A few years ago, my girlfriend and I had a friend move in with us. We had all lived together before so we knew exactly what to expect and were looking forward to it. However, our new/old roommate was bringing two dogs along and that dynamic would be totally new for us. Neither of us had ever lived with dogs before and had no idea what to expect. One dog is a French bulldog that is impossible to not fall in love with and a mini-Doberman pinscher that, to me at least, took a little more effort to love. Anyway, I learned a lot very quickly about dogs and owning them here in NYC. It’s like being in a community within a community, a whole new world is revealed to you that most non-dog owners probably do not realize is even there. I also quickly learned (thank you NYPD) about leash, license and poop laws and how they pertained to me and my new roommates and added pet waste bags to my shopping list.

After a few months, we had developed a routine and all of us (dogs included) had adjusted to our new living scenario I realized that our most important and informative daily interaction with the dogs was taking them to poop. We needed to know how often each dog went, the color, the consistency. Was there anything strange in it? Was it difficult for the dog to go? I learned later that parents are the same way with their newborns and there are actually guides that tell parents what should be coming out and what it should look like (http://family.go.com/parentpedia/baby/care-basics/baby-bowel-movements/). Had I had this parental experience I might have prepared myself a little better for the strange and gross fact that dog poop and picking it up with pet waste bags  would play a major role in my relationship with the dogs. Your dog’s poop can let you know if they are sick or if they have parasites. The way they poop and how often can tell you about their feelings and moods and what is in the poop can tell you if they have been eating things aren’t supposed to be eating. We even required daily poop reports from the dog walker we utilized during the day and left pet waste bags for him to use on these daily walks.

I have seen lots of reasons why picking-up your dog’s poop with pet waste bags is important. There are the obvious reasons like it is gross, unsanitary, smelly, and not something anyone wants to see. There are the not so obvious reasons like it pollutes water sources through rain runoff and can carry and transmit disease. Snohomish County, Washington actually has a website (http://www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/Public_Works/Divisions/SWM/Services/Water_Pollution/Pet_Waste_Posters.htm) where they are selling light-hearted posters about the importance of picking-up your dogs poop. Some of the posters are just gross because I can’t get past the poop that is pictured, some of them are funny, some cute and some informational. The page is titled 101 Reasons to Pick-Up pet waste but I only counted 25 posters so….

Anyway, like I was saying, there are lots of reasons for why everyone should clean-up after their pets with an eco-friendly pet waste bag. The most important to me was it was my best informational tool on the health happiness of my new roommates.

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