Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after touching your pets, their food or treats, their poop, or their supplies.
And be sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water if there's any chance you've come into direct contact with animal feces. If you don't want to deal with it yourself, in many cities you can hire a service to come and clean up your dog's mess and disinfect your lawn.
So we should definitely wash our hands after handling pet feces. Even if we are using a dog waste bags to pick it up, we risk the possibility of a slight tear or opening that we are not aware of and coming in contact with the many germs in the poop.
Tip #3: Properly Dispose of Dog Poop
The easiest and most common way to get rid of dog waste is to throw it in the trash.
Unfortunately, dog poop doesn't just “wash away” or disappear, and the bacteria and parasites from dog feces can live on the ground for years.
Both humans and canines can acquire certain diseases from dog poop. In humans, diseases transmitted between species are known as zoonoses. Roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms are commonly known gastrointestinal parasites that shed eggs in dog feces.
Lysol is a great disinfectant that kills virtually all zoonotic diseases and is safe to use on most indoor surfaces. Dog owners can also make a DIY disinfectant cleaning solution by mixing equal parts white vinegar, vodka, and cold water with some lemon juice in a spray bottle.
For one thing, dog poop is loaded with microorganisms that can get people sick. A single gram contains some 23 million E. coli and other fecal coliform bacteria, plus it hosts salmonella, giardia, and hookworm.
A simple way of disposing of a small amount of droppings, say for one dog or two or three cats, is to bury the waste in a small prepared pit in your garden. Prepare a pit in an out-of-the-way garden bed. Till the soil in an area about one metre square and 30 centimetres deep.
There seems to be a common misconception that dog poop fertilizes grass, but it's NOT a good fertilizer. Dog poop kills grass if you let it sit out for too long. It also spreads bacteria and parasites and has the potential to pollute drinking water.
The parasites and bacteria in dog waste can spread disease to other dogs and even you if not properly picked up. E. coli and salmonella are some of the bacteria which are carried in dog waste. Even if your dog does not show symptoms of being sick their waste can carry diseases that are harmful to humans and other pets.
Once debris is softened with warm water, it can usually just be rinsed or gently wiped away. Pre-moistened wipes or a washcloth can help between baths. Dogs recovering from a bout of diarrhea or who have constant soft stool due to chronic bowel issues may need a periodic clean-up.
Being a dog owner can be difficult and time consuming. If you have one dog, you should pick up your dog's waste at least once a week.
Flushing your pet's droppings down your own toilet is not a good idea. Your Council frowns on this practice as it places an additional load on the sewerage system and animal droppings apparently don't decay as easily as human excreta.
In fact, the EPA recommends flushing as the most eco-friendly way to dispose of doggy doo. Just make sure you don't flush the bag down with it. If you have a septic tank, though, you should never flush your dog's poop. Dog poop can contain hair, grass, and other material that can clog your home's drain field.
Dog owners who walk their dogs in public places are responsible for cleaning up their dog's droppings. All droppings on public streets, parks or beaches must be collected and disposed of in a waste bin.
Studies have found that roughly 40 percent of Americans don't pick up after their dogs' waste. Dog waste accounts for 24 percent of the bacteria that pollutes our urban and suburban waterways. You can help by picking up after your dog 100 percent of the time.
Studies have shown that pet owners pick up after their dogs only about 60 percent of the time, and that they often lie about this. To address pet-related complaints some communities prohibit pets from the property.
The study divided the owners into two groups, those that pick up the poop and those that don't. They found that owners picked up after their dogs slightly more than 60 percent of the time. The study also concluded that those who don't pick up after their dogs also frequently lie about it.
If it's diarrhea you're dealing with, Bill Masters, owner of Diamond Carpet Care, suggests scraping up as much of the feces as you can, and then allowing it to dry out overnight. “The next day, scrape up again,” he says Then use a solution of 2-3 drops of Dawn dish soap, 3 oz. of white vinegar and 16 oz. water.
Slowly add 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of bleach to 2 cups (500 ml) of water. To be used on surfaces contaminated with feces, vomit, urine or blood. Slowly add ½ cup (125 ml) of bleach to 4 ½ cups (1125 ml) of water. (e.g., environmental cleaning, body fluids, etc.).
Dog owners are recommended to wash their hands after any direct contact with their dogs, their products, urine, or feces. Most of the viral and bacterial infections are transmitted from dogs to humans by dog bite; however, other infections caused by protozoa have a fecal oral transmission.
Most of it isn't alive, of course—as you'd expect, a lot of it is made up of things like water, undigested food, and dead human cells. But more than half the dry weight of poop is bacteria.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that most dog owners (or people in general) mainly regard dog poop — especially that which has not been properly picked up and disposed of — as more of a nuisance and blight than of the actual danger and health hazard it really is. The fact is dog poop is a biohazard.