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Old March 7th, 2010, 03:39 PM
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Composting Poop

4 dogs and spring thaw = disgusting

Has anyone tried or built a dog poop composter? We found online plans for one, as well as a manufactured product from PetSmart.
Any experiences to share? I am just about to call a service to come and clean my yard...
What do you do with your dog poop?

Hazel, what do you do with 8 times more dog poop?

My husband suggested not feeding them, but I am exploring other options as well...
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Old March 7th, 2010, 03:53 PM
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We pick it up in plastic sandwich bags, collect them in larger plastic bags and put them out in the trash. Not very green, I'm afraid, but it works.

We've tried something called a doggy dooley that was like a mini poop digester. You buried it in the ground with the top of it at ground level, added water and digestive enzyme and put the poop in it as you cleaned up. Problem was, we needed at least two units per dog or the digester got overwhelmed pretty quickly. With eight dogs...well, lets just say our backyard would be a tripping hazard just from the doggy doolies alone

Not sure how that differs from a poop composter, though. If yours works, let me know! We're always looking out for new solutions to our poopy problems.
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Old March 7th, 2010, 04:55 PM
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I took advantage of the spring thaw yesterday and collected a lot! If I catch it semi frozen much easier to pick up! I am sooooo thankful Winston is not a poop eater!

Happy Spring Thaw Everyone!!!
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Old March 7th, 2010, 07:08 PM
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We're fortunate here - there is a business that picks up dog poop and takes it to a major composter. I just put my bucket out once a week and it comes back empty - love it!
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Old March 7th, 2010, 07:19 PM
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spring thaw! I just use a $ store little shovel and scoop whatever I can into plastic bags. I can't wait for all of this to just dry up!

Buster is a poop-eater....luckily only for poopsicyles....he doesn't like them warmed up

We also have a local business that will clean up your backyard but I figure with just one (small) dog, I can do it!
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Old March 7th, 2010, 08:47 PM
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Because we've got not one, but two poop munchers, we have a race as to who can get to it first . We pick up as soon as they go so the yard is nice and clean. I'd love to have a compost type thing set up though. As it is, I shovel it into a bag lined pail and throw the bag out when the garbage truck passes. Feel guilty about all the plastic bags .
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Old March 7th, 2010, 08:51 PM
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I wanted to do this for a while now ... mostly in summer time.

otter posted a link once about it ... I know you can dig a 4 feet hole , put an old garbage in the hole (you must make holes in the plastic bin) and once a week , there were some products that you had to put in .... I'm sorry , I'm not much help
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Old March 7th, 2010, 08:55 PM
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I do my two piles daily , put them in a separate trash can and put it out to the road on trash day once a week.....
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Old March 7th, 2010, 09:03 PM
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I go around with a pooper scooper and a bucket w/ a garbage bag and throw the stuff away.

I looked into the digesters (which work similar to a septic tank or a lagoon), but they didn't look like a good option if you have a lot of poop. To handle a large amount you need to dig a HUGE hole and basically use a big plastic barrel or something and add the digester stuff. They also will still put off a smell according to a lot of the comments I read. Also, you have to leave the bottom open to the ground, which means the stuff will be soaking into the soil. If you have hard soil, like clay, it won't even work and the stuff inside will just build up. It also won't work once the temp drops a certain amount and the ground freezes.
If you live out in the country with a big yard that might be an option, but if you live in the city I'd just pick it up and throw it away.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 12:09 AM
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Mmmm, not dog poo. Keesha's is so small it disappears within a few days. Sammy's should be scooped but we are both too lazy to do it.
However - I can tell you aaallll about kitty poo!!!! Lots and lots of kitty poo. I have a huge hole three feet deep by four feet wide that I have filled with poop and more poop mixed in with the requisite litter of course. So much poop it's overflowing and I now need another hole dug. I need to pick up the activator and start mixing some soil with the dung. Or I would if I was really that energetic. Truth be told I will be asking hubby to dig that other hole and I will take another year to fill it. Maybe by that time the first pile of smelly kitty poo will have worn itself down enough I can add more on top.
They are using human feces now for fertilizer. I suppose doggy and kitty dodo would work as well.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 10:30 AM
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I read the sections on composting in the books belonging to a landscape architect I once shared office space with. Some said you should NOT compost dog waste, some said the waste of one healthy dog was OK. Some said you could then use the compost on flowers but not your vegetable garden, others said if it was properly composted then it was OK for the veggies too.

We do compost the waste of our one dog. Our compost bin is 5' x 8' x 5'. It's a huge compost, not one of those rinky, dinky little things you can buy at a store and bring home in your car. We feel the ratio of doggy doo to other matter is so small as to be inconsequential in that very large compost, which we fill to overflowing once a year.

