How To Keep Dogs From Pooping In Your Yard

Whether or not you own a dog, having one pooping everywhere can be very frustrating. It’s crucial to know how to keep dogs from pooping in your yard. If you have kids, your garden, you entertain, or you use your yard for anything on a frequent basis, this is intensely annoying.

Having to pick up poop from your own dog or from a neighbor’s dog in your own yard is never a fun activity.

But what can you do about it? Are there any successful methods you could implement? If it’s your dog, you may be able to train it, but if not, things are trickier. Instead of falling out with neighbors who won’t control their pets, take care of the situation yourself. Take matters into your own hands and take some preventive measures.

Below are some ideas on how to keep dogs from pooping in your yard.

Build A Physical Barrier

If a dog can’t get into your yard, it can’t poop in it. This is the best solution, as it solves other issues such as digging up plants, peeing, hassling you for food, chewing your things, etc. A fence is a quick and simple way to keep the dogs out.

This will work perfectly if you personally don’t house any pet dogs or aren’t planning on getting one anytime soon. Keeping the neighbor’s pet out of your yard.

However, fences can be expensive, which may feel an unfair cost if your neighbor is refusing to take responsibility for their dog. They can also mess up your aesthetic, or make you feel you have to wall yourself in away from the dogs, which is frustrating in your own space.

If this doesn’t work for you take a look at the next few other solutions that we guarantee at least one of them will work.

Buy Automatic Sprinklers

Although many dogs enjoy the water, most dogs don’t like suddenly getting splashed on a regular basis. Setting up a sprinkler that is triggered by movement will quickly deter dogs from toileting in your garden, especially during cold weather. The shock of getting wet may be enough to put them off.

Investing in automatic sprinklers for your yard will not only help with watering your yard and keeping it looking green; but will also help in keeping dogs away from pooping in your yard.

Some dogs, of course, will take this as a game and will like your yard even more, but most will be put off and find somewhere else to do their business.

Change The Smell of the Yard

Most animals use particular smells to guide them toward their toilets, and they also like places that smell familiar and comforting. If a place suddenly smells different, the animal is more likely to be wary.

Dogs rely heavily on their noses, and if your yard suddenly smells odd to them, they will be less inclined to venture in. Something as simple as changing your lawn fertilizer might do the trick.

Before considering this option, you need to find options that won’t have any sort of effect on your plants as well as on the people living there. You could decide to implement this approach mostly on the most affected “poop zone” areas of your yard.

Using Vinegar

Yes, that’s right Pouring something vinegar over their favorite toilet area will also discourage them from using it over and over again. However, don’t pour it on plants or your grass, as they may die back.

Using this approach at least once a week should do the trick; repeating this every other week until the doggo gets the gist of it not being welcomed to relieve itself in your yard.

The beauty of this vinegar approach is that it’s dog friendly and won’t harm the dog in any way as well as it’s quite affordable. It also eco-friendly and won’t affect your plants. When vinegar solution is applied to your yard it quickly degrades into some harmless substance.

Repellents

If the dog is using the lawn or a flowerbed as a toilet, you may have to buy a commercial repellent that’s suitable for use on plants. These repellents will help keep the dogs away from pooping in your yard.

These repellents are mostly homemade DIY options and include locally available materials such as garlic, olive oil, vinegar & almond oil; just to mention a few.

Dogs seem to hate the smell of these liquids, hence working an effective DIY repellent preventing dogs from pooping in your yard.

Other options such as cayenne pepper or chili powder, have been used in the past; even though many have argued the impact it leaves behind. With many people always asking this same question; does cayenne pepper keep dogs from pooping in your yard? Yes, they do, but they are too strong for dogs and are therefore considered inhumane as they could cause some lasting effect on the dog’s sense of smell.

Training the Dog

This option will work perfectly especially if the pooping is coming in from your own dog, but it’s an option that you could also easily suggest to your neighbor and hope they take up the task to “potty train” their dog.

This is a more long-time approach and would require some patience from you and you’ll need to identify a designated pooping zone where the dog is allowed to poop if it’s your dog causing the mess. If it’s coming in from your neighbor’s canine friend, you’ll have to persevere for a longer time period and keep a sane head as this is happening.

You can also use silent dog whistles to help you train them and keep them away from pooping in your yard.

Conclusion

If you’re having problems with little unwelcome piles of poop, there are quite a few things you can try. Talk to the owner first and see if they will deal with the issue themselves. If not, start dog-proofing your yard or deterring your four-legged visitor using some of the shared approaches above.

Don’t use anything sharp or spiky to keep the dog out of your yard. Some people recommend planting holly or laying down thorny plant waste, but this could hurt the dog, you, or other animals, and there are much better and safer solutions to the issue.

What methods are you using to keep dogs from pooping In your yard?