How to Keep the Dog Poop Under Control in the Back Yard

Who’s a good boy?

Updated 2/24/2024

Dog poop in the back yard is the bane of my existence. Every time my kid goes out to play, I feel compelled to say, “Watch out for caca!” It comes out as automatically and naturally as “Stop making that noise!” and “Clean up your mess!”

Because even though I pick up after our big dogs almost every day, I inevitably miss a hidden poo pile, and there’s no bigger drag than scooping dookie out of the treads of your kid’s shoe with a stick.

It’s not easy (or fun) to keep the yard clear of dog poop — especially if you’ve got a pack of poopin’ canines wandering around your property. I feel your pain, and that’s why I’ve compiled this comprehensive list of ways to pick up dog doodoo — and the best ways to dispose of it. If you click on any of my links and purchase a product, I may receive a small percentage of the sale. It ain’t much, but it keeps the dogs in squeaky toys.

Is Dog Poop Dangerous?

Dog poop can be dangerous if it’s left to fester in the back yard. It’s classified as an environmental pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency, which estimates that the average dog excretes three-quarters of a pound of poop each day, adding up to about 274 pounds a year, give or take.

Left in the yard, dog poo can pollute surface and ground water, attract flies and other pests, and stink the place up. Worse, it can transmit parasites and infectious diseases to you and yours. Cleaning up dog poop is paramount for keeping your kids safe while they play.

How to Pick Up Dog Poop

You have two options for picking up what your dog lays down: Pick it up by hand, or scoop it up with a pooper scooper.

1.Pick it up by hand

You know the drill: stick your hand inside a plastic bag, use it like a glove to grab the poo pile, then slide the opening of the bag back over your hand, and voila! — the bag magically turns inside-out, and the poop is neatly contained. Tie up the bag, and toss it.

I used to use plastic grocery bags for dog poop, but once I learned about the colossal damage microplastics are doing to the environment — and the fact that plastic grocery bags take a millennium to decompose — I started using these reusable shopping bags for groceries.

For the poo, I now use biodegradable poop bags. These are my top three picks — I’ve tried and love the first two and will one day try the third. All three choices are biodegradable and certified compostable.

Earth Rated dog poop bags

These extra-long dog poop bags fit standard dispensers and are made from a combination of vegetable starches and PBAT, which makes them compostable—but only at poo-composting facilities. They aren’t suitable for your backyard dog poop composter (which we’ll discuss a little later.)

Still, even if you toss your poop bags in the garbage, these babies will fully decompose without unleashing microplastics upon the environment. Best of all, Earth Rated is a B Corporation, and every purchase of their bags helps support animal shelters, rescues, and other dog-lovin’ non-profits. 4.8/5 stars, 218,557+ ratings: 4.8/5

Give A Sh!t dog poop bags

These leak-proof compostable poop bags are made from cornstarch, and they’re home compost certified. They break down in your backyard dog poop compost bin (or in the landfill) in 90 days without leaving toxic chemicals behind.

Give a Sh!t is a small, USA-based business that gives 10 percent of its proceeds to its inspiration, the Soi Dog Foundation, a non-profit organization that rescues street dogs in Asia. 4.8/5 stars, 5,466+ ratings

Pawtopia dog poop bags

These extra-thick poop bags are also suitable for your home dog poop composter, and they’re made from cornstarch and are non-toxic to the environment. They’re super-sturdy and seal in odors, making them ideal for not just the back yard, but also for taking along on walks.

Pawtopia is a Seattle-based family business that donates a portion of its profits to animal rescues. 4.8/5 stars, 259+ ratings

2. Scoop it up with a pooper scooper

If you’d rather not get your hands anywhere near your dog’s fecal matter, your other option for picking it up is the ubiquitous dog poop scooper. Here are some of the best-rated poop scoopers on Amazon.

