOULD be fine to put poop bags in other people's trash cans if they are out for pick up and not emptied yet too.

[Kaitlin and Ludo]

Exactly. I, could work on training Ludo to eliminate ONLY on demand and in our own yard, but I don't really feel like I need to do that.  I am with you on all counts!  I also think it should be ok to put poop bags in other trash cans on trash day, but I've never done it because I think I'd be in the thought minority on that thought :p 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We live in a suburban area - sidewalks, used-to-be lawns (drought), public parks.   We always take poo bags, the park has dispensers.  Personally, I tie the bag and deposit it in the nearest trash can.  I don't invade someone's property, but if the can is right there, I don't carry the stinky bag home.  When we are camping, we walk our dogs in the designated areas, but if there is only dirt, Ned absolutely will not go, and Charlie only if he is desperate.  I will use grassy areas on the back side of a campsite on the end of the row, but never if the camper faces that grass. I also clean up after thoughtless dog owner princes who think they don't need to pick up after their dogs, but I grumble about it.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I live in a condo complex, and for the most part we all try to be considerate of each other's lawns.  Dog urine can kill grass...we've had to reseed some of our back because of it.  The "common areas" are fair game and we also have small "dog parks" where they can go, so there's no real need for them to go on someone else's grass.  If Ludo is going on an easement area I think that should be totally fine...but I might try to avoid the area in front of this particular house.

[Kris and Sawyer]

We don't have sidewalks in our neighborhood either.  I do not allow Sawyer to pee or even step in to other people's yards.  I just keep the leash short enough that he cannot. We have a lot of "common areas", that he can wait!  :-)  Usually he has 'his spot' that he has to pee on in the common area.  But if he can't make it, he will just pee in the street.  I'm funny about things like that though.  I don't like to offend anyone, so I tend to error on the side of caution.  

[Diane and Alma]

My neighborhood does not have sidewalks.  I do not allow my dog to go on lawns - she walks by my side on the street.  One man berated me years ago when Alma pee'd on his lawn.  He said he didn't want other dogs marking over her urine, attracting more dogs to his yard.  Our daily walk takes us out of the neighborhood to a nice, sidewalk corridor lined with trees and grass.  I allow her free reign in that area.  Hopefully you can find a similar place to walk Ludo.