Dippity doo dah, dippity hey! To borrow and somewhat change the line of the original song Zippety Doo Dah. We’re actually talking about the dippity doo dah dog piles that have been percolating along all winter under mounds of snow in your yard. If you are out there on a regular basis and do doo duty even in winter, then good on you. If however you tend to put it off because – hey it’s darn cold out there, then read on.

It’s hard to get motivated to scoop in the dead of winter when there’s a blizzard and the temperatures drop to minus 40 with a wind chill of you really don’t want to know what. So, that leaves you with the delightful task of finding the piles as the snow starts to dwindle. This is one game of hide and go seek you would rather not be playing thanks a bunch. And wouldn’t you know it, you are still finding partially disintegrated piles in June.

You might be asking yourself why bother. Why not leave it until it does degrade? First reason NOT to, would be if you have small children using the yard to play in. The most urgent reason though, is that dog doo is a health hazard. If left outside it can become a lovely place for flies to lay eggs and produce maggots, and parasites from other animals. It can also be responsible for passing parasites to other animals (usually through eating) then passes through the food chain back to the dogs – and – in some cases, to humans.

In short, it’s way easier to do something about doo the minute it gets deposited. You can use plastic bags sandwich bags turned inside out, garden trowels or fancy poop and scoop equipment to doo the duty. Great, that means you can get it off your lawn, but what next? Many townships and county bylaws classify dog feces as hazardous waste and will not let it be picked up by garbage collectors.

You might have to hit the landfill as they often have separate sections including one for hazardous waste disposal. There are some dog doo scoop businesses who will come and clean up and do disposal as well – for a fee. Some only clean up. But if you really hate doing this, a service might be just what you need.

And now for something completely different! Here’s another option for you, but you might have to check local bylaws first. It’s a septic system for dogs – an underground septic system (tank). All you do is drop the doo in the hole and the chemicals and enzymes in the tank break it down. Now that beats the 80 bags of winterized dog deposits you collect every spring in plastic bags!