I suggest you contact your local agricultural services office for up to date information on composting and the possibility of transmitting disease etc. through your compost. This might be a concern if any of the human household members has a health concern. When I see the stuff that goes on the local municipality lawns and then gets trucked to the city dump and then is SOLD (cheap but folks do pay) for compost I'm much more comfortable using my own doggy doo compost.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 11:20 AM
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We have a digester (black cylindrical cone). We have always thrown things in that do not belong in a composter including meat scraps. With enough wet including having to add water at times and enough grass added to it in the warmer months plus occasionally needing to mix it up a bit with a compost fork.. what is in it goes into the soil breaking down on its own. It the middle of a a cold winter if you take the lid off of it steams rises out of it as it is always active.

I'll add dog poop to it when I'm cleaning up the yard from time to time. When it comes to post winter clean up I bag it and throw it out in the regular trash. Way too much at once to add.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 02:04 PM
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This is an on-line book I found very informative when I was doing research on the same issue http://weblife.org/humanure/default.html
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Old March 8th, 2010, 02:23 PM
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With 9 dogs I try to do daily pick-up so it doesn't become overwhelming in the spring. Of course there are occasional days when pick up just doesn't happen and it gets covered up by fresh snow so there is always a bit in the spring, but really not bad considering how many dogs we have. Actually, spring time in my back yard is much better now that I do have so many dogs because I feel forced to deal with it on a regular basis, not just wait until spring. As for how I dispose...uh, if I'm honest, I just throw it over the back yard fence in the winter I live far enough away from neighbours that there is no odor issue, plus I'm in a rural farming area with my own horses and a herd of miniature horses across the road from me so spring melt means melting manure running everywhere anyhow. My back yard is elevated so it gets reasonably good drainage, and the side where I throw the poop gets direct sunlight from about noon onwards. In no time the poop is all dried up and doesn't smell anyhow, and gets buried in the long grass and weeds. Once the snow is melted down enough that I can open the back gate out towards my garden, I use a poop bucket and carry it all away to the furthest corner behind my garden and just dump it there, along with any weeds from the garden etc. No different than having a manure pile out behind the chicken coop. If the dogs do any digging in the back yard I will use the poop to fill the holes about 3/4 full and then rake the soil back in to fill it the rest of the way up and tamp it down.
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Old March 10th, 2010, 02:55 PM
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Hi

Don't use the composted dog or cat poop as there is bacteria in it that doesn't break down and can be transferred to humans!

We have a poop can here outside and we pick up the poop and put it in the can and put the bag to the street.
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Old March 10th, 2010, 03:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tundra_Queen View Post
Hi

Don't use the composted dog or cat poop as there is bacteria in it that doesn't break down and can be transferred to humans!
Actually, in newer studies it has shown if composted correctly there is no more danger in using dog/cat compost in your flower gardens as any other fertilizers. Not for use in veggie gardens to be on the safe side but for plants it is fine. They are even using human waste in some areas now.

http://www.allotment.org.uk/worm-com...ing-manure.php

The reason they say not to use dog/cat feces is because of worms and the eggs of worms in some pets diets. Seeing as most pets are dewormed when necessary and we know what is in our pets diets IMO I would not worry at all about using properly broken down feces. I would use common sense and use gardening gloves as even "purchased cow manure fertilizer can cause serious health problems.
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Old March 10th, 2010, 05:20 PM
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Does anyone besides me actually put dog poop in the toilet and flush it (without a plastic bag, of course)?

It seems to me that's the most ecologically sensible way to deal with it.
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Old March 10th, 2010, 07:40 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hound Dog View Post
Does anyone besides me actually put dog poop in the toilet and flush it (without a plastic bag, of course)?

It seems to me that's the most ecologically sensible way to deal with it.
I do that if I have a puppy that has an accident in the house, but otherwise no. I'd be doing an awful lot of flushing with 9 dogs I'm not sure my septic system could handle it, plus that's a lot of poop to be carting through the house to the toilet.
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Old March 15th, 2010, 11:31 AM
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I have a doggie dooley digestor, and I have the next to highest capacity one they make. We don't use it in the winter as it just freezes solid and won't digest like it's supposed to. In the summer months, it works good - even with all 4 dogs here. But during the winter it gets bagged and put in the trash.

I have a big spring clean up this year - hubby is not that good about cleaning up after the dogs, so I do it. While I was at the hospital, out of state, with my DIL - he just let all 4 dogs do their thing and never picked up. And of course it snowed that whole time - so my yard has been one giant poopsicle. I've been out there getting what I can each time the snow has retreated. Ugh.
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Old March 15th, 2010, 06:43 PM
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The old poopies that have been there since late fall just disintegrate into the grass, and the newer poops I pick up and put in a grocery bag, then throw away with the garbage. A friend of mine used to throw her dog's poop into her garden.
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