Question
Our yards are free open without fence and it always has dog poop in some spot. How can we stop those things on our yard again?

Answer
Every community has its share of rebels without a cause.  Some walk dogs in their search for a quest, a way to improve mankind, a system designed to make the world a better place.

I too have neighbors such as these.  And my own father is as guilty as they are of this conduct unbecoming a Naval Officer, which he was a long time ago.  Unfortunately he was walking MY dogs.

An irked neighbor finally set up a small sign that read something like: 'Please pick up after you dog.  I stepped in it a few times this week while mowing my lawn."

It worked at least on my father.

So I used it myself.  A new family moved in on the next block.  They have a dog.  The father would walk the dog at night, a few times while I happened to be in my un-lit yard, trying to finish a task I had sworn would be over by sundown.  If I can't see what I'm doing, I keep working anyway.  I like to finish what I started, today.  And so I was quite dismayed to observe him in the darkness chattering on his cellphone while his large black poodle made a huge deposit right there in front of my house, on my precious Velvet Bentgrass.

Morning came.  Sure enough, it was what I was fearing.  And it had to be removed.  So I did that.

Days later, however, as I stood in my living room one night around 11 o'clock, watching my garden through the window, I was suddenly seeing a large black poodle once again, walked this time by the missus.  She too was on a cellhone.  And once again, they came to make a deposit.

I had had enough.

The next morning, I set up a sign.  It was around rush hour, so anyone on their way to work would see it: 'Lady With the Black Poodle" it read, next to the deposit, 'Please pick up the poop your dog left yesterday.'  Harsh, I know.  But these people were repeat offenders and thought I suppose that no one cared.  Since I get my hands dirty frequently, I want to minimize my exposure to dog waste.  There are of course nicer ways to handle this, but I felt it was important to alert others to the crime wave taking place on Garden Street.

That afternoon, the deposit was removed, and we all breathed much easier after that.

There is another neighbor however who went a step further, collecting the dog waste from around his house, and picking the home of a single offender, then he would dump the collection in front of the door of the offender.

I know you are probably looking for a dog repellent to solve this problem.  They are out there and they are very expensive.  You will never be able to stop using it.  Identify the guilty owner, then leave them a sweet note and ask them -- nicely -- if they would please curb their dogs.  You always get more flies with honey.  Try the honey.  If it doesn't worok let me know and we will invent Plan B.  Thank you for writing.

L.I.G.