Everyone always talks about the positive benefits of keeping a dog (or two, or three…) in Calgary. The daily walks will keep you fit, their unconditional love will keep you sane, and there’s all sorts of scientific studies showing that patting a dog (or two, or three…) removes your blood pressures and reduces your cortisol levels. However, no one talks about the drawbacks of having to deal with your dog’s poop which can feel like a never ending cycle of grossness.
What Happens When You Don’t Clean Up After Your Dog
No one wants to deal with dog poop, which is why many Calgary families will have some sort of rota to deal with the problem to spread the misery out over all capable family members. It’s essential to take care of your dog’s waste in the city for a number of reasons:
- It attracts rodents – the biggest issue with leaving your dog poop out for extended periods of time can often go unnoticed until it’s a big problem. Rats and mice see your dog waste as a delicious meal, and once they’ve spotted your property as a potential restaurant they’ll keep coming back for more, and they’ll bring their friends and families to the feast. Once they’re situated, it will take a lot of time, effort and money to get rid of them no matter whether you choose humane disposal methods or not.
- It’s poisonous to your soil – another invisible problem that only comes up when you’ve left the dog poop problem fester for too long is poisoned soil. Dogs are carnivores which means the acids in their stomach create poisonous enzymes in their poop even if you feed them dry kibble for food. Left out in the Calgary sunshine, dog poop quickly biodegrades and seeps deeper into your soil, disrupting the root system of your lawn. You’ll spend a small fortune on redressing the top soil and fertilizing the fresh loam as well as having to start any gardening projects you’ve been working on from scratch.
- It smells – finally, a more obvious problem with leaving dog poop out in your yard is that it smells pretty bad, especially during the summer when the heat and sun cause the poop to break down faster. It’ll be noticeable to visitors to your property which can be a problem if you’re looking to sell, and your family will stop wanting to be outside, and no one wants to be cooped up inside all summer long.
Regular Dog Poop Clean Up Ideas
It’s obvious to see therefore that you need a plan to keep on top of your dog waste problem. All of the most successful solutions rely on regular dog poop clean up, so whichever one you choose, it needs to be done every few days in the worst case scenario.
Follow Your Dog
During the warmer Calgary months, you can simply make the routine that whoever is on dog poop duty takes the pup outside and follows them around until they finish their business. Then it’s a question of making sure that you have either a pooper scooper or compostable bags and somewhere to store the trash until you can permanently dispose of it. This is the only sure fire way to make sure you’re not missing any poop, but it can be problematic if your dog takes a while to do its business, needs to go multiple times during the day or when it gets too cold to be outside for extended periods of time.
Train Your Dog
An option that relieves some of those pressure points is to create a targeted area of your garden and train your dog to only go poop in that specific spot. It’s a good idea to have this fenced off and reasonably close to the house so you don’t have to clear much of a path through the snow banks. Using this strategy means you can send your dog out to do its business by itself, and then someone needs to go out with a scooper or a shovel every few days to clear up the whole area. This approach is viable during the winter months, but leaving the dog waste out there runs the risk of attracting rodents, hence the need for the area to be fenced off.
Get Expert Help
The last option for your dog waste removes the need for you or your family to be involved in your dog waste problem at all. A quick call to the dog poop clean up experts at Scoop Cut N Shovel is all it takes. We’ll talk with you about the number of dogs you have and the frequency of pickup you require, and your dog waste subscription package will be all set. Our team of dog waste clean up professionals will come to your home with all the right equipment to clear all the waste and dispose of it off site, leaving you free and clear to enjoy all the best parts of dog ownership.
Bundle To Save More
Once you’ve got into the idea of paying a small subscription to take care of a larger problem, you’ll want to talk to Scoop Cut N Shovel about our other property maintenance services. We have packages for all seasons. In spring and fall, we’ll come and do one off lawn and garden clean ups as well as collaborate with you on your landscaping projects. In the summer, you can hire our team of lawn professionals to take care of mowing and fertilizing your grass, while in the winter we’ll handle the snow and ice removal from your driveway and walkways to help keep you and your family on the move during every snowstorm. Each of these packages comes with a customizable subscription schedule, and you can save even more when you put them all together and ask for our year round property maintenance package which gives you access to all of our expert services.