The Doody Digger self-bagging poop scooper

The Doody Digger Pooper Scooper is a single-component poop scooper that consists of a tube with a handle attached in the middle and a shovel-like shape on the business end. You attach any type of bag to the top end, scoop up the poop, and then raise the tube vertically to send the poo tumbling down into the bag.

Now, my first thought is, Can this device handle hefty piles of poop from a 100-plus pound dog without the poop causing a traffic jam in the tube? Apparently so, according to verified purchasers. Not only that, but surprisingly, many report that the inside of the tube doesn’t become a putrid stink tunnel after a while. “And if it does,” says one reviewer, “just hose it out.” Well, okay, then. 4/5 stars, 768+ ratings

Petmate Arm & Hammer swivel-bin poop scoop

This Arm & Hammer poop scooper features a durable plastic rake and a swiveling bin with hooks to hold a bag on. Rake the poo into the bin, lift it up, and the poop falls neatly into the bag. An extendable handle makes comfortable work of scooping poop from an acceptable distance.

You can use any handled bag with this scooper (I’d go with Give a Sh!t’s handled compostable dog poop bags) or you can buy the conventional plastic bags designed for it, which have easy-tie handles and are fortified with activated baking soda to “curb the odor.” 4.5/5 stars, 92,206+ ratings

Mr. Peanut’s Heavy Duty Pooper Scooper

This one-piece jaw scoop is lightweight, and it picks up poop from all surfaces, including gravel, grass, and concrete. It’s 32” tall and made of durable, non-stick plastic. You simply position the jaggedy jaws over the poop and pull the smaller handle to close them around it. The poop comes up easily, according to numerous reviewers. 4.4/5 stars, 1482+ ratings

SnaglePaw poop scooper set

This three-piece pooper scooper set comes with a non-stick metal rake for picking up poop in the grass, a flat shovel for picking up poop on concrete and other hard surfaces, and a dustpan-like tray to hold the poop. Each piece is attached to an adjustable, stainless steel handle that reaches 38 inches in length, making it great for tall folks. It’s easy to hose down, and it won’t rust. 4.5/5 stars, 3,583+ ratings

How to Pick Up Runny Dog Poo

If your dog diarrheas in the yard, or the poop is too squishy to pick up without schmearing it across the grass or patio, you have a couple of options.

Freeze it.

You wanna hear something really gross? (If not, skip the next three paragraphs.) When Ruby was a baby, we’d wrap her diapers up and put them in the garbage. But guess who would dig them out and eat them? No, not Daddy.

The dog. Viggo would go to great lengths to procure this tantalizing delicacy, and his diaper appetite resulted in squishy, lumpy piles of dog poo swollen with the pulpy, poopy diaper filling. It was a truly disgusting sight to behold and even more revolting to scoop it up in big, gelatinous handfuls.

Once we figured out what fresh hell Viggo had gotten into, we immediately solved the problem with a heavy-duty, lidded trash can—but I’m still a bit traumatized by the gruesome task of cleaning up those messes.

If only I’d known then what I know now about freezing dog poop to solidify it.

Super Cold 134 freeze spray chills whatever it touches to -60 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s actually made for “diagnosing thermally intermittent faults in electronic device components,” whatever the hell that means, but spray it on soft or runny poop, and Super Cold 134 will turn that caca rock-hard in seconds, making it easy to pick up in a single, frozen-solid poopsicle instead of hot, heavy dollops.

Hose it.

Sometimes, it’s best to just point the jet sprayer at a pile of dog diarrhea and dilute the everlovin’ crap out of it. Just don’t do this near your vegetable garden or, say, in the sandbox.

How to Dispose of Dog Poop

If you pick up dog poop using non-biodegradable bags, your only real option for disposal is to toss the poo in the garbage, preferably the one outside. But that can cause quite a stink as the dook festers and sprouts big globules of maggots between trash pickups.

The best way to dispose of dog poop is any way that doesn’t involve a) letting it fester, grow maggots, and stink up the place or b) sending it to the landfill in an indestructible plastic grocery bag. (Guilty!) Here, then, are some other, more interesting—and more eco-friendly—options for disposing of dog poop.

