Want to know how to keep dogs from pooping in your yard? If you’re asking yourself that question right now, you probably woke up this morning and saw a pile of dog poop in your garden. It’s perhaps not the first time it’s happened! But don’t worry, as you are likely not the only one experiencing this.
Finding dog poop in your garden isn’t just unsightly. Dog feces that stay in your lawn is a breeding ground for disease. The high amounts of nitrogen in dog poop won’t only harm your plants. It also has the potential to harm your family.
So, how do you get rid of it? Follow the seven easy steps below to rid your lawn of dogs and their droppings.
A 7-Step Guide on How to Keep Dogs from Pooping in Your Yard
List of things you’ll need:
- Garbage bins with secure lids
- Wood or metal fencing materials
- Automatic sprinkler system
- Strong-smelling substances (ex. diluted vinegar, cayenne pepper, eucalyptus, citrus oil)
- Commercially-available dog deterrents
Step 1: Put a Lid on Your Garbage Bins
The first step on how to keep dogs from pooping in your yard is to prevent them from coming on the onset.
The food scraps you keep in your garbage bins will attract those dogs. Once they get a whiff of the food, they’ll come running, eating, and eventually, pooping.
To address this, make sure your garbage bins are closed shut every time. A lid keeps the smell from getting out. Fit your containers with a tight-fitting lid, so even if a dog manages to tip it over, the contents won’t spill out, and the dog won’t be able to eat what’s inside.
Step 2: Place a Fence Around Your Lawn
Another way how to repel dogs from your lawn is to place a physical fence around it. You can build one using wood or metal fencing materials that are readily available in your nearest hardware store.
A simple fence made from chicken wire, T-bars, and nails should do the trick if there are bigger and more agile dogs roaming around your neighborhood, set up a fence made from sturdier materials such as wooden boards or bricks.
Tip: Don’t build your dog fence too low as dogs can go over them. We suggest you create the barrier at least 3 feet high to make it hard for them to jump over.
Step 3: Line Your Yard with Tall Hedges
If you don’t like how a 3-foot fence might make your yard look off, you can make still make a physical barrier by planting tall hedges around it.
Look for hedges that stay green and leafy all year round. Plant those that are easy to maintain, so you don’t have to worry so much about their upkeep.
Here’s a list of common lawn hedging plants you can use as a dog barrier:
- Boxwood
- Cotoneaster
- Firethorn
- Holley
- Japanese Laurel
- Privet
- Yew
Before planting any hedges around your yard, first, seek advice from your local city environmental counsel. Some hedges might be considered invasive species in your area, so stay on the safe side and plant only those that are native to where you live.
Step 4: Install Automatic Sprinklers in Your Lawn
If building a fence or planting hedges isn’t enough to keep the dogs away, here’s another way how to keep dogs from pooping in your yard—install automatic sprinklers in your garden.
Nowadays, you can buy lawn sprinklers that instantly turn on when they sense movement. So, if a dog were to wander into your garden, they’ll immediately get soaked and quickly run away.
After getting wet for a couple of times, those dogs are sure to learn that your lawn in no place to do their business.
Step 5: Sprinkle Your Yard with strong-smelling Substances
One thing you need to know about dogs is they can pick up new smells in a snap. If the place they’re at smells familiar, they’ll likely keep going back there to poop. However, if your lawn were to smell strange to them, they won’t be as willing to enter.
Dogs are among the few animals with a keen sense of smell. You can use this to your advantage to keep them from setting foot in your yard. So, how do you do it?
Try sprinkling your lawn with strong-smelling substances like cracked pepper or cayenne powder. The strong peppery smell can easily irritate any dog’s sense of smell, making them unwilling to tread your lawn altogether.
You can even use something as strong as vinegar, but make sure you dilute it with water before spraying it on your lawn. Your ratio should consist of three parts water to every one part of vinegar.
Some scented oils are also good at repelling dogs. Here’s a list of essential oils dogs hate:
- Cinnamon
- Citrus
- Eucalyptus
- Sour Apple
Tip: You don’t have to sprinkle your entire lawn with pepper! Rule of thumb for applying homemade dog repellents like cayenne and vinegar is to put it in strategic places such as the borders and corners of your lawn.
Step 6: Use Commercially-Available Dog Repellents
Are the strong-smelling substances you’re spraying in your garden still not keeping the dogs away?
Here’s another way how to keep dogs from pooping in your yard—use commercially-available dog deterrents. There are three kinds of ready-to-use dog repellents available in the market today:
- Taste-based: a substance you can spray on your lawn that leaves a bad taste in a dog’s mouth
- Smell-based: a substance that irritates a dog’s sense of smell and drives them away
- Motion-based: a device that sprays water makes sounds, or releases compressed air when it senses movement that scares dogs
You can use one or a combination of any of these ready-to-use dog deterrents.
Step 7: Get In Touch with Your Local Animal Control Services
If you find that none of these remedies working as fast as you want them to, perhaps it’s time for you to get in touch with your local animal control services. Maybe this is the best thing to do, especially if you think the poop is coming from a stray and not a house dog.
Trust that your local animal services have the right tools and techniques to catch the stray dogs from your neighborhood safely.
We hope that with these seven simple steps, you’ve learned how to keep dogs from pooping in your yard. Remember, the key to preventing dogs from leaving poop in your lawn is to keep them out altogether. You can build physical barriers made from fencing materials or native hedges to keep dogs away. There are even homemade and commercial dog repellants you can spray on your lawn to keep those dogs at bay. If all else fails, seek help from the professionals at your local animal control services.
What other things have you done to keep dogs from pooping in your yard? Share your tips in the comments section below and share this article with someone who might need help!
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