How to Clean Up Frozen Dog Poop

Those of us who live in northern climates know how difficult it can be to stay on top of picking up dog poop when the weather is freezing and awful outside. Not to mention how gross it is when you get a spring thaw and the mud in your back yard is "poop soup." If you have multiple dogs, it is even worse. If it gets really messy out there, your dog will carry nasty mud right into your house. First, you have to make it easy on yourself to pick up the dog waste before it has frozen solid to the ground. There are a number of ways to get this done. Second, are a few tips on how to pry it out of your frozen back yard so it doesn't biodegrade into nasty mud during a thaw. I have multiple dogs and multiple strategies for both approaches.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Straw
• Shovel
• Hatchet
• Waterproof poop bucket

1. If you live in a climate where snow falls and stays on the ground for most of the winter, clear out an area where your dog does her business. Keep it shoveled free of snow as best you can.
2. At the start of winter, buy a bale of straw and lay it down on the ground in the cleared area. Unlike hay, straw doesn't contain seeds that will cause an explosion of weeds in springtime. The straw is an excellent strategy for several reasons. First, if your dog poops on straw and it freezes, you can easily pick up a whole clump, straw and all, because it won't freeze directly to the ground. Over the winter you are continuously picking up straw, so by springtime it should be mostly gone. It also helps absorb mud when there is a thaw.
3. Keep a covered bucket lined with a trash bag in your back yard for all waste. Five-gallon paint buckets with lids are excellent for this purpose.
4. Ideally, you will go out and pick up after your dog right after she potties. But we all know that in the real world, this usually doesn't happen. If there is any accumulation, keep your eye on the temperature. If it inches above freezing, get out there with a shovel and pick up whatever you can.
5. Shovels are also a great way to pick up those unattractive clumps of yellow snow. Toss it right into your trash-bag-lined waste bucket.
6. If it is extremely cold and you don't get a thaw for weeks on end, a small hatchet is your best friend for getting up frozen dog poop. Shovels don't work quite as well because you cannot get the angle or leverage to chip rock-solid poop out of a snow bank. With a hatchet you can expertly chop the offending turd out of the snow and dispose of it properly.
7. Another excellent strategy if you have time and walk your dog: Encourage her to potty on walks. Bring along plastic bags so you can pick up after her immediately. If you are environmentally conscious, check online or your local pet store for biodegradable poop pick-up bags.

Tips & Warnings

• Feeding your dog a high-quality diet greatly reduces the volume of stool a dog will produce.
• If you truly don't like dealing with dog waste, there are companies all over the country who will happily charge you a small fee for taking care of it on a weekly basis.