Toss it into a Doggy Dooley dog poop septic tank

Burying your dog’s poop puts it out of sight and out of mind. But you can’t just dig a hole and dump the poo in it, because it’ll leach into the soil and ground water. Instead, invest in a Doggie Dooley septic tank.

You simply bury the 16” x 16” x 18” tank in the ground up to the lid, which has a foot pedal for easy, hands-free opening. Then, you dump the poo in the tank, and add some Doggie Dooley digester powder each week to break it down and control the stank. 4.2/5 stars, 3,132 ratings.

Flush it down the drain

No, do not take the dog poop inside and flush it down the toilet. Rather, get this Doggie Doo Drain, and screw it into your three- or four-inch septic or sewer clean out.

When it’s time to dispose of the poop, remove the built-in plug, deposit the poop, and rinse it down the drain with the hose or a bucket of water. 4.7/5 stars, 823 ratings.

Compost it (?!)

I’ve always heard that omg no, ew, you can’t compost dog poop, what were you thinking?

But that’s not what the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service says, and the University of Florida Extension offers helpful instructions that lay out, step by step, exactly the right way to safely compost dog poo for use in the garden—although using it on plants you’re going to eat is not recommended. But it can shore up the soil in your flower beds to help your garden grow healthy and strong while keeping the doggy doo off the grass and out of the landfill.

Composting works best if you have several dogs, but you can certainly compost fewer dogs’ poo, as long as you add lots of carbon-rich materials (leaves, grass, sawdust, newspaper) and bulk up the nitrogen-rich ingredients.

Here’s what you’ll need if you want to compost your dog poop (along with your kitchen scraps and yard waste):

• A compost bin. A wire bin is ideal because it allows the most air to reach the compost, which results in higher temperatures and more thorough pathogen destruction. This small wire bin is ideal for composting a little bit o’ poo, but it comes in larger sizes in case you want a bigger compost pile. You can also build your own wire compost bin with some wood supports, a staple gun, and some wire fencing.

• A compost thermometer, which has a 20-inch stem that you stick deep down into the compost to monitor the temperature.

• A garden fork, like this five-tined manure fork, which you use to turn the compost.

• A shovel to measure and add ingredients. This square point shovel will do the trick nicely.

How to Keep Your Yard Poop-Free Always

Here are a few good ways to make sure you never again have to go around the back yard playing Easter Egg Hunt with your dog’s poo piles.

Follow your dog around when it’s time for him to lay cable.

Picking up fresh poop is stinkier than letting it age a little, but if you remain ever vigilant and pick it up immediately after your dog lays it down, you’ll always rest assured the yard is 100 percent poop-free at all times — no surprises!

Let your dog drop the kids off on someone else’s lawn.

The other option for keeping your yard pristine and poo-free (and your body fit and trim) is to take the dog out for a walk right around poop time. Let him do his caca in someone else’s yard, right? Lolz. But seriously, for the love of everything good, clean up after your dog. Attach a dog poop bag dispenser to your leash so you’re never left empty-handed.

Train your dog to pinch his loaves in the same place every time.

Wouldn’t it be glorious if you could train your dog to do his poopin’ in the same spot every time, like over behind the shed or bushes way in the back of the yard? Well, as the nature of the canine brain would have it, you can train Fido to poop in the same place every time. Depending on the age and breed of your dog, this training may be a piece of cake, or it may be a bit of an ordeal. Either way, success means that you only have to clean up one little area of the yard.

DoodyCalls, an aptly named pet waste management company (god bless ‘em!), lays out the process of training your pet to poop in one spot.

And on that note, if all else fails, hire out the job of picking up the poo in your yard. You’ll never regret it.

Happy Poop Scooping!

The things we endure for the love and companionship of God’s most perfect creature, amiright? Let me know what works for you, and be sure to share all of your gross dog poop horror stories in the comments.