How To Clean Dog Poop Out Of Grass

How To Clean Dog Poop From My Yard During The Winter?

By DoodyCalls

Cold Weather Poop Scooping Advice from the Experts

Cleaning up dog poop in the winter is no fun – and in the spring when the snow melts – picking up what's been "preserved," for months on end is even less enjoyable!

I grew up in Buffalo, NY and we had an Australian Shepard mix named Daisy. Daisy was pretty much the best dog you could ever imagine. Aside from occasionally trying to herd the neighborhood kids she was super sweet and smart. Like most dogs, Daisy pooped in our yard.

Buffalo winters are cold and snowy and we didn't do as much poop pick up during the colder months as we should have. When the snow melted, we had a big job waiting for us. My parents and I would grab shovels and paper bags and head out to the yard to clean up months worth of dog poop! I bet we picked up about 50 pounds of poop. Spring clean up was a time consuming and extremely unpleasant task!

How to keep your yard clean during a snowy winter

Keep an area in front of your door shoveled so that snow does not accumulate. This will encourage your dog to go in that one area and make it easier to clean regularly.
The tines on a rake may break when trying to chip the poop out of the ice! I suggest using a long handled garden shovel with small blade to scoop the poop rather than a rake. I prefer a shovel with small blade because it's less heavy. If you really want to use a rake buy a metal one rather than a plastic one.
Make sure to use pet safe deicer if you are using a deicer where your dog will be going.
Take advantage of occasional warm days when there is a "thaw," to do a clean up. The more waste clean up you do now – the less you will have to do later!
Hire a pooper scooper company to take care of the work during the cold months only or all year!

How to clean up dog poop during the spring "thaw"

It's going to be a big job and you will need the right tools! I suggest buying a lobby dust pan and lining it with a garbage bag. Then you can scoop the poop right from the yard into the lined dust pan. When the lobby dust pan is full pull the bag out, double bag it, and tie with a knot.
If your dog has been taking care of business on concrete or a deck it may smell of waste or urine. Consider using an enzyme deodorizer that's meant to digest waste and urine to get your property smelling clean and fresh again!
Don't put the collected dog waste in your garden. Dog waste does not make good fertilizer!

While unpleasant – cleaning up waste after winter is very important. If the waste isn't picked up then it will wash into the watershed. Three months of waste from sometimes hundreds of thousands of dogs in a single metro – all washing into the watershed in a short period of time is very bad for the environment. If you'd rather not do the spring clean up yourself you can order a one time spring clean up from most pooper scooper companies.