dog fouling in the garden

[Sheena13]

I have a small cottage with a small gravelled area at the front and a large deck. It is in the countryside so there are woods and verges and soon for people to take their dogs. I wanted people to be able to bring their dogs if they wanted and have tried to make the cottage easy clean so its got slate floors and so on. 

I don't advertise the cottage as having a garden.

My cottage, next door, does have a garden which goes behind the rental cottage. I am happy for guests to enjoy it - but I don't want their dogs to enjoy it. Reason being dog pee makes a mess of the lawn and dog poo is very unpleasant for my children and future guests. I've found it in a mess a few times. Is it going to offend guests if they come with their dogs and then find they can't use the back garden? I don't really understand why guests would think it was ok to use the garden as a dog toilet but now I've seen it happen too often. If I put a sign up saying 'No dogs. Children play area' is that ok? Or do I need to make the cottage no dogs allowed? I seem to get quite a few guests with dogs so it looks as though allowing them is a selling point but fouling in the garden is just not on.

Appreciate your inputs. Thanks

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sheena13 I looked at your lovely cottage but didn't understand how much terraces you have and if guests has access to all terraces and gardens or not? 

Regarding dogs (we have 2 dogs) you know that if guest sit on the terrace than his dog will be there too. And if there is no door between terrace and garden then dog will go in the garden. So maybe you could put some door on top of the terrace stairs .... and make a small dog park somewhere, just few square meters with a small fence and one bush or tree in the middle where dog could go and do what he has to do. I would also put a trash can there and leave few plastic bags so owner can clean after his dog. 

The sign 'No dogs. Children play area' in your garden is also very good idea.

[Sheena13]

Thanks for the reply. At the back of the deck is a gate to the shared garden. I didn't put pictures of it on the listing. I didn't mention it on the listing. I think because its shared its not fair to advertise it as many people would only be comfortable enjoying when they had it to themselves. I like the idea of making a designated doggy toilet area.

[Ali40]

If you allow guests to bring their dogs, those dogs will need to poop somewhere! You certainly provide a designated place for the human guests to poop, so why not degisnate where you'd like your canine guests to poop? Either designate an area for the dogs to use away from the "garden" (this mean yard, right?) and direct the guest to take their pups to that area do do their business, ask guests to clean up after their dogs (provide poop bags) or don't allow dogs in your listing. But don't allow guests to bring dogs, not tell them the rules, and then be annoyed that they didn't follow your expectations. 

[Sheena13]

Thanks. I guess I didn't expect people to think the garden was a good place to leave doggy business. The lawn was all covered in poos and dead grass from the pees. However you're right. I didn't tell them not to use the back garden for the dogs. I will put up a sign on the gate to the back garden and I will provide poop bags. Thanks.

[Robin4]

@Sheena13

Hi Sheena, it's not the dogs that are the problem, it's the owners! Each day I see a guy about 35 walk his Dalmation dog around our local high school grounds. He just stands there and watches his dog deposit the remains of breakfast on the grass and then moves on. I said to him once..."Are you just going to leave that there for kids to tread in"?......He looked at me and said Yep and moved on!

We do have a dog, an Aussie Shepherd and we do have a crate, a large crate so I guess you could say we are well set up for guests with dogs but, on balance it is not worth the damage that travelling dogs will do, to host them.

I 'was' quite happy to have pets in our quite large secure rear garden. If you look at my listing you will see what I mean by 'garden'!

I had this request, and the woman said, 'can I bring our two dogs'! I thought about it for a while, one dog, sure, two, not so sure, what if they ganged up on our 'Betts'! In the end I asked her what sort of dogs they were and she simply said they were about the same size as our Betts. I accepted their request and when they arrived....bloody hell these two dogs were the size of road working machinery....and they did about the same amount of damage. They were Berniese Mountain dogs, each weighing at least 70 Kgs. By the time the guest left next morning, our garden was destroyed, hundreds of dollars and many many hours of work just gone. And all this guest said was..."I hope the dogs were not too much of a nuisance"?

After that I thought, that's it, I don't care what it is, it's not welcome. Sheena, guests are coming into our environment and they need to respect that, but unfortunately pet owners do not! They let their dogs sleep on their beds with them! They let their cats rake their claws across every bit of fabric they can find, tearing it to resemble the remains of a 'wind sock'!

I have said this in another post but you can't blame dogs for being dogs but you sure can blame the owners.......They will just sit there and begninely smile while their little treasure deposit a t*rd the size of a Fosters beer can in the middle of what was your herb garden!! They will watch while that faithfull hound will roll all over your violet patch because it's nice and soft. They will just fleetingly excuse themselves when Bonzo vommits a belly full on our carpet with a dismissive remark like...."Oh, it must have been something he ate in your garden".....

"YES I KNOW IT WAS....It was my bloody flowers"!!!!

Sorry Sheena, it's no good expecting that people will be responsible with their pets, it doesn't matter how you spell it out in your house rules, they won't! As much as I love pets and would not live without one in my life, I host people and I do that to the best of my ability.....I don't host pets!!

Cheers.....Rob